Catskill Valley Railroad

[CVR]

This is my layout plan, please post what you think. The two arrows go to a 10 x 10 room with 12 track staging.

Please let me know what I should get rid of or put in. All comments are welcome. I know it is poor quality but you should get the idea and objective of the layout.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Welcome to the Gauge Pat . What scale is it, are the grids 12", are you going to be running steam locos, what era?

 

[CVR]

Scale: HO
Grid: 40 pixels = 1 foot (12 inch grid) 1 square = 1 foot
Loco: Modern Diesels
Era: 1980 to Present

For more info check out my website at http://www.catskillvalleyrr.cjb.net

And also, I love these railroad forums, I am a member of three now (Gauge, Railroad Forum.com, and AtlasRR) and you guys are just so friendly compared to all the paintball forums I am a part of, they are all flamers who are immature.

Let me know what you think. I want responses.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Pat I will try to post something tonight. I'm guessing the doorway is in the center of the right wall and there is a wall on the other 3 sides with no doorways?

 

[shamus]

Hi Pat and welcome to the gauge.
Looks like you have plenty of room to do anything you want to do, my website has a number of track plans to fit 14' by 11' and three to fit a 26' by 14' so some of them could be modified to suit your needs. Just use what ever you want to.
Cheers
Shamus

 

[aartwmich]

Welcome to the Gauge Pat..you'll get lots of great advice here.

Do you live in the Catskill area? My brother lives near Saugerties and I used to stay with him summers years ago. I don't see the Hudson river in your layout.

I have to wonder, noticing your age and having kids myself, do you still live at home and how does your mother feel about 'squeezing' into the wash area??LOL Sorry... maternal instinct kicks in unsolicited.

Best of luck with your layout, with all that room you're sure to succeed!!


P.S. I kept getting 'runtime errors' on your webpage 'line 169, permission denied', everytime I viewed a new page. Don't know if it's your syntax or my machine, but thought you'd like to know

 

[CVR]

Tyson - correct the door is on the right side, and then I have three unobstructed walls besides 2 small window wells at the top which will not get in the way.

Actually as soon as I am done typing this I am gonna go lay my mainline track.

aartwmich - I actually live in Rome New York, about 50 minute drive to the Catskill State Park. Yes I still live at home and my basement is about 40 x 26. It is divided into three sections being a family room that is finished 25 x 26, then the wash room/storage/water heater/furnace being 5 x 26, then my train room being 10 x 26 (with the studs in it measures about 10 x 25).

Here is a rough drawing for you:

My website is hosted by Geocities and so far it hasn't had any problems, and I have visited it on 4 computers in the last 12 hours (home, work, friends, neighbors). So it might be your system. Let me know if you have anymore problems.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

I liked your basic benchwork so there is no change made to it. The main changes to the track is dropping the second track on the duckunder (couldn't see any real purpose for it and the narrower the duckunder the better ), some minor changes on the penisular and cutting off the connection at the bottom between the branch and the main. Also by the time period you are in roundhouses were torn down (which is good is it wastes alot of space). I see a mountain covering both tracks in the lower left but only the outside track in the upper left. All trains coming out of staging would interchange with you R.R. at the town at the top only. Your loco (GP-9 or RS-3 would be good) would switch the yard and make the run to the town at the bottom. I wouldn't use the duckunder for reg. ops, just when I wanted to let a train run or break in a new loco. Being as we now have a port let's assume trains coming out of staging at the top are southbound, trains in the other staging yard are northbound. I would put 4 staging tracks in each yard. You could have identical Amtraks in each yard so the southbound comes thru in the moring, north in the afternoon (course you could use one and walk into the next room and turn it by hand). I would stage a southbound auto rack train (high priorty- runs straight thru no stops) and a north bound perisables (veggies for example, also high priorty no stops). Then one north and one south mixed frieght that would stop at the town at the top for set-outs and pick-ups for your train. All this is just a suggestion of course and there are others here that can probably give you even better ideas but hopefully you will find something of use in all this. I work in N not HO so I'm not sure but even though this is less track then your orginal plan it may still crowd the scenery, then maybe not . Whatever you do good luck and keep us posted with your progress!

 

[CVR]

Few things, you are right about the turntable, it doesn't fit the time period, but by preference I love they why they look on a layout. I have a Walthers Roundhouse built right now, but without have a turntable it will simplify a few things (wiring, buying a nice turntable save some cash, and fitting one on the layout). I don't like the crossover in the staging yard, that I will take out in the redraw I am doing now. But I love the water on the peninsula so I am keeping that, and on the peninsula instead of a warehouse, I want to keep the engine house. Also I want the left end of the layout to be like a viewblock so when you walk in you see the mountains at the far end. I want to hide both tracks on both sides and have them just show with the double track bridge. I like how you have the mainline not connecting with the second line on the bottom portion. I am sticking with that. Also I probably won't do any passenger service on this layout, it just doesn't interest me, I am a freight guy. I think that is about it, I added my redraw on here. Check it out and tell me what you think.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Works for me! Please post pics as you progress.

 

[aartwmich]

Pat......I see you guys have worked out a great layout. Are you going to have some dockside type activity on your penninsula water area?

I see now that Mom won't have to squeeze by the train to get to the laundry....lol. You're a lucky kiddo to get to use all that basement space for your trains, very cool.

Good luck and have fun...keep us posted as you progress with construction.


The errors I get on your website must be my machine..I keep gettin invited to dload some software, which I declined, that must be needed to view your pages correctly.

 

[CVR]

Well with the water on the peninsula that gives me a lot of options. And the errors on the website are odd, it is basic html, just text, pics, links. Nothin fancy, I just wanted a site so people could see my progress. I wonder why it doesn't work, maybe because of your browser settings.

 

[CVR]

The left end of the layout was driving me nuts, with way to much track not seen, so I redid it and made it a yard instead.

 

[Ralph]

Pat, as a former resident of the Catskill Mountain area it was great to see a CVR being proposed!!! I wish you the best of luck and much enjoyment as you build it. I realize Rome isn't too close to it but have you ever been to the Kingston Model Railroad club's exhibit? Aartwmich, I lived in the Saugerties area until I graduated from highschool. You must know the railroad sites there such as the aggregate plant near Mt Marion, the cement plant further north, the yard at Kingston(with turntable), the trestle near Lake Katrine....
Ralph

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Pat, You are over optimistic on how many turnouts you can fit on your yard ladder. Allow one foot for each turnout in a ladder. You have drawn 7 turnouts in 2 feet, that just isn't going to happen!

 

[CVR]

I know it is a little optimistic, I am going to try to fit all 6 staging tracks, if not my goal is 4. I may extend the benchwork in that corner to make all 6 fit. See if I used RTS, I would know whether or not they would fit, but I am using pbrush to get my rough and general idea. I definitely won't be following that plan down to each track and grid line. I will add track and remove it accordingly as I lay track.

 

[IOG]

Catskill Logging Railroad

Hi, I don't know if this is the place to ask, but I'm looking to do a new HO layout (not HOn3), and I was thinking of doing a logging layout in a 9x12 space, and thought of using a Catskill layout as inspiration, since I spent summers as a child in Spruceton and now live in Saratoga.

Any ideas or references on the web to historic lines? I found surprisingly little in a google search, but a lot for Adirondack logging railroads...

Thanks!

David

 

[seanm]

I have to agree with Gary. I think once you draw this to scale, you may have a rude awakening.

 

[SAL Comet]

Hi, I don't know if this is the place to ask, but I'm looking to do a new HO layout (not HOn3), and I was thinking of doing a logging layout in a 9x12 space, and thought of using a Catskill layout as inspiration, since I spent summers as a child in Spruceton and now live in Saratoga.

Any ideas or references on the web to historic lines? I found surprisingly little in a google search, but a lot for Adirondack logging railroads...

Thanks!

David

Ha David, welcome to the Gauge. You should start a new thread for your questions. :thumb:

sean, this thread is from Dec.02

 

[MasonJar]

Ha David, welcome to the Gauge. You should start a new thread for your questions. :thumb:

sean, this thread is from Dec.02

Hi David,

Welcome to The Gauge!

If you would like me to split your question into a new thread as SAL suggests, let me know.

Andrew
(Moderator)