Interstate RR, VA--62'x102' Track Plan

Scale: HO
Minimum Radius: 30"
Minimum Aisle Width: 36"
Designed by Dan Bourque

Before you say "you're crazy," this was just the product which emerged after I asked myself the question "what layout would I build if time and money were no object?"  What I settled on was modeling the entire Interstate RR as close to the prototype and with as little compression as possible.

Before I got started, I layed out some "must haves" and "wants."  Some of the must haves were 36" minimum mainline radius curves (30" branchline), 36" minimum aisle width, and no duckunders.  Some of the wants included modeling all of the loaders, all mainline trackage, single deck, prototypical grades, working interchange railroads, and separate rooms away from the main layout room for all the branchlines.  It took this big of a space to achieve all these goals!

This layout includes all of the Interstate mainline and branchline trackage and every tipple in operation around 1957.  All mine runs operate out of Andover to serve their respective branches, and there are several working interchanges:  Appalachia (Southern/L&N), Dorchester Jct. (L&N), Norton (N&W/L&N), and Miller Yard (CRR).  All of the supporting railroads are fully operating, and two (Southern and N&W) even have their own full yards to dispatch mine runs from.  Despite its size, the locomotive fleet would be very small (the Interstate only had 10 diesels) but the hopper fleet would be huge with near-prototype sized trains.

Operations would be very close to the prototype due to the small compression factor (about 1/3-1/2 compressed).  To account for this, a 3:1 fast clock would work best with each operating session representing only 12 hours.  One session would be the AM session with all of the first mine runs, and the next session would be the PM session with the remaining mine runs and lots of extra mainline runs trying to clear all the cars off the line before midnight to save per-diem--a very Interstate thing to do!  This would also allow a tipple to be serviced twice per day in prototype fashion.

The thing I like most about this plan is that all of the branchlines have their own room away from the main layout room.  A crew (mine runs would definitely have an engineer and conductor) would run out of Andover, head off the mainline, and spend the next couple of hours on their own in a room completely separated from the mainline.  Now all I need is a couple million bucks. . .