4. Milestone 1 - Track Plan

Yeah! The OGM track plan is complete. Since the railroad is going to be an operational railroad, the track plan was designed with that in mind and therefore wide aisles were one of my initial requirements. The railroad is a single track mainline with passing sidings designed to handle train lengths of 15 cars and two locomotives and will be operated with the NCE DCC system. I'm hoping that the budget will allow me to replace the hard wired system with radio control.

The track floor plan is basically 23x25 feet with a 5x11 feet bump-out in the northeast corner that will showcase a mountain scene with a coal mine near the top. The operating height (0' elevation) of the mainline is about 50". One helix, part hidden and part exposed, will allow access to the mine from the mainline and the staging area beneath the west peninsula that protrudes south from the north and one helix will grant access to staging below the east helix that  protrudes north from the southeast corner. These two staging areas will represent the eastern and western most points of the layout. The era of the OGMS is modern day, however, steam locomotives operating as excursion trains will occasionally be seen crossing the layout.