Penobscot St. Spur - Trackplan

Here is the track plan that I designed for the Penobscot St. spur.

Click on the image to make it larger

The layout is in HO, with 22 inch minimum radius and no. 4 turmouts, for now. Shaded in areas are roads.

On the trackplan, Maine Central's Calais/Bucksport branch runs across the top of the plan, along the three foot six inch long wall. In the corner, the track will disappear into a clump of trees. In reality, the track there would go onto a large bridge to cross the Penobscot River into Bangor. After the track comes out of the clump of trees, the line crosses a street and then goes into a short cut. The switch to the Penobscot Street Spur is located in the cut.

The Calais branch than passes under a road overpass, which is located in the upper right of the plan. The overpass actually does exist in real life, and is the perfect way to disguise the fact that the layout pretty much ends after the track passes beneath the bridge. I am planning to have a removable staging track or two that will attach to the Calais branch main at that point and allow trains to leave the Penobscot St. spur.

On the spur itself, the track curves off from the Calais branch and heads roughly south as it follows the Penobscot River and Penibscot Street for a short ways. The track crosses Penobscot St. on a curve and the follows the strret. At the end of the curve a siding splits of the spur and serves a lumberyard. This is the main industry on the spur.

At the moment, I don't know what the lumberyard is called, but I do have some photos of it. After the spur passes the lumberyard, it ends at a team track by the river. This appears to have been used quite regularly in the 1950s.

Towards the beginning of the spur, a siding splits off and serves a small industry located near the road overpass. I have very little information about this, other than that it was a brick structure and that it was rail served. It will, however, add quite a few operational possibilities, as it has to be switched at an entirely different time from the rest of the spur, since there is no runaround track on the layout.

I am hoping to get work started on this layout in a few weeks.


Comments

  1. That's very nice.

    You might wish to look at Mike Cougill's blog, if you haven't already seen it.
    This is a good starting point: www.ostpubs.com/freedom-layouts/

    Simon

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    1. Thanks for commenting. While I've heard of Mike Cougill's blog, I've never actually read it, so I will take a look.

      -Sam

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  2. This looks great, Sam. It reminds me, a bit, of Lance Mindheim's "East Rail" layout in terms of how you would operate it.
    (http://lancemindheim.com/model-railroads/east-rail/)
    I like the high ratio of scenery to track. You have not overcrowded the scene. And negotiating the streets will add operating interest.
    Cheers!
    - Trevor (Port Rowan in 1:64)

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    1. Trevor, your Port Rowan layout inspired me to try not to overcrowd the layout. I think that the ratio of scenery to track will make the layout look much more realistic.
      -Sam

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  3. This is a very promising layout. There's a lot of interest generated by the close interaction building and operating a single well-thought scene. I have absolutely no problem imagining this small layout becoming a crowd pleaser!

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