Hi all , unfortunately I have been unable to do much outside for the past 3 weeks . So in the meantime I have worked out and drawn up a track plan
I hope it makes sense, apologies for my messy hand writing.
It is Chur to Arosa , with many changes and condensing of features, fitting 26 km of railway into 16m takes a couple of compromises
There are 3 main connected areas, the raised garden bed with Arosa, St Peter/Molinis and Langwies on it.
A raised baseboard section with Chur Altstadt halt, the old Sand depot and a nice street run beside the plessur river under a awning.
Chur station and train storage inside the train room, probably will always be a non scenic area.
I realise this is a pretty ambitious undertaking to get to work well and look good. This will take me quite a few years to bring together, but that is a good thing .
I have tried many different plans in this space, I think this one ticks all the boxes for me for the following reasons.
There are 2 continuous loops around 30m long, so I can have 2 trains running in opposite directions. For when I just want to sit and relax with a nice brew and watch some trains run. Or if someone wants to come and run trains too.
There is the 7m long street run because I really like the look of trains running through the road traffic. Plus it gives me space to make and display quite a few model buildings, cars and trucks. I really like the look of the old sand depot which is used as a maintenance of way depot. Plenty of great modelling potential there. All in a pretty sheltered area so I should be able add a lot of detail.
The raised garden bed will be planted with many dwarf conifers and large rocks across the areas marked as scenic divide in the plan. To block your view from any station to another station and hopefully look like forests, mountains and valleys .Trains will not be visible for the whole lap . Space for a few tunnels , rockfall galleries and viaducts.
I can run it as a point to point railway.
There is space to extend Arosa station area to 6-7m long. I didn't include in the initial wall building as it is only between 0.7m - 1.1m wide ,so was unusable in my initial plan .Very useful now to make Arosa fit ok.
Removing the lift out section at B on the plan .There should be enough operating potential to keep me interested running in a reasonably prototypical way. Loops at the stations are 4m , so a reasonable enough train length. From Chur a train would be marshalled then leave the shed and stop at Chur Altstadt. Then continue up the street past sand depot over a viaduct through a tunnel then another viaduct to St peter/Molinis. Then around to Langwies and onto Langwies viaduct . Continuing on past the Arosa cement plant around through a tunnel to Arosa and vice versa on a return trip passing each other at one of the stations .
Prototype wise
Passenger trains run each way each hour ,Allegra's where freight wagons are attached as needed. There is a express that runs a few times a day (not sure how that fits in)There is a weekday freight train, single or double GE 4/4 ii that stops at Langwies and St peter/Molinis for log traffic , that also can go to Arosa when needed. I have seen pullman coaches on trains (they can be privately rented), open tourist wagons and baggage vans . Freight traffic wise I have seen stake wagons, fuel tankers ,coop and plain refrigerated containers, calanda, kuoni and plain sliding door vans ,cement wagons, garbage skips , plain skips and ore wagons going to Arosa .I have watched videos where Allegras were running around their train ,no control car (2014) at Arosa and chur , plus shunting at chur and Arosa , extra freight wagons removed and added at each end. Coaches are removed and added at both ends as needed through the day . Sand , gravel and cement shunted to the cement plant. There is a dedicated shunting loco at Arosa. I am sure there is probably a lot more I have never seen videos of .Anybody who has seen more traffic or knows more on how the line is operated please comment.
Any comments , questions or ideas feel to ask.
