The Saginaw Transfer Railroad ... Mothballed

EDIT: This layout is--for all intents and purposes--defunct.  I still have the modules sans track, and will probably keep them in storage for a bit...possibly try to sell them.   But for a "temporary" layout, I have moved on to one that more appropriately meets my current needs.   See "Decatur Hill" entry for more info.  I am leaving this post up for historical purposes.

Welcome to my newest model railroad.   It will very simplistic and set in the late 90's/early 00's era, very loosely based on BNSF and UP in Saginaw, TX.   I say very loosely because there won't be major features included like the interchanges, but the overall feel (based mostly on rolling stock and a grain elavator flat) will be the Saginaw/North Fort Worth area.  (mere minutes away from BNSF's world headquarters)



Sometimes I think my model railroading "body of work" could fit in a thimble.   I've done plenty over the years but, well, still have never really had a layout anywhere near completion.   My last attempt was a small "4x8ish" layout depictng the Trinity Railway Express and got to the running trains point for a brief period before apartment living relegated it to storage.  Will it ever see the light of day again....probably not.  My eventual goal is to build the dream layout: BNSF-era circa 1999, ex-Fort Worth & Denver and ex-Amarillo area ATSF Transcon.  So I'm building loco and freight car fleets to meet that end-goal and want a place to run those from time to time until a house becomes a reality.

This layout was conceived as a very temporary Unitrack setup that could be stowed under a bed when not in use.   The details of why aren't relevant anymore, but suffice to say that morphed into something with a completely different goal.  I had also thrown around several options including rejoining my old club or building some T-Trak modules, but for reasons beyond the scope of this post, I chose this route.

So the plan was for light weight, and Unitrack to make construction fast and simple, minimize tracklaying and switch machine headaches, and to survive the bumps of being portable/stowable.   Overall, very spartan and minimalist.  That has changed some, but overall the concept now is still really a transportable layout with simple features and with the number one job of running trains.

I've gone all over the map regarding construction.  Originally I was planning to use two 2" sheets laminated together to make a thick "board" that I had hoped would be both lightweight and strong enough to have some structural strength for spanning the "bookshelf benchwork".   I initially had trouble with finding 2" foam so I started with a sheet of 1", figuring I would eventually laminate 4 together if I didn't find any 2".   Well, finally did find 2" and now I've decided to go with one 1" layer laminated to one 2" layer.   The 2" layer will have cavities cut out to hold the electronics for DCC including the control staton and turnout decoders.   More on construction and givens/druthers to follow, but now for the down and dirty track plan and a couple of initial photos.   :)

So, regarding givens and druthers...

Givens

• Lightweight - Should need minimal support structure and easy to carry
• Unitrack - Benefits of durability, self-contained motors, performance
• DCC/DecoderPro - Standard control system
• Capacity to store 3 full trains on yard end - goal is to run trains, makes for good therapy

Druthers

• Durable - Desire minimal flex/instability and able to withstand repeated moving
• Certain Design Elements - Small yard and a few industrial spurs to allow for mini-ops session
• Self-Contained - don't want to have massive wiring craziness, or excessive setup tasks.
• Scenery/structures - needs to be durable, but I do want it to look somewhat like a model railroad as opposed to the Death Star trench scene.
• Superelevated Unitrack pieces - want to incorporate in some capacity to be able to test rolling stock and locos on superlevated curves.
• Utilize existing Unitrack - to minimize costs