Scope and Scale

Well here I sit bored on a flight to Seattle, I was going to listen to A Modelers Life on the flight but my wife forgot her headphones and so being the good husband I am she is using mine.  But I digress, this is supposed to be a blog on model railroading not a travel blog. Although by the time I post this my travels will have taken me to see Mike Deverell's Colorado Front Range Layout. I am looking forward to not only meeting Mike, but getting to see his fine layout in person.  For those of you not familiar with Mike's work, he has a Youtube channel where he provides layout updates and instructional videos. You can find his youtube channel here.

Mike's layout is in an out building which is the route I want to go however his building is significantly smaller than my proposed project and this is one of the one reason I wanted to visit, to see if there is any way I could conceivable shrink the footprint of the YPG lines and still maintain the feel I am going for. While I am not saying I will shrink the layout alternative ideas do still intrigue me, for instance years ago I developed a track plan for the Somerton Branch that would fit in a spare room we had, however I was never truly happy with it and, a move made it a non-starter.

Recently, I have had conversations with a couple model railroaders who I respect the hell out of. The first being my dad who as I might have mentioned before models the Great Northern electric operations  over Stevens Pass in 1955. His layout is in a roughly 20' x20' room over the garage but his useable space for a layout is less as he has carved out a roughly 4' x 15' alcove for his workshop and staging. His main layout is HO but he also has loops underneath for Scale O, O27 and S Scale.  He and I were discussing some of the maintenance headaches he has been having and how since he is now in his mid 70's he may have built too much railroad, especially since his helper monkey (me) moved 1500 miles away 9 years ago today.

My dad in his train room. The lower deck foreground is S and O27, the foreground top deck is HO. The lower deck in the background is Scale O with two HO decks.

The second individual is Jeremy Dummler, while I dont always single people out, I felt I should just so Jeremy knows I appreciate his being a straight shooter with me. For those who dont know Jeremy, he models the Yosemite Valley Railroad (thats Yo-Sem-It-Tee, not Yo-Sem-Might), yes you read that right, the same railroad his friend and MMR Jack Burgess models. If you get a chance, visit Jeremy's informative blog here.  Jeremy is also very involved with the LDSIG and serves as a research editor for their magazine, The Layout Design Journal. So when it comes to issues of design I do take what Jeremy says into consideration even if I dont follow it.

Jeremy and I were discussing staging yard size, as I had posed the question on the YPG Lines Facebook page "if there was such thing as too much staging?" Jeremy pointed out that a 12 car staging yard on both ends would be 22 trains originating in staging during an op session not to mention those trains that originate on the layout or in one of the other staging yards along the way. This means to have a full opperating session would require almost 30 crews not to mention dispatchers and yard masters etc... Also Jeremy pointed out that this would require over 100 locomotives and 400 freight cars. Truly a layout of epic proportion akin to something out of a Cecil B. De Mile movie although hopefully with out as many deaths (although if someone ever produces the Jim Lincoln dead in the weeds figure it will probably find a home somewhere on the layout).

So lets discuss the scope and scale of this layout. First the current track plan I am working on is what I call the million dollar track plan, where space is not an issue and budget is not an issue. This is my dream layout, the final product may be this, it may be greatly reduced but I doubt it will be larger. This layout is essentially 3 layouts in 1. Colton to Yuma is one Layout, Yuma to Tucson is another, and Yuma itself is a very respectably sized switching layout with industrial and branchline trackage. The idea is that these layouts could all operate independantly or as a unit depending on available crew size, although I still havent figured out the west end staging for the Tucson Division as my middle staging is actually between Yuma and Wellton, not at Yuma.  Then again I havent even started on planning for the line east of Yuma as I am still working on Phase 2 which is the line from Colton to Yuma.

The biggest issue I see with yard capacity is making sure all trains have a place to terminate. Perhaps instead of staging yards, I need to refer to them as receiving yards as these yards need to have the capacity to receive all the trains on the layout as very few terminate midway. This was a busy line especially during beet season and the perishable season.  In am still researching traffic volumes but 10 trains each direction that traverse the entire layout does not seem too unreasonable for a full operating session. There would also be 3 to 5 trains originating at El Centro, 2-3 each direction originating at Phoenix, possibly a copper train originating between Phoenix and Tucson, the Iron ore train originating at Ferrum. Then there is the trains that originate at Colton or Tucson and terminate at a point on the layout such as Yuma, Phoenix, El Centro or Ferrum. Throw in a triweekly Amtrak on occasion and any other special moves and that is a lot of trains and we haven't even figured out how many trains originated at Yuma yet. Add the yard crews, one of which can work the Somerton Branch, a yard master for Yuma and possibly two dispatchers and thats a lot of operators. Oh I forgot helper crews because not every train out of Colton will run "single to Fingel". Yes the scope of the layout is huge and so the scale is huge as well (we will get into that in another post).

So why would I decide to take on this monstrous task, am I certifiable? Wait dont answer.  Here are a couple factors that have influenced my decision.

1. I personally do not like switching, but I wanted this layout to have something for everyone. What I enjoy is watching long trains get over the mainline. This is why most of the switching will be confined to the Yuma portion of the layout. I am also designing the layout so it can function with out cars being switched at Yuma. Even though there is a lot of square footage in the layout space I tried to minimize the number of switches and extra track to provide a long mainline run. I also tried to minimize turn back curves as the prototype, with the exception of San Timiteo Canyon is vitually straight from Yuma to Colton. The Tucson portion has more curves but most of these are just for gradual alignment change. Even if I reduced the scope of the layout to cover say just Beaumont Hill most these trains would still traverse the area modeled so it would not cut down the number of trains that significantly.

2. I am a builder and I do not want to reach the point of a finished layout too quickly.  Also by using the TOMA approach I can have a fully operational layout while I work on the next section. If I dont finish it all the layout will not suffer.

3. The final piece of the puzzle is that I face an early retirement. I have 13 years until I am eligible to retire, and 20 until mandatoty retirement at age 57. This means I am going to have a lot of free time a lot sooner than most of my peers. Also people in my line of work tend to die with in 6 years of retirement unless they have an active hobby to pursue. What better way to ensure that I can annoy my wife into my 90's than to have a layout that will take me that long to build.

So while I am aware of how large and crazy this layout is, I do appreciate feed back and will take peoples suggestions into consideration. So if I pose a question on the Facebook page feel free to comment, sometimes a few extra sets of eyes are all I need to get over a hurdle I have encountered. Remember this hobby is as much about having fun with the process as it is with enjoying the final product. This is a journey and like college I plan to make this journey last as long as humanly possible.