Framing The First "Re-designed" Modules

I was finally able to start assembling the first two re-designed modules this past week.  A couple of weekends were lost to the opportunity of attending an operating session on a friend's layout as well as an "Op 'til you drop" weekend ...a worthwhile trade in my opinion!

I decided the original modules started for this project were too unstable at only 12" width.  I set those aside and may reconfigure them for staging at some point in the future.  The sides, ends, and plywood decks for these new modules have been cut for some time but other responsibilities have taken precedence.  They are 15.75" before fascia is installed.  This is slightly wider than the plans but since the tracks are centered on the modules I'm essentially just adding a little real estate to each side of the track.  The overall length of each module is 48".
 

Back to assembly. This photo shows the frame pieces and top deck for one module prior to assembly.  The dimensions of       the frame members were checked again for accuracy.  The end plates were marked and then drilled with a countersink bit and attached to the side frame members using three 1.5" screws on each side ...6 total on each end.  Once everything checked out with the dry assembly the end plates were removed and yellow carpenter's glue was used at each joint and the frame was reassembled making sure the joints were snug and the screw heads were sufficiently countersunk so as not to remain proud.  This is important since the module ends will have to butt snugly once assembled.

The plywood tops were about 1/16" too long once the frames were assembled so I used a sacrficial fence on my table saw so I could shave just a bit off each for an exact fit.  The plywood was then dropped into place and attached with screws along each edge.  The plywood tops rest on the side frames and between the end plates.  Once these steps were completed I sanded all sides, ends, and edges to eliminate any rough or sharp edges. 

The next step was to build legs for the modules.  I had previously ripped some 1 inch stock into 1.5" x 47 " strips for the legs.  I had some 7/16" plywood so I decided to use that for the spreader plates for the leg assemblies.  I carefully measured the inside dimensions of the modules and cut the plates that width and just deep enough to slip up inside the module end plates between the side pieces.  I assembled them to the legs with 1" screws.  I plan to use bolts through the spreaders and end plates to attach the leg sets to the modules.  Where two modules join the bolts will also hold the end plates together between the leg sets.  I used this method on a previous modular layout with great success so am sticking to methods that have proven successful for me.  I also ripped a smaller spreader plate to use at the bottom of each leg set.  It's top edge is 10" from the bottom of the leg.  I wanted something far enough down the leg to help maintain rigidity but also be far enough off the floor to allow the top to be used as a shelf support so a shelf can be used to store boxes and other items under the layout when it is set up.

Once the legs were complete for the first two modules I clamped them in place to see how they looked and the result is shown in this photo. The new wider modules and their leg sets are remarkably sturdy and stable ...especially once joined with each other. I expect the corner module will add even more stabuility to the layout.  I couldn't resist getting out my research notebook along with a couple of cars and turnouts to check dimensions and start getting a feel for the overall layout of track, structures, etc.

Now to get the remaining two modules framed!

Module Construction Begins!

Tonight I cut some roll cork to fit the plywood decks I cut for the first two modules.  Since the modules will depict track in city streets, a couple of spurs, and two small yards they will be flat with no change in grade for the tracks.  As such I am using simple box frame construction with plywood tops.  I am using cork to dampen the vibration and resonance of running trains.  Since the modules will depict flat urban scenery I chose to lay a sheet of cork on the plywood to keep everything level.

I had cut the plywood tops a week or two back so they were ready.  I unrolled the cork and trimmed two sheets to fit each of the two pieces of plywood allowing a small overhang all the way around on each piece.

Once I had the cork cut I coated the cork and each piece of plywood with liberal coats of contact cement.  I used an old canvas drop cloth to protect the floor.

I used "nonflammable" contact cement.  It cleans up with soap and water making it easy to clean the paint brush I used for application.

I waited about 40 minutes for the cement to dry somewhat and get tacky.  Once it was ready my wife helped me set the plywood panels over their respective cork sheets.  You only get one shot at this with contact cement so we were careful to maintain the cork overhang on all sides before carefully lowing the plywood onto the cork.  We then pressed each sheet down to make sure the contact cement was grabbing good.  I then flipped each panel over and trimmed the excess cork from around the edges using a hobby knife with a #11 blade.

Once trimmed each panel has a nice flush edge so the module fascia will be able to fit snugly.

Next I will move to the framing and attaching the plywood tops to the modules.  I hope to get that completed this weekend along with assembling the module leg sets.  Check back for updates!

Pensacola Port Yard Track Plan

The track plan for the Pensacola Port yard has been added to the Track Plans page. This module will connect to the tracks that cross Main St. on the Tarragona to Port Entrance Module.

This small yard borders the north end of the port property south of Main St.  When being switched the track heading north up Tarragona St. was used as the switching lead.  This line branches off the main line about two miles to the north and only one train occupies this line during normal operation so the only worry is non-rail traffic on both Tarragona and Main St.  Fusees were used so I may look into simulating that for operating realism.

Although the number of tracks on the plan is greatly reduced from what was there during the era I'm modeling it's not far off in length ...and is pretty close to what remains there today in both number of tracks and arrangement.  The plan has the tracks named following the prototype.   The tracks exiting the module on the right side are tracks that enter the port property through gates in a chain link fence.  The arrangement of the turnouts is very close to the prototype and will allow future expansion should I decide to add another module.  It would include another warehouse on the port property and is served by tracks on either side that would connect to the tracks exiting the yard module.

As drawn the yard will easily hold a couple of dozen cars.  Since the interchange yard will hold about a dozen this should work well since the yard job (Y202) always brought a cut of cars down the hill from Goulding Yard to start the evening switching.  On the model a dozen or so cars can come from staging representing Goulding to the north.  Y202 was always a shove using one of the L&N's bay window cabs as a shoving platform.  Following prototype practice the crew will then pull the cars from the Frisco interchange ( a dozen or fewer on the model) back to the Port.  This could easily load the port yard with a couple of dozen cars to sort and make a shove back to the interchange.  Finally the crew will spot the port and Tarragona St. industries before heading back to staging

I am still researching what paperwork I want to drive the operation.  I am considering car cards and waybills although a switch list or work order as used by the prototype would be more realistic in terms of actual paperwork.  I will leave that to cover in a later post once decided.

BN/Frisco Interchange Yard Track Plan

The track plan for the BN (former Frisco) interchange yard has been added to the Track Plans page.  This module will connect to the Tarragona to Port Entrance Module at the track that curves into Main St. on that module.

This small yard was located on the south edge (literally) of Main St. about two blocks east of Palafox St. in downtown Pensacola.  CSX reached it on its east end from a track that curved off of the Tarragona St. track and ran down the middle of Main St. for about four blocks until it curved off the south edge of the pavement.  The yard ladder started just off the pavement.  In the late eighties there were 4 tracks in the yard (North, North Middle, South Middle, and South) about 1200-1400 feet in length.  The Frisco/BN  main yard in Pensacola was about a mile to the west of this location.

This module will use three tracks to represent the CSX connection and will allow replication of the interchange operation.  Typical operation would be something similar to the following. CSX yard job Y202 (typically handled by an EMD switcher ...MP15, etc.) would come "down the hill" from its main yard (Goulding - pronounced "Golding") in Pensacola to switch the port and interchange.  Y202 would ready cars in the port yard for a shove to the interchange .  Then it would run light down Main St. to the interchange yard and pull a track or two of cars back to the port yard.  Those cars were set out of the way in the port yard and cars headed offline were shoved back to the interchange yard.  (Most of the port traffic was loads out over the Frisco.)  This activity usually occurred in the late evening so I suppose the transfer could be considered a "Midnight Shove" to get outbound cars off line to avoid another day's per diem.  Y202 would then pull any cars from the remaining 2 interchange tracks back to the port.

A former L&N/CSX employee has shared that more than once Frisco would watch the interchange yard and reload the first two tracks once Y202 made its initial pull.  This would frustrate the CSX/L&N crew because when they made their shove back to the interchange there were no free tracks ...so they would then have to pull the empties plus the new interchange cars back to the port then shove the empties back.   Finally any needed spots at the port and along Tarragona St. were made before heading back to Goulding Yard.

In addition to traffic for the port, CSX received hoppers of coal through the interchange for a Gulf Power Plant at Boykin on the PA Subdivision in northwest Florida.  There was a lumber company, a chemical plant, and a distributor served by the Frisco that received loads from CSX as well as chemicals routed to the paper mill in Cantonment over the Frisco.

The model yard will hold a dozen or so 50' cars.  That should be a sufficient number to keep a crew busy working the port yard and the Tarragona St. spurs, especially when you add in the cars brought "down the hill" from staging that will represent CSX's Goulding Yard and points beyond.

Tarragona to Main St. Module Plan

I've added the plan for the module that interfaces with what will be the Pensacola Port Yard module to the Track Plans page.  This module also includes the diverging track that swung onto Main St. to reach the BN interchange yard.

This module will join the right end of the Tarragona St. module.  It includes a right hand turnout diverging onto Main St. and a little farther south another right hand turnout that splits the line into two tracks before crossing Main St.  The yard itself is just south of Main St. and, except for this one section of trackage is all south of the street.  In earlier years another track split off the curve that diverges onto Main St. to lead into another side of the yard that has since been removed.  That was called the "Low side" and also reached tracks that served an oil terminal with several large storage tanks and had a switcback to tracks that reached up side streets between old brick warehouses just west of the yard.  Sadly I never took any photos of these tracks in my early years of railfanning.  Also, one of the warehouses has been torn down ...I suspect due to hurricane related damage received in recent years.  I am not planning to include the Low Side tracks in my model as rail traffic to the Low Side in later years was very little and including it would increase the width of the Port module more than I want.

The turnout that splits the downtown spur into two tracks before entering the port yard is just north of Main St.  The turnout to the Main St. interchange track was located about a half block north of this turnout.  Unlike the other turnouts in Tarragona St. this one is not embedded in pavement. This view looks north up Tarragona St.

This view is looking south from approximately the same spot as the previous photo.  The yard ladders can be seen with the Pensacola Port facilities in the background.  The rubber grade crossings were not in place in the late 80s era I'm modeling.  A model of the warehouse in the distance is planned for the port yard module.

This building is on the east side of Tarragona St. adjacent to the turnout in the middle of the street. It housed the Pensacola Transportation Museum in the 1980s and looked essentially the same as it does here. The northwest corner of this building can just be seen in the view of the turnout two photos above. The two tracks crossing Main St. are leading into the yard to the right of this view.

The office building in this photo is west of Tarragona St. on the north side of Main St.  You are looking at the southeast corner of the building.  Though the tracks are no longer there it was on the inside (north) of the tracks that curved onto Main St.  A compressed version of this building will be included on the module.  If memory serves, the courtyard and lamps are newer additions and will not be included in the period model.

This building is on the south side of Main St. across from the building pictured above.  This is the east elevation and the building in the previous photo above is across the street to the right out of view in this photo.  The street you see here is Commendencia St.  A much compressed version of this building is planned for inclusion on this module.

Tarragona Street Module Plan Added

I've added a separate page for track plans where I will post module track plans as they are developed.

The first plan is the module that will depict "Tarragona Street." The track that runs down the middle of this street is the spur that branches off the CSX main just north of East Jackson St. and runs down the middle of Tarragona St. for nine blocks where it crosses Main St. into the yard at the Port of Pensacola. This module will capture a couple of these blocks between Garden St. and East Intendencia St. where there are locations for two rail customers.

One siding crosses the sidewalk on the east side of Tarragona St. between Garden St. and East Romana St. and serves W.R. Taylor & Co., a local brickyard.

I have a few other photos of this siding made before I had a digital camera so I will have to scan them to add later. I did find a few shots of this location online. A couple of cars spotted on the siding can be seen here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=735495. The next view shows the Y202 yard job passing this location on its way back "up the hill" to Goulding yard ...stacks of bricks and a bit of the siding can be seen in the background after the last car in the train: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=506021.

The other siding, located just south of the W.R. Taylor on the opposite side of Tarragona St. , has been removed but lasted, as far as I know, into the late 80's or early 90's and served the Pensacola News-Journal who received loads of news print there. The siding was fenced and ran parallel to Tarragona St. along side the loading door on the News-Journal building. I've been told by a former L&N/CSX employee that in order to get two cars in there a little gate opened in the fence on the south end of the siding to allow the end car's draw bar to stick through. That will be an interesting detail to include on the model! Unfortunately I have not been able to locate any photos of this siding. I have one photo I took of the building in 2002 after the track had been removed. It is not a digital image so I will have to scan it to share here.

Influence

I have long been a fan of the L&N since it was one of the principle railroads that served my hometown of Pensacola, FL. I remember the L&N of the 70’s and early 80’s in northwest Florida and south Alabama. This is a portion of the line seldom thought of, much less modeled, as the L&N typically conjures visions of Appalachian coal hauling. The L&N I grew up knowing served the paper and chemical industries along with agriculture and seaport traffic. During this timeframe it became a part of the Family Lines System and then the short lived Seaboard System before becoming part of CSX. This period of transition hosted a lively mix of locomotive paint schemes from L&N’s classic grey and yellow to the smart FLS ribbons as well as a mix of predecessor paint including SCL, C&O, and even some colorful Chessie System livery. Run through trains across the subdivision regularly included foreign paint from SP, SSW, UP and a variety of other roads from time to time. Long an HO modeler, the opportunity to run locomotives in a variety of corporate colors coupled with the increased fidelity and operating quality of N scale models has influenced me to try my hand at putting together a modern era layout that would otherwise not be possible in a larger scale. Memories of watching the Y202 yard job come “down the hill” from Goulding Yard to pick up and shove interchange traffic to the small Frisco (later BN) interchange yard and then switch the port yard fostered the notion that it would be fun to model that operation. Modules are chosen as the format for construction since space for a “permanent” layout is currently being utilized for other family purposes. Also, a modular setup will allow me to transport the layout for operating sessions at shows and potential connection with other modules based on the Free-moN standards I’m following.

Since operation is to be a main objective the modules will be designed with that in mind and module subjects will be chosen for their value in adding operational interest. While I appreciate fine modeling and intend to lean toward higher fidelity modeling I will leave my super-detailing efforts to the larger scales and exploit N scale’s size by modeling only what can realistically be seen from a few feet away and paying attention to texture as I believe it can be easily overdone in such a small scale. I plan to utilize a bit of the “good enough” philosophy as well as a minimalist approach as I believe the mind fills in a lot of the details based on what it perceives. This is especially true when operation is the focus at hand. I can comfortably say this based on personal experience operating on friend’s layouts where, in some cases, the only scenery was simple kit built plastic structures (maybe even a few were cardboard boxes) and not much else. We still had a blast running the layout and didn’t miss the scenery one bit.

That said I don’t intend to model the “Plywood (or Styrofoam) Pacific” either. I plan to strike what I feel to be a reasonable balance of scenery to attain a nice looking operation oriented modular set up …think Lance Mindheim’s Downtown Spur layout. He has used a lot of “photo detailing” to quickly model structures that appear to have a lot of detail but really only contain those three dimensional details deemed necessary to provide the most impact. The look is great for his HO layout …so I’m sure N scale could exploit that capability just as well if not better.

First Modules

Here's a few photos showing the first two modules constructed for the CSX PA Sub. They were constructed following standards established for Free-moN. This standard was selected as the primary objectives align closely with my desires ...mainly to promote hi-fidelity prototypical scale model railroading, ensure reliable track and electrical operation, and encourage visual continuity between modules.

These modules were originally going to be a large yard representing the ex-L&N Goulding Yard in Pensacola but I'm leaning toward making them a generic staging yard that can be used at the end of a module set or possibly split to use as stub staging at the ends of a point-to-point modular setup.



Each module is 1'x6' and utilizes a 6" deep birch ply end plate. The legs are 1x2 ripped from wider stock and are hinged. A folding brass plated brace is used on each leg set on opposite sides. The frames and leg sets are painted with satin black to provide a finished appearence as well as help with sealing the wood to avoid changes with humidity since these modules may well travel to shows and be exposed to a variety of environments. A planned rail head height of 50" and the 12" module width does not provide the utmost stability on idividual modules. However, my past experience with modular setups shows stabilty increases as modules are added ...especially once curves or corner modules are employed. So when setup for operation the stability should be more than adequate.



Eye bolts and t-nuts were used to provide leveling and height adjustment capability for each module. Eye bolts were chosen since they allow easy adjustment by hand. First, a hole was drilled to accept the t-nut and allow depth for the length of the eye bolt.



Next the t-nut was tapped into place with a hammer.



Then an eye bolt with its stop nut was inserted.



Finally, the eye bolts were adjusted as needed to provide level stance for the modules and the stop nut was snugged against the t-nut. This adjustment can be easily changed when the modules are moved.



Finally, a parting shot showing a few pieces of rolling stack and a couple of Atlas code 55 #7 turnouts to give an idea of the real estate available for development!