First Layout

Planning & Requirements

In late 2019, I started planning for setting up my Christmas Lyonel 'under the tree' layout, something I had not been able to do since I was in my childhood home. This got me into looking at other layouts, designs and even scales. Long story short, I decided I really wanted to have a year round N-scale layout.

Requirement #1 - small space: Original research was heading me down the 'half-sheet plywood' designs, or maybe the 'door' layout. Both of these have a small enough footprint to fit in the space I had, but both seemed to be a little daunting for a first layout. Eventually I learned about "shunting [switching] layouts". One great site I found for this was The Model Railways Shunting Puzzles website. From my understanding, the UK modelers are quite fond of the 'plank' layouts, and do an amazing job of applying 'theater' elements to a model train layout.

Requirement #2 - interactive: While I do occasionally like to just watch the trains go around in a circle, having that as the main element did not excite me. I even remember finding a really great looking layout that was basically a folded dog bone layout with great use of tunnels and scenery in a small enough space. But it was still just an oval - just well hidden. It was a great 'let trains run' layout but no operating potential. The idea of a cassette or fiddle yard intrigued me (may still come back to that one day), but the "Inglenook" layout was right up my alley! I am a fan of puzzle games, the ability to add scenery that is prototypical, and the potential to keep size and cost to a minimum. Seemed like a 'win - win' for me!

Requirement #3 - low cost: With this being my first layout (other than the one my dad had in my childhood home) I did not want to sink a lot of money into it. The small space would help limit costs, but it seemed to me the Inglenook layout helped out even more. The need for a small switcher locomotive, only 8 cars, and the fact that scenery tended to be simple single location (a warehouse, a refinery, a factory, etc) all seemed like a good way to keep costs down.

Prototype

Early in my research, I came across the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad (TCKR), a shortline that had operated in the area around where I grew up. The TCKR was owned by Dura-Bond, a pipe fabrication company. When I dropped the idea of modeling the whole shortline, and came the "Apple Valley Farm Supplies", I realized I could just use one of their yards.

Final layout and plans took some 'artistic license' and combined the Duquesne & McKeesport locations. The McKeesport location became the major inspiration, while the fields of green pipe seen at the Duquesne location, and the barge access got incorporated into the final plans. There are tracks at the McKeesport location that head down to the river and show that there was barge access here at one time back in Union Railroad/USS steel days I assume. The age of the tracks that are still there lead me to believe it was back in the 60s or 70s when barge access was last used.

Prototype Photos

Below is a selection of photos I used as reference from the Prototype. First three are from Google Maps. The last three are taking from the McKees Point Trail.

Build Photos

Below is a selection of photos from the build process. All these photos, and more, can be seen in my full Google Photo Album for this build.