A Brief History and Details of the Sudbury Division Layout
Technical Details
| Railroad | Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail): Sudbury Division |
| Time Period | 1970-79 |
| Track | Visible:- handlaid code 55, 70 & 83 Hidden:- flextrack code 100 |
| Standards |
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| Track Occupancy Control | Dispatcher Controlled - Signalled CTC on Cartier Subdivision; Timetable & Train Order on other lines |
| Command Control System | SystemOne DCC (Wangrow Electronics) |
Brief History
The images and information contained within this site all relate to the current layout of the Waterloo Region model Railway Club. Since the club's inception in 1989 this is the third layout, all of which have attempted to model the CPR in northern Ontario. The first endeavour was essentially to rebuild a private basement pike owned by our far-sighted founder, John Brown. Then in 1992, the WRMRC had gathered enough funds to move into a 600 sq. ft. warehouse space located near the Kitchener VIA Rail station. In 1996, the club secured its own premises in a 40x50 ft. Quonset hut located in the village of Maryhill, Ontario, and moved during April of that year. This will hopefully be our last move ever!
Using the layout building experiences of all the members, in addition to what was learned from the two previous pikes, the WRMRC adopted many stringent rules before building the Sudbury Division. Examples include, maximum grades of 1.5% on mainlines in order to operate 30-40 car freights – in addition to all cars being equipped with free-rolling non-magnetic metal wheels. Maximum radius of 30 inches on hidden mainline trackage, with visible trackage being as wide as possible for aesthetic reasons. All visible trackage is hand-laid, for better appearance, performance and to keep costs down. Rail size used include code-83 for the Cartier Sub. mainline, with code-70 and -55 used on secondary lines, yards and industrial sidings. Hidden trackage (inside helices and staging yards) is code-100 flextrack. Motive power is strictly provided by the modern breed of better performing plastic and brass locomotives such as; Atlas, Kato, Life-Like "Proto-2000", Stewart, Athearn "Genesis" line, and Overland. Older Athearn units and the like are not used.
The club also abandoned many of the conventional "laws" of model railroad construction, as they had proven to be unreliable or impracticable for a layout of this size. For example, L-girder benchwork (what most modellers say is the only method of benchwork construction) was deemed to be an impractical and overbuilt means of fabricating our upper decks. A model railroad is actually very light, so the only reason to build heavy supports for upper decks is carry the weight of the overbuilt L-girder benchwork. The solution was to use a 3/8th inch plywood base supported by shelf brackets for the upper decks - with 1x2 supports to keep them level (and hide fluorescent lighting for the deck below). Solid spline roadbed on risers forms the right-of-way, as this method is the strongest means of supporting track, and will not buckle or heave over time due to humidity and temperature variations - a serious issue when building a model railroad in a Quonset hut in the Southern Ontario climate where humidity is high all year and temperature varies wildly between summer and winter. For large flat areas where spline is impractical (such as yards), ¾ inch plywood is used with plenty of support to keep the bench level.
Another unconventional rule of the layout is sub-roadbed: none is utilized on the WRMRC Sudbury Division. Almost everyone has bought into the idea that you need cork or Homasote underneath the tracks - not true. The only reason this has become a rule of layout construction is to make it easier to spike tracks down, and as a noise barrier. The past WRMRC layouts have used both forms of sub-roadbed, and both have been unreliable. Neither are ever flat, in fact both feature severe undulations and width variance. On smaller layouts it may not be noticeable, but when you build a long 30ft. stretch of tangent track at eye-level you see the roller coaster profile. Of the two, for our purposes and in our climate, Homasote is probably the worst sub-roadbed, as it has the added feature of soaking up atmospheric humidity over time, becoming very "hilly" in the process.
Spiking directly into pine spline is not as knuckle-breaking as many think. In fact it has been found that when a spike bends, it usually happens when you have a bad grip on the spike as you hit the glue in-between the tie and the spline. Once one gets the hang of it, even code-55 rail can be spiked down to the solid spline without any disastrous consequences. Excess noise from trains running on rails lacking sub-roadbed does occur (especially when cars are equipped with metal wheels), but this is minimized with the use of Styrofoam base scenery. Once scenery is completed, what noise remains is tolerable. Besides real trains are hardly quiet.
While we cannot always report pure, flawless operation, the WRMRC has adopted a zero tolerance towards derailments. The ones which do occur are usually caused by overlooked defects in rolling stock (missed during initial inspections) or trackage which is known to require more attention. Either way, any occurrences are noted and repaired. The helices have proven to be quite reliable - a good thing as it is quite a long drop from the top of a helix! Coupler strain is the usual culprit to any helix mishaps, which usually results in break-a-parts. Incidentally, cars rolling down a helix result in speeds of up to mach-2 when they finally empty out onto the lower approaches. Paying attention to NMRA coupler height standards, in addition to exclusive use of metal (that means Kadee) couplers, has negated this problem. Overall the WRMRC's operating sessions run smoothly, with dirty track and wheels (caused by all our construction) being our worst enemy.
All material on this page© 2002-2007 Waterloo Regional Model Railway Club.
Last Revised March 2007