The Grand View Light Railway expands

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steamhostler
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The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:25 pm

I have built a small SM32 indoors railway in my Office representing the Terminal End of a 2 foot Narrow Gauge Railway serving a Hot and Mineral Springs Resort circa 1905, built in the USA San Juan mountains near the New Mexico and Colorado border by British investors. They chose 2 foot as being easier and cheaper to build and operate than the 3 foot railroads surrounding it.
The 2 foot wide 16 mile long Grand View Light Railway connects to the outside world with the 3 foot Montezuma Railway at Bolton, which connects with the 3 foot D&RGW at Lumberton.The rolling stock of the Light Railway is heavily influenced by British builders with American touches like Telegraph dispatching, link and pin couplers, oil burning headlights, and bells on locomotives.

Here is the Terminal layout with all track work completed;
Top right is the tunnel thru the wall into the adjoining room expansion
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SM32 Layout as built.jpg
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James
Grand View Light Railway
Indoors 16mm Live Steam in Colorado USA

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:24 pm

The expansion layout consists of a 4 track Staging Yard, the Big Valley Branch on the left, The Vulcan Coal Mine Branch on the right and bottom, and a complete loop around the room running track with a passing siding for 2 train operations if wanted.

This will support 4 train operation to the Grand View Resort;
Passenger service from the Resort Station to the Stage Yard Station
General Freight from the Transfer station in the Stage Yard to the Warehouse at the Resort
Coal train service from Mine to Resort Power Plant, including Spring Water delivery to Resort from Bolton Spring
Agricultural service, livestock, feed, and hay from Big Valley to the Team Track at the Resort

I am expanding because I want to Host Operating Sessions over the Winter with my 1.5 inch scale Live Steam friends
4 people can run the trains, if more people show up crews of Engineer/Conductor will be formed.

Here is the Expansion Layout Plan;

The Tunnel thru the wall to the Resort Terminal layout is at top left.
The benchwork at top and left is already built, the only building to be done is the Mine area on top of long bookcases, the trestle duck under track on the right side, and the swing up thru truss bridge in front of the doorway.
I've got all of the Peco track at hand, Peco SM32 is hard to find here, and very expensive! I am selling off all of my 45mm equipment to finance this 32mm layout.
Attachments
LayoutYardPlan.jpg
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James
Grand View Light Railway
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:59 pm

Here is the Grand View Light Railway Roster

The Accucraft Peckett - FIREFLY - is the Passenger engine
The Roundhouse Katie - DRAGONFLY - is the General Freight engine
The Accucraft Sabrina - DRAGONFIRE - is the Coal train power

All engines will be R/C with RCS handheld transmitters, DRAGONFLY has R/C and a Slo Mo installed.
The DRAGONFLY and DRAGONFIRE will be lined with Fox Transfers decals
ALL engines get; link and pin couplers, round oil burning headlights, and warning bells.

In the future there will be a 4th Roundhouse Tank Engine with a Slo Mo to finish out the Roster, painted Maroon to be the Freight engine.
That will make the 2 green locos Passenger engines, and the 2 maroon locos the Freight engines.

Regular Passenger service will grow to 4-5 cars with the DRAGONFLY.
The FIREFLY will be moved to 2 car Excursion or Picnic Specials.
Attachments
Eng6.jpg
Eng6.jpg (302.56 KiB) Viewed 5655 times
Eng2.jpg
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James
Grand View Light Railway
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by Andrew » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:21 am

It's all looking very impressive - nice loco roster too!

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:15 pm

Thank you!
Best part of this is creating a working operations track plan and figuring out an engine and freight car roster to fit the operations plan.
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Grand View Light Railway
Indoors 16mm Live Steam in Colorado USA

steamhostler
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:21 pm

Here is one Coal train set at the Power Plant coal dock. The loads come out for the empty return trip to the Mine, where a second set of Coal gondolas are being loaded.
Attachments
Layout3.jpg
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Last edited by steamhostler on Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:30 pm

Here's the Warehouse area. The Warehouse will have 3 doors for unloading, and enough room to shove down to locate a 4th car at a door.
The 5 car cut is sitting on the Team Track where hay and livestock gets unloaded.
Yard office is on the right.
The Tanker is sitting on the Coal track, as the cistern the drinking water gets dumped into is at the far end of the coal track

There will be 2 Freight trains of 5 cars each, one set sitting here getting empty, one being built uo in the Stage Yard.
I need at least 3 Box cars built for freight service.
Attachments
Layout2.jpg
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Last edited by steamhostler on Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
James
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:47 pm

South Yard
The loaded Coal train has arrived, the brake van taken off and coupled to the outbound empties.
The Big Valley train has arrived with hay and livestock car, ready to be set onto the Team Track for unloading.
The Passenger Coach, a Parlour Car is sitting on the Passenger train staging track.
The 2 tank cars are spotted to unload into the drinking water cistern (coffee can). Need to build the pump house that will fill the larger cistern sitting atop a bank.
To the right of cistern is the tunnel on the Main Line that will lead to the Stage Yard.
The Yellow painted crosstie in fromt of the coal cars shows the clearance point for the Main Line.
Attachments
South Yard.jpg
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by invicta280 » Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:07 pm

Good to see an indoor working layout of this complexity in this scale.

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:22 am

Looks like you've planned in plenty of operating potential. Those short wheelbase wagons should be fun to shunt and Marshall in the confined space of the shed.

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by Andrew » Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:50 am

invicta280 wrote: Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:07 pm Good to see an indoor working layout of this complexity in this scale.
Absolutely! It all looks very well thought out - it'll be fun to try with live steam too!

I love that little yellow carriage - is it an LGB/Bachman model that's been shortened?

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by steamhostler » Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:39 pm

The yellow coach/carriage is from the Bachmann Little Hauler/ Short Line series.
It is going to be the 1st Class Service Parlour Car for the patrons of the Grand View Resort.
The wheelbase is a bit long for my 32" minimum radius curves, so I put on the smallest diameter 32mm wheel sets and squeezed down the back to back dimension a bit and now it seems to run fine,

I have another enclosed coach for 2nd class service, and an open coach for Summer service.
There will also be a boxcar painted in Passenger colors to handle the baggage and steamer trunks of the guests.

The GVLR company colors are Mustard Yellow and Sage Green.
Passenger equipment is painted Yellow Car Body with green trim
Freight equipment is painted Green Car Body with brown wood framing or Black steel framework.
Company buildings are Yellow main body with Green trim for Stations and Offices, and Green with yellow trim for Lineside buildings.

Here is an example of the 2nd class Coach, but in the wrong colors
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Ozark coach.png
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James
Grand View Light Railway
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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by ge_rik » Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:53 am

steamhostler wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:39 pm Here is an example of the 2nd class Coach, but in the wrong colors
I quite like the look of that careworn livery .... :thumbright:

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Re: The Grand View Light Railway expands

Post by Old Man Aaron » Mon Jul 04, 2022 1:22 pm

That is something truly unique, I can't wait to see the GVLR progress. :salute:
Regards,
Aaron - Scum Class Works

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