James River Branch: The Plan

The Plan

The James River Branch presents a tiny snippet (literally just a few hundred scale feet) of fictitious Reading Railroad branchline, located somewhere in the rugged Appalachians of northeastern Pennsylvania, in the late spring/early summer of 1975. The Reading is nearing the end of its life, about to be swallowed up—along with its sister line, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, amongst others—by Conrail. Like some forgotten relic who didn't know it was time to quit, an aged GP7 with an outdated paint scheme is left to drag a few rusty old freight cars around to the last surviving industries which, like the Reading, are about to evaporate.

Measuring a mere 15 by 36 inches, the James River Branch layout is dominated by the town of Naughtright; the balance of the layout is verdant countryside with a farm on a hillside overlooking a river with waterfalls. The layout is designed for continuous running only, with two short segments of visible track, as shown in the plan below.

There is considerably more hidden track than visible track: the quasi-figure-eight is joined by a pair of helices—hover your cursor over the image above to see the hidden portions. Surprisingly, sharp curves (<6" r) and steep grades (~4%) do not adversely affect performance.

Originally intended to be a "stopgap" to hold me over until I could build a new permanent N scale layout, the James River Branch has subsequently become my primary modeling focus. This is its second incarnation, the first having been abandoned as unsatisfactory. This time around, I'm attempting to raise the bar for Z scale modeling, albeit in a very modest space. The greatest challenge is keeping such a small layout realistic, and avoiding the "circle in a music box" feel.

Probably the most notable feature of the layout is handlaid Code 25 track, which includes a switch. There's also a growing number of unique detail items, such as a working crossing flasher and a working Type "G" signal.

This website features many articles describing the layout's construction, from the base to the buildings, including track, scenery, rolling stock, detailing and animated effects. Below is an interactive map of the ever-changing town of Naughtright as it's currently arranged; hover over a structure to see its name, and click on it to access the page on its construction.

Click on a structure for construction details.

What does the layout look like today?

If you were to pay a visit to my workshop today, here's what you'd see, more or less—this was taken 25 February 2010. (Prior views are archived if you'd like to see the layout's progress over time.) Click the image for a 600 x 1200 pixel enlargement. For more images of the layout, please see the Gallery.

Here's a graphic progress report. Finished structures and scenery, as of 16 February 2010, are shaded green.

If you've arrived at my website for the first time, the next logical place to go would be the construction page, which divides the building of the layout into chapters, and presents the fabrication of items on the layout, such as bridges and structures, as individual, detailed projects. Have fun!

By the way, since the website is growing side-by-side with the layout, there's always something new, so please stop back often. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments. Also be sure to visit my Z scale blog, as well as all of my other modeling websites and blogs.