Southern Pacific in the Inland Empire of Socal is my N scale garage layout project. It is inspired by the SP in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and mainly what runs along the 10 freeway. I began in 2022 by improving the space with insulation and paneling. I finally began layout construction in January 2023 with the two track helix that will run from West Colton up to Taylor(staging). I will be using Atlas code 55 flex track and Fastracks jigs to build turnouts throughout the layout. Digitrax will be my control system. Here is a shot of where I stand today. The posts that follow will show some construction details. Here is a rough footprint of the layout. The plan has changed quite a bit from this rendering.
I thought I should begin with the helix as it will end up buried in a corner. My original plan was a single track design, but I didn't want it to become a bottleneck. So I double tracked the helix and wrapped the lead/tail from the yard to the Fontana branch line once around it. This gives a bit more separation so the local and yard ops don't trip over one another. Original idea vs what I built. The elevations ended up 48" and 60" with the branch at 51".
Next was the branch line shelf. 12" deep and about 10' long. I originally planned to have a simple interchange track but expanded to include some easily recognizable industries. So A1-Grit with the silos, Peterman Lumber, Martin Marietta with the dome storage, and the Kaiser Steel(California Steel) interchange. All this can be seen while driving along the 10 freeway through Mira Loma and Fontana west of West Colton yard. This will be an out and back local job with many car types and high capacities. The #6 turnouts are thrown with Caboose #206s ground throws. As much as I want to run long trains I still enjoy switching. So I attempted to design in smooth trackwork for pushing cuts of cars. The branchline is fully operational. See photo in first post of thread.
Here is the plan for the Fontana branch line that goes with the last post. The track between A1-Grit and the Steel interchange track is a shoving track for Peterman Lumber and Martin Marietta.
Next I built the Taylor end of through staging. 16" deep with 10 tracks off a double mainline and Cobalt turnout motors with DCC control and routes. I tried to do as much as I could at the workbench to make things a bit easier. I used metal brackets rated at 150lbs to support it all from the wall.
Next was the west end of West Colton yard on the lower level. I built this as a section but the section between the yard body and helix was quite funky so I built it in place. This will require me to do the wiring and controls from under the layout. Yuck. The mainline turnouts are all tortoise controlled with Wabbits driving them. The yard turnouts will be thrown with Caboose 206s throws.
The last section built in 2023 was the double deck 8' section along the garage door. This will have the east end of West Colton on the lower level with Indio staging on the upper level. Quite a bit of cutting, but it all came together well.
My current drive is to get the mainline running rather than focus on sections with time consuming track and wiring demands. I am a bit burnt out on wiring and turnout building, but if I can run a train from time to time my motivation will be renewed. I have been working in freemoN since 2014 when I removed my 10 year old layout. So I will end this years build thread with the same photo I started with. Three long sections of benchwork with some track and wiring. I will focus on the peninsula in the front end of 2024 and hope to get the mainline running some time this spring.
