The
SJR&P Garden Railroad The
SJR&P Garden Railroad
Welcome to the SJR&P. Incorporated in 1985, this small freelance narrow gauge garden railway is being built as a feeder into the larger BR&P standard gauge railroad. The SJR&P was named after its construction force (Sarah Jane/Jonathan Richard and Parents) but has taken on its nickname (Some Justifiable Recreation and Procrastination). The SJR&P is an Fn3 narrow gauge railroad with over 3000 ft of track, over 100 pieces of rolling stock, and more than 30 locomotives powered by Digital Command Control. The SJR&P is a railroad in the garden rather than an outdoor model of a railroad. As such there are few structures and the garden and railroad are built to harmonize each other. The highlights of the SJR&P are its bridges,rock gardens and lily ponds. Unlike an indoor layout where the scenery must be created, the tunnels and grades of the SJR&P are functional as they were required in order to mold the railroad into the hillsides. The railroad serves an area rich in coal, oil and hardwoods. Trains move the raw materials to the standard gauge interchange and supplies to the various towns and industries served by the railroad.
Name:
SJRP Railway Scale: Fn3 (1:20.3 3ft narrow gauge) Size: 200 ft x 180 ft, 12 scale miles of track Prototype: American 3 ft narrow gaugeLocal:
rugged hills of the North East Era: 1940-1950s Style: linear with 4 main destinations yards, 8 branch lines, 10 major industries, and 14 additional switching locationsMainline run:
4 scale miles (1000 ft) Minimum degree of curve: 43° (2 Meters) Minimum Turnout: #6 for mainlines #4 for yards/IndustriesMaximum Grade:
2% mainline, 4% branch Elevation Change: 250 scale ft (13 feet)Roadbed:
gravel roadbed Track: 110 lb rail (code 332 stainless steel and brass)Scenery:
garden setting Backdrop: natural skyControl:
DCC/Digital plus by Lenz
The
SJR&P is a Fn3 railroad. Fn3 uses #1 gauge track (45 mm) scaled to the 1/20.3
(3 foot narrow gauge). Because of commercial availability, a mixture of 1/22.5,
1/24, and 1/29 equipment is also on the railroad. With the influx of
great 1:20.3 rolling stock from Bachmann and
Accucraft more and more of the rolling stock is being replaced by cars of the
proper scale. Most of the curves are 6'6" (2 meter) which scales out to a
prototypical 132 foot radius. The SJR&P uses code 332 rail which is rather
large but considering the acorn and other debris common for a northeast railroad
this compromise significantly increases operation reliability.
Modeling
outdoors is a lot of fun and offers a few different challenges then more
traditional railroading. The obvious one is weather. We work on the
railroad all year round. Operation is only suspended when the snow depth
is more than the plows can handle. In the spring and fall crews spend a
lot of time expanding the railroad as spring and fall are excellent times of the
year in New England.
The SJR&P has been
designed to facilitate realistic operation. The track plan is a multipoint
railroad (3 end points) with 5 branch lines. A subset can also be configured to
operate as two loops for unattended operation or an out and back operation.
During operations these connections are used for interchange of cars between
different segments of the railroad.
While a freelance design, the track plan is based on concepts gathered from several narrow gauge prototype railroads. The main locomotive facility is not at the end of the railroad as derived from the EBT railroad and the multi point operation was derived from the Harzbahn narrow gauge railroad in Germany.
The
SJR&P is a railroad in the garden rather then an outdoor model of a railroad.
As such there are few structures and the garden and railroad are built to
harmonize with each other. The highlights of the SJR&P are its rock gardens and lily
ponds. Unlike an indoor layout where the scenery must be created, the tunnels
and grades (2 - 3%) of the SJR&P are functional as they were required in order
to mold the railroad into the hillsides and climb over 12 feet from the
interchange yard to mines a the top of the hill.
Flowering perennials dominate the garden, with a strong back bone of day iris, day-lilies, and hostas. Most plants have been kept to a smaller scale then the average perennial bed and rarely exceed 18 inches. Recently the total shade area has posted a challenge and our attentions have turned to our new bog garden and two recently added ponds. White pines and red oaks provide cover about 1/2 of the garden railway and offer shade to our operators in the hot summer months.
The
layout is powered by NMRA Digital Command Control and Live Steam. DCC was chosen
because of its ability to control all layout functions through an integrated
single system that is available through multiple sources. In addition to
operating the locomotive speed and direction, DCC is also used to control other
locomotive functions such as sound and lights and is also control some of the
switch machines. Most locomotives have between 8 and 12 functions which
provides the engineer a lot to do besides simple speed control. DCC is
great outdoors. Stainless Steel track reduces the need to clean track and
is a great improvement over brass for track powered outdoor layouts. Still
cleaning track takes time away from having fun. A new addition to the
railroad is Hybrid Drive
which currently uses the Lenz
USP technology. This technology allows the decoders to pick up the DCC
signal even on dirty track and small onboard batteries power the locomotive when
track power is not available. The use of Hybrid Drive technology results in seamless operation on dirty
track. Slowly
the locomotive roster is being converted to Hybrid Drive technology.
Bi-Directional DCC and Asymmetrical DCC are being added to allow for some trains
to be run in the background while others are being operated by train crews.
In the future DCC will also be installed in some rolling stock to
facilitate braking and automatic coupling. The
railroad is being designed to allow 15 simultaneous trains in operation.
A typical operating session lasts 3-4 hours. We are subject to actual weather conditions since this is outdoors operation session. A fair degree of walking, climbing steps and bending over to uncouple rolling stock is required for most crews, but that is part of the fun. There are a variety of jobs to suit various skill levels. Most crews consist of two individuals; one engineer and one conductor/brakeman. Train crews are provided with operating instructions, route maps, clipboards, throttles, and 4x5 car cards with photographs. Yard Crews are provided with an initial list of empty cars needed by the industries on the railroad.
The railroad uses an operating scheme that uses train orders. Trains are operated using two man crews with an engineer and conductor/brakeman. The dispatched provides train orders to the crews who then check in when required for new orders. We use both a "Between" and "proceed" order. A between order allows the crew full movement between two points. A proceed order allows the crew to proceed in the specified direction to the next specified point, Most of the switching operations happen on the branch lines. The concept is that the larger locomotives take trains to transfer yards where smaller locomotives switch the mines and industries.
Photos are posted on our Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/23959355@N05/
Our Video Channel is at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/stanames
Garden Railroading is still evolving. Operation potentials are still evolving. Your
comments on enhancements that could facilitate future operating potentials are encouraged.
The SJR&P Management
(Stan, Deborah, Jon, and Sarah Ames)
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Copyright 1997-2007 by Tried & True Trains,
Inc.
This page is written and maintained by: Stan Ames
For more information contact Debbie Ames,
President tttrains
