My plans for how I’m going to model the Front Street Spur have changed several times over the years. Each revision reflected a major breakthrough in my knowledge of the historical prototype or a better understanding of how model railroads can be built and enjoyed. I documented that journey on my page, “the backstory.”
Overview
Currently my plan is to model the Salem railroad scene as it appeared around 1950 beginning at the intersection of Trade Street and Front Street and expanding East and North from there. I’m modeling in HO scale with very little compression or scene cropping needed. The layout will be a free-standing, L-shaped, shelf-style layout with an average width of 22.” I’m using sectional benchwork so that I can complete the layout in phases and easily transport it when needed.
Trackwork
In previous iterations, I spent a lot of time using track-planning software to come up with detailed track plans. It was fun but not really useful. When it came time to put down actual track, the plans did not account for so many details. In the end, it was easier and more effective to coax the trackwork along a path that resembled the prototype. To that end, I took historical track arrangements from Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and digitally resized them to scale and overlaid them on a 12″ grid. Below is an example.
From this crude “track plan” I was able to determine several things: (a) an ideal width for the straight sections of the layout should be around 22″ and each city block was about 48″ and the streets were about 12″ wide.
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