06/19/09

Overview and Background

After a few years of building and flying RC planes I decided that I needed a hobby where I wasn’t restricted by the number of people competing for air time, the location, day of the week, the weather, or even my inability to land and keep either of my two planes in one piece. I also had found memories of the trains I use to see as a youngster growing up in California’s San Juaquin Valley. This lead me to abandon RC planes for model trains. After purchasing every book I could get my hands on and subscribing to a number of model railroading magazines I decided to go with N-Scale; it was simply that I figured I could do more with less space as I was living in small apartments and condos.

My first N-Scale adventure was a Bachman N-Scale tabletop set that had a 9” radius oval and ran on the coffee table of the corporate apartment I was staying at in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I ran it around in circles as I began thinking about the type of layout I wanted. I then purchased some railroad planning software, some more books on layout design, and began designing what my dream layout would be. Having lived in the Bakersfield area for so long I dreamed of Santa Fe and Southern Pacific as well as the infamous Tehachapi Loop. My tastes were more modern though…container trains, extra height boxcars, and locomotives that were just beginning to get wide cabs struck my fancy. I kept designing and designing and let’s just say that this went on for a few years with no progress other than some drawings and dreams—I had become a virtual model railroader. I came back to Southern California and as I visited open houses for clubs like Belmont Shores and East Valley Lines I decided that I could design and redesign until I was blue in the face…I needed to build and run trains! However, I was being relocated to Portland, OR so I had to wait a little longer.

After moving up to Oregon one of the books that I had purchased was “6 HO Layouts You Can Build.” I immediately became absorbed in the “L.A. Harbor” articles that had been written by Robert Smaus. I had just spent two years prior living in the San Pedro, CA area just blocks from where the 110 Freeway ended at L.A. Harbor. The more I studied his track plan and the scenery, the more I knew that this would be a great place to start. I was very familiar with the container docks of the harbor, the Wilmington Bulk Oil Refinery and Storage operated by Tosco, as well as much of the scenery of the area that I had driven by every day. Besides, in N-Scale the articulated container cars would actually fit in a siding! It was also at this time that I had the good fortune to hook up with Lowell Smith and the gang at his store “The Hobby Smith” in Portland. At “The Hobby Smith” Lowell runs both work and operation nights every week on his “Oregon Trunk” N-Scale layout. I quickly learned not only how to build a layout due to the hands on tutoring that Lowell and the folks provide, but also that the joy of operations were another huge aspect of the hobby. It was with Smaus’ track plan, my new layout construction skills, and newfound enthusiasm for operations that I threw all of my other worthless “virtual” track plans in to the trash.

L.A. Harbor Takes Shape

With Smaus’ track plan in hand and a great new railroad planning software package that hit the market called “3^rd PlanIt” I recreated the L.A. Harbor track plan in N-Scale. I wanted to keep it in a 2x6’ “module” that could easily be factored in to a larger track plan at another time, but I was not going to sweat the details of what the overall layout was going to look like. Smaus had a great track plan that helped to get me off of my lazy butt, but in reviewing the track plan it was obvious where HO limited its operational usefulness. One thing I didn’t like was that although the plan had a run-around for an engine, operations were still limited as switching leads were short and doubled as sidings for industries. As a result I took his track plan, adapted it for N-scale and made the container sidings long enough for 5 unit articulated cars as well as expanded the length of all the other sidings. I then made a couple of other minor modifications that just show why everything is better in N-scale! This was going to be my layout not on paper, but for real.

Figure 1: L.A. Harbor

When construction began I first I tried L-girder benchwork, as that was the current fad in all the books and magazines. After taking this up stairs and seeing how unstable this was as a free standing module on carpet I then quickly scrapped the lumber and started again with open box benchwork, which provided much more stability. Using corner clamps and dry wall screws it was also very quick and easy to put together.

The harbor area includes 2 container sidings for both YM and American President Lines, fictitiously operated by Santa Fe and some old switchers instead of the Harbor Lines of the prototype, which has its own little outdoor engine facility. There is also a bulk fruit shipping building that was scratch built as well as a box manufacturing company. On the “north” end of the module is where a very compressed Tosco Wilmington Refinery and Bulk Oil Storage is kept. Just like in the San Pedro / Long Beach area a couple of oil derricks will pump oil out of old wells right between the roadway and the docks.

Figure 2: Various Shots At L.A. Harbor

It was as I was laying track that I also quickly committed to DCC: with such a small initial layout, I still wanted to be able to have two to three engines going at once on the module. Running Digitrax DCC on Lowell’s Oregon Trunk also showed me how much fun it was to run trains vs. flipping power routing switches and making sure blocks were all set up correctly.

I built the module pretty much following Smaus’ write-up, leveraging what I had learned at Lowell’s.

There are a few things I would do differently now (like not use Sculptamold for the asphalt and between tracks!), but things went together quite easily. I leveraged photographs that I had taken of the real L.A. Harbor area as well as those found on the internet for my backdrop. Over the course of about three years I worked on the module, learned a lot, and found the switching operations entertaining. However I kept wrestling with the problem that I had an entire room left to go where trains could be doing a lot more work and where goods could go in and out of L.A. Harbor. The exercise equipment that I never used had to go to make room!

The Expansion

Although I wasn’t nearly half way in to the scenery of the L.A. Harbor module I decided it was time for the great expansion to begin. Since starting on the harbor area I had also been inspired by a few more layouts including the sweeping S curves on Jack Parker’s Northern Pacific (“Great Model Railroads” 1995) as well as by Bill Denton’s Kingsbury Branch (Jan 1997 & May 1998 “Model Railroader Magazine”). I decided that it was time to expand and to factor in what I liked about these other layouts as well as what I had learned about operations at Lowell’s. I was tempted to “stay with the prototype” since I had started with L.A. Harbor, but after some thought I decided that for me “prototype” didn’t mean that I couldn’t also freelance. Why not mix the best of both worlds together? I decided that my layout was going to be a freelance, based on both the real prototype as well as the best of other modeler’s railroads. For me, these other railroads were inspirational enough to be my “prototypes”.

This lead me to come up with a design for the rest of the layout that would occupy the 13 ½ x 10’ spare bedroom that I had taken possession of (my wife had a small room for her doll collection so there was no problem negotiating my own space for trains). After some initial designs and reviews I decided that I wanted 18” minimum curves, a peninsula, and some staging areas. With some help from Lowell the track plan was modified from a ‘W’ design that went around the room and through a peninsula to one that was more point-to-point to better facilitate operations. I’m still not done designing the final track plan, but I have the mainline and major areas mapped out, leaving the details around the sidings and major industries to fill in as I get to them. Over the years I had at least learned that there was a time to design, a time to build, and a time to run trains--you don’t have to have everything designed perfectly before building something that you can enjoy.

Figure 3: Main Level

Figure 4: Staging Yards

The track concept is rather simple: A harbor (to be possibly renamed soon) on the south side of the room provides both local switching as well as a place for loads to originate and end for the rest of the layout. Traffic moves counter clockwise (or “North”) around a sweeping 18” radius curve that goes in to a peninsula that parallels the harbor area. This area before the peninsula starts was supposed to be a car-repair facility as well as a place for “Wonder Bread” to go (Wonder Bread would be on Gaffey Street in San Pedro just on the other side of the freeway from the docks—it requires covered hoppers full of grain, tank cars full of oil, and box cars full of supplies as well as to ship out the finished product). I’ve also been tempted to design in a “Train Town, CA” or “Greenfield, MI”-type railroad museum in to this area so I have a good excuse for my one steam locomotive, some older equipment, and a turntable I no longer seem to have a current need for.

This peninsula cuts right down the center of the room and contains a large siding as well as a small one car siding at the mouth that is pretty much worthless (so much for designing for operations!). It is off of the siding against the backdrop of this peninsula where a grain elevator facility with extensive sidings, engine runarounds, and operational switching opportunities is to go. Lowell and Pete Johnson really enhanced the design of this industry siding to maximize operations. A switching engine could spend much of a operation session just filling covered hoppers one by one and building a section of cars to put on the siding.

Figure 5: Planned Grain Siding & Elevator

Once past the grain industry siding the layout makes a large 18” radius 180 and returns down the peninsula on the other side of the backdrop that splits it down the middle. Whereas the grain industry side of the peninsula is more flat land that transitions to rolling hills, this side is for mountains! A coal industry is planed for this more rugged area. Past the coalmine there is a bridge that spans a deep river cut and some sweeping S curves as the track works its way “North” back to the East wall of the layout room. This is where a paper factory or other large industry seems destined to be located in the future.

It is here that another 18” radius curve swings the track around again to hug the North wall of the room. This is where all 13 ½’ of “Kingsbury” goes. I don’t know what I’m going to really name it, but the track plan represents the type of “city street” switching that really caught my attention when I read the two articles and the material on Bill Denton’s web site. This could easily be renamed to Edison, Bakersfield, Fresno, or some other city along the line. The bottom line is that it provides a ton of switching work as well as an opportunity to model a city. Recently another city-based layout featured in “Building City Scenery for Your Model Railroad,” by John Pryke has received a lot of press, but for now I think I’m going to stick with the Kingsbury track plan and merge in some of the great stuff from this new book as I progress.

Figure 6: "Kingsbury"

Past “Kingsbury” we take over a closet and work our way back to a lower level yard for staging.

Figure 7: Various Photos of the Expansion Progress

Future Plans

As you can see this layout still has a lot of work to go. Benchwork still needs to be built under where “Kingsbury” will go, the peninsula lacks any scenery, and L.A. Harbor still has plywood showing at Tosco.

Pete Johnson approached me about joining a round robin group where 4-5 guys building home layouts in the Portland area would help each other out. I love the idea, however, I must admit that the thought of having other folks help work on my layout scared me at first. It wasn’t that I was afraid somebody would do any worse of a job than I could, as my modeling capabilities are really pretty average and nothing to write home about. I also have a lot to learn from others when it comes to the various aspects of design, construction, and modeling. My fear was based on that I really do enjoy all aspects of the hobby and didn’t want to feel rushed. Working on my layout an hour or two here and there a week is very relaxing for me. That said I really enjoy the camaraderie of Lowell’s Op Nights on the Oregon Trunk and know that I have a lot to learn about how to do things in this great hobby. For this new group all I ask is that we have fun, take our time, and enjoy ourselves—it’s not a race to get trains running on the expansion. For my part I’m going to see how much knowledge I can absorb from a really talented group of guys. I’m also committed to do my part on their layouts, which may mean that I need to work on non-scheduled “work nights” as I can never predict my travel schedule.

Design Principals

When I started on this adventure I decided on some design principals that I try to follow almost always. If I’ve compromised one of them I’ve had to sleep on the decision first:

The layout has to be modular in its construction. Period, end of discussion. Although I don’t plan on moving ever again, I’ve moved far too many times to not plan for taking my layout with me if the situation arises. From the benchwork to the trackwork, the backdrop, and even the wiring I want to be able to easily dismantle the layout and fit sections in and out doorways as well as up and down stairs. At all module connection points I’ve created joints in the benchwork, track foam, trackwork, and backdrop joints just so I can cut the scenery and then separate the modules if needed. I try to stagger my joints where possible.

Structures as well as surrounding scenery are themselves “modules” and are removable from the layout such that they can easily be worked on at the workbench.

	18” minimum curves. I want to run modern equipment and have it operate reliably and to not too bad. I really wanted even larger curves, but I compromised as it was obvious that with larger curves that a peninsula wasn’t going fit in the plan; that would have reduced my mainline and switching operations by more than half, which was unacceptable to me. Therefore 18” minimal radius is the standard, however, on a couple of some sidings I may drop to 12” in a place or two, but it is very rare.
	Peco Code 55 is to be used everywhere. I’ve heard too many good things about it. This includes not only use Peco flex track but Peco Electrofrog switches as well. In the L.A. Harbor module I used some Atlas switches only to have to replace with them with Peco later.
	2’ aisles. Okay, I know this is “narrow”, but it is a home layout that will not have more than 2 to three visitors for an “op night”. There is one area at the peninsula that squeezes a little narrower than 2’—I do need to lose some weight…where is that exercise equipment again?
	Take my time and have fun. Half of my love in the hobby is construction whether it is the benchwork, scenery, or detailing. Don’t rush things just to be able to “run” trains. It has taken me 5 years to get to where the layout is today…another 5 or 10 is fine as long as I enjoy it.

Fast Facts

	Inspired by “The Port of Los Angeles”, by Robert Smaus (Model Railroader’s “6 HO Railroads You Can Build”); The Kingsbury Branch, by Bill Denton (Jan 1997 & May 1998 Model Railroader Magazine); The sweeping S curve on Jack Parker’s Northern Pacific (Great Model Railroads 1995); Lowell Smith’s “Oregon Trunk” at The Hobby Smith, Portland, OR.
	N-Scale Point-to-Point Layout in 16’ x 10’ area
	13 ½ x 10’ Spare Bedroom; Leverages and extra 2 ½’ of closet space
	Modular box-style benchwork in 2x6’ sections
	4 ½’ of staging yards
	4 ½’ sidings
	18” minimum radius
	Peco Code 55 Track & Turnouts
	48 ½” to 50” in mainline height (1% max grade)
	DCC: Digitrax Chief with DT410R Throttle

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