Model Railroading > Layout essentially complete, now the hard part

My latest revision to my layout (7 ft X 14 ft) is essentially complete.  Minimum radii on main track and branch to yard are 36 inches with most in the 38- to 40-inch range.  Minimum mainline turnouts are #8, with the diverging route on the lead to the yard a #7 (Walthers 36-32 curved turnout).  Remainder of two-track main yard and the freight car yard still need to be done.  Yes, the main track is very close to the edges of the train table; and I plan on addng some strips along the sides of the layout to catch anything that turns over n a derailment.

My main objective is to run passenger trains and my four Rapido RDCs with prototypical spacings between the cars.  This means gettng all couplers Kadee 58 (or variants) and mounting the couplers far enough forward on the car ends to get the spacing as close as practical.  If anyone has done that, I would appreciate some help.

Layout is a fictional representarion of the New York Central River Division between Dumont, NJ, and Haworth, NJ, with a fictional reinstitution of passenger service just after the line was single tracked in 1960.

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/19 12:19 by DocJohn.

Send a photo some time, John.  A good friend and fellow railfan live 3 doors east of the West Shore in Harrington Park NJ.  Watched many a PC train their in the early-mid 70's.
Tim Costello

tgcostello Wrote:
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> Send a photo some time, John.  A good friend and
> fellow railfan live 3 doors east of the West Shore
> in Harrington Park NJ.  Watched many a PC train
> their in the early-mid 70's.
> Tim Costello

Agreed, photo would be nice. A number of us used to sit at Haworth on weekend mornings watching the action in the early Conrail days. My favorite engineer lived in Dumont and would annouce on the radio, "coming by the high school" on his trips. 

Thank you for your comments.  Nothing really to photograph yet.  West end of layout has a turnout that is the equivalent of the one that was just south of New Milford Ave. before the passing track was cut back to CP 10.  The dirverging route for that turnout in part of the oval of track.  The nondiverging route heads off to another layout that is for freight only, but in future might be something more.  The NW corner of the layout will house the DU Tower when I build the kit that NYCSHS sold a few years back.  The Haworth station and the Dumont station buildings burned to the ground before DU Tower so I don't have to worry about those stations.  Along the north side of the layout is the beginning of a passing track that goes around the other end of the layout before rejoinng the main track.  NYC should have had a passing track aloing this stretch of track, but it apparently did not want to replace Bridge 10, so it could not have trains blocking Haworth Avenue on account of fire engines.  Further along the south side of the layout is a turnout that leads to a branch that spirals around inside the main track several times before terminatng in a yard.

In 1960 or 61, when there was talk about NJ funding restoration of passnger service, there was no good place for a yard just before the line entered NY state.  Maybe NYC would have done something at Tappan, NY.  So, my branch line heads off towards the Erie Northern branch (less than a mile away in Northvale for a fictious joint yard wih the Erie.  No one could agree on a southern terminus.  Both Northern Branch trans as well as what is now known as the Pascack Valley line terminated in Hoboken.  NYS&W trains terminated at Susquehanna Transfer for a bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel and into New York City.  So, for the time being, I am not worried about what happens to the trains south of Dumont.  If and when I move the layout to my Florida home, I will have a 9 x 16 foot space for the layout.  That might open up some more possibilities.  I have a couple of Atlas Gold Series F-M Trainmasters that need a place to run.

John