The Wonderful World of Internet

Isn't World Wide Web a wonderful invention of all time? For modellers like myself, from a far away land, the Internet brings the railroad closer to home; right in front of me. As I research about BNSF and UP in south-west Texas and looking at the photos, Google maps and other information about Rosenberg, Tower 17, Algoa, Galveston, etc., it made me feel like being there without being physically there.

As I looked at photos from Wes Carr, Russell Straw, Bob Chapman and others for inspirations and get a feel on the places mentioned about, immediately ideas popped in my head. I begin to jot down finer details what should be incorporated into my layout; those little things that you will not nice. Like they say, a picture paints a thousand words. There are many more words that you can dechiper from the photos. Take a look at them in these links and tell me what you see (look at them and close your eyes)

Photos:
Robert Chapman's Rosenberg
Tower 17 Rosenberg Webshots
Rosenberg Railroad Museum and Tower 17
Rosenberg RR Museum
William Davis Jr's Information on Tower 17
Russell Straw's Photos of Tower 17 and other SP Towers (the man with the keys to Tower 17)
Wes Carr's Photos of Tower 17 Rosenberg (the photo that started my Tower 17 hunt)

And, with instant messaging, I am in touch with many on the side of the world. Thanks Steve, Denny, Kenneth, Dave, Flash, Russell, Jamie and others for your advice and comments. I truly appreciate the help in my layout. Every bit of information counts.



Jimmy Low

Locations to Model

I have taken some snapshots of the locations I want to model from Google Map. Some interesting features or industries to model (some selective compression is necessary).

Rosenberg Junction where BNSF Galveston and UP Glidden
cross each other

Richmond Junction where BNSF Galveston heads south-east
and UP Glidden heads east

Junction to Smithers Lake and Thompsons

Smithers Lake and Thompsons Coal Fired Power Plant

Thompson coal deposit pit and tracks that circle the pit


Thompson power plant

BNSF Galveston and BNSF Mykawa junction near Alvin

BNSF Galveston and UP Angelston junction near Algoa

BNSF Galveston and UP Galveston merge at
Virginia Point before heading to Galveston

Galveston causeway and lift bridge

Galveston

Galveston can occupy the entire lower deck in the future. What a sight to model! Kenneth from Corpus Christi, Texas is modelling the island seaport of Galveston

I am drooling already

Jimmy Low

Layout Critique 3 - Almost There (Open for Comments)

Thank you Steve Cox, Fred, Stein, Kenneth and Denny for your comments. I have revised my layout plan as per below.

Objectives
I want a track plan that allows me to run long trains, average 10-15 cars per train and also to do some switching. Previous plans did not have a good balance of both; the tracks could not cater for long trains and Rosenberg junction was awkwardly positioned.

Rosenberg is the KEY FEATURE, don't you forget that, Jimmy!
The most important feature of my layout is Rosenberg Tower 17, which sees more than 70 trains a day (Two railfans spotted 77 trains on January 2004 over a 24-hour period!). By putting Rosenberg junction next to the west wall, I did justice to UP Glidden sub to Houston. This track heads east and in my layout, it will disappear below the subroadbed at Point B and reappear at Point B near the east wall.

Tower 17 Rosenberg, Texas

Where Rosenberg junction is now, you will get a good vintage view of Tower 17. If you stand near 10' marker (where I place the "BNSF Galveston Sub", you can take a good shot of the BNSF trains coming from; just like how Wes Carr took it (this picture started my layout idea)

There is a window sill on top left corner (between 9' and 11.5' markers). I can stand at the wash area and look into the layout room and will see this view of Tower 17.

Hence, I found the right place to position Tower 17! The rest of the trackages fits right in. A longer UP Glidden (to Houston) and BNSF Galveston that heads to "Galveston" at lower deck. I initially placed Galveston on the east wall corner but found that that section is too cramped to do any justice to the Galveston terminal. The causeway would have to be shortened and the tracks on the Galveston island could not accomodate 10 cars per track. There isn't enough room to maneuver.

By moving Galveston to lower deck, I can have the whole lower deck to model the causeway and island (for now, lower deck will act as a staging yard)

Upper Deck
(light blue line represents the length of 2 locos + 10 50" cars)

Follow the BNSF train to "Galveston"!
Let's follow the BNSF train from Sealy/Temple on BNSF Galveston sub heading south. It crosses the Tower 17 junction and takes the inner track towards Alvin. I have lengthened Alvin and added a double track to allow the train northbound train to pass. In most stretches on BNSF Galveston sub, it is single track with passing loops. I make sure any loop can handle at least 10 cars + 2 locos.

The train then proceeds to Algoa and take a curve before going behind the scenic divider and downgrade to lower deck (at point A). At lower deck, it runs from Point A to the shared staging yard beneath Rosenberg. For continuous run, I can make it reappear at Point C.

Houston, We Have a Train!
For UP train from San Antonio which heads eastward towards Houston on UP Glidden sub, it will go below the upper deck level and reemerge at Point B-B. It then cross underneath BNSF Galveston where it will apprear as adjacent to BNSF. This allows some interchanging activities to go on between UP and BNSF.

I added a wye at Algoa and a duck-under to allow continuous running of UP Glidden.

Lower Deck - Staging for now and Galveston later
As the BNSF train down grades at Point A, it will go to lower deck and inch its way to the staging yard beneath Rosenberg. The train can stop at the outer tracks so that it can proceed to Point C and up grade towards the upper deck again.

Lower Deck
(light blue line represents the length of 2 locos + 10 50" cars)

Feel free to comment. I think I am more or less settled with this track plan with minor adjustments from your comments.

Model Railroader: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/149507/1655831.aspx#1655831

Jimmy

Layout Critique 2 (Open for Comments)

I learnt how to use XtrkCAD in 3 hours and produced this track plan that I want to build. Please feel free to comment. Tell me what will work and will not work in this plan.

Let me explain a few things before you start. The red quad-circles show the position of 2 doors and their open angles. I will keep the door next to "Temple/San Antonio" open as this is a main door to the room while the other one will be permanently locked.

The focus of this layout is (1) Rosenberg where BNSF and UP trains will meet, and (2) Galveston Island, main industrial hub.

Let's take a BNSF train ride from Temple. The train heads westbound (Galveston) from Temple towards Rosenberg on BNSF Galveston subdiv line. It crosses Tower 17 and onto the outer track toward Alvin. The train makes a down grade to Algoa and heads to Virginia Point. In reality, the train does not cross underneath a bridge; but since I need to make a loop to Virginia Point, I added the bridge. After Virginia Point, the train crosses the Galveston Causeway into the island where it will go into the yard. The switchers will take the cars into the industries on the island.

UP train from San Antonio heads eastbound on UP Glidden subdiv towards Rosenberg. It continues towards Virginia Point and Galveston island. Like BNSF, its enters the yard to drop off the car loads.

This is a loop (Temple/San Antonio) to point (Galveston) layout. My purpose is to be able to run 10-15 cars per train with 2-3 trains running at same time. Switching will be done at Rosenberg, Alvin, Algoa and Galveston.

The loop on west of Rosenberg can act as dynamic staging yard i.e. with trains moving at slow pace to make up for a feeling of a long distance run. Likewise, switching at Alvin and Algoa also to prolong the operating session.

Now, let's hear from you.

Links:
TrainBoard: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=100515&page=5
Model Railroader: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/133485.aspx?PageIndex=2

Jimmy Low

Layout Planning Revisited

It has been 6 months since I last look at my layout plan. It is time for action.

Watch out for this space as I revisit the layout plan and comments made by a few people. Thank you very much for your comments, guys.

I have some ideas what I want and how to position the layout in my train room. Some radical ideas but will run through all of you again.


Jimmy Low

The American Railroad - Working for the Nation by Joe Welsh

I promised myself that I will review this fantastic book once I finished reading. And, so I did. In my opinion, this soft cover book is a must-have for any American railroad enthusiast such as myself.

Joe did a great job compiling this book with photos from the foregone era of the American railroad. He presented this history and evolution of various aspects of the railroad in an interesting manner that will keep you glued for more ... and say "I didn't know that". From the arrival of the first locomotive on the US shore to the men and women whom made the American railroad what it was and is today, each chapter tells the beginning, the happening and the demise of each facet of the railroad - the railroad itself, the locomotives, the equipment and rolling stocks, the stations, uniforms and the people behind the scene.

After reading this book, you will have a good appreciation of the rich heritage of the American railroad and for those in America, a legacy to be preserved.

I am looking forward to visit US in not to distance future. May my dream comes true.

Model Railroad Resources

Today, I received 3 new books - Realistic Model Railroad Operation, Building Model Railroad and Passenger Equipment & Operation - from Kalmbach which I ordered 2 months ago. These 3 books were replacements as the first set did not reach me after one month. Thanks to Laurie from Kalmbach for her speedy reply and promise to send me the replacements.

Left to Right: N-Scale Railroading, Building Model Railroad, DCC Projects
& Applications, Passenger Equipment & Operation, Realistic Model Railroad
Operation and Track Planning for Realistic Operation

These add to my collection of 3 other books. I must say that I enjoy going through the first 3 books - N-scale Railroading, Track Planning for Realistic Operation and DCC Projects and Applications. In addition, I read and reread the Model Railroader magazines and special issues of "How to Build".

You can find a list of railroad resources that I have at the side bar.

And Then, There Was Sante Fe and Southern Pacific .....

Some of the forumers in TrainBoard.com gave some useful information on the region that I am modelling. I also noticed in my research that Santa Fe (ATSF/SF) and Southern Pacific (SP) used to own the lines in South Texas. Apparently, the present BNSF Galveston subdivision was owned by Santa Fe while UP Glidden and UP Galveston by Southern Pacific. Besides having BNSF and UP paint schemes in the locomotives and rolling stock, I can add Santa Fe and Southern Pacific too.

Furthermore, the trackside equipment, depots and other railroad structures will have both SF and SP flavour. I am beginning to like what I am modelling now, even more.

Sometime back, I was reading about Class 1 railroads and found David Hall's YouTube on How The West Was Lost. It was about the merger of railroads into UP and BNSF. I dugged further and came out with these two maps.

I have the above maps in PDF version. Email me if you want a copy as I can't uploaded into this blog.

I know there are other railroads I have not traced back or those taken over by Canadian Pacific (CP) and Canadian National (CN). I will do more once I have the free time.

Good News, Bad News

Which one do you want first - good or bad? Okay, let's start with the bad one. Easier to swallow the bitter pill and then take the sweet honey.

My layout investment going to increase at least by 20%, if not 50%. That's the bad news.

The good news is the priced real estate I told you about is now MINE, all MINE! Back to drawing board again. I intend to keep most of the track plans as blogged earlier. I pretty much like the concept and the track arrangement. I now need to decide how to length the run to the other side of the room, again an around the wall concept and connect to "Galveston". Looks like a duckunder is necessary.

Anyway, looks like Tower 17 junction has to relocate more westward to accomodate a longer BNSF Galveston run as well as UP Glidden to "invisible" Houston.

Putting on my thinking cap again. If you have good suggestions, I welcome them.

Books on North American Railroad

I was at The Curve Borders this morning and just casually walked to the Hobbies/Special Interests section. They had a section on Transportations. Usually you will find books about automobile, airplane, ships, etc. Very rare you will find books about trains. Lady luck was at my side this morning. I found 4 books in North American railroads. Wow! What a bonus.

I sat down on the floor and flipped through each of there. One particular book caught my attention which I would never expect it to be there at all.

This is a coffee table book on BNSF and traced its history back to pre-merger days. It's 290 pages thick but I am sure it is a good reading material. I flipped through some chapters and I am already excited to delve deeper. I hope to find something about the Galveston line.

The other 3 books are interesting too. Here are what I bought.

I have not gone through all of them so I can't give you my review. I will start a collection of railroad books and looking forward to buy a few more especially about Southern Pacific, which owns most of the lines in Texas (SP merged into UP in 1996) and Union Pacific.

It's about time for me to catch up with some reading. My investment today, priceless. For those interested, check out http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/CustomPage_6131.ncm. Don't let the URL deceive you.

Book Reviews: (All reviews are based on this blogger's opinions)
Rail Power by Steve Barry
It took less than 24 hours to finish this book (okay, that 24 hours include sleep, bath and other personal and work activities). Then again, this book is full of color photos and captions accompanying each of the photos. For those who love the various shots of the "lost" American railroad, this is a good book. The book starts with Steam locos followed by Electric and Diesel (-Electric). While I am not an expert in American railroad, this book has taught me the various steam loco wheel arrangements from American 4-4-0 to Challenger 4-6-6-4. What's obviously missing from the Steam category is UP Big Boy 4-8-8-4. Now, how you can NOT include the icon of American steam loco? This I will leave to Steve and the publisher to answer.

Overall, this is a handy book to have and a good pictorial reference of the good old steam-electric-diesel era of the grand American railroads.

The American Railroad - Working for the Nation by Joe Welsh
See my comments in later blog.