It starts with a plan

Now that I have a solid track plan, I started mounting the modules from the old layout to the wall. I will be able to reuse at least four of the 2' x 4' modules. I started in the corner farthest from the interior door and worked along the outside wall, setting the modules on the support board Bruce and I put up a couple weekends ago and added cantilevered braces so there will be no leg supports to kick ... a nuisance I found with the last layout. Using one of the old legs for a temporary brace, I was able to quickly mount the 3 modules. Nice!

Cantilevered braces hold up the benchwork

Look at all that under layout storage with no legs in the front to get in the way. As I told Bruce, the more I build, the less I have stored in the train room which makes every step enjoyable. On the down side, a 10' x 10' train room is small with all the working materials and dragging in the power mitre saw and workmate work bench to cut the braces. Small price to pay for this awesome room.

Brilliant

I spent some time in the train room last night with the last plan from Bruce and it's just brilliant. There are 2 continuous loops with the hidden track so tracks can run during an open house, or background while I show new operators the routes.Plenty of yard tracks in both the East and West yards, with the mainline and runaround track right through the center - very prototypical. There are 3 separate towns for switching - Irwin, Herminie and East McKeesport (from left to right) and the 2 track hidden staging on the left allows 1 east and 1 west bound offline trains to come onto the layout and later Irwin build trains can head out to those hidden tracks.

Today, I am mounting a couple of the modules to the wall and test placing some switches. With some work I may have most of the benchwork and sub roadbed in by the end of the year ... maybe even some of the mainline down?

Now it's getting exciting!

Getting Close

While I have been scraping dried Liquid Nails off the tops of the plywood benchwork (one of the down sides to reusing the modules from the last layout), Bruce has been busy doodling over the ideas we discussed last time he was over. There are a few givens:

• 24" deep benchwork with 18" on one side for my modeling desk
• 4' peninsula for WCC Mine No. 4 in Herminie, PA
• Irwin yard has to be either on the left or right shelf
• Removable/duckunder at the entrance

Bruce's latest brainstorm

The next list is the desires:

• Primarily for operations where trains are made up and broken down in Irwin yard and at least 2 switching areas - E. McKeesport and Herminie
• Mainline offers a continuous run to break in engines, simulate trains coming from off the layout, and maybe show for an open house
• Outside track for a "mole" yardmaster to make up trains and put them in a 2 track hidden staging yard for east/west arrivals and departures

Earlier today, Bruce sent me the sketch above. Now this has some possibilities. I may have to get the turnouts back out, do some test fitting and even mock operation. 

Beginning Benchwork

Bruce stopped over yesterday and we talked for a long time over the mockup I had laid out on the modular benchwork. We agreed that what I had laid out very closely resembled his last track plan but there were details in the yard area that needed some rethinking to fit in the 10' span with curves at either end - yard interchange, yard lead, cabin car track and ideally 4 tracks each 1 car longer than my longest train. Then we started talking about the passing sidings and figured pretty much 5-6 cars in a train plus engine and cabin car. Good compromise I feel so that the train does not wrap from one town to the next but still enough to make switching a little demanding.
Bruce had a number of interesting ideas and took some of the sketches for thinking and doodling. It will be very interesting to see what he comes up with and I can hardly wait. While he was here, he helped me mount the bracket around the room that the back of the modules will rest on. In reality it took me longer to pull out and move back all the stuff under the layout than it did for us to mount the three 10' spans of 1" x 4" but it was definitely a 2 man job and I appreciated his help.

Bruce screwing the board to the wall studs ... we hope!

I took the picture of Bruce after we leveled and screwed the board at both ends. He was drilling pilot holes for the rest of the span. I have another photo, I will have to dig up and post, of him doing almost exactly the same time waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back when we were both lieutenants in the Air Force and building a shelf layout in my apartment. Hmmm..... maybe this time we will actually be able to run a train!

Mockup

One of the advantages of rebuilding instead of starting from scratch is having enough track, buildings and cars to mockup some ideas. Sure, I have to scrap glue off the old bemchwork tops and I am sure the turnouts and tracks will be a little tricky as I reuse them but look at what I mocked up last night.

Looking west, closest track goes to staging, middle is the mainline and the inside track is the yard lead

I realized the most challenging arrangement will be the Irwin yard. How big is enough and can I fit it. I laid out some track last night and think I have a workable plan. This arrangement is close to the Idea Plan yesterday and not too different from Bruce's plan as he has pointed out.
Looking north, the right side of the yard area has, from front to back, an engine track, RIP and MoW tracks and a double-ended cabin car track - some thing that was missing from the old layout.

Engine, RIP, MoW and Cabin car tracks form the right side of the yard

The left side has the 4 track yard. As you can see, the 4th track has space for 7 cars which should be pretty good but I need to confirm the interchange track with the yard, the yard lead and the rest of the layout can support 6-7 car trains with an engine and cabin car. Mostly I expect 4-6 car trains for the traffic flow.

Four track staging yard

Idea Plan No. 1

A couple of weeks ago I took the family to the Cincinnati Div 7 show and picked up several items, including the PRR Facilities Book Vol. 10 which covers the PRR route through Irwin and surrounding areas, the center of my layout desires! Last weekend, Bruce and I went to the Dayton Div 3 train show which is always great and I got a pack of Virginian & Ohio (V&O) switchlists that Al McClelland signed for me. What a treat! Al's writing about the V&O operations - and works by Tony Koester, John Armstrong, and Bruce Chubb - are why I love to "run trains".
With those two events as inspiration, and finally getting the benchwork temporarily set up for generating ideas on what is and is not feasible, I began doodling. Below is the first "idea plan". Sort of to scale (I used a scale template) I tried to fit in all my druthers.

Idea Plan #1

Yes too much track, but you have to start somewhere. The curves are 24" but I am willing to go a small as 20". I would like 5-6 car trains plus engine and cabin car (it is 1958 after all) and a 4 track yard in Irwin to sort the inbound traffic. This is the left side of the drawing with a 2 track staging yard that will be hidden behind industry flats. The 3 track Herminie mine is on the peninsula and the right side of the plan is East McKeesport with more industries for switching. Two to three operators - Irwin Yard, Hermnie & East McKeesport, and the "mole" operator outside the track at the top of the drawing.
A start - just needs some ideas and I know exactly who to ask!