Speed bumps in the road

In July I started laying out the Yuma main yard using Fast Tracks templates on cardboard in order to create templates for future modules. Starting from 16th Street and working north I successfully completed the yard throat including the grain spur and scale track.  Progress however came to a screeching halt when I began trying to connect the "Old Yard" area to the newer "Main Yard" the first hiccup is when the mainline was relocated in the twenties it was placed on a fill due to persistent flooding in the area.  I know it sounds funny as one would not think flooding would be a problem in Arizona, however we must remember this was in the years before Hoover Dam was constructed so aside from the very small (in comparison) Laguna Dam just north of town the river was for all intents and purposes still wild.  So because of this fill the "Main Yard" in some places is about 15 feet higher than the "Old Yard" so this grade must be accommodated.  second the yards being slightly off parallel to each other means that they join at an interesting angle which must be taken into account when laying out the modules.  The industry tracks in turn go off from the "Old Yard" tracks at differing angles which also compounds planning for uniform modules. Since I am trying to keep the modules no more than30 inches wide and6 feet long this is proving problematic. The solution I have come up with to minimize problems is to simplify the "Old Yard" and eliminate some of the industries and their corresponding tracks. Which leads us to the final problem; a very large industry called Southwest Ice and Cold Storage.  when the line was relocated instead of building a new ice plant the railroad just ran the tracks down the other side of the facility.  So before the "Old Yard" tracks can return to paralleling the "Main Yard" they must first create enough space that this facility can fit between the two yards.  The measurements I had made the building seem too large to build with out significant compression and even then it would take up a large chunk of a 6 foot by 30 inch module.  Thankfully this impasse lead to a return to the local archives where I learned that the facility had had a significant fire in 1959 and therefore no longer matched the information on the Sanborn map in the period I model which is roughly two decades later.  Also some of the functions of the original plant had been moved to a second facility closer to the depot.  The problem is both of these facilities were long gone by the time I got to Yuma.  Thankfully Google Earth has both a historic photos function as well as a measurement function. these rough measurements were used and yielded a more manageable building.  hopefully in the next couple weeks I can develop a 3d model of the facility in Sketchup and track planning can resume.

So much going on.

It has been a while since I have updated this so I figured a quick update was needed.  Progress on the layout planning ground to a screeching halt for a variety of reasons first and foremost that I had to travel to attend a wedding.  The big hurdle right now is that I have to figure out how to effectively compress the Southwestern Ice and Cold Storage facility with out losing its aesthetics. This facility sat right between the old yard and the new yard and determining its size for the layout is crucial to determining the size and location of other industries and tracks.  That's not to say I haven't been doing work in the hobby, in the interim I have been helping my dad with a few projects for his layout.  He models the Great Northern circa 1955 so when ever I get frustrated with my layout, his projects are a nice change of pace.  On another note I had the privilege of going on Model Rail Radio and discussing my layout ideas with Tom Barbalet.  You can find that episode by following the link here: http://www.modelrailradio.com/archive.html#122.  If you aren't already listening to this fine podcast I cant recommend it enough, along with A Modelers Life and The Model Railcast Show.  Sorry for the short post but as I said there is so much going on right now.