2006 - Defining some Layout Design Elements

In late 2006 with the information I had gathered so far I began to make drawings using Microsoft Visio of particular areas that could be built as scenes on a layout.  These are popularly know in our hobby as Layout Design Elements.  Not knowing when or where I would be building this layout, drawings of individual scenes made sense as they would define features that I would desire to have in the layout.  I realized that some of these might not fit in to whatever space I would have and that I would have to pick and choose from these as I developed the plan.

This is an example of the kind of drawings I was using at this point.  I felt that the west end of the paired track would make for an interesting operation.  This would be intended to be the west end of the modeled area.



I did drawings like this for each of the elements that I wanted to include in the layout and ended up with 9.  Besides the drawing shown above, some of the others included:

• North Valmay power plant - This coal burning power plant receives unit coal trains.  The two tracks are separated by more than a mile here and a return loop from west to east connects those two tracks.
• Shoshone - The location mentioned in the first post where both tracks go under the I-80 freeway and continue south following the Humboldt River to Palisade canyon.
• Carlin - At the eastern end of Palisade canyon.  This was a division point for the Southern Pacific and they maintained some maintenance facilities here.  They also originated a local in Carlin that covered the mining industries to the west.  There is a also double crossover here and a few industry sidings on the SP line.
• Flyover - I don't know if it's really called this but it's the point in the canyon where the WP line crosses over the SP line.  Interesting group of bridges.
• Harny - When the City of San Francisco derailed here in 1937 due to sabotage, a bridge on the SP line that crossed the Humboldt River was also destroyed.  The river was diverted to eliminate the need for a bridge.  
• Palisade - Tracks cross a pair of bridges on the west side before entering tunnels.  On the east side the SP line crosses a bridge that was destroyed in a 2008 derailment.  This is one of the more photographed areas on the paired track.