The Lengthy Lineage of Little Layouts, Part 2: Source track plan for John Olson's Cielo Lumber Co. layout

Top: Model Railroader, March 1972 | Bottom: Railroad Modeler, January 1974.

Galen did some excellent detective work and told me in the comments to the first post of this series that the track plan to John Olson's Cielo Lumber Co. layout looks to be derived from a section of Robert Silas' Sagatukett River RR track plan that appeared in the March 1972 issue of Model Railroader. As you can see in the above illustration, the similarities are indeed very similar, as Yogi Berra might have said :-)

I asked Galen how he figured this out and he noted:

"It was a combination of your sketch and Olson's comments in the article that did it.  Something he said about the spacing and how "you can spend forty-five minutes to an hour on just a single problem".  Your sketch is "upside down" so to speak but it removed the structures enough that the basic track geometry was clearer.  I've tried the switching scenario mentioned in the original article and it really would take forever and a day.

I'm loathe to admit I've probably spent more time perusing the track plan collection book that the Sagatukett plan was included in than I should have, but I like studying these plans.  For some reason this one stayed with me ..."

In the June '72 issue of Model Railroader, a Mr. Alan L Bates wrote in to comment on performing switching operations in the town of Equinox, the town the source track plan services:

"It would be hard to come up with a more ideal example of how not to build a railroad, either prototype or model, than the town of Equinox on the Sagatukett River RR in your March issue."

Mr. Bates then elaborates on the time consuming complexities of performing operations on that track plan, at one point suggesting operations on said track plan would "at worst could cause mass misery among the others attending the session [JDL: the operating session] with resultant ulcers, drunkenness, and riotous behavior." Clearly this track plan needs to come with a warning label :-)