CVR Track Plan - first "final" draft?

[Will_annand]

Well, I think I have finalised the first draft

The CVR will be set at turn of the century (1900 not millenium) in Southern Ontario.

www.muskokacomputes.com/CVR_Layout.htm

click on (fig.3)

The red line is just a line of sight block, there are no tunnels.
The mainline infront of the LOS block will be above the table level and the return line and wye will be at/near table height.

Please have a look and let me know what you think.

 

[MasonJar]

Hi Will,

That looks great. I have a couple of thoughts (as usual)...

Is Cheltenham a big enough centre for trains to "originate" from? If not, where will they be made up? This question is really only relevant if you want to get into operations on the layout.

Can you point out where the "big" trestle fits in this plan?

You might want to have the river run off the layout, and then back on again. Otherwise it might tie to scenes together too much. They are miles apart, and running a continuous feature through them all might spoil the effect of distance.

You might try and work in the viewblock as a scenery feature, like a row of hills, rather than a real "backdrop".

Will Melville Junction be "abandoned" in this version of the CVR?

Overall it looks really great. I bet you are glad that you switched to Nscale!

Andrew

 

[Will_annand]

Originally posted by MasonJar
Hi Will,

That looks great. I have a couple of thoughts (as usual)...

Overall it looks really great. I bet you are glad that you switched to Nscale!

Andrew

Thanks Andrew, always glad for input. Yes, I am glad I switched to N Scale. I will have the same amount of scratch/kitbashing to do. Lots of Questions... I will change the quote format for this...

A: Is Cheltenham a big enough centre for trains to "originate" from? If not, where will they be made up? This question is really only relevant if you want to get into operations on the layout.

W: No, Cheltenham was only a flag station with a siding for the Large Grist Mill (Boston Mills). Operations will be handles out of the Orangeville yard with provisions for Southbound and Northbound (via back loop) trains.

A: Can you point out where the "big" trestle fits in this plan?

W: To the left of the "C" I will be lengthening the radius of that curve, Sligo will move up and left.

A: You might want to have the river run off the layout, and then back on again. Otherwise it might tie to scenes together too much. They are miles apart, and running a continuous feature through them all might spoil the effect of distance.

W: Interesting take on the subject, I never thought of that, will give it some serious thought. Starting at Cheltenham, Sligo is mile marker 2.8, Forks 6.9, Cataract 9.5, Alton 12.4, Melville 14.6 and Orangeville 18.0 Thats 18 miles in about 25 feet of track.

A: You might try and work in the viewblock as a scenery feature, like a row of hills, rather than a real "backdrop".

W: That is the plan my friend, the backdrop will only be on the extreme left, the back and extreme right of the layout.

A: Will Melville Junction be "abandoned" in this version of the CVR?

W: No, just a transfer station at the crossing, as it actually was.

The next "Final Draft" will have a graph background with co-ordinates so it will be easy to talk about.

I just printed off the track plan in 1:1 scale (got to love Corel Draw) and am now about to work on a 60x138 112 piece jigsaw puzzle.

I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[MasonJar]

Originally posted by Will_annand

I just printed off the track plan in 1:1 scale (got to love Corel Draw) and am now about to work on a 60x138 112 piece jigsaw puzzle.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Cool You have to show us some pictures of that.

Good luck!

Andrew

 

[Will_annand]

nothing exciting, I did not print the background color, so all I have right now is white paper with black (bench), brown (track), red (LOS block) and blue (river) lines on it.

If it works out, I will be printing out the real "final track plan" with full colour background to show ground colour and structure foot prints.

Right now I just want to lay it out, run down to my LHS, grab a couple of lengths of flex track and one each LH and RH turnout. Just for templates you know.

 

[MasonJar]

I mean photos of the giant "puzzle" all laid out in the nook...

If you are looking for templates, you could try the Right Track Software from www.atlasrr.com . They have a N scale track library. The flex track tool takes some getting used to, but you can print any part of the layout any size.


Andrew

 

[Will_annand]

I have the right track, but am having troubles with it. I can never figure out how to get the flex track correct.

Also I did not know you could print it out in diferent sizes, I will have to give it a look.

I will also have to grab a digital camera from somewhere.
I don't even have a regular camera that works. :cry:

 

[MasonJar]

I have heard that it is better to manipulate your flextrack by adjusting the properties. That sounds harder to me than by dragging the "handles", so I haven't really tried it. I think that jon-monon did a bit of a tutorial on RTS. Maybe a search is in order...

Andrew

 

[jon-monon]

I like it Will! Added up the turnouts yes ($$$)

Andrew all I can say about RTS flextrack adjusting tool is mees with it until you get it to work and it will be worth the efforts It can help sometimes to zoom in really really close to do some or all of the adjustment, especially if it's hard to grab the "handles". I do that when I make a pretzle with the track Never tried the properties thing.

 

[Will_annand]

jon, not counting the Orangeville Yard, there are 21 turnouts and one crossover. I am not sure if Orangeville fill fit the way it is, that is why I want to do the 1:1 ratio "puzzle" layout. Orangeville as is uses 19 turnouts. The layout has 2 turntables.

So that is 40 turnouts, one crossover and 2 turntables. Plus the flextrack.

Let's see,

flex track $1.77 per 30"
turnouts $6.00 each for manual $13.50 for curved turnouts
crossover $80.00
turntable $25.00 each

Well, do it as Johnny Cash sang about "One Piece At A Time".

 

[MasonJar]

Re: Orangeville yard. Some selective compression is in order for sure. In HO the yard is about 25 feet long, so in N ~ 14 feet if you wanted to go true to life. You have about 4 feet, maybe 5 if you use curved turnouts and start the yard on the curve from Melville Jct.

Where did you find the turntable for so little $$$? I know it is Nscale, but a friend who is building the D&RGS I believe paid a few hundred for his HO narrow guage TT.

Thanks jon for the RTS tips.

Andrew

 

[Will_annand]

Prices were in US $.

Check out Standard Hobby Supply www.standardhobby.com it is an Atlas. But I can always build the Walthers one on top of it for looks.

Walthers Manual 120' $18.99
Atlas Manual $12.99
Atlas Motor for above $11.99

Even that is only about $44

 

[jon-monon]

I will not order from them again :curse:

Trainworld has about as good of prices and I've had very good luck with them. They do not list track on their website, but it's in their catalog. Outstanding service, great prices, reasonable shipping, no strings attached.

I do the same, Will, buy what you can, work on it, buy more later $100 spurts are a lot easier than $1000 spurts!

 

[Will_annand]

Very true, Jon, I am reworking the layout into 5 modules for easy moving. We are not going to be in this apartment forever (I hope not anyway)

Next time I update the website, I will include the 5 modules...

 

[Matthyro]

Will, I know you can't fit everything in but Georgetown was at one end of the CVR with a "Y" interchange with the Grand Trunk Railroad. I still take my dog for a walk along the old CVR roadbed here.

 

[Will_annand]

Georgetown???

I know that the CVR had the big wye at Streetsville, that was where the mainline from Toronto to St. Thomas branched and went to Orangeville.

Going west, there were stations at Streetsville, then Trafalgar, then Hornby.

From Streetsville north, it was Meadowvale, Churchville, Brampton, Snelgrove then Cheltenham.

There was also a branch that went from Cataract to Elora.