$500 layout grand prize - 3
cabooses would be desirable. A number of passenger cars are
necessary. An open-vestibule wood coach would be great,
along with the shorter steel coaches.
The longer passenger cars are typically too long for the curves,
but those cars are a challenge to move through the tight indus-
trial and trolley-type curves on the prototype. Where else
could I realistically show such a variation of equipment? Where
else could I justify so many movements?
Figure 3 shows the basic track diagram concept. It is based
upon the IRM track plan, which can be seen at
. My
analysis of the IRM property map yields five track configuration
elements which are:
1. The “trolley” loop;
2. The storage, display, restoration, and maintenance stub end
tracks.
3. The straight track run with passing siding and double ended
tracks at one end.
4. The “wye” connecting the “loop” and “straight run.”
5. And the optional parallel UP/CNW working line.
Design considerations
Due to space considerations, I chose to model in N scale, and
to do it on a standard 36”-wide door as a table top for the
“trolley loop,” with the storage tracks and the “wye” tracks
connecting with the straight run. The straight run and optional
parallel working rail line require the addition of narrow shelves
along the wall, protruding from each side of one end. The pre-
liminary layout concept is shown in Figure 3. The track turnouts
are drawn with 12” radius, and the reversing section of the wye
and the trolley curves are drawn with 10” radius. These are not
4
4. Simplified layout concept for the Illinois Railway
Museum.
necessarily accurate for any particular commercial track, but I
consider them a conservative layout plan.
I intend to use commercial track switches, and the actual track
plan can best be laid out only with them in hand, using them to
establish the key geometry. With the track switches, I can start
by laying out the critical wye trackage on the door table top.
Once that is established, the rest of the loop with storage track
switches can be laid out.
I also did a layout study of an HO version, where I increased
the table size up to a standard 4’x8’ plywood table top; refer
to Figure 6. For this layout, the wye was moved off the main
line because the table top width could not accommodate the
necessary wye configuration
MRH-May 2014
