Quisling: constructing 16 feet of modular railroad
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:59 pm
As said in another thread, I'm building 16' of modular boards, and calling the location,"Quisling".
Q: Where does the name come from? A: I personally don't like using real names for imaginary locations, and it's a bit more difficult than it sometimes seems to make up reasonable-sounding names that we are individually happy with. For a club module, I had originally been gathering a lot of kit for some boards that would be based around the Southern Pacific's Donner Pass route at Emigrant Gap - deep snow, spreaders, flangers etc., but finally, I had to accept that it would be totally out-of-place with the modules the other guys were building. So I had to compromise, and I really did feel a traitor to the Donner Pass plan. That's where the Quisling name occurred to me. It's also that rare thing, inasmuch as there is no settlement in the US called Quisling (I can't think why... it's the same with "Hitler"); there's a Quisling Cove in Alaska, a Quisling Park in Wisconsin and a Quisling Cemetery in Kansas, but that's about it.
"Imaginary" Quisling is a small town in California, on a single-track main line served by the Southern Pacific; it has a Depot, a siding (loop), and a house track, which is a double-ended team track that runs nearest the depot. There's also a Sunkist fruit packing plant plus a few more small industries on a couple of spurs. To add spice to the JMRI-based, Dispatcher-controlled modular-board operations that we now undertake every month at the Western Union meet in Plymouth, there's also a short MoW track, where Rob Mallett and I can drop off and pick up bespoke SP MoW equipment.
The construction methods and materials used will be covered in a forthcoming Roundhouse article or two, so I won't dwell on them here, but as well as using the module every month to contribute some actual railroad to the fun, it will also be employed for taking photographs, both of early eighties' stock, as well as my main interest, the Southern Pacific railroad of 1954. The buildings, therefore, will have to look the part for both eras, and luckily, upon examination of many pictures form both periods, things didn't change much in thirty years. The depot itself is a laser-cut kit for a Southern Pacific Type 23 building, from AMB, the first laser-cut wooden model I've painted and assembled. I've also just finished another laser-cut building, of a speeder shed. Other buildings will be by DPM and Walthers, with a semi-flat scratch-built Sunkist plant.
Anyway, here's the general track plan with an idea of the major buildings. Four Peco Code 83 #8 switches are used, two on either end of the main line, with #6 switches for the off-main tracks. A final #8 gives access to the two Sunkist sidings at the top LH. All will be locally-controlled using SPDT toggles and Conrad motors.
Quisling track plan by bxmoore, on Flickr
Thanks for looking. I plan to update this as I go along.
Q: Where does the name come from? A: I personally don't like using real names for imaginary locations, and it's a bit more difficult than it sometimes seems to make up reasonable-sounding names that we are individually happy with. For a club module, I had originally been gathering a lot of kit for some boards that would be based around the Southern Pacific's Donner Pass route at Emigrant Gap - deep snow, spreaders, flangers etc., but finally, I had to accept that it would be totally out-of-place with the modules the other guys were building. So I had to compromise, and I really did feel a traitor to the Donner Pass plan. That's where the Quisling name occurred to me. It's also that rare thing, inasmuch as there is no settlement in the US called Quisling (I can't think why... it's the same with "Hitler"); there's a Quisling Cove in Alaska, a Quisling Park in Wisconsin and a Quisling Cemetery in Kansas, but that's about it.
"Imaginary" Quisling is a small town in California, on a single-track main line served by the Southern Pacific; it has a Depot, a siding (loop), and a house track, which is a double-ended team track that runs nearest the depot. There's also a Sunkist fruit packing plant plus a few more small industries on a couple of spurs. To add spice to the JMRI-based, Dispatcher-controlled modular-board operations that we now undertake every month at the Western Union meet in Plymouth, there's also a short MoW track, where Rob Mallett and I can drop off and pick up bespoke SP MoW equipment.
The construction methods and materials used will be covered in a forthcoming Roundhouse article or two, so I won't dwell on them here, but as well as using the module every month to contribute some actual railroad to the fun, it will also be employed for taking photographs, both of early eighties' stock, as well as my main interest, the Southern Pacific railroad of 1954. The buildings, therefore, will have to look the part for both eras, and luckily, upon examination of many pictures form both periods, things didn't change much in thirty years. The depot itself is a laser-cut kit for a Southern Pacific Type 23 building, from AMB, the first laser-cut wooden model I've painted and assembled. I've also just finished another laser-cut building, of a speeder shed. Other buildings will be by DPM and Walthers, with a semi-flat scratch-built Sunkist plant.
Anyway, here's the general track plan with an idea of the major buildings. Four Peco Code 83 #8 switches are used, two on either end of the main line, with #6 switches for the off-main tracks. A final #8 gives access to the two Sunkist sidings at the top LH. All will be locally-controlled using SPDT toggles and Conrad motors.
Quisling track plan by bxmoore, on Flickr
Thanks for looking. I plan to update this as I go along.