# santa fe in the illinois valley



## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I decided that since im in the beginning phases of my layout that I should start a thread on this. my layout is set in Illinois a few hours southwest of Chicago and all industry is loosely based off different industries that are around my area some served by rail some not. at this point im still debating on if this is the track plan I will stay with but that's why im posting this. please excuse my crude Microsoft paint version of this. all mainline curves are roughly 30" radius turns smallest turnout is #6 for different spurs otherwise #8. in the future I will add another small yard and an engine service facility but this is currently what I have going. no scenery done still blue foam. benchwork is 2x4s with 1/4" plywood and 1" extruded polystyrene insulation board. the river is not cut out yet and wont be till I start up more of the scenery work and certain on my track plan.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

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Mistake Mod please delete this one.

See next post.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Where the blue with the writing is, will this be cut out?
I guess so rereading the inside.

Why not make the other side 3 or 4 foot too instead of the 21 inch?
You can get more train things on the table.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

it is cut out and the reason its only 21 in is that's the way that the room was built. the doorway is 21 inches off the wall and for simplicity sake I just stuck with that measurement and for accessability


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## J.Albert1949 (Feb 3, 2018)

Two loops need to be connected together with crossovers.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I forgot to add those. here is an updated picture


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I found some old track plans for the yard in my town from the transition era when the santa fe roundhouse was still up. both pictures are of the same plan but one shows more of the west side and one shows more of east side ive been looking for this for a long time and found it yesterday when a local n scale club came to town and displayed their layout:thumbsup:


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Duck under? Oh no!*



Jscullans said:


> I forgot to add those. here is an updated picture


Jscullans;

You might consider cutting an access aisle through one of the short sides of your layout. It could be bridged by a hinged section. This will be infinitely better for your back and other body parts than ducking under the benchwork every time you need to get into/back-out-of, the center hole. Sooner or later, or most likely, both, you will hit some part of your body on the benchwork as you duck under, and then straighten back up. Ouch!  Near the end of the attached file, after sketch#4, you will find a discussion of the merits/problems with various access gap-bridging techniques. 

good luck, have fun;

Traction Fan :smilie_daumenpos:

View attachment 3 & 4 How to build a better first layout.pdf


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I have it set up to where I can do that at some point. its 4 feet off the floor anyway so for now it will work out ok. im also the only one that goes in there other than my 11 year old. but where it crosses the doorway I have it so I can make it a bridge with relative ease. just have to trim the foam and I can pop that section out


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Since my last update I ended up doing a couple more things with the layout. I decided on where I’m going to have my service facility and also added on a programming track to the layout. It’s a stand alone track on its own section of wood off the layout but it’s nice to have it right next to my command station. I have the digitrax pr4 set up for stand alone on that track. I don’t intend on using jmri for such a small layout and I feel it would be a waste of time but decoder pro on the other hand has been an absolute sanity saver not having to remember what cv does what and easily able to access and change settings on a decoder. The engine service facility and yard are going to be on the lower area of my layout going by the picture I posted previously and I’m also going to have a mine my layout services and a couple other industries I feel would be able to fit well in other locations. I decided to go without any rivers or bridges due to the fact that it would cut a lot of my room no matter where I put it. The roundhouse is going in the lower left corner on the inside of the walkway it’s just going to be a 3 stall due to the limited space I’ll have but my town only had a 5 stall roundhouse so it will be a good representation of it. In my service facility I’ll have the roundhouse a rip track a diesel shed a coaling tower a sanding tower and an oil tank (diesels/oil burning steam) I began the benchwork that will be under the roundhouse this evening so hopefully I’ll have it installed and some track layed by the weekend!


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

as of now I have the roadbed and track layed on the inner loop and got all of my track tuned and level to be able to run my engines without any issues. the other night I had a 4-8-4 and a 2-10-4 double headed and pulling a 55 car freight train to attempt to get any issues to arise and didn't have a single failure or derailment other than on a somewhat questionable atlas switch that will be replaced once I get the chance to go to the local hobby shop and get a couple more peco switches that I can replace the atlas ones with. and the areas I have nearly complete other than replacing switches I have the foam painted and ready to start scenery. ill end up waiting on that till I have all the trackwork completed though.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Sounds good*



Jscullans said:


> as of now I have the roadbed and track layed on the inner loop and got all of my track tuned and level to be able to run my engines without any issues. the other night I had a 4-8-4 and a 2-10-4 double headed and pulling a 55 car freight train to attempt to get any issues to arise and didn't have a single failure or derailment other than on a somewhat questionable atlas switch that will be replaced once I get the chance to go to the local hobby shop and get a couple more peco switches that I can replace the atlas ones with. and the areas I have nearly complete other than replacing switches I have the foam painted and ready to start scenery. ill end up waiting on that till I have all the trackwork completed though.




Jscullans;

Congratulations! It sounds like you have made an excellent start! After you replace your few remaining Atlas turnouts with Pecos, you might try one more trackwork test.
Try backing a train around all your track. If there are any bad spots out there, they will be revealed by this maneuver. It's a lot easier to keep a train on the rails while it's being pulled, than when it's being pushed.
Start with a single locomotive and 4-5 cars. Use the least expensive loco and cars, just in case. Start by backing this short train slowly along the track. If that works, add a little more speed and try again. Don't go crazy! No one should expect to duplicate, in model form, the performance of Amtrak's San Diegan passenger train. It regularly shuttles between San Diego and Los Angeles at 70mph going backwards half the time, in push/pull operation. They have much gentler curves and turnouts to run on, than we do!
Gradually you can increase the speed, and number of cars, being pushed, until you are satisfied that your trackwork is as close to perfect as you can possibly make it. Then cover that perfect track with masking tape, and start building scenery! 

good luck & have fun!

Traction Fan :smilie_daumenpos:


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

I put the "programming track" as a part of the main, that way if your doing speed matching or trying out something you run the loco to the part of the main that is also the programing track, throw a switch that connects the track to the programmer, program the decoder then throw the switch to revert to the main and off you go.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

That’s a good idea. I’ll try it in a little bit. The reason I chose to leave the programming track as a stand alone unit is because I don’t plan to speed match any of my locos. The monster freight train I had on will seldom be on my layout due to space limitations. It takes up 2/3 of my main on the inner loop. I think the max will be somewhere around 20 cars and caboose and 12 cars for passenger service if I’m running it otherwise the trains are just too long for the layout. So in other words I’ll hardly ever double head unless I’m running diesels but that will be a rather rare occurrence too due to the fact that I’m not much of a diesel guy.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Jscullans said:


> That’s a good idea. I’ll try it in a little bit. The reason I chose to leave the programming track as a stand alone unit is because I don’t plan to speed match any of my locos. The monster freight train I had on will seldom be on my layout due to space limitations. It takes up 2/3 of my main on the inner loop. I think the max will be somewhere around 20 cars and caboose and 12 cars for passenger service if I’m running it otherwise the trains are just too long for the layout. So in other words I’ll hardly ever double head unless I’m running diesels but that will be a rather rare occurrence too due to the fact that *I’m not much of a diesel guy.*


Me either.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I’m currently in my train room doing the reverse test. I have my p2k e8 shoving 40 cars around my inner loop of my main at somewhere around 40 scale mph with no issue! Found a couple track nails that were elevated and a couple of long “air lines” on my kadee couplers but nothing to report shy of that


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I took a video but can’t upload it to the forum. I may make a YouTube channel for people to see any videos I make


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## Chaostrain (Jan 27, 2015)

Jscullans said:


> I took a video but can’t upload it to the forum. I may make a YouTube channel for people to see any videos I make


I had that issue too. I asked John and he told me the forum doesn't accept videos directly. You need to upload to someplace else like FB and Youtube then post a link to the video.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I have been playing around with some scenery on the layout and have some actual pictures worth showing at this point. My track plan has changed from its original thought several times now and I’m done with Microsoft paint. Anyway I’ve done some testing with my eye of scenery and making trees and what not I’ve built up some hills and am just now deciding on where all my industry is going to be. Moving forward it will all be coming together and then possibly super detail to scenes. Want it looking more presentable before I go doing that though. Hope you like some of the pics


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Jscullans said:


> I have been playing around with some scenery on the layout and have some actual pictures worth showing at this point. My track plan has changed from its original thought several times now and I’m done with Microsoft paint. Anyway I’ve done some testing with my eye of scenery and making trees and what not I’ve built up some hills and am just now deciding on where all my industry is going to be. Moving forward it will all be coming together and then possibly super detail to scenes. Want it looking more presentable before I go doing that though. Hope you like some of the pics










If you make more trees like this one try coating the wire with
some thinned, but not too thin, joint compound, 
brush it on till you have covered all the wire and have a good thickness.
Use some paint to make it brownish and than put your foliage on.

They come out real nice this way.

















Magic


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I haven’t posted in quite a while on this thread about anything with the layout due to not doing anything to really comment on. All I’ve really done is a little scenery a little painting and running some trains. I did a bunch of work to my rolling stock recently so that’s kept me pretty busy. Doing a few things here and there to locomotives and I’ve installed railings around the layout to make sure that nobody sets a pop on my layout. I’m deciding on if I want to go with tortoise switch machines to operate my turnouts or if I want to stay with them being operated by hand. I would hook them up to switches not dcc but that will be the next project on the railroad if I decide to go with them


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Jscullans said:


> I haven’t posted in quite a while on this thread about anything with the layout due to not doing anything to really comment on. All I’ve really done is a little scenery a little painting and running some trains. I did a bunch of work to my rolling stock recently so that’s kept me pretty busy. Doing a few things here and there to locomotives and I’ve installed railings around the layout to make sure that nobody sets a pop on my layout. I’m deciding on if I want to go with tortoise switch machines to operate my turnouts or if I want to stay with them being operated by hand. I would hook them up to switches not dcc but that will be the next project on the railroad if I decide to go with them


Jscullans;

On your "Should I use Tortoise motors, or manual control, for my turnouts" decision, the attached file "All about turnouts", has some information near the end, about various "Switch Machines" to move the points of a turnout. Maybe that will help you decide.
If you have a lot of turnouts, and the cost of multiple Tortoise motors is a concern, the other two files describe a $5 "Tortoise substitute" which you can make quickly, easily, and cheaply. It mounts like a Tortoise, moves, and holds, the points like a tortoise, and even has an optional microswitch like a Tortoise. What it doesn't have is a motor. It's operated by a super simple, super reliable, push/pull rod linkage. 

Just some things for you to consider;

Traction Fan 🙂


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I’ll look into that after supper. I have about 30 turnouts on my layout so that would save a ton of money


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated anything with my layout due to me forgetting about the thread. Since my last post I’ve added some more buildings and done some scenery. I load some interest for a while so I haven’t really messed with a whole lot on the layout. I added a little bit of track work since the last update. With the pandemic I haven’t been to a train show in a while so haven’t really gotten much for supplies to work on it. I’ll attach pictures of some of the layout to possibly get a better picture of what it looks like up to this point


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Please excuse the mess I have going in the layout room. It needs a good cleaning out


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

It's coming along nicely. Looking good.

Magic


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## BigGRacing (Sep 25, 2020)

Looking really good for sure !


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Between last night and today I did a little bit of scenery on the layout. I decided there was a spot that was too open and I was trying to think what to put in the spot. I looked over and noticed my sons bat rack I built him and thought that it was about the right size for a baseball diamond. So I made a jig out of sheet styrene to make the diamond fit in the area I had and used fine saw dust from my bandsaw. I kept cutting on an old pine 1x6 till I had enough fine saw dust to make the base lines. I put the jig down and applied the saw dust to the open spots on the jig and packed it down. I decided I needed bases as well so I chose to make them out of the styrene also. I cut them out and glued everything down all at once with my home brew scenery glue.


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Since my last update I’ve done some work to the layout. I did some more scenery on the back side of my layout and decided I was going to start in a town area next to my engine terminal. When I did the scenery in the town area I decided that I had a spot I wanted to make something out of and decided that I was going to make a baseball diamond. I made a jig to get the diamond how I wanted it and then used saw dust from my band saw with a little bit of a brown pastel to darken up the “dirt” I also started making a Forrest on my layout that I’m going to have to finish at some point with taller more “mature” trees. I’ll include pictures of the ball diamond jig as well as the scenery I’ve gotten done


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Today I ordered up some track end bumpers and a peco 3 way insulfrog so next weekend I’ll hopefully be able to have that turnout installed on my layout and be able to use all three bays of my roundhouse and have bumpers on all my dead track ends instead of sewing pins to keep my rolling stock on the track when I fail with my throttle and run the cars off. (It’s happened a few times)


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I have been working on my layout more over the last week for my unplanned covid staycation and decided I was going to button up some scenery on the layout. It is basically foam with a little bit of sculptamold for some of the rock faces. I had been building retaining walls for it shortly before I got sick so I figured I would just finish it while I was off work. Fortunately I had a reasonably mild case of the virus so I was still able to be on my feet. I built the retaining walls out of wood that I got in a pack at hobby lobby, glued it together with ca then stained with burnt sienna alcohol ink and black India ink. After that it got a dry brush of Vallejo neutral grey and Vallejo black. I attached them with sewing pins that had the bb cut off the end. Once the pins were installed I gave the panels a light overspray with Vallejo brown surface primer to knock a little more shine off of the stained wood. It was a fun little project. Needs some finishing touches but will look good in the end


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Jscullans said:


> I have been working on my layout more over the last week for my unplanned covid staycation and decided I was going to button up some scenery on the layout. It is basically foam with a little bit of sculptamold for some of the rock faces. I had been building retaining walls for it shortly before I got sick so I figured I would just finish it while I was off work. Fortunately I had a reasonably mild case of the virus so I was still able to be on my feet. I built the retaining walls out of wood that I got in a pack at hobby lobby, glued it together with ca then stained with burnt sienna alcohol ink and black India ink. After that it got a dry brush of Vallejo neutral grey and Vallejo black. I attached them with sewing pins that had the bb cut off the end. Once the pins were installed I gave the panels a light overspray with Vallejo brown surface primer to knock a little more shine off of the stained wood. It was a fun little project. Needs some finishing touches but will look good in the end


Very nice work!  

Traction Fan 🙂


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Thank you! I had plenty of time to work on it hahahaha. 5 days in my work shop made it happen. Now I got back to work and I’ll be working 10-12 hours a day till I go to rail king school in Houston next month so won’t have much time for the layout at least till I get back home from that


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