Fulton County Railway - My New Switching Layout

 

Fulton County Railway Locomotive 2002, Photo by Railway Age.

I've been modeling narrow gauge steam for many many years. Recently I noticed that my skills were getting behind in modern railroading, current technology and in industrial switching. Its possible that I wil be moving soon, so I decided to build a portable, sectional layout based on industrial switching. This also required a scale change to HO.

The entire industrial parks is full of pine trees and asphalt roads, with heavy truck traffic. This is a rare quiet crossing.

I like to stay with southern short line railroads and there is one in Georgia that no one hears about, but is based in the largest industrial complext East of the Mississippi. This is the Fulton County Railway. The FCR is a 25 mile industrial switching railroad that was purchased by OmniTrax from the CSX Railroad. CSX is the only connecting railroad to the FCR. The traffic in the industrial park is varied and heavy, though not as heavy as in past history.

The FCR features curved buildings, old rusty track, bad ties, dirt, and very very tight curved trackage that is wedged in-between many buildings.

The railroad is based in Fulton County, Georgia, just west of Atlanta. It is built on Civil War battlefields and military artifacts abound in the area. The main yard is Fulco Yard, which is fed by a small CSX yard to the East. The problem with modeling this railroad is that it is very hard to access without intentional tresspassing, which I don't do. So far after many attempts to shoot a locomotive with my camera I don't have a single photo of one, or even a train. Even the industrial trackage is fenced off in most areas. Couple this with the Utoy Creek that runs through the railroad, which is infested with Copperheads, a well known poisonous snake. The crime rate in this area is one of the highest in the Atlanta area, so railfanning this line presents problems of scale. Thus, the reason no one knows about this railway.

The tunnel under the Fulton Industrial Boulevard six-lane roadway. Its not a bridge, but a full concrete underpass. This is about the only actual grade as the rest of the railway is completely flat, being on the bank of the Chattahoochee River.

Becaused of limited space the layout has to be limited to what would essentially be a 20 foot long shelf layout that is two feet deep. While this is plenty of room for a switching layout in HO, it precludes having the more scenic affects of the Utoy Creek Bridge and the really interesting Fulton Industrial Boulevard "Tunnel." Without these interesting features the rest of the railway is static, dirty and quite cramped with buildings and scrawny pine trees.

The Final Layout Design (Click to Enlarge)

I designed the layout to be medium difficulty switching layout (not a puzzle) based on real buildings and real trackwork. While I'm not trying for 100% accuracy, I am trying to capture the feel of the line to make operations more realistic. So the goal of the layout is predominately high performance operation, realistic businesses, structures and rail traffic, and a feel for the August heat and pollution of Atlanta. Sounds fun!  Cough, cough.

That is the general gist. More later!