P & C Railroad Version 3

The purpose of the P & C Railroad version 3 was to have some long, continuous-running mainline track up fairly quickly, to be able to develop some scenery, and to start exploring doing some switching operations.

When I started this layout, I was in a stressful job, so I wanted to just come home and watch the trains run-around. The original plan was just to have a double-track mainline loop around the perimeter of the room. That was the original design. When I built that, I very quickly realized that I got bored with it, so I started expanding the layout. I widened some parts of the layout, and eventually went so far as to build a ten-level helix down to a large staging yard.

I have re-formatted these pages from the original text to make it more interesting to read through. At the bottom of each page is a link to the next logical page. You can click on any of the pages listed below to start reading there. At the bottom of this page is the latest overall photo, taken on November 6, 2002, of the layout as well as some summary information. The layout was started in December, 2000 and dismantled in January, 2003.

Summary Information

Name:
P & C Railroad version 3
Scale:
N (1:160)
Prototype:
Prototype-freelance Pennsylvania RR
Locale:
Central-to-Western Pennsylvania
Period:
Summer 1953
Room Size:
11' - 8" x 10' - 4" (3.55 x 3.12 m)
Layout Style:
Around-the-room, wall-mounted shelf
Special Feature:
10-rung helix to access the storage yard below
Track Height:
62.5 inches (1.59 m) upper level
Benchwork:
L-girder construction
Roadbed:
½" plywood sub-roadbed covered with AMI Roadbed
Track:
Micro Engineering flextrack code 55 (unweathered)
Turnouts:
Scratch-built #6 and #8 turnouts
Turnout Control:
Circuitron Tortoise switch machines driven by Digitrax DS44 decoders
Curve Radii:
Mainline: 16 - 30 inches (41 - 76 cm), 8.5" in the reverse loop
Maximum Grade:
Layout: 0%, Helix: 1.75% & 1.95%
Scenery Construction:
Cardboard strips, plaster cloth, Sculptamold
Backdrop:
Masonite hardboard
Front Fascia:
Masonite hardboard
Train Control:
Digitrax DCC Chief system
Track Length:
actual: 407ft (124m), scale: 12.33 miles (19.84km)