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!