As I may have mentioned earlier, track planning is not my strong suit. With that in mind I have been working on the yard in New Brighton with some success. However, what I want and what will fit, although close, hasn’t been quite working out.

So I decided to switch gears and work on what I thought would be something a lot easier. That would be the town of Brandon which is in between Jackson and the helix. As I said before, I envisioned it as a smaller town than Jackson, but still big enough to generate enough traffic to make it important to the railroad.

My first attempt at a plan for this town was, although not a disaster, far more complicated than I wanted. I added in a lot more sidings  than was needed, almost a small yard.

As you can see in the picture above or maybe not, as things are only penciled in, the switching was quite extensive and include a two track yard. Also there were two tracks for the grain elevator which was totally unnecessary. Not shown are the siding for the team track next to the depot as well the lead off to the gravel company. Like I said, track planning is not my thing and I tend to overdue it.

So I pulled back and somewhat simplified it.

First I removed one of the tracks next to the elevator, as well as the one of the “yard” tracks. There is still one siding track that connects between the elevator track and the track that leads off to the gravel company on the north end of town. The team track next to the depot remains and there is a track on the north end that will serve a lumber yard. That track can be seen in the middle picture. I am considering a fuel oil dealer served by the “yard ” track, but not sure, we’ll see.

I should have the final for Brandon done soon. Then I’ll  get the cork roadbed in place. Once I have the New Brighton yard finalized I will start laying track from the staging yard to the helix. Then will come the wiring, and then…GASP!… I will actually be able to run a train.

It’s going to happen, so stay tuned.

Until then, Happy Railroading…