No, not drugs. Not even soft drinks

In the September 17, 2017  edition of the podcast The Roundhouse, Bernie Kempinski talked about modeling a steel mill.  He also talked at length about the manufacturing process for steel, including the procedure for making one of the ingredients of steel, coke, a processed form of coal which is a necessary ingredient in the steel-making process.  Bernie dedicates an entire chapter of the book to this, and has some good instructions on how to model one of these facilities. 

Coke facilities are almost as visually interesting and impressive as steel mills, and require significantly less real estate to model well.  And coke facilities generate their own set of by-products which can provide additional variety to model railroad operations.  In manufacturing coke, almost one third of the weight of the coal is burned off as these byproducts, which include many different chemicals (hydrocarbons including coal tar, benzyl, and natural gas; ammonia; and various forms of nitrates/nitrites).  I think that this byproduct facility can easily be modeled using parts from a small petroleum refinery kit (which the byproduct plant essentially is).

Bernie's book mentions a specific coke facility that is now closed but is fairly well documented, partly because it has been declared a National Historic Site.  The Thomas Coke Works of Thomas, Alabama was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) in 1992, and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places of the National Park Services in September of 1995.  Much of the facility still exists, and numerous photos can be found in the Library of Congress website as well as other locations.

Note: One needs to be very specific when asking Google about coke processing.  Try it sometime but be advised - probably NSFW.

Rather than trying to find either of Walthers' discontinued coke ovens, I'm going to try to scratch-build the Thomas Coke Works facility.

I've put together a plan that's approximately 2/3 the length of the actual building as N-scale in Scarm, and I'm going to put this on the east (right) end of the layout.  (Aside: It'd be nice if Scarm would allow rotating an object in 3 dimensions.  As it is, I have to simulate a slanted ramp with a large number of small segments.  But it gets the idea across.)

And I have a neat idea regarding the end loops.  Stay tuned.

There is nothing more constant than change

And I'm still not satisfied. To quote Heraclitus: "There is nothing more constant than change."  He must have been a model railroader.

I *really* don't like how I've had to arrange (force) the track arrangement on the west end to allow for the loop.

I don't like how the west end approach to the wall for staging presents itself visually.

I don't like how I'll probably have to compress and steepen the slopes from back to front to keep within the 27" back-to-front that I've now allotted to myself.

I don't like the way that I cut the town in two with the spur to the power plant, though it would be nice to have rails going through the town.  (Lowell has some of that, and also Tecumseh and Blissfield, two other small towns in south-eastern Michigan that I'm familiar with).

And I'm only going to have a 15" radius on the end loop-backs so I won't be able to run a passenger train.

So I begin editing - again.

I decided to trash the double main line.  I'll run track along the back wall for the continuous loop.  Much of it will be hidden in a tunnel, so there's more space to do mountains and the elevations won't be quite so abrupt.

I looked at some more examples of mines on layouts (especially what appeared recently in Mountains & Coal in Model Railroader magazine February 2018 - article page 46, picture page 50).  Many layouts have mines with sidings running along the main line, and some even run the main line under the conveyors.  That's what I decided to do.  I dropped the west loop down vertically as far as I thought reasonable (2% grade down) and moved the mine onto the main line with a 2% grade up, so the main line goes over the loop with about 3 inch clearance.  (That might be a bit tight when taking the benchwork into account, but I'll address that later). The three coaling tracks along with the through track are essentially a four-track double-ended diamond yard layout.  The far west end of the mine ladder leads into the wall and the Erie-Pittsburgh west end staging.

And I'm going to revisit what my industries are.   I was listening to an older release of the podcast The Roundhouse (September 17, 2017) with Bernie Kempinski as guest, and they discussed modeling a steel mill.  That's always been one of my secret goals - having a nicely modeled steel mill.  So I ran over to Great Lakes Hobby and Toys and bought a copy of Bernie's book The Model Railroader's Guide to Steel Mills (which became the sixth or seventh of his books that I own).

After reading Bernie's book and going back to re-read some sections several times, I decided that I did not want to dedicate enough space on the layout to do a steel mill justice, even significantly condensed.  But I did come up with another idea that I liked almost as well. (How's that for a cliffhanger?)

Buildings, industries, and whatever

Prior to this writing I have not decided on the names of all the stores that would be included on the main street of the town, though I have a general idea of the mix.

The following stores I'm considering for Main Street are nods in one way or another to family members, many of whom are now departed.

• Mary Clare's Books and Magazines
• Eugene's Hardware Store
• Kelly's Pool Hall  (Downtown Deco Trackside Tavern)
• Meg's bakery
• Boor pharmacy
• Laura Mae's Wedding Boutique
• Lucille's Diner (I may try to turn one of my old passenger cars into this)

I also want to have an A&W Drive In (based on Woodland Scenics D's Diner).

Most of the town buildings will be constructed from DPM (Design Preservation Models) kits or from DPM modular sections (which I was fortunate enough to buy in bulk at a swap show).

Other structures (kits unless otherwise noted) I've purchased to be on the layout are:

• Stoney Brook Bridge (Branchline Trains)
• Pennsylvania Power and Light (Northern Light and Power - Walthers Cornerstone)
• Wood Coaling Tower (Walters Cornerstone)
• Yard Tower
• Water Tower
• Yard Office
• Roundhouse (already built and nicely weathered)

I intend to scratch-build the following:

• Columbia County Tractor Supply
• REA

I've also picked up a handful of buildings at swap meets that I may use for other industries.

Fiddlin' around

At this point the layout plan remained unchanged for over a month, which may be a record.

Prior to changes

Then one day I went down the basement to try to visualize what I was going to have.  This was a big mistake - in not having done so earlier.  I had used 32" for the width of the narrow central portion of the layout and 42" for the ends.

I can stand by the wall with my toes up to the third 9" floor tile and reach reasonably near the wall - perhaps within 4".  But the current 32" width would make that almost a foot.  And the left and right corners would probably be more than two foot past my fingertips when leaning against the fascia.

This would leave the branch line and the mine out of reach without using a step-stool or lean-over.  Another rework was in sight.

I trimmed the central width to 27".  (I can stand by the wall with my toes up to the third 9" floor tile and reach reasonably near the wall.  There might still be a need for a small step-stool if there's a problem in the center of the branch line.)

There would no longer be enough room to have a wide loop, so the ends were adjusted to loop back to the double mainline, which now becomes a passing area on the mainline.  The east end branches off of the mainline, loops around the yard, splits off to the branch line down the back, and continues to provide access to an industrial area loosely patterned after Woodstowe before connecting back to the passing area.  This last section of track would be red-flagged during operations.

At the west end, the mine was shifted forward within reasonable reach of the front, also providing some background space in which to provide some higher mountain scenery.  The mainline would hug the fascia in what would appear to be a narrow gorge, while the loop would be disguised as a double tunnel going off to the northwest, and would also be red-flagged for operations.  I switched the direction of the interchange to also go from front to back SE to NW, and changed it from a branch interchange to a crossing interchange.  Most of it would be hidden in a tunnel, providing a somewhat short but handy staging area.  I might provide a Raspberry-PI camera to be able to view the last couple of feet of this hidden track to aid in positioning any staged train.

The branch line was shifted forward a couple of inches also.  This will necessitate that the branch line passing track be on top of a 90-degree cliff against the lower roadway (which is not all bad from a scenery perspective), and could provide a slight scenery rise before the painted background.

To allow access to the tracks from underneath, there could be no under-track storage on the west end (or at least nothing that couldn't be moved easily in the case of a tunnel derailment).

After the rework

More importantly, I decided that the main at the east end would turn south well out from the wall, allowing me to add a temporary staging track (which would fit in front of bookshelves we planned on putting along that basement wall).  The west end would also have a staging track, but this would necessitate cutting through the existing drywall (and would complicate the shelving I was planning on the other side of that wall).  The staging on both ends would be three tracks centered on a wood panel 8"x 48", providing staging tracks 30", 33", and 36" in length.  These would be stored underneath the layout when not used.

Staging track

I could even add a fourth and fifth track on the staging if I wanted.

Consolidation

So we got moved in, and we've got a lot of unpacking to do.

And just like any "new" home, there's a little of this to repair, a little of that to tweak.  And we've still got unpacking to do.

There's actually a workbench in the furnace room in the basement that I've laid claim to.  That's going to be my hobby area.  After we get done unpacking.

In the meantime, I'm still fiddling around with the layout.  Looking at the 3D view from Scarm, I didn't care for the obvious transitions (my mind says gaps) between what used to be the modules.  So I decided to massage the approach a little by blending them together. I also decided that rather than having what would be an obvious fiddle yard on one end, I'd move the actual rail yard down to one of the loops, and use its classification yard as staging also.  The basement takes the shape of an L, and the previous yard was at the end of the L which would be least visible, so I decided to move the mine to that end, to make the train yard more visible.

I also decided that rather then use the two main lines as eastbound and westbound of a dog-bone, I'd actually have a single track main line, with the two tracks in front for passing but a single track completing the loop about 2/3 back, in front of and sometimes through the hills for the mine branch line.

With the smallest radius on the main line being 19", I decided to add a passenger station for the town also.  I've only got a couple of passenger cars now, but who knows what I'll have in 15 years.  We're not moving again.

The main line itself actually extends off of the layout to the west (left) and the southeast (right front).  For actual operations, I will "red-flag" the turnoffs on either end which join to the "loop" track, essentially turning it into a point-to-point layout.

That's a pipe against the wall in the eastern half of the layout that I show in the layout.  The kitchen sink has to drain somewhere, I guess.

We're going to finish the basement, since the outer walls are cinder block.  Coincidentally, that will give a better canvas for the backdrop.

Postscript:

Just to confuse matters, I leave you with the fact that the layout is along the east wall of the basement.  This means that the layout north is actually east, layout east is south, and layout west is north.  All directions are (and will be) given in relation to the layout and not to the house.

Upheaval

Coincidentally, it became obvious that we had to move.  We were completely out of room.  So we began house-hunting.

So we started packing.  Those 2'x3' cut sections (still bare, no track, no support framework) wound up in our storage facility, waiting. For a couple of months, we slowly started packing our books and knick-knacks.

We applied for a mortgage pre-approval, and with pleasantly little difficulty we were approved.  At about the same time, we found a nice colonial about two miles away.  With a full semi-finished basement.  We put in a bid, and got accepted.

Now the packing frenzy began.  But very early on, Mary asks me "Where are you going to put your layout?"  I replied "How about the east wall of the basement?"  And she agreed.  I measured it later - it's 30 feet.   Bonus.

So whenever I could steal a half hour from packing, I started to adapt the TOMA sections to the new dimensions.  It wouldn't actually be removable, but  I'd build it sectionally.  I also added in the loops on the end, to allow continuous running for when we had company over.  The left (west) end will also have staging inside the loop.

In the diagram you can see where the sections go - with one exception.  I decided to turn the mine into a branch line, running up the entire back of the layout with the mine on top of the east loop (which is in a tunnel).

Overhead

Left half

Right half

Rapid Evolution

Is anyone ever happy with their layout design?

As of yet, the layout is in the planning stage.  Nothing is carved in stone - not even sandstone.  And I kept doing research (that is, I bought magazines and books), some of which led me to make minor and subtle changes to the design. 


Then - I came up with the idea of using a mountain (it would have to be pretty steep on both sides) as a divider between the back and the front, serving much the same function as a backdrop down the middle of a layout, which is to provide separation between the two sides.   Some more rearrangement, and I wound up with this:

Overhead

Front view

Back view

After listening to discussion about TOMA (The One Module Approach) on the Modeler's Life Podcast, I decided on a change in direction.  Why limit myself to one door?  I could go bigger and smaller at the same time.  So I looked for plastic storage containers that I could use to put sections in, and I found some reasonably priced flats that with internal dimensions to hold 36" long x 24" wide x 12" high.  I could do a point-to-point railway with those dimensions - and have reasonably tall mountains (oh, let's face it - truncated hills) also.

So I started modularizing:

• Coal mine
• Rail yard
• Industrial area
• Town
• Power plant

I settled on treating it as a shelf layout, and put the mountains against the top (north).  I decided against using any standards like N-Trak or Freemo as I wanted the double main line (yep, back to that, since I would have the space) to be relatively close to the front of the module, not centered as in Freemo or three lines as in N-Trak. (Plus, I didn't want to deal with legs - I planned on using folding tables for support).

So I essentially unfolded what had been wrapped around the east (right) side of the layout, and rearranged a little.

Each section would be 36" wide and 18" deep, for a total length of 15 feet.

Going from left (west) to right (east), I wound up with:

Coal Mine

Yard

Yep - the turntable is back.

Industry

Town

Including an interchange with the Baltimore & Ohio.

Power Plant

I'd use the sections of mainline on either end to do a little bit of staging.  I could even add another section on each end to provide actual staging and a loop for continuous operation like this:

West loop (right loop identical but mirrored)

I also decided to use the same "footprint" for the mountain cross-section on either end of each module, allowing me to rearrange the sections any way I would like to, or even to add additional modules in between.

And all five of the basic sections (excluding the optional end loops) could be cut from one piece of light plywood.

I went to Lowes and had the sections cut.  Finally and officially, construction had begun.

My early "transition era"

As the years went on, I managed to accumulate a couple of storage totes worth of track, rolling stock, second-hand buildings, kits, tools, and other supplies.  I started at one point to make another layout based on the plans for the Gulf Summit & Susquehanna Valley (N-109 from "Nine N Scale Model Railroads" by Armstrong and Stepek), with the intention to be able to store it by leaning against a wall.  I soon realized that after I added the necessary terrain, it would probably be too heavy, even using the Woodlands Scenics foam SubTerrain System.

Eventually I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and make that layout.  After some research, I decided to use a standard 80"x 36" door as the base.  It would be portable enough that I could store it in the storage facility that we also used for our camping equipment and our Christmas decorations.

Now there were actual decisions to be made.  I had very vague plans to this point: make a model railroad.  That wouldn't be good enough to start laying track.

It didn't take very long to come up with some requirements.

1. Yard must have water tower, coaling tower, turntable, and roundhouse.
2. Dual main line
3. Minimum of one tunnel
4. Some operations capability
5. Loop for continuous running (railfan capability)
6. At least one steam engine

I found Scarm software, and started to go to work on layout design.

Very quickly I discarded the turntable and roundhouse requirements - there was no way they would fit in the necessary footprint of an oval with a couple of industries and a small mountain.  I also decided to not use dedicated staging, but to include a very small classification yard and a couple of sidings that could double as staging.  The double main line also quickly shrank to a single.

Probably because I have vague preschool memories of watching seemingly endless coal trains along the Monongahela River when I was on trips to Monessen, Pennsylvania with my grandparents, I decided to go with a coal theme.  So a coal mine was mandatory.  (I was probably heading down that path anyway, remember the first model that I built.) That led to a logical coal consumer - a power plant. (There was no way I would be able to fit a steel mill - and at that point I didn't realize that steel mills don't consume coal directly.)

Search as I might, I couldn't find any locations which had all three of those (yard, mine, and plant) within a reasonable distance of each other, so without regrets I decided that the layout would be "protolance".  (What is "protolance"?  Protolance is a combination of prototypical and freelance modeling.  According to My First Model Railroad,  it is "when you take the realistic elements of how a real railroad runs, and combine them with fictional locations or railroads".)

The PRR Stillwater Division never existed in real life.  However, both the Pennsylvania Railroad and Stillwater, PA do exist.  More on the town Stillwater later.  At this point in its evolution I only thought of it as "my railroad", existing somewhere in Pennsylvania.

To be as flexible as possible, I decided to model in the "transition era" (when railroads were transitioning from steam to diesel).  This had multiple advantages: it fit with my coal theme, and it is reasonably popular in the hobby so there would be good sources of kits and rolling stock.  Plus my very early childhood overlapped with what are considered the last years of the transition era.

After a couple of months of fiddling, I had a layout that I was willing to consider building.  I put a yard along the south side (bottom) and a couple of spurs off of the siding on the north that could be used for staging.  There was a main east-west line just north of the yard, and I included a wye to simulate an interchange, but primarily to allow changing an engine's direction in lieu of a turntable.  All the turnouts would be Atlas standard (since I had accumulated a good number of them in the preceding years) and the tightest radius would be 11".

Overhead view of "my railroad".  Colors of track would be tentative blocks.

Scarm generates very nice 3D renderings.

Front View

Back View

And so it began.

What has gone before...

When I was in late grade school (what would now be called middle school), my grandfather bought a used train layout for me.  It was the (almost stereotypical) HO-scale double oval on a 4x8 piece of plywood with a reversing crossover and a single spur off of the crossover.  There was no terrain and the board was painted green to apparently pretend it was grass.

It was wired to run two engines.  There were two DC transformers (I don't think that DCC had been invented yet), and an array of the traditional Atlas flat buttons to manage the switches and the polarity for the reversing loop.  I was always ecstatic when I would successfully manage to take an engine from the outside loop to the inside loop, through the reversing track, and back out to the outer loop without having to stop the train. There were four or five running engines (mostly Santa Fe if memory serves) and a number of kits.  After I got into high school and didn't get out to his home very frequently he sold it, but I've still got an HO PRR K-4 kit from it (missing a couple of parts).

After college I got married, and several years later, a toy store in a local mall was closing.  I picked up a Bachmann N-scale Santa Fe oval set for almost nothing.  And so I was back after a hiatus of about 15 years.

Since space was always a precious commodity in our home, I stayed with N-scale. My first couple of layouts were ovals on two-by-four plywood using florist foam covered with plaster as mountains.  There was a tunnel.  There was a swamp.  There was a single turnout which simulated a branch line to a mine.  They weighed a ton because the plaster filled in the gaps between the foam.

The first model I built was the Model Power Old Coal Mine.  I've still got it in a box somewhere.

That was over 20 years ago.  And as the family accumulated more "stuff", space became even more precious.  Eventually even those small layouts wound up on the side of the road for trash pickup, after all the reusable parts were salvaged.  But that was done with no regrets.  I still had the interest.  I turned into a small-scale collector rather than a builder.  I occasioned model railroad shows and swap meets, picking up a switch here, a crossing there, one or two assorted pieces of rolling stock, and the very occasional building for future use.

Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus on the Pennsylvania Railroad during the transition era of the early 1950's.  I began picking up rolling stock appropriate to the era, trading or selling what wasn't appropriate.

And so the years went.