Model Railroading > Tampa Northern Railroad

A few weeks ago I posted that construction has started. Well, we've had some developments since then. My basement is approx 40x26 and the plan is to use all 4 walls as a shelf layout setup. There will also be a helix to access the 3 levels of the layout. On the other end of the layout there will be a peninsula that will also be 3 levels. The middle level will be staging, interchange and storage. I plan on using building fronts to create interest in that area. This level be 12 inches wide and will have 4 tracks and an industrial track as well. It will also be the full length of the layout. There will be over 225 feet of track on just this level.

I've also named the railroad the Tampa Northern Railroad. Being I model the Seaboard Air Line, this was a natural name for the layout. You see, there really was a Tampa Northern and the Seaboard purchased it in 1912. I've revived that name for my railroad.

I also created a facecrook group for the railroad as well. Here is the link for that group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/879490203259220/?ref=share_group_link

Be sure to check it out.

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Here is the herald for the Tampa Northern Railroad.

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Upper level plans for the peninsula. It features a phosphate mine. On the SAL, phosphate was big business. As you can see there will also be a yard servicing the mine. I guess I will have to build more of my wet rock phosphate cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 04:28 by SALGUY.

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Looking good and an old school paper track plan too!

I did take a year to drywall my basement first and in the mean time drew my track plan also using 11x17 graph paper similar to yours. The colored lines are planned power districts.

Cheers,
Jim

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I thought about dry walling the basement and decided not to. As far as power districts go, each of the 3 levels will be it's own power district. I'm probably going to go with nce and will have a 5amp power supply for each level.

I can't take credit for the plans. A good friend of mine volunteered to do that. Of course, I took him up on that offer.

Understood.  Drywalling isn't fun.  In my case, I wanted to start sooner but I really wanted a finished train room and felt it's was worth it.  I look forward to following your progress.

Sal, don't take this as me telling you that your a fool for not sheet rocking, but do take a long look at it before you get beyond the point of no return. The layouts I have visited that wernt finished rooms wish they had finished them. The biggest case in point was I visited Godfrey Humans O scale South Shasta Lines in 1976 when I was 11 years old. I took a lot of 8 mm movies of it and have visited 5 or 6 times over the years and finally once a few months before he passed away. The layout was beautiful, but the last visit I found the beauty of his work over the years was tarnished by dust and cobwebs in the trees and hard to reach places. Fully enclosed room with sheet rock painted and carpet will control the dust. The carpet will act as a filter and if you install a fairly cheap centralvac unit, you will remove all dust which will vent outside your room. At the shop I worked at we bought one and hung it on the wall with it vented outside and a 50 foot hose to vacume busses. Best 150 buck I ever spent. Again, just my take.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 14:50 by TomG.

TomG Wrote:
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> Sal, don't take this as me telling you that your a
> fool for not sheet rocking, but do take a long
> look at it before you get beyond the point of no
> return. The layouts I have visited that wernt
> finished rooms wish they had finished them. ...
>  Fully enclosed room with
> sheet rock painted and carpet will control the
> dust. The carpet will act as a filter and if you
> install a fairly cheap centralvac unit, you will
> remove all dust which will vent outside your room.
> At the shop I worked at we bought one and hung it
> on the wall with it vented outside and a 50 foot
> hose to vacume busses. Best 150 buck I ever spent.
> Again, just my take.

Agree with Tom.  Truth.  I know it's tempting to get a layout up and running in an unfinished basement as fast as possible, but if you take the time to finish first, it will pay dividends.

Jim's layout topic/blog | The Atlas Rescue Forum (proboards.com)

In the link below about halfway down, there are photo's of my unfinished basement when I moved in and going forward to finishing and layout going up.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 14:56 by SPDRGWfan.

In addition to the dust, if refinishing will cut out the humidity that will help too. I have to run a dehumidifier all year except in the winter or have problems. In my experience, dehumidifiers use a lot of electricity and finding one that will last more than a couple of years can be a challenge.

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 16:57 by wabash2800.