Willapa Valley Western R.R. (WVWR.R.) The Bridge Route

[DACS]

   I may be jumping the gun here a little, but I cannot help myself.  The excitement of actually seeing a plan and forward movement on this, has gotten me acting like a kid in a candy factory.

   The Willapa Valley Western will be a fictitious shortline railroad.  It's location will be Washington State.  It will have connections on both ends with major railroads.  Thus, "the bridge route" moniker.  Also, that will also explain different railroad named engines showing up on various occasions.  The WVW will have it's own motive power though, with it's own paint scheme.  Still working on that.  It is going to be set in the time frame of early to mid GP motive power.

   The railroad will be in the basement of my brothers abode, in a space (after much debate with the matriarch of the house), of 19' x 30'.  Originally 37', but concessions were made in the matter of some physical restrictions.  HOPEFULLY...These dimensions remain in tact.

   The railroad will be large enough that it will have mountainous (sub alpine), as well as some prairie landscaping.  It is going to be L-girder for the most part.  This was decided upon as there will be some trestles and scenery that will go below benchtop level almost to floor.

   I have a tentative outline diagram of the layout done...the islands, cover two posts that come out from the right 7'9" from the wall.  We have an overhead issue as the ceiling height is just at 6' 5".  So, all ceiling lighting will have to be flush mounted.  There will be valances, so we can put in led strip lighting.  The idea of making it a double decker went into the toilet with that ceiling height.  So, we decided to make it a single deck with a large upper and lower run of main line.  At the top of the layout, will be an upper and lower yard areas.  The lower will be a staging yard which will come out at the left,  with a helix going to the top yard and on the right side will go into a tunnel and come out below the upper yard on the right wall, while the upper comes through a canyon of sorts and will have a maximum 14" separation from the lower.  As the main line is extremely long, 225', not counting passing sidings, sidings or yards; grades will be no more than 3%.  The lower deck height will be 34" from the floor.  This means that many places on the lower section of the layout will drop below the main deck height.  In some, almost to the floor.

   The layout will be round and round, out and back or point to point.  DEPENDS ON ONES MOOD 

   The first thing we will be doing is studding, electrical and finishing out the space proper. 

   We will be putting display cabinets along the open left wall.  But, they will be built into the wall flush mounted, rather than being in the isle.   Which is  just a touch over 3' wide.

   The section in the lower left of the pic, is the workshop area with a holding yard above the work bench.  The white piece just above the work shop area, is the entrance door to the layout room.

   The layout will be DCC with sound, to eventually become both manually or computer controlled.  To accomplish this, we have decided to go with a hybrid combination of Digitrax and CTI layout control.  As neither him nor I know anything about computer language, we decided against JMRI totally.  CTI also requires language, but it is "BASIC".  That, I at least, can get through and he can learn.  It will be a good learning point for both of us.

   For now, I think that is it...now for the pic of the "TENTATIVE", layout area.  Notice that the track plan is not yet added.  That will show up in the next addition along with grade separations, heights and divider locations.  Oh, the ruler on the lower right, is an 18" steel rule.

Dave

   

     
   

[Dennis Bourey]

Dave, Looking good, Be watching....Dennis

[PRR Modeler]

I look forward to watching your build.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking good, Dave.

Keep us posted with all your updates - its fun even watching the layout room come together.

He, him, us - I assume you are talking about your brother?  I take it is a joint venture?  Do you each have your own areas of expertise to bring to the table?

The plan in its early stages looks good.

Cheers, mark.

[DACS]

   Thanks for the responses everybody. Me,him, we and us will be from this point forward, my brother and I.  Yes, it is a joint venture.
   I am the scenery and electronics end of it.  Both of us are into the carpentry end, tracklaying, etc....  My brother is also the one with the electrical hook up connections,  (pun intended).

Dave

[ACL1504]

Dave,

Looking forward to this thread and build.

Tom

[S&S RR]

Dave and his brother.


You are well on your way, space negotiations and a track planning are two of the most important steps in building a layout. I will be following along with great interest. 

[DACS]

   Thanks again everyone for your comments and interest.  And also my brother's name is Jim. You won't be seeing many post from him if any, he's not a media person.   Maybe eventually I can get him to post something. 

   In my great exuberance to tell about the railroads future, I forgot to included some important statistics. Mainline maximum radius will be 36 in, minimum radius will be 34 in. All Mainline turnouts will be #6 and yards #5.  The Helix will be a minimum radius of 28 in.

Dave

[GPdemayo]

Sounds like a fun family journey.....I'll be looking in. 

[DACS]

   Well, I have finally been able to make some progress on the layout plan proper.  I made a statement earlier about 36" max and 34" min radius curves...well, that pie in the sky statement came tumbling down once compass, ruler, pen and paper and I might add, reality started meeting up.  I ended up with 30" and 28" with easements added.  I wish it were more.  But, don't we all desire a warehouse sized layout! 
   I started with the lower island.  I moved it down 1 foot from it's original location for layout clearance reasons.  Which I will show the reasoning for that, later on in the thread.
   I also made width and depth changes on the island.  Here is a pic of the mod's with the track plan as it is now.  It brought the layout from a very unacceptable 3% grade down to a very respectable 1% grade overall.
   The helix, which will connect the upper and lower yards together is 28" radius with 6 rings and a 2.19 % grade.  I am going to work on that and try to get it down to 1.5%.  Of course that will depend upon negotiations for just a touch more space in the upper tight corner of the layout room.  If negotiations fail, it is one of those things we will have to just live with.  It is just on one end of the layout and it will be mostly hidden with below the layout access.
   Think that's it for now.  Here's the pic of current developments.  The inner loops are coming from the upper yard at the top of the pic.  The inner track is coming from the left side of the layout and will end up in the lower yards at the top.  As the drawing progresses, this will begin to make more sense.  This mod has also prompted more rugged scenery including seven trestles and six tunnels.  My brother and I really like that!

Dave

[Mark Dalrymple]

Good start Dave and Jim.

I'm guessing the layout is HO scale?  Its hard with my eyes to be sure - but do I spot two tracks crossing each other - one at 28" and one at 30"?  If so I don't know if you will get the required Clarence by the time they cross.  Also - if possible, a quick sketch of the overall track design with some approximate heights (without all the embellishments) would help us put these smaller blocks into perspective.  (although if the rest of the layout has as much track as this section - 'quick sketch' is a bit optimistic!)

Cheers, mark.

[postalkarl]

Hey Dave:

I'm following along. Can't wait for more progress.

Karl

[DACS]

   Thanks for the drop in and the questions and comments.  Yes, the layout is HO.  The island you are seeing, is 12' in length from the backwall to front.  At the yard level, the trackwork is at 55" from the floor.  From   the yard level to where the tracks you see crossing is at 53.5" top of rail.  The run from the yards to this point is 22'.  If my math works for me, that is a 0.068% grade.  The rails going around and coming out below the upper loop, is at 49.5".  The run from where they cross is 21' 8", or  a 4" drop.  Again, if my math is not failing me in my old age, and I am using the formula correctly, that is a 0.183% grade.  So from the yards to the lower track in that crossing of rails, it is a 4" clearance.
   And a partridge in a pear tree.  Man, it's been a long time since last, doing this sort of thing.

   Hope I calculated that correctly.  But, I do have a lot of room to work in, if adjustments become necessary.

   Again, as this progresses, things will start to become more clear to you as well as to me.  This is my first large railroad that I have worked with.  Don't forget, I am making this for a 30' x 19' space.  Now I am talking about trying to get just a little more space so I can make the helix at 30" radius.

Dave

[DACS]

   My apologies...It would seem the WVW R.R., will be on an indefinite hold.  My brother Jim, passed away yesterday.  He somehow contracted an extremely rare form of a cancer called HLH.  He was 70.
   My sis in law wants the railroad built anyway as a memorial to Jim.  It was at my request.
   My brother was greatly loved by all who knew him.  He will be so very sorely missed.  But, he is now with the Lord in a brand new mansion.

Dave
Seattle

[restocarp]

Very sorry to hear this, Dave. All of the best to you, your sister-in-law and all of the rest of Jim's family and friends.

Matt