Latest layout plan

Finally we come to the plan I am building to, version 5.

This version features four long tracks of staging each for Miramichi and Campbellton, as well as a single track of staging for each of the Caraquet Subdivision, the Nepisiguit Subdivision, the Irvco spur in Belledune, and the Smurfit-Stone industry in Bathurst. Can you ever have enough staging?

I wanted to model the Smurfit-Stone facility because they had their own switcher, caboose and plow. I thought that would be a nice feature to show them come up to interchange with CN at the junction, just like the prototype did.

There are no provisions for grades in this, which may make it boring from a scenic perspective. Obviously my layout is skewed toward operation, given the number of interchanges and online industries.

I would appreciate any comments, good or bad! :)

Track Planning For The New Layout

With my new layout room, I needed a new plan. My initial thought was to continue with the Dartmouth Subdivision idea that the NSER used.

This plan is basically a single-level dogbone with some around-the-wall staging. No doubt you can see a number of problems with the design, including restricted aisle space. On the plus side, I would have had a wye for turning and fairly good switching opportunities.



I decided I wanted to try something fresh. Based on my own railfanning experiences, I settled on a layout loosely based around the Bathurst area in the early 1980s before CN started ripping up the old subdivisions. The layout would go from "Moncton / Miramichi" (staging) through Nepisiguit Junction, Bathurst, and Belledune before "Campbellton" (staging). It would feature run-through trains that just went from one staging yard to another, switching along the way, as well as VIA's Ocean and local passenger service.

This is a very rough around-the-walls plan just to get an idea of where the stations would fit. I kept the around-the-wall staging and obviously designed for continuous running. Time to flesh it out.



It's almost the same plan, with more detail. Notice how the staging for both "ends" is in the same place. This is still very rough as the space allocated for switches is not realistic. One must always use real switch dimensions to ensure you don't get impossible angles.

I had this idea that I could get more track into the same space by doing a twice-around layout, spawning this plan.




This time the staging is on both sides of the room. The twice-through idea does give long main line runs but I decided it would not look realistic.

Next time I'll show you the "final" version. It does away with the twice-through idea but looks a lot like this one.