Finishing Up Loose Ends

Receipt of a new box of track has allowed me to wrap up two details:

1. Completion of the Southern Railway depot/interchange track. This will be the arrival and departure track for all passenger trains, as well as a place to park those cars that are being left for the Southern Railway to take out to the wider world and vice versa. I've got 89" of storage here, which is enough for 4 passenger cars or 5 typical freight cars.




















The track board here is a 2x8, which leaves 2 inches of clearance (4 scale feet) for a very shallow model of the Southern Railway depot. This scene will include a model of Cornelia's "Big Red Apple", probably to be erected on one side or the other of the train door. In this way I hope to capture this scene:
















Notice the second caboose in this photo, located at the far left. That car is parked on the real life TFRR arrival track, as described in the last post.


2. Completion of the TFRR Departure Track. This is the track that will be used to store cars as they are being collected into outgoing trains by the yard locomotive. This track is 128" long, providing enough storage for 7 average freight cars, maybe 8 if some are smaller.



















There is plenty of free space on that middle plank to the south of where the two arrival tracks curve away. I am tempted to add a short caboose track here to parallel the departure track, however for the meantime I am deterred by the fact that there will be no easy way to reach it OR the switch.

At the end of the three planks I plan to have a model of the TFRR's office, which was a tiny frame structure that is perfect for the spot. It perfectly fits the operation, too, as you can imagine the conductor stopping in the office to get any final paperwork before the train rolls out toward Franklin.

I haven't been able to find any photos that show what the ends of yard tracks actually looked like in Cornelia, so in the meantime I am using a pair of Bachmann's inexpensive timber and earth bumpers on both of these. As usual, a coat of paint did much to improve the look of them and cut the plastic shine.