Now that I have my 25-ton critter, I figure it is about time to get started on a mini layout that will model the prototype's real-world home: the Simsmetal wrecking yard on North B Street, just north of downtown Sacramento. This wrecking yard is based right off the Southern Pacific (now UP) mainline. Through trains drop off gondolas filled with metal to be scrapped (including many old locomotives from local railroads :cry
, at the top of the SP's elevated berm that runs through the north edge of downtown. The gons are picked up by the blue 25-ton switcher I have gone on about so much, rolled down the berm through a switchback, and then pushed into the yard area for unloading/loading by a big crane. The switchback used to be the lead track for a switching district, but the lead track was abandoned a couple of years ago and the track torn up, leaving only a minimal length of track.
These photos show a mockup of the Simsmetal mini-to-be. Currently it sits on an 8"x48" piece of 1/4" Masonite but I will get something a little sturdier to put under it, even if it's just 2" foam. The plan is basically a simple switchback, operation is based around shuttling gons from the upper berm to the junkyard area down below and then back. Because the whole thing is on a 4% grade, I will put some sort of pin (or just a dummy loco that doesn't roll) at the top of the upper grade to give the coupler of the last car something to hang on to (a jake brake of sorts.) The subroadbed is Woodland Scenics grades, 4%, and some leftover styrofoam. This gives me 2" of rise in the model as it is--in test runs the critter can drag a single gon up and down that grade with no problem. Some trees and piles of junk will help increase apparent depth of the scene.
Overhead plan. The little stub track in the middle is for storage of the loco--it doesn't need to be very long.
View from the switchback end.
View from the other end, showing, if not well, the difference in height between the two levels.
The prototype Simsmetal yard and the critter. I want to model at least one of those old gons filled with junk, as well as the trees in the background. I have several utterly wrecked gons lying around that would be ideal for this task...
I may have to get a couple of Peco "Electrofrog" turnouts for this project, because my current Code 100 "Insulfrog" turnouts sometimes cause the critter, with its puny single truck, to go dead on the insulated frog--a live frog will fix this. Besides, I want to get the Code 83 switch so I can use the slightly lighter Code 83 track for this project.
More as the project progresses...aside from the two turnouts, I am hoping that this project will come entirely from my junk box. Famous last words? We'll see...
, at the top of the SP's elevated berm that runs through the north edge of downtown. The gons are picked up by the blue 25-ton switcher I have gone on about so much, rolled down the berm through a switchback, and then pushed into the yard area for unloading/loading by a big crane. The switchback used to be the lead track for a switching district, but the lead track was abandoned a couple of years ago and the track torn up, leaving only a minimal length of track.These photos show a mockup of the Simsmetal mini-to-be. Currently it sits on an 8"x48" piece of 1/4" Masonite but I will get something a little sturdier to put under it, even if it's just 2" foam. The plan is basically a simple switchback, operation is based around shuttling gons from the upper berm to the junkyard area down below and then back. Because the whole thing is on a 4% grade, I will put some sort of pin (or just a dummy loco that doesn't roll) at the top of the upper grade to give the coupler of the last car something to hang on to (a jake brake of sorts.) The subroadbed is Woodland Scenics grades, 4%, and some leftover styrofoam. This gives me 2" of rise in the model as it is--in test runs the critter can drag a single gon up and down that grade with no problem. Some trees and piles of junk will help increase apparent depth of the scene.
Overhead plan. The little stub track in the middle is for storage of the loco--it doesn't need to be very long.
View from the switchback end.
View from the other end, showing, if not well, the difference in height between the two levels.
The prototype Simsmetal yard and the critter. I want to model at least one of those old gons filled with junk, as well as the trees in the background. I have several utterly wrecked gons lying around that would be ideal for this task...
I may have to get a couple of Peco "Electrofrog" turnouts for this project, because my current Code 100 "Insulfrog" turnouts sometimes cause the critter, with its puny single truck, to go dead on the insulated frog--a live frog will fix this. Besides, I want to get the Code 83 switch so I can use the slightly lighter Code 83 track for this project.
More as the project progresses...aside from the two turnouts, I am hoping that this project will come entirely from my junk box. Famous last words? We'll see...
