Wascana Canyon Railway v3 – Part 4

Efficient Passing Siding Design

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that one of the flaws in my design of the trackwork for the WCR v1 was a shortage of passing sidings. In creating the track plan for WCR v3 I was determined to rectify this. However, since the size of my room is not large compared with many that house model railroads, I needed an efficient design for passing sidings. While most of my trains will not be long, up to 12 cars, that is still approximately 6 feet of train.

The traditional passing siding looks like this:

The red train hides in the passing siding while the blue train continues along the main line. Say the space available allows for a maximum train length of 4 feet. It would be impossible for a 6-foot-long train to pass without having to break the train and park a portion of it in a spur track or another passing siding some distance away.

Here is a more efficient alternative:

Two passing sidings have been staggered, each of which can accommodate a train of up to 4 feet in length. By routing the turnouts as shown it is possible for a train of up to 10 feet to pass because the middle turnout adds additional space for the train to occupy.

Each of the passing tracks creates easy opportunities to add spurs on the curves, as follows:

Below is an excerpt from my upper level track plan showing one of these enhanced passing sidings (the blog post for WCR v3 – Part 1 shows the complete upper level track plan). The only difference compared to the illustrations above is that this will be built on a curve.

Wascana Canyon Railway v3 – Part 3

Backdrops

1. As stated earlier, even after being reasonably happy with my mock-up backdrop to test my artistry I was concerned that I would never be completely satisfied with my own painting skills. I have seen too many beautiful model railroads with crude “puff ball white” clouds unnaturally hanging bizarrely in a too-blue sky.
   
   
2. After doing a lot of on-line research of suppliers of model railroad backdrops I settled on what turned out to be a fantastic product. I ordered my backdrops from Trainjunkies. This Utah, US company has a nice variety of scenes and skies to choose from. What attracted me was the ability to choose one or more image and have then expertly blended to create a seamless backdrop of up to 100 feet in length.
   
   
3. For my top level I chose the Sierra Mountain Divide which is passable for the background mountains and lakes of the Columbia Valley. Since I wanted 35 feet of continuous image, they simply stitched together the inverse of the image to the original image. Unless it is pointed out to a guest not one person has ever noticed the fact that I have the same scene appearing almost three times across this backdrop. The effect is very good.
   
   
4. For my middle level I chose the grassy hill image but in N-scale as I wanted the hills to be less dominant in the background. Since I had only about one foot of backdrop height to deal with, whichever one I chose would need to be trimmed to fit anyway.
   
   
5. For the lower yard level I chose the Union Pacific Yards image. The only challenge I had with this image was that a Union Pacific yard naturally is filled with UP yellow locomotives but most of my rolling stock is CP which is decidedly not yellow. However, since I ordered the backdrop printed on HP matte photo paper, I decided I could carefully use artist pencils to colour over several of the locomotives. It was not necessary for me to do this to all of the locomotives because, as luck would have it, it is not uncommon to see UP locomotives operating beside CP locomotives I assume because of some sort of reciprocal business arrangement between the two railroads. This backdrop was also ordered in N-scale because I wanted the image to be very much in the background and to not dominate the scenery and to create “forced perspective”. I am tremendously pleased with the result. Not one single person has questioned the colours of the locomotives in the backdrop yard, either the UP colours or the red colours.
   
   
6. The one challenge with installing such long continuous backdrops is that it would be almost impossible to do so by yourself. The use of repositionable spray adhesive is recommended by the backdrop supplier and I agree that this is the best way to go. I enlisted the help of two friends from our model railroad club, Doug and Ron. Ron, who is much taller than both Doug and me held the rolled-up backdrop, I applied the spray adhesive to the back of the backdrop and Doug gently unrolled the backdrop and positioned it on the prepared backdrop surface. This process had to be smooth but quick. Then, using clean rubber gloves I slid the background around slightly so it was positioned to my satisfaction – I did the latter step because in the even of an overly aggressive move it would be possible to wrinkle or tear the stiff paper which the backdrop is made from. I didn’t want to put either Doug or Ron in the position of possibly ruining the job. All went well and I am delighted with the result.
   
   
   
   
   
7. As you can see from the above picture there remained in some places a noticeable seam between the top of the backdrop. Since I had colour matched the darkest blue of the pre-painted surface to the backdrop sky colour itself this was only the case in a few places. Using this dark blue colour mixed with varying amounts of white acrylic paint I was able to do a decent enough job of airbrushing selected places along the top of the backdrop to blend with the image itself. I am very satisfied with the result - and many times more satisfied than I would ever have been with a hand-painted backdrop.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Wascana Canyon Railway v3 – Part 2

Design Concept

As a starting point I laid out some specifics to guide me in the creation of WCR v3:

1. My model railroad will depict August 2005.
   
   
2. A fictitious business, the Wascana Canyon Railway is the owner and operator. In 1972 the WCR had the (fictitious) opportunity to acquire Canadian Pacific’s track which ran from Cranbrook to Golden, British Columbia. The WCR has a limited amount of rolling stock, mainly maintenance of way and short-line freight. It also has rolling stock and facilities for operating both steam and diesel and tourist excursion trains in this most picturesque of valleys. This will allow me to plausibly run my steam locomotives. CP has trackage rights to operate on the WCR because it turned out that CP’s business decision to sell its Columbia Valley operations in 1972 was a bad one. This allows me to plausibly operate CP mainline trains.
   
   
3. Logo. This is the logo of the WCR:
   
   
4. Three level model railroad:
   
   Recall that the original premise behind this design is to be able to incorporate Free-mo modules into a portion of the railroad. Since the Free-mo standard is for the top of the rails to be 50 inches above the floor I want the modules to be as close as possible to this height. Since the modules will not be sitting on their own legs while in the WCR, it doesn’t matter if this height varies slightly from this.
   
   I decided that there will be a level below the Free-mo level comprising a yard, complete with diesel servicing facilities. No steam servicing facilities will be available here – the tourist excursion railway facilities will exist at a place to be determined. I will build my first-ever helix, a double-track affair, to connect the lower yard located 36 inches above the floor with the higher Free-mo level. I know there are a lot of mixed feelings in the hobby about the use of a helix but I can't think of a better alternative, given the size and shape of my room.
   
   Since I am going to the trouble of constructing a helix I might as well continue the helix up about a foot above the Free-mo level to connect to a shelf layout which will be no deeper than 20 inches.
   
   
5. In the two years since letting the WCR go into hibernation, lighting technology has progressed to the point that I can replace the fluorescent strip lighting in the valance with LED strips in 4-foot and 2-foot lengths. Dimmable LED lighting with the same colour temperature can also be mounted under the top shelf and under the Free-mo level to fill in the shadows caused by the benchwork. I prefer LED lighting because it should last many times longer than fluorescent, is cool to operate, is more energy efficient and the colour temperature can more easily matched between difference devices.
   
   
6. My helix will have a 2% grade. My track plan is designed so trains will usually go up the outer track which will have a 26-inch radius and go down the inner track which will have a 23-inch radius.
   
   
7. One turn of the helix below the Free-mo level will include what I call a “Sub-middle level crossover”. If a train is on the Free-mo level and is diverted down toward the lower yard level it will be travelling down the normally-up outer helix. The crossover will allow the train to divert to the normally-down inner helix. The track plan for the Free-mo level is too complicated to accommodate such a crossover on that level.
   
   
8. To facilitate operations, I will selectively incorporate detection tracks into locations where the track is partially hidden. This locations include: 1) the portion of the yard level where the track will run around the perimeter and behind the helix; 2) the portion of the middle Free-mo level where the track will run around the perimeter and behind the helix; and 3) the helix itself – a train’s position in the helix will be easily seen at a glance by looking at a strip of blue LEDs for the upward outer track or a strip of red LEDs for the downward inner track.
   
   
9. All turnouts will be powered with Tortoise by Circuitron switch machines. An operator will press on one or the other push-button switch mounted in each of the legs of a turnout on the control panel. This will cause a Digitrax DS64 to send a command to the Tortoise to change its alignment. Since the push button switch contains a green LED in the push button itself, it will be easy to tell at a glance which way a turnout is aligned.
   
   
10. Rapido electrically operated uncouplers will be mounted at all locations where trains would logically be uncoupled. I don’t like using manual uncoupling sticks or skewers on a model railroad which has completed scenery. A person’s hand unrealistically pierces the veil of the miniature world that one has created. All rolling stock will make use of Kadee couplers which work very reliably with the electric uncouplers. Rapido uncouplers provide for LEDs mounted both on the control panel and on the uncouplers themselves so an operator can easily line up cars and see whether the uncoupler is on or off.
    
    
11. All track will be Micro Engineering code 83 flex track mounted on cork roadbed. All turnouts will be hand made using Fast Tracks jigs. Mainline ballast will be fine light grey which conforms to the Free-mo standard so the entire model railroad, including any Free-mo modules, will have a uniform look.
    
    
12. The fascia will be painted flat black, the same colour that our Free-mo group has adopted for all Free-mo modules. In my opinion flat black is the best possible colour for model railroad fascia for the simple reason that you don’t even see it. I find that model railroads with a green, brown, grey or even blue fascia draw my eye to the fascia and not to the model railroad. After all, there is a reason why every performing arts centre and movie theatre that I have ever been to has flat black surrounding the main stage. Black is almost always the colour of choice for flat screen televisions and computer monitors, for the same reason. I decided I will repaint in flat black the lighting valence that I described in my WCR v2 narrative. I had originally painted this the same blue as the backdrop.
    
    
13. Finally, while retaining the already built structure of the backdrop it will need to be modified to accommodate three different but complimentary backdrops, one for each of the three levels. I will use photo backdrops for each level. As stated earlier, the lowest level will have a panoramic railroad yard photograph for the backdrop. The middle level will have rolling grass-covered hills depicting much of the Columbia Valley floor and the top level will depict the high but largely tree-covered mountains of the Columbia Valley and some distant lakes. The backdrop for the middle Free-mo layer will be neutral to the Free-mo modules which could have many different types of scenery.
    
    
14. The Free-mo level will easily modified over time to avoid "scenic boredom" which afflicts some model railroaders who have completed their model railroads – simply constructing new Free-mo modules will allow the level to change from time to time. My plan for the upper shelf layout is to incorporate what I call “scenery modules” – uniform sized inserts which can be removed and inserted into a different location on the shelf layout. In addition, these scenery modules can taken to the workbench to do scenery work to save having to stand on a stool or ladder to do the work.

My expectation is that this model railroad plan will provide me with many opportunities to explore new ideas for construction, scenicing and operations while at the same time providing for the scenery to be easily modified later on when one would normally consider it “finished”.