Great Northwestern Railway

Work is progressing (slowly), and it's encouraging to see track get laid.  As a part of this process, I am trying to reuse as much old track before starting to use the new.  A lot of it came from a previous layout; a lot from others who were dismantling theirs and did not want to take the time to strip the track. Soaking the roadbed allowed it to easily come up (after about 20-30 min).  But the recycled track still had a lot of ballast and glue on it, making it useless for reuse.  So sharing a technique to assist anyone who may be in a similar situation. For switches, I just throw the turnouts in 5 gallon bucket for a few days.  The plastic and nickel silver is not affected by the soaking, and the ballast just falls off as the glue dissolves.  I even had a curved turnout I wanted to recycle, but it had some "Durhams Water Putty" on it from a roadway that crossed.  Soaked it for about a week, and even the Durhams just fell off.  Nice! Bu...

The Great Northwestern Railway is pleased to announce the first new track has been laid in the long-awaited Onava Cut-Off project.  "This new line will provide a direct route between Chloride and Warm Springs, offering improved service throughout the GNW system."  Although it requires a stiff 3.5 percent grade, the cutoff will allow crews to follow their trains over the scenic NM hills surrounding Onava, as well as connect with a previously islanded mining railroad.  "The increased car loading alone justified the expense of the work," said one high-ranking GNW officer. The cut-off required considerable design investment.  The integration of the existing system with the new line resulted in one section of line where 4 separate grades have to be built directly over each other.  "A lot of consultants recommended conventional benchwork, or even the elusive 'L-girder' construction.  We elected to go avant-guarde: L-brackets.  "Yes, looks unconventiona...

Work is progressing on the benchwork, albeit slower than desired.  Major milestone reached is the lower (staging) benchwork is COMPLETE!!!!  Very excited about that.  Nice to see what it will look like, at least with respect to the amount of space it needs and the elevation.  Super excited that there is ROOM TO WALK ABOUT!  The phase 2 expansion was an exercise in how much ops I could cram into the available space. Now there actually is enough room to leave generous aisles for human beings - what a concept!  I suppose I could have packed more in, but frankly, that means more maintenance, more cost in building, and really, it's a good balance for me.  I don't want to be a slave to my hobby! So now that the benchwork defines the horizontal space, I started playing with the vertical spacing between the main deck and the upper.  Sure, it all works OK in the CAD file, but what does it really look like in reality. On Phase 2, I had the m...

The hallway will soon be cut off since benchwork will be going in.  The "hall" will become a dispatcher's office.  So figured I might as well get on installing a door for the office.  I always liked what my friend Dave did on the Castle Rock & Pacific  - a split door to allow handing out orders, but enough of a barrier to keep the riff-raff out.  Still needs a board as a table top between the upper and lower sections.  And of course, the framing needs some finishing.  But feels good to get this done.

Tweaked a few things, and took a screen shot in 3D view.  Atsa lotta track!

Starting to take shape!  Also included a couple pix of how to make up the adjustable legs.  I used 5/16" T-nuts and carriage bolts.  Starting to look like a layout!

At least 20 versions later, and countless sub-versions, I think I am homing in on a track plan.  Below is what it looks like as of now.  Some industrial areas are still pending detailed design.  But basic arrangement is there.  Some key features: Think of it as an expanded version of previous.  Not a lot of “new” stuff going on – well except a new yard; just ballooning out the tight area… into an area twice as big!  All in, layout is right around 750 sq ft, including old and new space. Staging yard went from dead end to run through.  This will be very nice when restaging the layout for ops.  About 30’ long on each track should easily allow 2 trains per track.  Total of 9 tracks.  Plan is for 8 to be used for ops, and one to be kept open for continuous run.  Elevation is at 35" at the lowest end and 37" at the other. Main deck is at 47”, same as Valley Gate.  Valley Gate becomes an industrial yard, handling “shorts” for War...