The Turning Point Part 2: Rocky, the Big 10 and Clay

So, given all the information in Part 1 of our discussion of the design of the Rocky, Big 10 and Clay Layout Design Complex, what can we make out of it to form a design? Fortunately, all the twists and turns of the line exiting Barbara Gulch, Rocky, the Big 10 and Clay really do resemble a toy train layout which twists and turns back on itself, climbing steep grades. As this part of the layout is intended to transition from one deck to a second deck, this is to my advantage, and indeed, since the first days that I started considering a layout of this area, I fell on the idea of using this set of layout design elements, the collection of which I am referring to as a Layout Design Complex (LDC), as a deck transition point. As part of my effort to design the LDC, I began with a full scale drawing of the area.

A Full Sized N Scale Model of the Big 10 Layout Design Complex.

Obviously, at a massive 19' by 62', there is little hope of modeling the complex in full scale. But here I can note a few things. First, the 10-degree curves work out to be a 43 inch radius in N-scale, and I plan to model this with a 19.375" radius or 45% of full scale. Second, my target train length is also about 33% of full size, so, a 1/3rd scale model might be more appropriate. This reduces the size to about 10' by 21'. So, now I fit within my room. With a little twisting of the layout, I could end up with a more suitable configuration that looks a bit more like the drawing below.

Squeezing and twisting the mainline, while reducing the size to about 1/3rd of full-size, yields a much more manageable plan. The biggest difference is that the main line to Plainview will twist onto the second deck above Rocky, transitioning somewhere near the northern part of the Little 10 curve.

This plan is now about 8' by 21', and with a little more work, begins to resemble the configuration that I have room for in the bench work. This in turn led to the following plan.

Layout Plan for the Rocky-Big 10-Clay LDC.

The resulting plan generally resembles the actual geography of the area. Rocky Siding ends up with a 17' siding, and Clay ends up with an 8' siding. Just as in the prototype, Rocky is a fairly long siding, and Clay will be a short siding, generally useful only for passenger trains. The Rocky Flats branch enters the main line at Rocky, connected with a 4% grade to enable a grade crossing of US-93 just beyond the bridge that carries the highway over the mainline. However, shortly after this crossing, I will need to arrange for the line to disappear from the scene so that it can connect to a helix leading to either the modeled branch or a staging yard for the branch.

There is also one challenging room constraint. As can be seen on the lower left hand corner, there is the electrical boxes for the house (in red) that will intrude on the Big 10 scene. Generally, I think this configuration is manageable. I can certainly open the boxes and manipulate the fuses in the space available. Should complete access be needed to the boxes, I plan to design the Big 10 to ride on a rolling table. The piece of bench work between the dotted lines will be removable, and will include the deck over deck transition, so that the remaining table with the Big 10 curve on it, can be rolled away from the wall. This should allow access to the electrical fuse boxes.

Conceptually, in 2D, the plan appears viable, but now the question becomes "Will it work in 3D?" In other words, can I achieve a reasonable deck over deck separation to make the scene work? And what is a reasonable deck over deck separation anyways? So finally, the estimation of the grades necessary becomes important.

Cameron Turner