Finished Track Plan

Finished drawings are listed on the left of the Blog screen. I'm very interested in getting your comments before I call this complete. Thanks! Scottgperry@comcast.net.


Final overall track plan.

Benchwork drawing.


Track and Grade detail.

Structures.

Finished The Track Plan! Ole!

"It is a good thing to finish anything but a bottle."
- Pedro

Alas, Seniors! I have finished the design. She is ready for critique, which basically means that some bozo will tell me that it needs to be built in N scale. No matter, a lot of good ideas come from critiques.

I drew in the El Diablo trestle. This should make for a nice little isolated scene.


The Durango tunnel was changed to tunnel tracks and named.
The compound trestle bridge over Mapimi is now called the Grande Puente (great bridge).

The large suspension bridge is now drawn in, called Puente Colgante.

The electrical blocks for the reversing loop are now marked and noted.

The rest of the structures are now installed at Ojeulo. I've added a cook house, the shacks, the office and the guard house.


The town of Mapimi is now populated with a house for Peppy, the water tower and oil tank, a retaining wall for the steep hill and a fancy adobe engine house. There is also a railroad office.

In East Mapimi we now have the important warehouse, oil distributor, the smelter ored dump with office and Pedro's palace. I've also added the towers for the suspension bridge. Very crowded indeed.
I broke out a separate drawing for the shadow box. It now contains the depot for lime loading, Rose's Cantina, water tower and oil, and homes for the Rojos and Baxters.
Excellent! Now I'll set up the main plans in a separate box on the blog and invite the folks from the LDSIG to take a look. The On30 folks too.

Please post comments or email them to me at scottgperry@comcast.net. Thanks

Finish? Shrink? or Discontinue

"The road less traveled should be the one that goes to the Police station."
- Pedro

A puzzlement...

The Penoles Mine layout doesn't meet the raffle layout criteria. She is too big. Too long. Too complicated. Too many scratchbuilt structures. Too bad.

I have some options...

Complete the Penoles and send it in to a magazine to publish for someone else to build.

Shrink it and remove 50% of the structures and make it the raffle layout.

Stop working on it and start something else.


I'll ponder this. You ponder it, too. Post a comment when you can.

Raffle Layout Review

"I like perfection! I even married a perfect idiot!"
- Pedro

We discussed the Penoles layout as a raffle layout tonight at the NCI meeting ( see the swamp blog at http://swamplayout.blogspot.com/ ) and decided it has a few issues.

One, its a bit larger than it should be.
Two, it is a bit complicated to build.
Three, most of the structures have to be scratch built.

HOWEVER...

It has fantastic curb appeal, which sells tickets.

Also, it would look fantastic in Mike's store.

Worst case, it winds up in a magazine.

When Do You Get Time?

"Time can slip through your fingers! So can taco sauce."
- Peppy

A friend sent me an email and asked "when do you find time to design layouts like you are doing on the blog?" Good question.

In Atlanta we have this thing called a long commute. I'm on the road about 1.5 hours per day. With an extra half hour on Friday that makes 8 hours per week driving. God blessed me with the ability to draw and design things in my head, in 3D and remember them long enough to write them down. My brother and father can do this as well. Also, I keep a pocket recorder hanging from my rear view mirror and a notebook and pen close by.

I also eat lunch which is about 45 minutes a day. Often I carry my notebook and jot down sketches and notes. Then in the late evening, usually about 9:30 or 10:00, we are very quiet in the house while my 4-year-old sleeps. I'll sit at the computer and draw up the sketches, make notes and write copy for about 30 minutes or so.

So when you look at it...

8 hours on the road
3.5 hours at lunch
2.5 hours in the evenings

Up to 14 hours a week can be spent on trains! You can get a lot done in that amount of time.

Keep in mind, the date the post is issued is seldom the actual day I write it. In fact, many times the stuff you see is two or more weeks old. I just jot this stuff down as I go and when I get to the end of a concept, I send it. Sometimes I'll write two posts on a rainy saturday and schedule them to post at different times.

There!

Time for Structures!

"And just how are you going to build an adobe trailer park?"
- Pedro

It is now time to add the structures as the track plan is pretty much completed and the grades checked. I'm really liking this railroad! Let's start with the mine. I always like to add mandatory structures first, then ancillary ones. That way you make sure your priority buildings get their fair share of real estate. In O scale, you can run out of room fast.
Just some CAD tips here. I draw my drawings in layers. A layer meaning all like components are drawn together and saves as a separate and distinct group, and usually all one similar color. These layers can be turned off and on so that you can either focus on them or move them to work on other areas. Not sure if I really explained that well. So here I'm starting a structures layer and making it brown. I do this with every layout. I'll leave it on as I work with them and turn the Grade layer off.

The mine complex needs several buildings. I'll start with the main power and machinery building. Power is generated from a oil fired boiler. We'll put double doors on it and make it a machine shop. Its the largest mine building at one foot long and six inches wide. This is so that the interior can be detailed if we want it to be.

The powerhouse can move around so I just kind of sat it in the middle. Then I drew the tipple, which is nothing but a two car length trestle over a ramp that dumps the ore into the awaiting hopper. We'll deliver the ore by Bachman's V shaped skip dump ore car. The tied track drawings are starting to get in the way, so we'll convert them to hidden trackage as both are socked away under the scenery. The top mine loop is under the rock of the mine face. The ore car track goes right to the edge of the layout and we'll put about four inches of mine tunnel and a portal there so a person can feel like they are in the mine looking out onto the mine complex. Neat, huh?

Bachman's V Dump Ore Car

The first thing I did was add the timber tunnel portals. These things are huge in On30, so be sure to make room for them. Timber portals are hard to come by in On30, but you can get them from Dr. Ben's website. These will work nicely and we'll need a ton of them. I also drew in the mine cribbing section and the trestle work to get the mine track over to the tipple. Looking good!

That's all for tonight. We'll pick it up from there on the next post. Meanwhile, use the comments section and let me know what you think!

Making the Grade

"Steep grades are a constant, uphill battle."
- Peppy

So I propped my foot up late today and started calculating the grades again. The ruling grade and the average grade for the layout are set at 2%. Basically that means this:

Grade % = Rise/Run

So, for every 1" of grade that I want over 100" of track will give me a 1% grade.
And, for every 1" of grade that I want over 50" of track will give me a 2% grade.

So if you know that you want a 2% grade, use this formula to figure out the run.

Rise / Grade % = Run

The design has afforded me a very long run as it winds around the mountains and makes maximum use of the loops, so keeping at 2% is easy even when one track needs to go over another. So I mapped out each 50" section of track and put in the grade markers.

I've started dressing up the header block a little bit and have added a scale and a legend. Grades are marked in inches from the zero point, which is the top of the open grid benchwork. The layout is actually a three hill layout with each blob being a hill and another hill at the bend. In between there is a canyon where exists the town of Mapimi.


So let's take a ride up the hill. We'll start at the smelter siding in East Mapimi. Heading east at zero elevation we'll go around the bottom loop to Mapimi and pass the town and the enginehouse. Once we pass the town, also at zero elevation we begin the climb. We keep an almost perfect 2% all the way to the station at Agua Caliente. This town is a high plain and grade-wise is perfectly flat. This is so we can leave trains and rolling stock here safely without them rolling to down visit the nice folks in Mapimi.

We then start another 2% climb as we round the Chihuahua Bend which now is 4" off the benchwork and has a nice view of the Chihuahua desert. We continue to climb another inch and then reach the first large bridge going over Mapimi and its valley. This bridge is on a grade.

On the grade to the big bridge it gets just a little bit steeper than 2%, but that is ok. I think I'll call it Durango Grade after the province where the mine is located. By the time we reach the suspension bridge we are eight inches off the benchwork. The suspension bridge is perfectly level at eight inches. We then end our trip at Ojeula which remains at eight inches.

In hind site, I'd like to have a little more clearance between Agua Caliente and the mine, so we may raise the mine to 8.5 inches. Agua is 3.5 inches and the mine will be 8.5 inches, which gives us five inches of clearance. A bit tight, but doable.
I like naming key features of the trackage becuase it makes operations a little easier. Instead of yelling at the dispatcher that you are on the left side of the layout, you can just tell them that you are on the Durango Grade.

I've got a few more track adjustments to make and then I'll input the grades into the CAD system and run a train over the layout. What fun!

Scenery Science

I'm really been torn about which way to go with scenery media. There are a lot of choices and each has limitations. So I used the power of the internet and got this input.

Bill Uffleman - On30 Group
http://members.westnet.com.au/mjbd/html/foam_rocks_-_frocks.html
I like this! Very nice!

Andrew - On30 Group
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1D4KBB_GC4
Great video!

Stumpy Stone - On30 Group

You have much more ground to cover than I have in a long time, so my methods may not work for your layout. Ho0wever, you could use it in some areas where vertical surfaces might be difficult in other methods.
I carve rock faces from extruded polystyrene (extruded styrofoam). Don't use regular bead board foam, it doesn't work nearly as well. I generally look at a rock face I like and then try to carve something similar, or if I want to do a "cut" through a hill, so I look at a similar area in real life.
I don't use a hot wire cutter, I work with steak knives and X-acto knives and even sometimes just dowels or whatever will make the shape I want. Sometimes it doesn't come out quite the way I envisioned it, but since nature is so random, it usually works out anyway.
As to colors, I tend to use light grays and light browns. (Always use water based paint on foams.) I "seal" the foam with the brown and then add gray in "washes" of paint. Once the colors are right, I use thin washes of black to highlight cracks and shapes in the rock.
Different types of rock break into different shapes and colors, and these colors change as the rock is exposed to weather, so my colors may not work for you. Check out the area you want to model and let nature be your guide.
Stumpy Stone...Micro Layout builder in Appalachia


From Bill Neilson in the FloridaOn30 Group

Hi Scott,

You didn't mention whether this layout is to be portable, in which case weight & durability is a major concern, but even if it is a permanent layout, I think stacked extruded foam is probably the best method yet, as long as you don't have any trouble locating the foam, especially in larger thicknesses. Unfortunately, it's not the cheapest way to go, unless you have some nearby construction sites that will allow you to dive in their dumpster for scraps, and shaping the foam produces messy dust and chips, but a good shop vac takes care of this.

John Allen used to use corrugated cardboard forms overlaid with Kraft paper soaked in glue, which is cheap and can be very lightweight, but can be attractive to roaches and silverfish unless you mix in some form of insecticide or can seal it well on both sides. It is also very easy to re-contour later on, should you desire to. Rock outcroppings are easy to do using Sculptamold or Molding Plaster. This method probably would be my second choice over stacked foam.

Screen wire & plaster requires that you make a "buck" (framework) to support it all, forming the screen to get the proper shape without having to lay on 6" of plaster can be a PITA, and mixing the plaster and applying it is just too messy. Also, in it's powdered form, the plaster has a limited lifespan because it absorbs moisture out of the air (Hydrocal is the most sensitive to this), and after it has cured it develops cracks and chips easily, which leave white white plaster exposed. Carving rock faces into plaster can be very effective, but also produces dust & chips for the shop vac to deal with.

The Bragdon method is strong and light, and seems like it's the highest-tech method, but it's also the most expensive, it's components can be very hard to find, the liquid foam has a limited shelf life and produces potentially hazardous gases, plus it seems to be an overly involved process compared to simply stacking & carving extruded foam.

Just my opinion, the final decision is yours. Please keep us up to date on this project, as well as your swamp...

Regards,
Bill Nielsen

From Don Culbertson in the FloridaOn30 group:

Scott,

I really like your track plan for the new project.

I have made a lot of mountain scenery using extruded styrafoam. One of the most rewarding aspects of working with foam, was discovering how easy it is to make inclined ramps for multi level trackage using the foam. I use hot wire and hot knife tools and produce no foam dust. I made a demo module for a clinic I gave on foam carving. The demo unit was made entirely of foam, (there is no wooden frame) and only a small amount of lightweight patching plaster to hide some of the joints. The module uses two 2x4' pieces of 2" thick form, and one piece of 2x4x2 inch thick form. From the lowest track level to the peak is 16". The foam material removed to create the canyon and hollow out all of the tunnels, was flipped upside down to create the mountain.

To see a video of my Fire Ant Hill module in action check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q47BgtG

or just go to youtube.com and type in Fire Ant Hill.

Regards,

Don Culbertson

From Paul Fischer on the Yahoo Scenery group:

Scott: I, too, favor the idea of Hydrocal soaked paper towels for scenery shaping. In "0" gauge , you can have a lot of vertical depth, (my layout has over 30") and you really would use a lot of Styrofoam to make those mountains. And when you are working in an area of over two feet, vertical, you should probably support the scenery structure with plywood, cut to the contour that you're trying to achieve. Then, fasten down fiberglass screening to support the hydrocal/paper. I find that I need two to three coats to achieve the desired strength. Finally you will probably want to pick up some rubber rock casting molds and make rock outcroppings where it looks right. You can hold these in place with Sculptamold and that will blend the base of the rock in with the scenery you have made with the Hydrocal.

I, personally, like to color my Hydrocal with some brown plaster dye that I found. This way you can evaluate your scenery easier than you can with stark white plaster, and later on, after the scenery is completed, should you bang a tool or something against it and chip out a piece, the color won't jump right out at you. You can also blend in carved foam, with the Hydrocal/paper towels to create varying effects in scenery texture.

For rock strata, outcroppings I have used broken ceiling tiles, roughened and painted , placed in a row with the broken edge out, and have had success with a western looking landscape. Some Styrofoam produces an interesting edge appearance if broken, placed and then painted properly. Looks rather rugged and has a varied texture.

Hope this helps.

Paul Fischer

Guys, thanks so much for the input. While I really like the control and affect of Hydrocal, and the lightweight and easy of Bragdon, I'm thinking the FROCKIN' the layout is the way to go. Let's go do some lab experiments and I'll get back to you.

Finalizing the Trackage

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet perspiration"
- Peppy

Ok, let's finish up the trackage. We know we have to put a siding in at Madimi. My thought is that to run more than one train we should put in a midpoint siding on the mainline somewhere between the mine and Madimi.

And it shall be know as Agua Caliente, for those of us that are Clint Eastwood fans.

This passing shall be directly under the mine and will be viewable from an open port in the side of the fascia. It will have lighting and very shall "vignette" scenery.

There! Now all the track is done. Am I totally happy with it? Nope. Couple of things I'm not crazy about, one being the passing siding at the mine. Sloppy CAD work on my part. But I'll wait until I test run the track to fix it.

That's all the trackage!

Now, let's put in the benchwork fascia and see how the aisle come out.

I did correct some trackage. The loco servicing track had to be flipped as it was causing the benchwork to get unessecarily wide. Another mistake I corrected is the Agua Caliente passing siding which had barely one foot of passing track usable. I made it longer.

But, Scott, I can't tell where the tracks are going over or under or whatever! Can you put some grade markers in? Sure! It is time to do a grade check anyway. I'll get to work on it.

Etch a Sketch

"The Devil is in the details. And in most of my wife's casseroles."
- Pedro

Now we have a rough idea of where the main line is going to be. We've got a good climb to the mountain and the rough review of the grades shows that we are in good shape. Notice the pattern here? I don't try to perfect anything while I'm designing. I just get it pretty close to what I think I want. The reason I do this is that if you try to finalize each step, you lose flexibility to change and you'll waste a lot of time trying to make something work that you will just have to rip up later.

Once the rough main is drawn, I like to switch back to paper and pencil. The CAD system will let me print the drawing out and will give me the grid lines.
What a mess! I took both a black and red pen and began to doodle. What I'm looking at is the scenery detail. Where are the mountains? Where are the tunnels? What will the layout look like? By sketching, which is ALWAYS faster than CAD drawing no matter what your local nerd tells you, you can rough out the topography. Notice the note to the right about the window view! A friend of mine name John Travis build a helix and opened up one section of track and put a "vignette" seen in the whole with some lighting. The affect was amazing and I've done this on two layouts with great success. The track in this area will be hidden, but I don't want to hide it. Mainly I need a mid-way station stop. So we'll put a hole in the side of the layout!

Normally I would throw this and about twenty other first sketches in the trash, but I really like this layout just as it is. So, we are going to stay on version 1.00. For now, anyway.

I've saved the CAD drawing under a new revision number and added a drawing title block. This is a start block and I'll increase its size and add the scale/gauge/etc later.

So let's repair some problems:

Problem 1: the grade on the right side bridge approach may be too steep for the grade clearance.

The loop was originally inside the outer loop (red arrow) which made the grade a bit too tight to make the 4.5" clearance that I need for the bridge. So by pulling the loop out over the loop below it (creating a tunnel situation for the lower track) I've lengthened the run and made the grade stay closer to the ruling 2% grade that I've chosen as my standard.

Problem 2: Where to put the town of Madimi?

There are lots of places to put Madimi, but the must be at zero elevation. Basically we are looking at a section of benchwork off of the design we have now, or somewhere wedged in to the current design. Hey! Why not put the town under the big bridge!

For the town we need a smelter, and engine house, a warehouse, an oil distributor and a section of the MCRR. An O scale smelter is the size of the layout itself. These are enormous buildings and would take more than a year (and tons of pesos) to build. We could, however, just build the area of the structure that receives raw ore. Let's sketch it.


The whole town complex won't fit under the bridge, so I split it up. Engine servicing and the town proper are on one side, and the industrial complex are on the other. I like it so let's see how it looks in CAD.

Here we have the new town. I've put in a warehouse/oil distributor track, a smelter track and an loco servicing track. The passing siding are still not in, but we'll do them later. The O standard gauge MCRR line dwarfs the tiny 30" track. I did this on a module once and it made for a great effect of showing how tiny the trains really are.

Problem 3: There is not enough room for the mine complex.

Let's blow out the loop like we did on the last loop! While we are at it we'll put in the passing siding, the tipple and the empties siding. Better put in a warehouse, too.
Ok, instead of blowing the loop out, I left it the same size so that I can get more jagged rocks in to the picture. There is still room for mine structures, albeit small ones. The tipple may actually go on the loop and that way we can feed empties in, full cars out. We could also put a low relief tipple on the passing siding area.

It's starting to look more like a layout now!

Please feel free to post questions and comments!

Finally! We Get To Draw Something!

"Its ok to have a bowl of spaghetti as long as it has purpose! I'm not going to get around to scenery, anyway."
- Pedro

Ok, I know all of you out there in TV land have already started sketching stuff on graph paper, but I wanted you to know that careful planning UP FRONT yields to much easier on paper designing. We know our purpose, our parameters, our industries (business) and our trackage. Now we just have to shove it in a box on the CAD system.

So let's get started!

First, we'll discuss the track. We are going to use Code 83" Peco or Micro Engineering track, whichever we can get cheaper. The Peco track has more narrow ties so we'll design it for ME track. The limited square footage of the layout has us using small Porter locomotives and very small rolling stock, so we can use very tight radius turns. For our design we'll call 18" radius a minimum.

"WHAT!" you say? Oh, you must be an HO guy. "We don't use 18" for HO and you want to use it for O scale!" Actually yes. The On30 combination is very nimble and the Porters can run on track that is 12" in diamter! Even my big three truck shay runs easily on 18" radius.

The Design

You can do one of two things: start with a box and put the track plan in it, or start with a track plan and build the box around it. For this layout, let's combine the two approaches.

We are going from the plains of Mexico to the 2,000 ft mountains. I'm thinking a lot of grades here. Just like HO, On30 only pulls well at 2% to 2.5% grades. This means to achieve any elevation we are going to have to nest several over and under loops to get any great height. The problem with this is that the bowl of spaghetti winds its way up the mountain, but will need even more spaghetti to get back down to town. Better make a lot of meatballs!

In this case, we'd normally use a point to point design, just like the prototype. However, we have to go back to our guidelines list where it says that it must have a continuous loop for display purposes. Crap! What are we going to do now?

Ok, first of all it is a GUIDELINE, not an ABSOLUTE. The purpose of the guideline is to show trains running on the layout. Well, a loop to loop design does that, doesn't it? Hmmm. It will limit us to using a DCC system with a reversing port, but we can do that. We'd probably want to use DCC anyway. Ok, loop to loop it is! We can always pretend the loops aren't there for operations and we can get away with not putting turntables on the layout which are expensive and hard to maintain.

That means we need a loop at each town/mine and the trackage to wind up the mountain.

Before we do anything, let's go change our string diagram...

Be sure to update your diagrams and charts as you proceed that way Kalmbach will be able to keep track of your mess when they publish your layout. Right. Well, I keep hoping!

So let's get the CAD system going and layout some circles. We want to put the two main loops in first.

While this is not meant to be a lesson in CAD drawing, I will share with you some things that I do to help me keep organized. First, you have to set up the drawing. Knowing that I want the railroad to fit in an area no bigger than a small bedroom, I've set up the drawing grid to be 12 feet by 12 feet. I've set the grid to be 12" main squares with 3" minor divisions. The name of the layout design will be Peñoles Mining Company in On30 Layout 1.01 with the last digit changing. I keep ALL of the revisions as you never know when you might mess up.

Nothing but potential! Let's get the two loops in there. I'm going to use HO scale track sections for this since On30 is not available. If it is and you know about it, would you send me the file!
Here are two 20" radius circles. They probably need to be bigger than that, though. If our minimum radius is 18" and we have to put another circle on the outside, then we need a 21" radius, which is a 3" distance from track center to track center as used in On30. Because of our parameters we are most likely going to end up with a waterwings design.
Here is the full loop with a turnout, stretched to 23" radius with a Peco turnout. Wow! Its big. We aren't going to get much track on this layout...unless! He he he....I've got some ideas.
Ok, so they look like ta-ta's. These are loops in a waterwings type design. Wow, they are very close together in the middle. For those of you that don't know me I'm the poster child for mirth and girth. Essentially I have a 24" right of way because I'm a big hefty. So the tightest point on the layout aisle can't be less than 24". We want to keep the layout small, so how do we get around this without moving the "blobs" out?
In order to widen the gap you just slide the blobs! Notice I've made another "layer" in the CAD system called People and I made a round & fat "Scott Perry" gauge. I'll keep it around to make sure that I can fit in the aisles.

Our next job, Mr. Engineer, is to figure out how to get from the plains to the higher elevation. This is going to mean some really winding track. That means one of the blobs is going to be up on top! Uh oh. We better make it the minimum radius then.

Here we have the two main loops: 23" and 18" and then two additional loops that we will need to gain elevation. Looking good! Don't worry about it looking toyish as we'll bury some of those loops in solid rock.

The blob on the right was leaned into toward the aisle to broaden the curve out of the turnout. When you connect the loops you get a preliminary track plan that looks like this. Not bad for right out of the gate. For some of you it may be hard to understand it at this point, especially without elevation marks. Basically we are looking at a climb of about 14 to 16" from the zero point (larger of the loops). Cool! There will be three mountain peaks, one for each loop and another at the bend of all the curves. The long suspension bridge will go across the straight track in the aisle. Still don't get it? Don't worry...we are still in the early stages.

Write your comments and questions below!

And Now - Commerce

"The business of railroading is business"
- Peppy

Ok, so we have a mine and a smelter. We'll run trains back and forth. Oh goodie. Surely there has to be more than that? Of course there is!

In order to understand what our railroad does, let's make a flow chart of the industries and how they interact.

Let's start with what we know. We know there is a mine and a smelter. So the silver ore moves from the mine to the smelter and they smelt it. Once they get the silver out, which is only a fraction of the rock that was brought there, they have tons of rock laying around. Maybe we can haul some of it back to the mine for fill dirt?

So, you ship silver ore to the smelter and they smelt it. Then what? Just sit on piles of silver? Oh no. They must have a customer!

The customer, represented by the cloud symbol, is off line. Probably a merchant of silver bullion or a jewelry manufacturer. Since we can't model the whole world, we'll say that the Mexican Central Railroad is the customer since they are so nice to take the silver off our hands in boxcars. Likewise, the smelter will need supplies. Smelting requires machinery, lubricants, fuel and lots of other commodities including chemicals. So the smelter becomes the customer of the MCRR. See how this works?

Well, what about the mine? They need supplies, too, because they have machinery and commodity needs. In that case, we'll add the mine supply warehouse. It will interface with the MCRR and accept deliveries for the mine. Now we have commerce going back and forth between all industries including our "invisible" industry, the MCRR.
I guess our locomotives are going to run on thin air or whatever Obama says they are allowed to run on, right? Incorecto, por favor! The mine and its trains run on black gold: oil. So we better provide them with some. We'll need a fuel oil distributor. Since the locos are going to buy this oil, we better set up the locomotive repair shop as an industry. We'll also send oil to the mine. To make things even more interesting, we are going to sell some bagged high-grade ore directly to the MCRR by way of boxcar.
Of course you know that without people, the whole process stops. So we better figure out a way to get folks from off the railroad up to the mine since there are no Corvettes or Ferraris in 1900. Over the rugged mountain terrain even a mule will have a hard time, so we'll add some passenger service to our mix. We'll start by adding three stations, one "invisible" and off line, and the other two represented by real depots on the layout.

There! We have a really good sketch of commerce on the railroad with key industries and supporting industries represented and an "off layout" world that we can interact with! Again, this is our sketch and we may change it later.

Let's Start Track Planning

"Layouts are like strings. Every yo-yo wants one!"
- Pedro

Ok, we now have a general idea of what we want to do, so let's start the basic track plan. I always with a string diagram. The string or main line is the best place to start because it helps you sketch out all the key features of your layout in an orderly fashion.

To begin, we draw a horizontal line. This thick line represents the main line of the railroad. The railroad goes from the mine (supplier) to the town (consumer). Notice that we have terminated (small line on the end of the main line) to show that the railroad does not go past these boundaries or interchange with another railroad. This is where we put the names of the two towns on to the diagram as well as the name of the railroad. I make these diagrams using a computer aided design (CAD) system called 3rd Plan It. While its not the best thing in the world, it seems to be better than the other options. This particular file is called Peñoles Mining Company in On30 String Diagram 1.01. Each time I make a few additions or corrections I save the file again and change the last number to the next digit, a "2" in this case. If I make major changes such as adding a whole new town then I'll start a new series of drawings using the code 2.01. I can't stress enough backing up your changes this way as it makes it easier to go back and start again when you have to. Organization is everything!

From the history document we know that the smelter does ship materials on the Mexican Central Railway. That means the smelter probably shipped silver to market by way of this standard gauge line. So we'll put in the railroad on our diagram. Since it comes and goes to destinations off the layout, we'll add arrow heads to the line.

The smelter is just outside of town and will need at least one siding in order to unload silver ore. We'll also note that the siding in for the smelter and put it between the siding and the Mexican Central to indicate that materials are going in and finished goods are going out of the smelter.

Likewise, the mine will probably have at least one siding as well. The ore cars will probably be loaded at a tipple, so we'll put in the tipple track.

While we don't have the actual track plan for this railroad, we can infer some trackage just because of our knowledge of railroads. In most every town and mine you have a passing siding so that the locomotive can get on to the other side of the freight car to move it. Knowing this, we'll put passing sidings in on both ends of the railroad.

I like to know where I'm going, so up in the corner I put a navigation symbol that let's me know the railroad goes east to west.

Steam locomotives needs lots of "tender" loving care, so we'll need a place to shop them. Thus, we'll add at least one service track in Mapimi. I also start dressing up the sketch. The town names are disappearing into the drawing, so I make them bold and increase the type size so they stand out.

This gives us a completed sketch of the railroad. While this looks nothing like the layout design that you are expecting, this critical step makes sure we know WHAT has to be on the railroad. We aren't done, however. This is just getting us started.

Um, excuse me Senior Pedro...but you goofed up! Its a good thing you have this in a CAD program. You called the tipple in Ojuela a smelter!!! I change it for you! See? Si?

Aye! Carumba! The name of the railroad, she no print out right! El crapola! I go fix...

Sometimes things just don't work right in 3rd Plan It. Often I get frustrated and go back to paper and pencil.