The Madisonville Sub layout and blog, as they exist today, were started in November of 2019. For those of you who have been around since the beginning or joined in along the way and for those who are new to the blog, I thought I would use this posting to briefly review progress to date. There are 40 plus easy to acesss posting at www.madisonvillesub.blogspot.com that cover the subject matter in detail. There are posts on lcomotives, rolling stock, weathering, scenery, operations, signalling, structures and more. They are listed in the Blog Archive on the right. In addition, I have cleaned up and increased the font size on all of the earlier posts to make them easier to read. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.
And finially, if you would like your name to be removed from the blog's email mailing list, please let me know. And thanks for the over 4.000 individual views to date.
sdepolo@outlook.com
December 11, 2019 - The Beginning
Prior to October of 2019, I spent some time thinking about my then current Sn3 layout. It was about 85% complete and quite frankly it had run it's course and I was board with it. On the 8th of October 2019 I had my first knee replacement and I spent the following 2 months planning the new layout. Initially, I thought about doing at contemporary switching layout similar to Lance Mindheim's "Downtown Spur". But soon after, I decided that I wanted the challenge of building something else; a mushroom style layout.
The proto-freelanced plan was originally based upon a regional railroad running from Madisonville, KY on the north end to Chattanooga, TN on the south end. The overall size of the layout is 27' x 23' The plan, as originally drawn, can be seen in the December 11, 2019 post. Here is a up to date plan.
The Mushroom
Most of January and February of 2020 were spent building bench work
By the beginning of March, pink foam was being installed on the L-Girder bench work. On the lower level it is three inches thick and dead level. The back drop is tempered masonite. The summit, on the upper level of the mushroom is directly above this area (State Line, KY)
The easy to apply backdrops were purchased from Trackside Scenery. The roadbed is cork. The bridge here was built using a combination of Walthers kits. Track and turnouts are Micro Engineering Code 70
By early May, track had worked its way up the helix to the summit at Cumberland Gap. Most of the visible curves on the layout are 36" plus. The helix has a radius of 30" on a 2.2% grade. The sub roadbed on the upper level is cabinet grade plywood. At this point, all the track work is operational except for the upper and lower staging yards.
Tests revealed that 30 car trains with a mix of cars, up to 89' TOF's, went up and down the helix without any problems. All of the locomotives are equipped with Tsunami2 sound decoders, KA1 or KA2 Current Keepers, and TCS 1740 speakers and enclosures. The layout uses a NCE wireless Pro System.
The scenery base on the upper level is a combination of pink foam profiles, cardboard lattice work and painters paper. The painters paper scenery base is quick, inexpensive, gives the area a semi-finished look, and most importantly protects the lower level from falling objects. By the beginning of July, my grandson and I were holding informal operating sessions. The northbound train on the upper level is waiting at the end of double track for the southbound headed towards a meet at Cumberland Gap (Summit).
Progress slowed during October and November of 2020 following my second knee replacement. But the completion of the upper and lower staging yards was finished by the end of January 2021. Then scenery work started in earnest on the lower level. The railroad was also being backdated from around 1995 (CSX) to 1975 (Southern/Central of Georgia)
The river crossing at State Line. Basic ground cover is paving sand from Home Depot. Natural materials, static grass, ground foam, and Super Trees from Scenic Express are also used.
Tunnel 1
Tunnel 2 (Bottom of helix) and Company Houses. The company houses are from Walthers and the figures are from Woodland Scenics. The tunnel portal came from CC Crow.
The CEMEX plant at Westmoreland. A combination of kits were used.
The Village of Westmorland
Central Kentucky Grain (Bowling Green)
And most recently, the Roundhouse at Preston Miller Yard (Bowling Green)
Wow Steve. Amazing progress! Loving the era and also the location. Super unique and interesting. We love it when a model railroad is different from our home railfanning turf.
ReplyDelete