Serendipity (Planning Part 3)

Planning (Part 3)

Now we put it all together and create a working drawing of our plan. As we add our desired scenes and elements, we can move things around a bit, making sure that everything fits and that we are not trying to put too much into our given space.

The station and goods shed require some space along the track. The station will fit between the main track and the edge; and the goods shed will be at the end of our short siding. The passenger platform and the loading dock will fit in the areas as the tracks converge toward the points. The goods shed should include access for vehicles to deliver and collect goods. There should also be a road which will go to the left of them, and to avoid a crossing over the movable points, I placed the road just to the left of the points. I won’t model the road access to the station as it will look crowded with roads on either side of the tracks, so it will be assumed that it is in front of the modeled portion of our layout.

On the other side, the waterfall needs to be toward the right, in the mountains that our tunnel passes under. The waterfall needs to be located inside the loop of track to keep our trains hidden has they pass through the tunnel behind it. To give our river some “room” to flow through our scenery, I will place the bridge to the left, just before the curve (to avoid using a curved bridge).

The tunnel …. On the scenic river side, I placed the tunnel portal just at the end of the curved portion of the track to give it the impression that our trains are running straight rather than curving around to come out the other side … this adds to the illusion that our trains are not going round and round in a circle. On the station side, I placed the tunnel portal on the curve, compromising between a long tunnel to hide the train, and allowing more flat area for our goods shed and station (and perhaps more importantly, to ensure that our train clears the tunnel while stopped at the station).

The road overpass …. This is the view-block between the station and river scenes and will be on the curve. To avoid symmetry and create some viewing interest, the overpass was not placed in the middle of the curve, but rather, it was offset towards the river scene. This also gives the road a little bit more space to make the curve and decent down to the station.

The mountain …. The highest point of the mountain will be on the upper right corner. The source of the river for our waterfall will be “hidden” in that area. The road overpass will be the highest point on the right side and as it curves down toward the front, the terrain will slope down to its left, and rise to its right. I want to avoid unrealistic slopes other than the rock cliff where the waterfall and tunnel emerge. 45 degrees would be ideal, 60 degrees is probably the most that can be “convincing” without retaining walls. I may use retaining walls along the road and/or along the parking area behind the goods shed. Will see how the scene plays out when constructing the terrain.

Drawn with XTrackCAD

This is the final “working” drawing for my model layout. It includes the track, the structures (station, goods shed, platform and loading dock); the road and parking area; and the river/waterfall. The colored dashed lines are indications of the elevation changes.