Design Concept
As a starting point I laid out some specifics to guide me in the creation of WCR v3:- My model railroad will depict August 2005.
- 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.
- Logo. This is the logo of the WCR:
- 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. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”.