Planning an Alleghany NTRAK Module

Thom Metz stopped by tonight to discuss his plans for an NTRAK module based on Alleghany, Va. We are lucky that Matt Schaefer designed an excellent module based on Alleghany for Dudley Ross several years back. Matt was one of the best NTRAK modular designers ever.  People from across the globe sought his design advice. Alas both Matt and Dudley have passed away, but their memory lives on in an excellent module design.

 The key brilliant insight that Matt came up with in the design was to utilize the original tunnel as a double track line, and then use the newer tunnel as a single track line in order to accommodate the triple NTRAK mainlines on a location that really only had two tracks through the tunnels.. To quote John C Paton from "Alleghany with an A",

"Curiously, to look at them, the impression is that the old bore is really the new one, and vice-versa. This is because the new bore was drilled for single track, while the old one is wide enough for two." The single track in the old bore gives the feeling of spaciousness associated with a newer excavation."

I photographed Dudley's layout for Kalmbach's Great Model Railroads 2005 and you can find the overall track plan there. Here are some other shots of Dudley's Alleghany including a simplified drawing of just the Alleghany section.



The main scene at Alleghany includes a turntable, brick cabin and depot.