Urban railroading has a visceral appeal to the modeler, but few actually attempt building such a layout. An urban operation requires careful track planning for the tight moves in narrow streets and curves, and it requires a commitment and resources to building a lot of structures and details. I have heard many experienced modelers say that if their current layout were to be taken away now, what would their dream layout be. Without hesitation they all say a smaller urban switching layout. The reasons given are that urban switching demonstrates the mettle of the modeler and the operator, which perhaps can explain why experienced layout builders are the ones I've heard express this desire most often. It is a layout to which modelers envision graduating.
I guess I went straight to graduation in my first layout. Always fascinated with cities and the challenges for operating that they posed, my dream layout concept was always to be a city. But cities offer an aesthetic dimension to the modeler that presents a real challenge to carry off. I've often spoken and written about George Sellios' Franklin and South Manchester as the masterpiece of urban railroading. It is its attention to detail, along with its gritty dirty aesthetic that is carefully modeled, that carries out its effect. That's what makes the Franklin and South Manchester the standard against which I personally measure my modeling.
Downtown Los Angeles in the 1950s is my inspiration for this freelance urban railroad. In particular Santa Fe's famous 'Dog Patch,' situated around the garment district and skid row, is the ultimate in challenging rail operations in the heart of the dirty city. Also interesting is Southern Pacific's 'Rat Hole,' which was situated across Alameda Street from the Patch. Bob Smaus models Southern Pacific in and around Los Angeles in the 1950s and provides a good illustration of the Patch: http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/ATSF_ThePatch.html
And modeling the Rat Hole: http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/Davies.html
With my passenger terminal fully operational, even if not modeled yet, I turn to laying out, testing and tuning the adjoining scenes of busy downtown railroading. Immediately on the northeast end of the passenger terminal is this slice of prime urban real estate, Its relatively tight space (measuring 2' x 7') presents a real challenge for railroading. In this post I walk through how I approached modeling its operation.
After several attempts at switching out this district with the switch shown here it became evident that the trapezoid arrangement of the switches would not work. After hours of trying to move the train in different moves, the operation quickly reached an impasse, getting hopelessly locked up. In the view above a new train is backed into the main track with 5 cars. This length proved impossible to operate in such a tight space, so it was reduced to 4 cars. The switch here also was reversed for making the operation work - all of this done before any track or switches were ever laid.
Updated with the realignment of the switch in the foreground shows how it accesses the warehouse, whose place is marked by the 'Hardwood Furniture Factory' kit. Once reversed, the switch allowed all of the industries to be worked without locking up runaround moves. The industry in the foreground being a busy warehouse, it should have two spots. The industry in the middle has one-two spots depending on car flow, and the customer barely visible at the far end can only have one spot.
Once I was able to run the switching scenario several times I became comfortable that it can work. I only tested one scenario, which I think now would be the most complex. To be sure, I invited a friend over to run the scenario. Although his approach was different from mine, he still was able to work through the whole scenario successfully. The point here is not to find the one right way to work the operation; rather, it is to determine whether its plan can support its intended operation. Operators will figure out how to work the scenarios themselves. This operation took about 45 minutes to figure out and complete the moves, a time that will be handy to know when assigning crews once the layout is fully operational.
Confident that the track plan would work it was time to lay the track. First laying the switches (here I used Micro Engineering #5 DCC-ready turnouts, which, along with the Micro Engineering flex track, is Code 70 rail), the track was filled in, connected and spiked, as shown in the following image:
Having a long straight-edged rule such as the one pictured here is essential to track alignment. Before pulling up the blue tape I penciled in the track locations along the tape's edges. After about half a day's work, the track work was finished:
With all the bus wire already run and ready to connect to an available circuit the next step is to connect the track leads and test the power in the operation. This wiring and testing may take a few attempts over several work sessions, wiring not being my forte.
Focusing on a smaller space provides some limits on the scope of the modeling and the operation, which for me at least means it has a better chance of actually getting done. If I have learned anything building this layout, it is that scaling down, staying simple and getting rid of things always makes the layout better. Keeping it simple and staying small makes it easier to see progress on the model, and it gives visitors a working sample of what the layout will become.
I guess I went straight to graduation in my first layout. Always fascinated with cities and the challenges for operating that they posed, my dream layout concept was always to be a city. But cities offer an aesthetic dimension to the modeler that presents a real challenge to carry off. I've often spoken and written about George Sellios' Franklin and South Manchester as the masterpiece of urban railroading. It is its attention to detail, along with its gritty dirty aesthetic that is carefully modeled, that carries out its effect. That's what makes the Franklin and South Manchester the standard against which I personally measure my modeling.
Downtown Los Angeles in the 1950s is my inspiration for this freelance urban railroad. In particular Santa Fe's famous 'Dog Patch,' situated around the garment district and skid row, is the ultimate in challenging rail operations in the heart of the dirty city. Also interesting is Southern Pacific's 'Rat Hole,' which was situated across Alameda Street from the Patch. Bob Smaus models Southern Pacific in and around Los Angeles in the 1950s and provides a good illustration of the Patch: http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/ATSF_ThePatch.html
And modeling the Rat Hole: http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/Davies.html
With my passenger terminal fully operational, even if not modeled yet, I turn to laying out, testing and tuning the adjoining scenes of busy downtown railroading. Immediately on the northeast end of the passenger terminal is this slice of prime urban real estate, Its relatively tight space (measuring 2' x 7') presents a real challenge for railroading. In this post I walk through how I approached modeling its operation.
A small but challenging urban operation
Southern Pacific's Rat Hole was in the heart of the warehouse district in Downtown Los Angeles. Having everything from alley switching, squeezing between tight buildings and navigating busy streets full of traffic and pedestrians. Its major landmark being the Davies Warehouse (see pictures of it here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/416934877985784952/?lp=true ), the Rat Hole is a good prototype to inspire this compact switching operation.
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| View of the long-abandoned rail operation at the Davies Warehouse (at left) and an interesting covered track spot across the street (photo: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/852587773185620062/ ). |
In addition to using Pinterest and other online sources for researching the look and feel of this operation, an excellent resource is John Signor's detailed history of Santa Fe railroading in the Los Angeles Division, Santa Fe Los Angeles Division (https://www.mcmillanpublications.com/products/santa-fe-los-angeles-division-signor . For a listing of his other publications, visit http://johnsignor.com/books.php). When I met him at the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society Golden Spike Convention in Ogden on May 10, he had galley proofs of his forthcoming book on Southern Pacific's Los Angelest Division, hopefully out later this year. His books are great resources for detailed historical research and excellent track plans and maps from the period, and I will add it as soon as it is available.
Both the Patch and Rat Hole are in Downtown Los Angeles, where its tracks served the garment, food, retail, warehouses and industries of the district. Turning around scores of cars in their heyday, these operations traversed the somewhat squared grid of Downtown with tight turns, complex runaround tracks, holding tracks and spurs. Because of its lightweight rail and tight turns, only smaller, lighter diesel locomotives were used (Alco S-2s, Baldwin VO-1000s and NW2s) in the 1950s. Crews had to be know the area and its hazards - traffic, pedestrians, debris - and spot/pull cars in tightly-crammed industries. Here are a few views of it:
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| View of the Dog Patch looking toward Alameda Street, 1980. By this time most of the rail traffic was gone, and the area would undergo redevelopment. In the distance, across Alameda, one can make out the Southern Pacific Warehouse, which had considerable rail and truck traffic into the 1950s. (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/132152570294403837/) |
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| Specific location unknown but often attributed to Downtown LA, showing tightly-squeezed, debris-filled tracks and warehouses ( https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3612/3692550760_04ac7e68c7_b.jpgi). |
Pictures like these give an idea of the challenges of modeling dense urban railroad operations. These city scenes, full of detail, create a strong atmosphere of gritty city life when properly modeled. Modeling these scenes presents a number of challenges, most notably with the real constraints of space and access to the tracks. Specifically, the challenges are:
- Track access for switching requires these operations to be sliced through the middle into cross sections. Operators need to reach into the scene to switch, needing to use picks for uncoupling, which creates a challenge for placing details into the scene that can be easily damaged by reaching into the scene to work it.
- Deep vistas down the tracks into tight alleys, though beautiful, are impractical. Cars are nearly impossible to spot without seeing straight into the couplers, which requires a side view.
- Turnouts curving off into industries, though nice to look at, are space robbers in tight spaces. One has to weigh the dramatic effect of a curved turnout against the industries sacrificed to build it.
- Layout space limits the complexity of track and the number of spots. Under the compression of space on a layout, track leads in particular must be compressed, and even tight curves consume a lot of precious space. All of these factors force an operation to be scaled back to be scaled down.
- City switching must contend with the street grid and property lines, making straight-line tracks the goal but not always a possibility on most layouts.
A Slice of the Path in a 2' x 7' space
Using Signor's track plan for the Patch as guidance (from Santa Fe Los Angeles Division, pp. 448-9), I laid out a switching operation in this tight space. Hoping to cram it with industry as a fun, super-detailed operation, my wish list had 5 rail customers with 10 spots in a wall of warehouses. The realities of switching listed above quickly intervened, forcing the list down to 3 customers with a maximum of 4 spots, which had to allow for runaround and holding tracks for switching this tight space whose operation cannot foul the busy mainline from which it is fed. The resulting track plan started out along a straight line down a back alley running parallel to the edge of the peninsula:
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| View of the downtown operation on the Overland Terminal Railway layout, immediately east of the Express terminal operation. Cutouts of building footprints and tape - especially blue painters tape - are excellent track planning tools. Here the street grid is marked out in masking tape. The blue tape is exactly the size of track and equipment clearance, making the practical testing and adjustments of operations with prototype equipment easier before laying track. |
Often wondering if it makes for a boring operation or scene, a squared street grid is the practical reality of American cities and railroading in them. Laying out the street grid realistically with property divisions and cardboard cutouts of building footprints is the best way to visualize the model and its operation.
Using equipment on hand, I tested multiple switching scenarios to see if they would work. Modeling actual car moves, this practice helped to locate switches for practical clearance of the switch points.
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| Closeup looking toward the passenger terminal shows alignment of power, typical 40' box cars and reefers. Looking closely at the blue tape one can see the switch points marked with a black Sharpee. |
The pictures show the practical realities of navigating a city grid - specifically being mindful of keeping cross streets clear in holding cars. Also of necessity is keeping clear of switches to help the flow of equipment in and out of customer tracks. Testing this operation quickly narrowed it down to a maximum of 4-car trains. If the industries are completely switched out, that doubles the car movement to 8. It also has to have room for a caboose and motive power.
Once I was able to run the switching scenario several times I became comfortable that it can work. I only tested one scenario, which I think now would be the most complex. To be sure, I invited a friend over to run the scenario. Although his approach was different from mine, he still was able to work through the whole scenario successfully. The point here is not to find the one right way to work the operation; rather, it is to determine whether its plan can support its intended operation. Operators will figure out how to work the scenarios themselves. This operation took about 45 minutes to figure out and complete the moves, a time that will be handy to know when assigning crews once the layout is fully operational.
Confident that the track plan would work it was time to lay the track. First laying the switches (here I used Micro Engineering #5 DCC-ready turnouts, which, along with the Micro Engineering flex track, is Code 70 rail), the track was filled in, connected and spiked, as shown in the following image:
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| View toward the passenger terminal, whose tracks are holding a couple of passenger trains and wall masked for track painting. Buildings are set to give the space some of their dimensions, but the finished buildings will look different from these stand-ins. |
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| Track work completed to the switch lead (a custom switch is being made for this intersection with the mainline), the extra piece at right was tested again to determine the length needed to hold cars and eventually was cut in half. My friend argued with me that I should maximize these stubs for more wiggle room, to which I vehemently protested on the grounds that the prototype would not stub tracks into the middle of the street for wiggle room. Instead, if it works, even barely, in the track allotted, then realism demands cutting back the track as much as possible. |
The Benefits of Starting Small
This small operation is good practice for developing and implementing freight operations all over the layout. Other districts, including my larger Dog Patch and the Yoder Street Packing District, will be larger and more complex. Here it is best to cut one's teeth on something smaller and then move on to the more challenging operations to build and run. Perhaps it is now time to take a break from engineering to focus on some modeling of these spaces, as I plan to do through the holidays.Focusing on a smaller space provides some limits on the scope of the modeling and the operation, which for me at least means it has a better chance of actually getting done. If I have learned anything building this layout, it is that scaling down, staying simple and getting rid of things always makes the layout better. Keeping it simple and staying small makes it easier to see progress on the model, and it gives visitors a working sample of what the layout will become.
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