The Modoc and Lassen is an HO scale model of a fictional shortline in northeastern California. Connections are with the Southern Pacific RR and the Gorre and Daphetid Lines. The Southern Pacific's Modoc line ran from Reno to Oregon after it had acquired the Nevada, California, and Oregon. The Gorre and Daphetid was John Allen's fictional railroad that ran through the Sierra Nevada mountains and connected with Whit Tower's Alturus and Lone Pine which was also in northeastern California.
The setting for the railroad will be the 1950's to 1960's. The railroad operated several steam locomotives and later purchased ALCO RSD-15's when it dieselized. The Modoc and Lassen extends about 15 miles from the interchange at Williams, through the town of Wendylynne to its terminus at Brookevale. All towns are fictional. Passenger traffic on the road is minimal and rides in the caboose. Freight traffic comes from a lumber mill, a cement quarry, a produce shipper, a meat packing company, a furniture company, a cannery, a brewery, and a stockyard.
The design will be a folded dog bone with hidden staging for the interchange traffic. It will operate as a point-to-point with the continuous run connection hidden. Plans are to have a turntable at the terminus of Brookevale and a wye at Williams.
At the moment there are two slightly different possible track plans. The difference being the direction taken by trains as they leave Williams and loop around the mountain. This will also affect the layout of the other loop between Wendylynne and Brookevale. Either way the mainline will have an uphill grade from Williams to Wendylynne and then descend to Brookevale.
The area for the layout is the back stall of a three-car tandem garage the other two stalls are side-by-side in the front. The stall is slightly over ten feet wide with the front 16 feet available to use. The front end also widens out another three+ feet due to an angled wall on one side that starts four feet from the front.
I am using XTrackCAD to design the track plan. A free track planning software set with parameter files for most track manufacturers. It also includes buildings, locomotives and cars and allows you to "run" a train over the track plan. If all fits, I hope to have a minimum mainline radius of 30" with 24" for the wye.
