{"id":254,"date":"2015-01-22T20:03:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T04:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenscaler.com\/?p=254"},"modified":"2015-01-22T20:03:58","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T04:03:58","slug":"introducing-the-lassen-north-coast-railroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the Lassen & North Coast Railroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

While experimenting with model railroad uses for Arduino<\/a>\u00a0over the last few months, I’ve been working away in Cadrail<\/a> 9.5 developing a track plan for my quirky space. \"LayoutAs you may recall<\/a>, I’m going to take over a vintage 70’s bar space in a finished utility\/storage room.\u00a0 The surface is a generous 82\u2033 x 66\u2033 L, 27.5\u2033 wide all around. Its almost completely walk-around.\u00a0The counter is about 40″ off the floor, making it a good starting height for a layout. The soffits (hiding HVAC ducts) impose a height limit of around 28″. Lighting is nonexistent; I have a solution in the works for that.<\/p>\n

The other critical design imperative is portability, so the layout can be freely moved; light weight, solid construction\u00a0and\u00a0 the ability to fit modules\u00a0through doors and into the back of the Subaru is a must. It’s taken 13 iterations\u00a0to come up with a satisfactory and (I hope) buildable plan.<\/p>\n

The Lassen & North Coast Railroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lassen<\/a><\/p>\n

Set in the\u00a0late\u00a0transition era (sort of), the 1950’s to early 60’s, The Lassen & North Coast Railroad is a hitherto unknown short line running between Six Rivers City ( a Pacific coastal harbor city) and\u00a0logging and lumber mills in the mountains, with service to\u00a0the inland empire. The L&NC of this period had track sharing and equipment deals with the Union Pacific Railroad, allowing UP passenger service to Six Rivers City and giving the L&NC a right to buy at below market prices any equipment UP wants to retire or otherwise discard. This arrangement was very much in keeping with the founder’s frugal nature.<\/p>\n

The L&NC was founded in 1893 by the emigrant son of an Austrian dairy farmer, one Otto Von Heifer, whose only asset at the time was a deed to 10 million acres of timber forest in the Lassen \/ Shasta region. Broke and with few prospects, Otto had acquired the deed from a wizened old Indian, going by the odd name of Chief Truckee,\u00a0in exchange for a crate of rock-gut whiskey. Sadly, the deed was no better than the whiskey.\u00a0 It didn’t matter since there were no competing claims anyway.<\/p>\n

It occurred to Otto that he’d best be getting that timber out of there and it wasn’t going to do so on its own. Thinking about it he decided that, well, he should just build himself a railroad to transport his timber to market.\u00a0 If only he had the money.\u00a0He couldn’t sell the timber, yet.\u00a0 So what could he sell to raise the money?<\/p>\n

In a eureka<\/em> moment, while slapping back some shots with Lucy Felinatta, his favorite “professional lady” in\u2014as it happens\u2014Eureka, Otto came upon the idea of selling the right to buy his timber\u00a0in the future.\u00a0Not the timber itself,\u00a0just the theoretical right to buy it in the future at an agreed price.<\/p>\n

Actually, it was Lucy who suggested it.\u00a0 Apparently, she’d been selling the rights to make appointments\u00a0at particular days and times for stiff fees, and making good money without actually removing a stitch of clothing. She figured the guys were getting some value even if they didn’t exercise their “option,” though she wouldn’t say exactly what the value was.<\/p>\n

“Surely nobody would give me money\u00a0without getting something\u00a0back,”\u00a0said Otto, unconvinced that his situation was at all similar. But Lucy persuaded him to give it a try and in short order he’d sold enough\u00a0“timber options” to build\u00a0a Railroad.\u00a0 The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

The Plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benchwork will be modular open box frames designed to fit the bar top (or any suitable tabletop\/support system), allowing the layout to be broken down into three sections.<\/p>\n

\"L&NC<\/a>

L&NC Benchwork<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m going to take advantage of the open frame construction to create a two level layout. The lower level includes the Red Bluff Yard and engine service facility, providing storage and staging to support the layout.<\/p>\n

\"L&NC<\/a>

L&NC Lower Level<\/p><\/div>\n

The space will be tight\u2014about 6″ vertical clear space (excluding equipment space for the main level); but I think it will work. The 5 stall roundhouse (being rebuilt from an old 6 stall kit damaged in a past move; more on that in a future post)\u00a0is represented by two 2-stall\u00a0roundhouses from the Cadrail drawings collection.\u00a0It wasn’t worth the effort to render the roundhouse exactly as it will be; however, the track arrangement is correct (with a spare maintenance track adjacent to the roundhouse). The West Helix rises 8″ to the main level.<\/p>\n

Most of the action is on the main level.<\/p>\n

\"L&NC<\/a>

L&NC Main Level<\/p><\/div>\n

The main level features a double track mainline in a classic figure-eight, over-under\u00a0configuration, with a branch to serve Six Rivers City and its port, and a branch to serve the Hat Creek Lumber Mill. Two routes to the West Helix create a main level wye, providing additional reversing capabilities without going all the way to the lower level yard.\u00a0The various rectangles and squares represent building sites; the small rectangles represent generic 4″ x 2″ building lots that can be used singly or in combination with others; after studying the footprint of a lot of N scale model buildings, I concluded that most buildings will fit that (one or more 4″ x 2″ lots)\u00a0envelope. Gray track shows where track is hidden by scenery; the light blue track is a double track truss bridge. The City\/Port side is considered “west,” and the lumber mill side is “east.”<\/p>\n

Some of the building spaces are based on kits I have. The lumber mill is “Little’s Lumber Mill,”\u00a0a discontinued N Scale Architect<\/a> kit I bought many years ago; I have Kibri and Walthers kits for the industrial area, and a few built urban buildings from years ago.\u00a0 Other site reservations, such as the station and the lighthouse, are based on kits I intend to acquire down the road. In some cases, such as the Cannery, I have to wade through a bunch of kit choices to decide what to do\u2014there are quite a few available craftsman kits that would do the job.<\/p>\n

Here are the relative elevations on the main level:<\/p>\n

\"L&NC<\/a>

L&NC RR Main Level Elevations<\/p><\/div>\n

Space and height limitations constrain how high I can build. The clearances are sufficient to run trains; hopefully the level contrasts will make for effective scenery. The apparently empty space in the east module\u00a0will include mountainous terrain with a stream cascading down to the front of the east module,\u00a0logging and other scenes.\u00a0 The city required a lot of thinking about the relationship between track and scenery, forcing me to do a little “zoning” and create a city plan.\u00a0 The other terrain will evolve more organically.<\/p>\n

There you have it. No lack of ambition here! Next step is to build the box frames and start in on the lower level.<\/p>\n

Using Cadrail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a lot of experience with desktop graphics software like Photoshop and Illustrator, but no previous CAD experience,\u00a0so I had a significant learning curve.\u00a0I have not reached the level of proficiency necessary to construct scenery within Cadrail, but the track laying process I have down cold. My guess is that other similar CAD-style planning software involves similar issues of proficiency and functional quirks as I found in Cadrail.<\/p>\n

Overall, I would rate the product as good (version 9.53), with a few caveats to new users:<\/p>\n