Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[S&S RR]

Next we have the brown brick walls.

[S&S RR]

This is the one story structure that will go on the far left side.

[GPdemayo]

Looks like the masons ran up that wall after drinking their lunch.....

[S&S RR]

Looks like the masons ran up that wall after drinking their lunch.....

I think it's from all those steam locomotives running by.

[S&S RR]

Today, I made more progress on the trestle build - added the rest of the bents and more cross bracing. 

[S&S RR]

I also started assembling the warehouse in the back of the yard - the main wall castings are in place in this photograph.

[S&S RR]

This past week while I was feeling under the weather I spent a few hours at the computer updating the CADRAIL design for the layout. After numerous unsuccessful attempts at getting the design posted directly here on the forum.  I reverted to taking pictures off the screen with my iPhone.  This results in some distortion but it's better than taking pictures of hardcopy.  So as requested, in the next few posts I will walk you through the layout plan. The computer package that I'm using also provides some fun facts about the layout.

[S&S RR]

This first picture show the overall design with most of the details turned off so you can see the rooms and the track work.  Each color for the track represents a different power district for the DCC System.  I'm using NCE for my DCC System.

[S&S RR]

To give you a feel for the size of the rooms the L-shaped room that makes up the current layout is about 1600 square feet.  When the additional expansions take place the layout will be about 2200 square feet.  Please understand that I'm the President of the railroad and my agreement with the  CEO is that the current area must be complete before I start the expansions. I will make no predictions on when that will happen - it's a hobby - I'm having a great time building this layout but I spent enough of my life dealing with project deadlines and impossible timing.

[S&S RR]

In this next photograph I have turned on all the labels which will be very useful once we have zoomed in to a specific section of the layout.

[sdrees]

That is a very ambitious plan John.  What I did to post my plan from 3rd Planit is I printed the file to an Adobe printer and then changed the file to a JPG file format.

[S&S RR]

That is a very ambitious plan John.  What I did to post my plan from 3rd Planit is I printed the file to an Adobe printer and then changed the file to a JPG file format.

Thanks for the tip - I tried that with CADRAIL but the resolution was terrible once I posted it to the forum.  I hope these pictures will work.

[S&S RR]

I'm starting the zooming in process with the top left of the overall diagram and the office.  This room serves as my home office with all of the usual office equipment.  I'm currently using it for the consulting work that I'm doing in retirement to earn EXPO bucks. It is also where I have my coffee break and sign on to the forum.  This room also served as my wife's office when the kids were growing up, but she doesn't use it now that she has her own space up stairs.  That is why I have her side is listed as future expansion.


 


This area will be a future design project when the existing layout is getting closer to completion.

[S&S RR]

Moving to the right on our overall diagram brings us into the current layout room.  This 20 x 20 foot room at one point had four walls and was home to my original layout.  The wall west wall was removed during one of the expansions of the original layout.


First a few words of explanation about the diagrams:


The brown lines are the railing that follows the layout all the way around the room.  This is where the viewer can stand.


The light brown lines at the edge of the drawing is the edge of the room.


All of the track is color coded according to the power district (A-J at this point).


Each block of track on the layout has number and a switch so it can be turned off for trouble shooting or to turn the sound system off on a locomotive if necessary.


The code is for example 21B = Block 21 in power district B.  I can turn off power districts and then each individual block within a power district with the flip of a switch.   I come in very handy when someone leaves the rail nippers shorting out the track in one of the tunnels inside a mountain.  Within minutes we know where to go look.  I can't imagine how long that process would take without the switches. Yes - wiring the layout this way takes more time but I have already got that time back with savings in trouble shooting.


The code for 103HR6 = block 103, power district H, reversing loop 6


The Narrow Gauge HOn3 tack has the label N and is the highest elevation on the layout.


A few of the structures that are either already on the layout or planned can be seen in black.


The layout is designed on four levels but the scenery is designed to blend all four levels into one scene. I wanted to create big mountain scenes so depth was very important.  From the viewer to the back drop is more than six feet.  In this room you are surrounded by mountains. 


A sawmill and locomotive service area will be the main structures on the left side of this diagram. On the right a large town will be built with many structures (The name of the town will be Sellios in honor of George Sellios).  This town will have many FSM kits.

[S&S RR]

With this next diagram we move away from the east wall and along the south wall.  At this point the complete town of Sellios is visible on the right.  And on the left we have the area of Horseshoe Mountain - which is a seaport town. The seaport town is surrounded by mountains with both the narrow gauge and standard gauge railroads running above the town.


At the very bottom right of this diagram is the start of the 7 foot long Mt. Aiden Trestle.