View single post by Keith Pashina
 Posted: Sun Jan 8th, 2017 10:29 am
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Keith Pashina

 

Joined: Sun Nov 4th, 2012
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Posts: 750
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This is the trackplan for the 16" wide by 96" long Black Hawk scene. I was able to fit in what I thought were essential elements for the layout:
  • Enginehouse/shops
  • Small yard
  • One ore processing mill + ore chute transfer to C&S
  • Transfer to 3' C&S
  • A spur to the boiler works
  • Turntable, to turn the locos
There was little room for any other structures - Black Hawk would have been painted on the backdrop and represented with building flats. One mistake I made was build the yard  (two runaround tracks), on a slight grade - my rolling stock rolled too freely, and this complicated setting out cars.





Joe Crea drew a much nicer looking trackplan for Black Hawk, and this is part of the trackplan originally published in Railroad Model Craftsman in September 2003.

Here is a view of the Black Hawk yard with some switching work in progress. This scene remained bare, and no other structures were ever added.


I moved in 2005, so parts of the old layout were scrapped, including Black Hawk. I tried out a two-level layout, shown here. Black Hawk was located on the lower level, and part of it is scenicked. The trackage was handlaid with Code 40 rail - it looked good, but a lot of work, too. The corner area was an efficient use of space - I included a wye, and spurs to two industries. I also had plenty of space for the enginehouse and some yard trackage.



Here is my sketch of the lower level of the layout, showing the trackage that was mostly completed. I never finished connecting the two levels, as I became disillusioned with the two-level concept. It seemed that one level was always too high, and the other always too low. Although I could fit double the amount trackage in as compared to a one-level layout, the headaches that came with a two-level layout were not worth it for me.
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