Building and Planning the Atlantic Inland

 This blog is titled “Building and Operating the Atlantic Inland”.

That’s not specifically true, in so far as no track is down yet. I have  an unfinished basement that I’m currently finishing. Lots of framing, wiring, a little plumbing. But no benchwork and track yet.

I’ve mocked some track up, and continue to do that. 

I’m particularly concerned with the clearance necessary between loading docks and cars, or clearance between structures and cars.

Lighting and shadow areas are concerning me. The placement of lights and the shadows they cast. I want to know, in advance, if possible, where I should place lights to illuminate the benchwork but not leave a great deal of the layout in shadow. 

Flooring concerns me. I would like to have the layout room look as nice as possible. The rubber/foam mats from the big box store feel good on your feet, but carpeting looks much better.

I’m pretty settled on T-Bar ceiling because it will hide a lot and allow fairly easy repositioning of light fixtures. I’m very happy with 4’ LED  shop lights. They generate no heat; use very little electricity; they are cheap; and I like the quality of the light. I am not interested in night-time lighting effects. Every op session will be in “FULL DAYLIGHT”. 

I’m doing quite a bit of construction down there right now. I’ll keep everyone posted on layout progress. I’m using a benchwork construction method that mimics studio scenery construction, so I’m pretty sure the bulk of the benchwork will go up fast.

I’ve settled on benchwork heights, and I’m going with THREE levels. Each level will have one particularly important switching district, but each of these are geographically separated. The idea behind the three level design is the LONG main-line run. 

I like TTTO operations and a long run plays into that. With three levels, and two helix’s, my main line run is in the neighborhood of 920’ (I know, that’s some neighborhood). With a handful of exceptions the benchwork depth is 12” or less. Even the busiest areas are not terribly deep, some 20” and my main yard is 30” deep.

Aisles are, again with a few exceptions, 48” wide. The choke points are 36”- 42”, so nothing is a 15” squeeze (Personally I take a size 54 aisle, so even 48” is smallish to me!).

There are going to be lift outs or swing gates for access. I mocked up the helix, where I plan to put the dispatcher. I could not sit on an office chair and roll under the lowest level, so that is going to have to have some sort of success gate, lift out or swing.

Entering the Pettigrew Yard Doughnut will require a swing gate.

Finally access from the crew lounge into the entire layout will be through a swing gate

The main layout access and the Pettigrew Yard access will be a double level swing gate, requiring a duck under. That duck under will be 65” +/- from the floor. I’m fairly sure we can all “limbo” under five foot three.

Another lift is also planned, a four foot wide access for the non-op session access. If I or my Wife need to get into the under-layout storage areas it will be through this access. Otherwise this access will not be opened during sessions.

So I don’t have a layout currently, but one’s on the way. In the mean time I’ll see many of you at this years Pro Rail Event, oh and I’m still collecting cars. Who-ever has enough cars?


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