A few of us have been helping Tom Sullivan refine his On30 SR&RL. He has responded by taking in the critiques and making the adjustments to make his version of the SR&RL look more and more like the photos in the books. His lower deck represents Farmington to Phillips. Farmington and Strong are modeled while Phillips is staging.
Recently he suggested a footprint for an upper deck and suggested that he might like help designing it. What he wants is the K&DR, Kingfield, Carrabasset, and Bigelow. What a dejavoue. I designed an Sn2 K&DR layout for Gary White. If you want to know learn about the line and how it fits into the SR&RL take a look at part two of my multi-part design for Gary White.
Here is the design I proposed for Tom. Read the points below to understand my thoughts.
Key points about the design
- The location is 1/2 of a garage. I have not included the footprint of the deck below. The word Kingfield is in the aisle where Kingfield will be accessed. It is on a peninsula and the backside will not be reachable as Strong is below the backside as much wider.
- Trains get from Strong to Kingfield via a cassette raised from the lower deck staging area just below Kingfield and raised to the track running off the top of the design. The track going off the top of the plan is TBD as Tom works through it all.
- The primary elements of Kingfield are included and should be recognizable to anyone who has studied the SR&RL.
- The bridges on the run from Kingfield to Carrabasset are representative of the scenery along the way. The trains ran through Carrabasset river valley.
- Carrabasset was simple. Tom wants to have the plywood mill, but does not have room for the wye. So it will have to be represented by a single spur.
- The line from Carrabasset to Bigelow would again be in the Carrabasset River valley with the river along the tracks.
- The Bigelow track arrangement is faithful. The Sawmill would have to be imagined.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this proposal. Should I generate significant updates to the plan, expect updates. I hope this gives you inspiration. I’ve kept the description of this plan simple. If you have questions, add a comment.
Sn2 Modeler 
I like what you have designed. It certainly has operating potential.
I have known Tom for over 35 years and his layouts get better all the time.
I like it!
The Kingfield peninsula is 3 feet deep and you note it’s not accessible from one side (the bottom side in this plan). How would Tom maintain scenery or re-rail equipment along that edge?
Trevor, thanks for critiquing the plan. To clarify the reach situation, I’ve added an outline of the lower deck. The spur at the rear of Kingfield can be reached from the other side. The run around track and coal shed would be just under 24″ from the operator. A bit to far for the upper deck, but manageable if the structures near the operator are not too talk. This may mean the pulpwood would not be under sheds. The turntable and engine house are a bit far from reach too. Specially considering the size of the depot. I think this is manageable as the turntable is not required to be used much. Mostly engines will turn at Bigelow and Strong as Kingfield is an intermediate location along the route. As for maintenance, Tom has a tall ceiling, so could build a 20-24″ high step from which to work on the extremes of the Kingfield scene. See the update plan that I’ve put into the post.
While I was at it, I added a proposed backdrop for Kingfield. I think the backdrop will enhance the sense of distance between Kingfield, the lower deck, and Carrabasset. It also enables the paint shop of turning mill to be butted into a backdrop rather than waving in the air. While I was at it, I noticed that I had accidently mad the plan too long by 1 foot, so corrected the aisle width at Bigelow.
Thanks for the extra info. And no – it wasn’t a critique: merely a question. Cheers!
Trevor, I was not implying critique as a bad thing. The goal is to get Tom a plan he wants to build and operate for the next 10-15 years, If a man is going to launch on such an effort a bit of critique of the plan is A-OK.
I agree: but it was a genuine question – not a critique – since I did not know the answer. I assumed tou has thought about access and wanted to know how that would be accomplished. It looks like you have a plan for that.
Trevor, thanks for the comments. Regarding access, the Kingfield yard is 3′ wide largely because that is the absolute max for the space. There will be a 8″ step that will be able to be used by the operator to reach in easier. (I do plan to “hand” uncouple with swivel sticks and my turnouts are hand thrown using small slide switches) I plan on keeping the Wing mill spur as close as possible to the front and use the space behind it to model the mill structure.
I’m pretty excited about David’s plan for the space. The Bigelow (K&DR) line will offer a lot of operations for a crew of 2.
The real issue is how I will “lift” a train of 6 cars from the track behind the toothpick mill in Strong up to the upper level.
It looks like I will be using an aluminum cassette, with guards on both sides (and removable foam ends) to protect the train while I manually lift it to the second level.
Hi Tom. Thanks for the reply. Great to know that you’ve thought about all of this. Access wasn’t apparent in the original drawing. Now it is. Cheers!
Pingback: In Progress – Tom Sulivan’s On30 SR&RL – Lower Deck | Sn2 Modeler
Pingback: 2020 Wrapup | Sn2 Modeler
Pingback: Update – Tom Sullivan’s On30 SR&RL | Sn2 Modeler