Serendipitous Procrastination

Ever noticed that sometimes procrastinating works out? You don't get to the store for a certain item and when you finally do it's on sale! I've seen it happen more than a few times, enough to make me wonder about whether getting it done right away is always the best way to handle some things. I'm not advocating procrastination. I just know that sometimes the creative process doesn't have a schedule.


Case in point..Altoona yard on the Allegheny Eastern. I had decided that since the real Altoona was so expansive, there was no way to replicate it in scale. As a result the yard I started to create was barely more than a staging yard. I didn't get far because it just wasn't what I wanted. The same thing happened with the East Altoona "extension" I was planning. Since I thought I didn't have space for the engine terminal I wanted on the layout I planned on building an extension over the workbench at the rear of the garage...

Original Track Plan With East Altoona Extension

Neither the extension nor the Altoona yard appealed to me much. The extension and workbench occupied a space that I felt could be better utilized. It also connected to the yard in a unworkable way. The yard itself wasn't what I wanted. There was also a problem with operations caused by the proximity of Gallitzin to Altoona. It just didn't work with only a foot of track between them. This was closely linked to the issue of the "flatland" table top required by the storage beneath. There simply was place to put the helix that elevating the trackage would require. The flat top also prevented the addition of respectable looking scenery below track level. I thought I could live with that, but you really  can't model mountain grades without having mountainside below the tracks.  I spent some time thinking of different ways to solve these problems.

I begrudgingly came to realize that the only way to gain more space between Gallitzin and Altoona was to bite the bullet and expand into the other half of the garage. This would solve that issue, and add additional storage room under the layout addition. There was still room for the motorcycle, the only vehicle we keep in the garage. Then, while surfing the web one day I came across a yard plan that looked like it could resolve some of the issues I have with the unfinished Altoona trackage. On his The White River & Northern web site Dave Smith shares the plan he created for Ridgeley Yard on Lee Weldon's Western Maryland Railway. 

Ridgeley Yard

The thing that caught my eye was the way Dave was able to split the yard into functional sections and incorporate the engine terminal into the space. I also like the way the main line bypasses the whole installation. There are a lot of similarities with what I had envisioned  but was not able to recreate.While I'm not sure I can use the design exactly as it appears I'm pretty sure I can adapt it. The first thing I did was flip it end for end so that the roundhouse sits at the "east" end of Altoona. I also did away with the industrial tracks. Dave's design also gives me some idea how to arrange turnouts to funnel traffic across the mains. I still have to work out how the passenger mains will pass to the "north" side of the yards.

Revising Altoona also requires widening the bench work in this area. Currently the benchwork is only two feet wide. Altoona shares this section with the mainline approach to Horseshoe. I've decided to increase this section to four feet (pretty standard everywhere else). This will provide the room necessary while keeping the overall width of the yard to the two foot maximum.

Expanded Layout

Expanding the layout allows me to turn Gallitzin 90 degrees. The extra space also creates room for a helix, enabling me to elevate the trackage west of Altoona. A double loop helix will be located west of Gallitzin, spiraling down under to emerge

All these changes will also necessitate relocating the Curve and its approach tracks two feet further "north". I plan to cut the table top using the "reverse cookie cutter" method. This basically means you cut the roadbed out after the track is layed. It's much more work than it would be than if I had planned ahead. There are some definite drawbacks to the evolutionary approach to layout planning.

I relocated the workbench to it's new location under the benchwork where the roundhouse will be. You can see on the plan that I used the open space to install a "beer" fridge and a storage cabinet. I have already begun the new bench work extension. I have also cut the extruded foam "subroadbed" to the actual track locations in the areas that will be elevated. Next step is to cut the 1/4" plywood table top to match. It will take a while, but it should allow me to remove whole sections of trackwork and relocate them according to the new plan.