Model Railroading > First part of Engine Facility Track in - 2015 Penn Central

Not a whole lot was done this week.....I managed to put down track for the 2015 PC's St Lawrence Locomotive Facility. The first picture is the long view looking railroad north. The second is looking railroad south. The third is a closer shot of one of the locations for shop buildings.  There will be three shop buildings. The sand tower structure will be located north of the shop "base" shown.

This is a very large facility that will hold 190 units without tying up either yard runner. There are ready tracks for 44 units. I'll post a plan in the next post.


Bob

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Here is the track plan of the engine facility to help understand the pictures. The dark blue lines are the engine facility, gray objects are shop buildings.

The second picture shows the CN line into St Lawrence Yard, curving in from the backdrop. A mirror will be used to make it appear to run into the backdrop.   On the other side of the river that the swing bridge spans, there is a CN line that parallels the river. The CN line into the PC yard theoretically is led off that CN branch but crosses the river further upstream.  A track plan is shown as the last image.


Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/15 20:44 by navarch2.

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That's really cool, what program did you use?

fs321a Wrote:
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> That's really cool, what program did you use?


I drew the track plan in AutoCAD 2013. I have 3rd PlanIt, but I know ACAD from work so well, that there is little I can do in 3rd PlanIt, that I cannot find a way to do in AutoCAD. As a naval architect, forming and shaping/fairing curves is intuitive for me, so a tool like ACAD makes that easier, especially when I combine it with ship design software.

I am determined that the actual layout will match the track plan very closely :)

Bob

I spy a C415 on the layout.. its gotta be the one done by Mark Roach (hed did a Key C415 in Ottawa Central paint for me)... he is an outstanding custom painter and geneal HO mechanic...

bob

Bob, this is going to be a world class layout!

Regards, Bobby

sooman1 Wrote:
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> I spy a C415 on the layout.. its gotta be the one
> done by Mark Roach (hed did a Key C415 in Ottawa
> Central paint for me)... he is an outstanding
> custom painter and geneal HO mechanic...
>
> bob

Yes indeed...Mark did that unit for me. He does super work. Nice fellow to work with as well....does great sound and lighting work too.

Bob

tankcarsrule Wrote:
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> Bob, this is going to be a world class layout!
>
> Regards, Bobby

Thank you Bobby....if I can make this anywhere near the quality of your tank car modeling...it will indeed be world class....:)

Bob

Bob,

Very impressive.  You're gonna have plenty of locomotive storage with that setup.

I was also curious what program you used to design the layout.  I've been searching, but have not found a program I like.  I've used AutoCAD at work also, and am familiar enough with it and the key commands that everything else is difficult to master (especially relying on the mouse and selecting options). 

Great Work!

Sean McCaffery

bigmc83 Wrote:
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> Bob,
>
> Very impressive.  You're gonna have plenty of
> locomotive storage with that setup.
>
> I was also curious what program you used to design
> the layout.  I've been searching, but have not
> found a program I like.  I've used AutoCAD at
> work also, and am familiar enough with it and the
> key commands that everything else is difficult to
> master (especially relying on the mouse and
> selecting options). 
>
> Great Work!
>
> Sean McCaffery


Hi Sean;

3rd Plan It is pretty intuitive to use and it has multiple track libraries from different manufacturers. All of my track and turnouts are Peco Code 83, so using ACAD was easy. I am used to fairing curves and the like at work, so I laid it all out with that in mind. 3rd Plan It does all of that automatically and it is easy to use, at least if you are used to CAD. It can do relatively complex fits and curves.   It is not horribly expensive either.

Bob