# Beginnings of New Switching Layout



## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Still in its very early stages...


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Wow...fantastic industrial buildings...unbelievable interior details. :appl:

You are going to have a very viewable layout if the rest looks like your
first pics.

Don


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## 2tall (Nov 18, 2011)

*Great job*

Love the looks of your layout in the dark looks really great, nice building.
2tall


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thank you gents.  I just finished rebuilding the first section. The first time I used flextrack and Atlas Custom Line turnouts and I didn't like the way it ran. There were stalls when crossing frogs, etc. And when a diesel loco with sound stalls, the sounds get out of sink... i.e. when it's nudged and starts moving again, the diesel engine startup sound plays instead of remembering which notch it was in.

So I rebuilt everything including the track using the Fast Tracks tooling. Now I can crawl through turnouts at a couple of scale mph with no stalling, which to my mind is absolutely essentially for a switching layout.


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

That's some great photography work. What equipment are you using?


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

wow, very nice work, round 2 should be amazing


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

spoil9 said:


> That's some great photography work. What equipment are you using?


Nothing special actually. It's a Canon PowerShot SX10IS that's a few years old - what you might call a higher-end point'n'shoot. I have an older second-generation Canon Rebel but never use it as the SX10IS has most of the same features in a much smaller package and higher resolution to boot. Features useful for model photography include Macro and Aperture Priority. The train photos above were taken at f8 (which is the highest the camera will go). 

A blue bulb supplied the room light for the twilight pics. I did Photoshop out the wall shelf brackets that mount the layout as the backdrop is not yet in place, but the remainder of the backdrop is the naked wall - which in reality is green. Other than getting rid of the wall brackets and tweaking the brightness a little on some (not all) of them, the photos are essentially stock. No color adjustments were done. Quite frankly, I'm not very good with PhotoShop anyway.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Finally finished wiring the first section earlier this morning. I'll be setting it in place and replacing the old section later today.



















I installed two 12VDC 10A power supplies, one to feed the Tortoise switch machines and the other to supply power to the structure lights. A third supply of 24 VDC 10A supplies 16V power through a dropping resistor to the Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers.

The two light switches at lower left are layout master power and a separate one for structure lighting.

Edit: Oh btw, the wood pieces are runners that sit on the shelf brackets and keep the wires from being pinched.


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## golfermd (Apr 19, 2013)

Simply beautiful! :appl:


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Yes...yes...yes...

That under table wiring is a work of art.

Would it be that we all could invert the layout to
have easy access that would make possible such
beautiful workmanship. Alas, my under table wiring
is still in that 'temporary' mode with big intentions to
cable it nicely. But, running trains got a higher priority
and few ever look under there. 

Don


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Yes, it turns out building a small layout on a door has its advantages.  I wired power supplies for many years decades back and got in the habit of harnessing wires. In this case, it also keeps things from getting snagged as the section is removed from - and replaced upon - the wall-mounted shelf brackets.


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## toasty (Oct 16, 2013)

love the photos


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

This is the first video I've taken on my new HO switching layout. More of a first experiment than anything else really.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

That great album, Dark Side of the moon, came to mind...but
your video is so real...and the way you have treated the windows in your building
is admirable. Each one is different as they are in a building of this nature.

Don


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

What happened to all the pictures? All I have is black x's. Pete


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## Mr.Buchholz (Dec 30, 2011)

Looks AMAZING! The forklift in that building looks real at first glance!

-J.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thank you all for the kind words. I'm having a great time!! 

Pete - looks like there was a temporary glitch on my web server... the photos are back now.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

I've finally got the full track plan pretty much nailed down. Nothing is absolutely set in concrete yet other than the track at top above the yard, but after fooling with it for quite a while, I'm not sure I'll come up with anything better.










The two 14* "track crossings" with the dense lines in the middle are actually double slip switches (all those lines don't show up well in an AutoCAD screen capture). There is actually only one 14* crossing.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

WOW! That looks like fun. You sure do have a project ahead of you and it will be fun to watch you 'get 'er done'. That's a very nice design Dwight and it shows you did a lot of work on it. Pete


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

nice operations layout, clean and tiny...you're fairly new here, but obviously not to the hobby, it shows.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thanks guys.  Much of the top-right section is a compressed version of John H. Wright's fabulous "Federal Street" Proto 87 module layout. That, and knowing I wanted a car float, were the starting point. Having no room for staging formed the basis of the car float as a way to get traffic on and off the layout. As it turns out, I also have connections for two short staging cassettes - one at top right and the other at lower left connecting to the hidden "fiddle track" inside the cannery.

As usual, the major constraint was available space. This layout shares a small (10 x 11) room with my wife's home office, and is therefore limited to a corner. The car float area will be mounted on casters with telescoping legs, and is designed to collapse down and roll under the rest of the layout when not in use, as it will do a fair job of blocking the entrance to the room when in its "operating position."

WVGCA - you're correct - been playing with trains for some 60 years now, and have been a model railroader for forty-some. I've spent the last decade or more in large scale live steam - 1:20.3 #1 gauge and 1/8th scale 7-1/2" gauge ride-on live steam. But after a decade of mostly machining, I wanted to return to my roots as my first love has always been building structures. Still active in the live steam as well.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Well, within the last week we decided to buy a new house and move. Looks like my switching layout is now going to expand into an around-the-walls layout within a 10' x 14'-6" room.  I'll save the upper section, but probably narrow it and move the yard elsewhere.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Hello Gents. It's been a year since I last posted here, and 11 months since we moved into a new house. As I said in my last post, I saved the one partially completed layout section, and it's now in it's new home. Not much new trackwork completed since the move, but I have been working on a new structure lately (still not finished). Anyway, here's the most current photo...


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Have you got any kind of a track plan? 
What you had before looked great. 

Magic


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

I do, but it's still rather tentative. The only part that's written in concrete is the original section on the left wall. Industries and spurs along the other three walls are still pending, and everything except the original section is still subject to change or modification.

Next to the car float (above it in the plan) is a municipal pier made up of two Walthers kits, and I have a tramp steamer kit that will be tied up to that pier next to the car float. I also want to look at extending through the wall to a short staging yard in the closet. That would allow an additional way to get freight onto and off the layout.


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Some updated photos...


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Dwight

Those buildings are awesome. If the rest of your layout comes out
as well, you are going to have a prize winning operation.

Don


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thanks Don. 

Been fiddling with the track plan and moving things around. I particularly didn't like the car float and municipal pier jutting out into the middle of the room, so I moved them both to the bottom wall (in the plan). The top is still up in the air, but I plan some additional industrial switching in that area with more buildings... perhaps a John Allen "Timesaver" kind of an arrangement.










The bridge across the waterfront at lower-right will lead through the wall to a small staging yard hidden in the walk-in closet.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I sure do like the layout as you show it. You have all of those
great industrial sidings and yards that are going to provide
hours of operational enjoyment.

I was just about to complain that you had no
way to turn your locos around, had missed the
turntable. You'd want that capability. Your single track main would use it as a challenge.
You could have trains running in opposite directions on it.
You would need passing sidings to make it work and you
have those.

I do like the car float where you have moved it. Believe
me, you appreciate the move around center space you
have provided by that move. 

Don


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

Thanks Don. The nice thing about the car float's new location is that it's accessible from the closet where both the staging yard and freight car storage will be. That should make it fairly simple to swap out cars for the next ops session. If I had more length in the room, I'd do a larger waterfront with perhaps a couple of piers and two or three car floats. Alas, there's never enough space for everything we want. 

I don't plan to run much in the way of mainline trains. This is primarily more of a Transfer Line where the object is moving freight in and out via plenty of switching. The continuous loop is only there for those occasions where I feel laxy and just want to watch a short train chase its caboose. LOL. Mostly though, this is my first entry into actual operations with waybills and the like. None of my previous layouts were designed for that, nor did they ever get far enough along to impliment it if that had been. The one partially completed section along the left wall already allows for some of this.

It also provides me plenty of opportunities to build structures - one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. I'm going for the "tiny trains in the towering urban canyon" look.


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## lajrmdlr (Apr 25, 2014)

Dwight Ennis said:


> I do, but it's still rather tentative. *The only part that's written in concrete is the original section on the left wall*. Industries and spurs along the other three walls are still pending, and everything except the original section is still subject to change or modification.
> 
> That's too bad because that track arrangement makes no sense RR wise. There's switchbacks that look like their only reason just is to have them especially the one in the middle The ends of some are so short you can maybe get one car & loco on them but there are multiple cars on the back part. Get rid of them by having one track cross thru the other especially the one on far left. The one in the middle needs at least another 5-6 car lengths added to it The track that goes to the turntable into a switch just before reaching the turntable. WHY???? Have you ever seen that done by any real RR? Either move that track a little to the right & then go to the turntable or turn rotate the turntable one whisker track counter clockwise. Guess your cad program is using sectional track so it "forces" the plan to be very unprototypical
> 
> If these comments seem harsh, can't help it because have been working around the real RRs since 1974 & also being a railfan. And also have been reviewing MR plans even longer than that. So always look at them as being as they really are & not as just toys. If you want them to be that way fine - it's your MR. But if you're trying to reproduce a real RR whether it's real or fantasy take some time to go look at the real RRs or look at as many pix on the internet as you can find. There are a gazillion RR pix out there Same goes for MR plans - base on real RRs or fantasy but based on real RR practices.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

lajrmdlr

My goodness, you sure would have a long list of goodies if you
saw my room size layout. There is probably very little that
would meet the approval of the railroad commision or the
railroads board of directors. 

I tried to get a whole lot of action
in a relatively small space. For example, I have a WYE, one tail of it is
in my Central passenger station and it is long enuf for only 2 1/2
passenger cars, and they are going thru a crossover because I
have a spur track to an industry off of one passenger station
track. No railroad that want to stay in business would build
such, but that's the only way I could get those facilities in there.

We try for some degree of realism in what we do but in the
end what we do is for fun. So we just close our eyes and barge
ahead when reality and fun meet head on.

Have martini and join in the chaos (fun).

Don


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

lajrmdlr

I welcome your comments and analysis, harsh or not. However, I think we have different agendas here. LOL. The section on the left wall is a compressed version of John H Wright's "Federal Street" Proto 87 layout... imho, one of the finest layouts built, both visually and operationally. One of those seeming "crossovers" is a dual slip switch, which doesn't show up well in the screen capture. At any rate, the short switch leads and multiple industries per spur are deliberate, and designed to introduce further complexity into switching operations - the exact opposite of the way prototype railroads do things.

The switch on the way to the turntable leads to a feed track (the far right track) for the coaling tower and sand house, and a track to hold a gondola for emptying the ash pit, and doesn't connect to the turntable. The track to its immediate left does lead to the turntable and contains an ash pit.

The whole layout is designed as a "switching puzzle" and not to replicate any prototype railroad or track arrangement. No prototype railroad would design a track arrangement like John Allen's "Timesaver" either, but I plan to include some variation of it on the top section. 

The majority of the track plan is still subject to modification if I come up with an idea I like better, but as I said, the "Federal Street" section is pretty much written in concrete. I myself love the Federal Street plan regardless of how prototypical it is, and I don't see myself changing it. 

BTW, the CAD system I'm using is standard AutoCAD, so I'm not limited to sectional track. I'm building my own track and switches using the "Fast Tracks" tooling.

Please, though, continue to offer any comments you may have. I do sincerely appreciate them.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

timesaver style layouts are definitely not 'prototypical', but they sure are fun to work ..in my viewpoint things like 'backwards' siding and the like add enjoyment to running a layout, it makes you think more when you have to 'push' cars into a siding to make things work ..both of the long spurs on my layout are 'push' spurs..


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## Dwight Ennis (Oct 8, 2013)

wvgca said:


> timesaver style layouts are definitely not 'prototypical', but they sure are fun to work ..in my viewpoint things like 'backwards' siding and the like add enjoyment to running a layout, it makes you think more when you have to 'push' cars into a siding to make things work ..both of the long spurs on my layout are 'push' spurs..


I agree 110%!!  I see plenty of layouts in MR and elsewhere that have really long mainline runs and some passing sidings - but very few spurs. For those who enjoy mainline running I say more power to them. Just not my cup of tea. For me, complex switching and moving freight cars around is where the action is.


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