Name Change?

I'm thinking about changing the name of my fictional prototype railroad from Wolf River & Nicolet. It turns out that the Nicolet Forest didn't get that name until the 1930s. Although I am setting the railroad in that decade, it doesn't seem plausible to me that the name would have predated the forest's having been named that. (The US Forest Service named the forest for the 17th century French explorer Jean Nicolet.)

I really like the ring of the name, but even though it is freelanced, I do want it to be as plausible as it can be given the setting in geography and time. And I also have second thoughts about the use of Wolf River. As far as I can tell,  names of carriers in the region reflected communities served, rather than just geographic features.

So I think a name change is likely...

Revised Track Plan

A few weeks ago I ran into a professional in the model railroading field. We met a few years ago when I wrote about Milwaukee's unique status as a center for the hobby. When I had interviewed him, I mentioned I was itching to finally get going on a layout. On the occasion of our reconnection, he asked whether anything had come of that, and I told him that, indeed, it had.

"Well if you ever need any advice on anything, just send me a note," he said -- and not just once, but several times -- so I think he wasn't just being cordial.

So I sent him the plan I posted previously, and got back a detailed and helpful assessment of it. He thought it was pretty good, but suggested some changes: Improving the reach at Aaronsburg, reconfiguring the siding and yard at Eagle Junction so that the yard and engine terminal was closer at hand to the central operating area; making the staging track double ended; and bringing the three tracks on the lift-out close enough together that the lift-out itself can be narrower than 18 inches originally contemplated.

Taking his advice to heart, I revised the plan. Probably the biggest change was getting rid of the triangular space in the upper right corner of the operating area so that the reach to Aaronsburg is now within 2 feet or so. The staging area also underwent some major revision, and various other tweaks were made.

I like the way it looks.


The full plan

Staging details

Visible Track Only

I've only added two structures: The engine house (A Walthers kit I bought some time back on eBay), and a planned brewery that will be part flat, part 3-d structure, located in Aaronsburg.

And for the fun of it, here are some 3-D renderings of the layout.

We have a trackplan

I've been working on the details this week. I decided to use a freeware program for this purpose... pretty cool, actually.

Here is a trackplan, in a couple of forms, and then a rendering 3-D style...