Layout

So far the plan is to have the entire Durham and Southern mainline from Durham to Dunn, with possible branch to Erwin. It will also include the Norfolk & Southern Fayetteville branch (aka The Raleigh and Cape Fear Railway chartered in 1898 until 1911 when it merged into the Norfolk and Southern). The N&S had a junction with the D&S in Varina (now Fuquay-Varina) and the branch continued down to Fayetteville. Time frame is set for April 12, 1973.

Layout room is set to an L-shape that is 21'-8" x 12'-6" on it's longest sides. Not sure if I'll be able to selectively compress what I want into this space, but here is the first pass. Each square represents 1 foot. Primarily a bridge route between Durham, Apex & Dunn, hopefully making use of LDEs (Layout Design Elements, a term coined by Tony Koester).

I wasn't very happy with both of these versions (v.1 and v.2) because they didn't allow an engineer to follow their train very well once they get to Apex.

I got to version 3, but I felt that I was getting small aisle widths and so I kinda hit "writer's block" and took some time off for a few months, plus work had me going out of town a lot amongst other springtime activities. Needing to find a distraction from summertime yard work, I hope to pick back up again and finalize this drafting mode (June 2010).

Version 1 (Aug. 2008)

Version 2 (with Upper and Lower levels, Feb. 2009):

Version 3 (Nov. 2009):

Version 4 (June 2010): click on it to view larger image

Here is a photo showing the stairs with my son.