Basement Plan
The track plan for the layout is once again in transformational state.
In March of 2010, we moved to a new home which has a room that’s perfect for a layout in the basement. The initial stages of the railroad will be within the confines of a 14’6″x24′ partially finished room, with the option to expand to an adjacent 11’6″x24′ unfinished space. As the plan develops, sketches will be posted here.
Corinna, ME
Corinna, ME, c.1936
Shown here is a sketch for the track arrangement at the northern terminus of the railroad, the town of Corinna, ME. My version of Corinna is fictional, as no narrow gauge ever served the town. Instead, the mills and other industry at Corinna was served by the standard gauge Maine Central railroad.
Corinna, ME, ca 1908
Corrina, as it appeared in 1908, is depicted in the postcard picture at left. A manually operated grade crossing gate is shown, but the tracks cannot be seen in the picture. A brief history of the real town may be found at this Wikipedia page.
With the help of Kevin Hunter, the final track arrangement for Corinna became a 3-piece section of the railroad just a hair over 12-feet long. There will be a couple of tweaks during construction (freight house lead will be shortened, and the turntable shrunk slightly), but by-and-large, the plan below shows the plan for Corinna.
Track Arrangement for Corinna, ME, c. 1936
Searsport
Keg Harbour terminus
For some time, I’ve had at least part of the Searsport plan floating around. It’s may be based on the Keg Harbour module set that’s being built by a member of modular contingent of the Upper Canada and Algonquin Railway. My version will, of course, have changes made to fit my space, simplify the track arrangement slightly, and to make it align with one of the standard MADModules interfaces.
Searsport was planned to be represented in three parts — the harbor, the shipyard and the “upper yard,” which is basically the main yard for the railroad, the shops and the company offices.
Overall view of yard
The yard itself will either borrow its design from my existing MADModules yard set — even to the extent that there will be no run-around — or from my previous MiniBunch yard design.
Saco River
Another possible arrangement for Searsport is based on this “Saco River” track plan and the existing yard design. This will fit a little ore easily into the available space, based on the basement plan above (and still leaving a full four feet between the end of the peninsula and the Searsport section.