Cane River and Winnfield Rock.

[danielb]

A while ago I was reading through a forum thread about the Trent Valley North American Modellers exhibition, a UK event for people who model the US prototype, and thought "I could do that." So I asked the event organizer if he had space for another layout. As it stands I have 6ft of allocated space at the event to exhibit a layout.

Now, with TVNAM looming on the horizon, I thought it wise to get my layout build thread up on the forum to encourage me to crack on and get it ready in time - plenty of time to go, and I am currently part of the way through the wiring.

Whilst the wiring is ongoing I've been cracking on with other aspects of the project, including getting the buildings ready to be planted.

The idea for the layout is as a slowly growing project along a similar vein to the popular Sweet Home Alabama - start with a single switching layout and expand it further and further as time goes on. Whilst working on the wiring for Cane River I decided to convert over to DCC, then realised I'd need a testing a programming track, which eventually expanded into an idea for a stand alone micro-layout, which became Winnfield Rock - which can be used as an extension to Cane River should I so choose.

To start with I wanted to build something a little different to what I am used to seeing when out and about over here - we have plenty of cities and rolling hills out here just as they do in the States, so I wanted to go for a stark contrast to that. Arid desert or Bayou kind of immediately jumped out in my mind.

Inspired by Nantahala Midland and the southern beauty it depicts, I decided on a Bayou setting, so opened up Google and started looking at images and maps of Louisiana. The more I looked the more interesting the state appeared, and as a bonus my two favourite railroads, both BNSF and CSX have trackage in the state.

I like the look of Louisiana so much I've decided that when Cane River is finished to scrap my WIP home layout and have designed another one based around my new favourite state!

Looking around the Shreveport area I found the town of Mansfield, which drew my eye as I live not far from Mansfield, England - and after a little further snooping around I found Cane River - name chosen!

Though the area around Cane River has no actual railroad in reality, that doesn't stop me from coming up with a fictional shortline to base around there.

So far, the basic track layout has been decided, the baseboards constructed and the trackbed raised up to allow for more flowing scenery. I've made a start on wiring in the power feeds and will go from there. This coming weekend should see the wiring complete and the scenery begin. I originally included a 3 way point before realising that I don't actually need one, and so ditched it to make things less electrically complex. All turnouts are all live frog and it needs to be DCC friendly - two things I've not worked with before - so this caused me pause whilst I investigated how to wire them up.

So whilst doing so I started on Winnfield Rock - which was designed as an extension and yet is further along than Cane River itself is!

Between jobs on each layout I've been busying myself at work on my lunch breaks making a start on the structures - starting with a small factory/warehouse design taken from a set of drawings in Model Railroader. I've also made preparation for the large amount of trees the layout will inevitably need and raided my local Hobbycraft which was having a sale on Woodland Scenics products. I came away with some dark green foam and 50-odd armatures for making trees. I've since bought 100+ more armatures and more foam products, which should be enough to outfit my home layout as well.

Once the wiring is complete and tested, progress should rocket along as scenery is my favourite aspect of this hobby of ours!

Below are pictures of my progress so far. Cane River first, Winnfield Rock after.

Cane River track plan:


Current progress:




Winnfield Rock track plan:


Current progress:








Let me know what you think.