Bill’s world John Swanson, president and CEO of the Dixon, Wyanet & Lake Superior, takes a break from his Litchfield yardmaster as- signment on Bill’s CP&S. This is the farthest point from the CP&S crew lounge, so John thought it best to requisition his own chair for taking a break. Also, note the short platform next to him. This allows for much easier access to the entire Litchfield 60-inch- high yard throat. — Bill Navigato photo
track. Are those 20-inch aisles really the best you can do? Pro- viding for your operating crews’ overall experience with a little bit of creature comforts can make working your railroad a little bit more enjoyable — whether it’s a little breathing room in the aisle while walking around the layout, having some place away from be- ing in the middle of the action, to having a restroom close by if possible. Think about all those layouts across the country that you’ve operated on before. Hasn’t having a little bit of comfort made it that much better?
Mike sez… Well, Bill, thanks your input. I
for
can’t tell you how much I appreciate
your input. Wait a minute! Yes, I can tell you how much I appreci- ate it — very little! As usual, you don’t always see the other side of the story. Everybody’s situation, as well as their approach to prob- lem solving, is different.
My first Illinois & St. Louis Railroad — I called it my “test bed” layout — occupied a 750-square- foot basement. Since I like com- plex track plans — not to pur- posely create switching problems
80 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
and such, but because I like urban railroading — I needed just about every bit of space I had available. The result was what I thought was an interesting layout. However, I did hear some complaints about 18-inch-wide aisles I had here and there, especially from bigger fel- lows like the late Model Railroad- er editor Andy Sperandeo, who was my regular Peoria yardmaster at the old I&StL. Being a smaller- than-average-size guy, I could slip through those aisle chokepoints with ease, but I should not have been so oblivious to the needs of my fuller-figured guests (which, come to think of it, was most of them).
In the summer of 1997, I sold my house in Wisconsin, tore down the original I&StL, and moved back to my old stomping grounds in northern Illinois. In a little town near Rochelle, on a lot I refer to as “Zephyr Acres,” I built a basement for “I&StL–The Se- quel” and put a house over it. The new basement was about 1,600 square feet, more than twice the size of my old one. A compact furnace against the stairway was the only impediment to the new I&StL. Now I could do what I re- ally wanted to do: model both the Chicago end of the system, which I did not do on my test-bed I&StL,
as well as Joliet, Peoria, and Pe- kin, Illinois, and also have much more mainline running. To carry this out, I needed just about all available space. Yet, I wanted to be sure to unself- ishly provide ample aisle width throughout — one of the most important considerations in building an operationally orient- ed layout. There’s a sort of I&StL “urban legend” out there that, be- fore I began work on I&StL–The Sequel in 1998, I took the two largest I&StL operators in my crew pool, put them back to back, and then measured the results to establish a “standard” aisle width for I&StL–The Sequel. I frankly don’t remember if
that’s true or not, but my aver- age aisle width for the new layout became 30 inches. But now, dog- gone it, I still get some complaints about aisle congestion. So, 17 years later, I find myself putting two of my biggest operators back to back again and remeasuring… my standard aisle width should really have been 50 inches. I must have measured wrong back then. All I can say is, allow for future growth.
On my old layout, the crew lounge was upstairs in the living room, with snacks and other re- freshments set up in the dining
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