On30 in a Small Room

[Augydoggy]

I'm new to AnyRail and hadn't seen too many On30 track plans for small rooms.  I thought I'd share my plan here.

My design is for a narrow gauge short line in the Rockies somewhere.  Or maybe in the California coastal range near Monterey.  Haven't decided yet.  The main theme is mining but in-town switching is a main part of the fun for me.  Track is On30 code 83 with a minimum radius of 18".  Control is dead-rail with Arduino DCC++ via RF.  I'm also using Arduino for animation and sound control.

The room is 11.5' x 12' with a 3'7" x 8' closet.  The ceiling is 10' which allows me to run a second level using a helix.  The basic design is a shelf type layout along the walls with several small penninsulas to add special features like the roundhouse and the smelter.  In the beginning the  design was point-to-point with the roundhouse and yard at one end and the stamp mill at the other.  The wall along the bottom was originally left open to leave room for access.  After reading a book about layout design I decided I could add a drop-down leaf at the door (lower left) and run some track across the lower wall on a narrow shelf to add constant loop operation, tieing it in near the stamp mill.  My thinking here is that I can run a small rail bus at low speed on the loop in auto pilot mode and use that to make switching operations more interesting.  I know that's not prototypical but that doesn't matter to me.  I'm just doing this for fun.

The upper level is the mining area and I plan to use a Gilpin style Shay to service the mines and deliver ore to the upper level of the stamp mill.  The smelter will get business from several of the smaller paying mines and the tailings from the stamp mill.

A big part of this for me is the modeling.  I've already built the engine service terminal (sand, coal, water and ash) and have it animated with sound and motion.  Around the layout will be other "scenes" that also incorporate sound and animation using Arduinos.

There are four major structures on the layout; roundhouse, smelter, stamp mill and the mountain and bridges around the helix.  The roundhouse is a modified Thomas Yorke kit with plaster walls.  The rear wall sections have to be modified to allow the roundhouse to be closer to the turntable.  The smelter will be scratch-built and based on the original Rose-Walsh smelter that was in Silverton.  Raggs-to-Riches has a kit for this in HO and S scale and I'm borrowing some of those ideas for mine.  Because of size limitations my smelter will be much condensed to fit in a 30" x 32" area.  The 20 stamp ore mill is based on the Western Scale Models "Mining Industry" book design.  This will link the lower and upper levels of the layout with raw ore from the mines being fed from above and processed ore or ingots shipped out below.  I have a great soundtrack for the stamp mill but probably won't have any animation.  The mountain and bridges area will be modeled after the high line leading out of Ophir, CO.  These will be the four main visual attractions on the layout.

I've included JPEGs of the upper and lower levels.  The upper level shot is shown with the lower level beneath it to give an idea of how they'll tie in together.  I'm open to suggestions for improved operation.

- Tom

[Augydoggy]

This is an update to my initial post.

I discovered a mistake with track levels at the stamp mill so I made some changes.  The lower level track is all at 42" and the upper level track is at 62".  The supply track at the upper level of the mill is at 53.25" though and I hadn't accounted for that.  I ended up rearranging the upper track where it connects with the helix so that the mill track runs around the outside and drops 9" on a 4% grade.  I decided the mill was set back too far and moved that closer.  I also found several areas where the track was too close to the wall and corrected that.  Also included info about the helix.

Updated JPEGs below.

I think I'm getting close to construction time here.  This program is awesome!

Tom

[chaz]

Hi Tom,

The bump on the upper level blocks the view into the smelter. It's not a big deal, but since the smelter is the money maker on your layout...

It's fun for 2 or 3 operators to work a layout at the same time. I like that you've thought about operations. Besides a Shay shunting wagons between the mines and the crusher, what other trains will be scheduled? What traffic goes from the lower lever to the upper level?

For example, will you have daily deliveries of oxidizers (probably coke) and other additives to the smelter and daily removal of slag and refined pigs? Will you be servicing the industries on the perimeter? If so, you might want to add a couple of runarounds. And lastly, will there be the occasional passenger train?...just to make the life of a freight hauler difficult.

Chaz

[Augydoggy]

Chaz,

Looks like I screwed up when uploading my upper layout.  I'll reload it here.

The only traffic I've pictured going to the upper level was the Shay to service the mines.  Maybe I should run a rail bus too to get folks back and forth to work.  I did envision the Shay running ore to both the stamp mill and the smelter.

Servicing of the smelter, the stamp mill and local industries (flats along the upper and left walls) are to be handled through interchange in the yard by the mill.  I planned to have operations on a daily basis with cars assigned at the beginning of the day to be delivered to mines, smelter, mill and industries.  Then exchanged with full loads at each destination that would be delivered to their next stop (mine to mill, lumber yard to mine, etc.).  This is my first attempt at operations so I'm learning as I go.

The runaround I had planned was a rail bus, but yes, maybe a passenger train.

I originally had more run-arounds but removed them to simplify the overall plan.  I felt that the longer yard lengths were more important.  It's all a matter of compromise with the small room.

Thank you for your in-put.

Tom

[Augydoggy]

Here's the updated track photos.

Tom

[Augydoggy]

Chaz,

I forgot to mention that the upper level is 20" above the smelter.  That will be with a 4" valance so there's a 16" viewing area on that level.

Tom

[chaz]

Hi Tom,

I think a rail bus would be a great idea.

I have operated on George Booth's second of three layouts. He hosted monthly operating sessions and I was fortunate enough to operate the http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/ColoradoAndSouthern/index.htm. It's larger than your layout, but I think you will find some similarities. You will find the information under the Operations section informative, especially the Operating Plan and Car Forwarding.

Chaz

[chaz]

You might also be interested in how he constructed his upper level on his third, and largest layout the Great Western http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/GreatWestern/index.htm.

Under Construction, tic Train Building, Layout Model and Benchwork.

Under Tips and Tricks, tic Foam Benchwork and Track Cleaning.

[Augydoggy]

Chaz,

Thanks for the links to George's layouts.  There is a lot of very useful stuff there so I bookmarked everything.  The section on operation was helpful to get me thinking in that direction.  I also learned a lot from the construction parts using the foam sheets.  I'm anxious to get started with construction.

On my layout I can begin to see the specific needs for different industries.  The stamp mill will require raw ore at the upper level.  I saw a photo of a mill that had coal delivered to chutes that ran down the hill to the boiler room on the lower level.  That looked pretty cool so I think I'll add that and get some extra operations along with it.  With shuffling loads and empties as well as coal hoppers I may need to have a dedicated switcher for the mill.

As you mentioned before, the smelter requires coke, coal and limestone supplied on a regular basis.  There are three bins for this and six more bins for the ore along the supply track.  On the other side of the smelter is a track for boxcars being loaded with bullion.  I had space limitations so all of this is just a very small representation of what would actually be.

The engine service terminal will also require loads of coal and sand periodically.  The mines on the upper level will need coal, lumber and other supplies as well as empties spotted for loading raw ore.  On the lower level are building flats along two walls representing industries.  I haven't given these much thought yet.  A lumber yard will have to be in there somewhere.  Maybe a foundry.  I need to do some research to see what other kinds of support mining areas required.  These flats will need to have loads and empties switched periodically too.  I also have three water tanks placed around the layout for operational interest.

I appreciate your input.  The suggestions have been very helpful in getting me to focus more on the operation of the layout.

Tom

[chaz]

Hi Tom.

One last idea. George uses manual ground throws to control the switches. It gives the engineer another hands on task. When I operated on Georges layout, my son ran the switches until George trusted him with a brass locomotive. In addition, my son helped me spot the cars on the magnetic uncouplers. Of course, there's always one that you can't reach.

Chaz

[mrsax2000]

You may already know, so apologies beforehand... Export your plan and import into TrainPlayer (you can download and run in demo mode). Build and run a couple trains in the software. It will give you a good feel for operations.

I also found that exporting at 1/8 view provided a nice background image to zoom in/out. If I export from AnyRail when the whole layout was visible, the background image (tracks, etc.) is a bit pixelated.

[mrsax2000]

I like how you fit the room. It doesn't seem crowded and has a nice flow.

[Augydoggy]

Chaz,

All of my switches are within a 24" reach so the ground throws may be worth considering.  For uncoupling I was planning to use electromagnetic gor the areas in back and a bamboo pick for the closer ones.  Thanks mucho for all your input.

Tom

[Augydoggy]

You may already know, so apologies beforehand... Export your plan and import into TrainPlayer (you can download and run in demo mode). Build and run a couple trains in the software. It will give you a good feel for operations.

I also found that exporting at 1/8 view provided a nice background image to zoom in/out. If I export from AnyRail when the whole layout was visible, the background image (tracks, etc.) is a bit pixelated.

Mrsax2000 - thanks for the comments and suggestions.  The idea of using train player is a good one.  I don't think I'll be able to do it though because of a snag I ran into with AnyRail.  I'm using On30 track and plan to hand lay it all except in the helix.  With AnyRail I used the Micro Engineering On30 track but I have five curved switches in my plan.  To get past that I faked the curved switches by simply laying two pieces of track together.  There may be something in the program to do this properly but I'm not aware of it and at the time what I did was sufficient for my planning.  Because of your suggestion I've been thinking about seeing if I can add a hand laid track section to the track library.  I'm using Fast Tracks fixtures for my switches and they do have PDFs for all of them.  Might be able to use those to add to the library.

Tom

[Augydoggy]

I wanted to try the TrackPlayer thing suggested earlier but my track design had two major flaws preventing it.  One was that there were no curved turnouts in the On30 track library so I simply faked the turnout by laying two pieces of track over each other.  I fixed this by using HO scale Fast Tracks curved turnouts since the track width is the same for HO and On30.  Looks kinda funky as far as the sleepers are concerned but until we can get the Fast Tracks turnouts in the On30 library it'll hafta do.

The other problem was the helix.  When I first laid out my track I didn't see the "create helix" button and just faked it with a loop of track.  I have now replaced that with a proper helix.

I've added updated shots of the upper and lower decks below.

Tom