Clearwater Valley Railway Co.

[elwoodblues]

Welcome to the Clearwater Valley Railway Co Layout Build. 

This is a continuation of the thread I started on the Railway Line Forum on March 2, 2007.

First a little history, the Clearwater Valley Railway Co is a fictional located in Southern British Columbia and runs between Mara near the Okanagan Valley and runs to Margaret's Bay on the coast modeled in On30.  You can read about the history of the CVRY on my website (http://www.cvry.ca).

If you are interested in seeing the construction progress to date you can also find it on my website under the layout construction Blog tab in the index.  There hasn't been much/any progress on the layout since 2012 as I've been working out of town since that time until recently.  thirteen years of working on the road has left no time to work on the railroad.  I am still working on the road but I'm close enough to home that I am home every night. just get to drive 3 hours a day but I'm only working 4 days a week.  I recently started working on the layout again with the building of the Lac La Hache yard (west end staging).

As a side note, I am also building a portable N scale switching layout (14" x 72") that I take with me when I'm working on the road.  It is presently under construction and I'll start a thread on that too when I get back to working on it.

Here is a trackplan of the layout.



The main layout is situated in a room that is 16'-10" x 10-6" and the Lac La Hache staging yard measures 7'-7" x 1'-3" and is in another room that is my modeling room.

This thread will follow my trials and tribulations starting with the building of the staging yard and beyond.

Thanks for looking in.

[ACL1504]

Ron,

I'm looking forward to this build. I've been reading up on the history and the layout construction blog.

Tom 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking forward to following your progress, Ron.

It's great that you have time to get back to building your empire.

Cheers, Mark.

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for looking in Tom and Mark, hope you will find it interesting.

[elwoodblues]

The Beginnings of the west end staging Yard (Lac La Hache) ....

While I have held operating sessions in the past on the Clearwater Valley Railway Co. the missing piece was the west end staging.  In the past, west end trains started and terminated on the track located on the lift out section at the entrance of the layout room.  Cars and locomotives were replaced manually by hand, not an ideal situation.

But first a little history......

A couple of years ago between road trips (projects out of town) I converted the original storage room that was located adjacent to the layout room into a modeling room.  Years before that I build a larger storage room in another part of the basement so the original storage room contained a bunch of empty shelves.  One of the goals of the new modeling space was to contain the west end staging yard.

Now back to the story.....

In the new modeling room the location of the staging yard will be over the workbench which is 7' - 7" long, width to be determined.  My original workbench wasn't ideal as both the layout and the workbench underneath it was 24" deep.  This led to my forehead leaning against the fascia of the layout while modeling which made for uncomfortable modeling.

So what did I want for the new staging yard?

• an arrival track
• a departure track
• 2 yard tracks
• a runaround track
• a place to store cabooses (or is it cabeese?)
• a place to store locomotives
• a way to turn locomotives (I only operate steam locomotives as the railway is set in the late 1920's - no stinking diesels here  )

This is what I came up with.



I was able to get this in a width of 15" and the trackage use is as follows, remember the staging yard is designed using function over form.

• The top track would be used as the departure track
• The second track would be used as the arrival track
• The third and fourth tracks would be used as yard tracks
• The bottom track would be used as a run around track.
• The turntable would be used to turn engines from trains that arrive and be used to break up the train that just arrived, put together the next train for departure or moved to the locomotive storage tracks.

Above is a cross section of where the location of the staging yard will be in relation of the workbench.  I built a mock-up of the staging yard modules out of foam-core to make sure that the staging yard would not interfere with my modeling.

Next up.... Building the module frames.

Thanks for looking in.

[GPdemayo]

Welcome Ron, I'm looking forward to your seeing progress on the layouts.  

[ACL1504]

Ron,

Of course I'm a big fan so I'll be looking forward to all you post on the build.

Tom 

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for your comments Gregory and Tom, they are very much appreciated.

Tom, I'm also a big fan of yours, a really learn a lot watching your builds.

Time for another update.....

Building the Module Frames for the West End Staging Yard (at least the easy ones). . . . .

When I was working in Kentucky I decided to build a portable N scale switching layout using T-track modules as a guideline.  They were built by laminating 1/4" thick poplar which is a hardwood that is easy to cut, sand and paint.  I was very pleased with the result that I decided to build the staging yard modules using the same techniques.

 



The material required to build the module frames which consists of 2-1/2" x 1/4" poplar used for the outside skin, 1-1/2" x 1/4" uses as the inner skin and foam support and 1" thick pink foam for the base.





All the pieces cut to size for the 2 modules.





One of the modules glued and clamped together.  No metal fasteners were used in the construction except for a few brad nails used at the corners to keep everything in place until the clamps were applied.  One can never have too many clamps.





The first module frame completed.





The second module frame completed.





The 1" pink foam top added.




Before going too far I added the DCC bus at the workbench as it was easier to do it now before the nodules were installed.





The shelves above the workbench rearranged and shelf brackets realigned to support the modules.  12" shelf brackeks were used.





Before laying the modules down I installed the LED tube lights that light up the workbench when working.  These were recessed into the module frame to cut down on glare.





The modules set in place.

Next up is figuring out the location where the track goes through the wall.

Thanks for looking in.

[Jim Donovan]

Welcome Ron;

I look forward to watching your progress, lots of neat ideas I see already.

Jim

[Larry C]

Ron great job on the modules.....except I feel like I've seen this before...must be a little deja vu. Anyway I'll be checking in and watching your progress.

[elwoodblues]

Welcome Ron;

I look forward to watching your progress, lots of neat ideas I see already.

Jim

Jim,

Thanks thanks for the welcome and for looking in hope you find the journey enjoyable.

[elwoodblues]

Ron great job on the modules.....except I feel like I've seen this before...must be a little deja vu. Anyway I'll be checking in and watching your progress.

Hi Larry,

I'm betting there will be a little more deja vu till I get caught up.

[kyle creel]

I followed the Yellow Brick Road..........this doesn't look like Kansas??
It's good to see your fine work Ron...
KYLE CREEL
G&D Ry.

[elwoodblues]

Hi Kyle, Nope it's not Kansas , thanks for looking in.

Time for another update, going to call this one .....

Decisions, Decisions ......

In order to build the third and final module the location of the track coming through the wall needed to be determined.




I built a No. 5 turnout  that will be used to bring the mainline to the staging yard.  It was moved along the mainline to determine the best place for the new trackwork.





Once the approximate location was determined I removed the section of rail, ties and scenery where the hole in the wall was to be located.





Cork roadbed was added.





I then added the track center lines to determine where the test hole would be built.

As an aside I was going to make this a longer post but there seems to be a limit on the amount of pictures allowed for post.  I'm new here and still learning but showing the building process in smaller chunks is not really an issue.

Thanks for looking in.

[ReadingBob]

This is great! Very educational and inspirational.  Thanks for sharing!