Hello my OGR family!
After being inspired by many of y’all’s layout threads I decided it is probably about time I join the community.
The layout is a medium to large 3 rail free lance setup based in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. The logic behind the railroad is a combined reference of SF’s route to the Grand Canyon and the Southern’s Murphy Branch. Imagine, if you will, if the Santa Fe further expanded their tourist venture into the Smoky Mountains where they found a booming coal supply and plenty of tourism opportunities. Thus, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad was born as a subsidy of the Santa Fe with partnership with the PRR. Further details are included in the video below as it shows the layout much better than text.
Fast forward to where the layout stands today. The mountain’s structure has been changed and completed to include a new valley tunnel, there many new buildings, and more scenery. This next video is the most up to date however there are a few things that have changed since then.
As of now the town is almost completed with buildings and trains are still running! I also have a couple of changes I want to make soon to the layout. The first is the downhill grade from the mine to the top of the table. When it was first designed the steep decent was fine for simple operations. However, the grade is starting to cause trains to struggle with control and locomotives will lose tender connection as it goes over a hump produced by the decent. I plan on making the grade be gradual and curved similar to the ascending grades.
The second layout change is a narrow gauge branch line! I have always wanted to mess with On30 but could never find a track plan that would fit into what space I have left. With some inspiration from micro point to point layout designs I was able to find a solution. As of writing this post a Bachmann PRR On30 set is on its way which will kick off the branch line construction.
Thank you all for reading and watching. I will continue to post here when new updates come out and when new additions arrive. I hope my multi year project brings inspiration to new and old.
