River Junction

River Junction is the name of the locale south of Chattahoochee where four railroads meet: the L&N, Seaboard, Atlantic Coastline, and Apalachicola Northern (of course today that's all CSX except for the AN). So despite its tiny size it is often displayed prominently on railroad maps and brochures from the mid-20th century. Apparently it also was subject to frequent flooding from the nearby Apalachicola River, as the above photo from 1925 shows.

Here's an aerial view from 1948, so that's a good reference for me. River Jct. is what's represented by the lower level of my layout in the photos from my previous post. On a side note, just a few miles north of here is a very rare natural community known as upland glades. This is the only place in Florida where that community is found.

Trackplanning, Fullscale

I've decided to try finalizing the trackplan at full scale on cardboard. It's going to be a challenge! This view shows one end of the Chattahoochee yard. The Apalachicola River will be bottom center. I've purchased a few Walthers turnouts to see how they'll fit.

Here's a closeup of the turnouts. The bottom one is a #6, the other two are #5s. I plan to use 6's on the mainline and 5's everywhere else. It's always surprising how much space these things actually require. These are code 83, and the combination of small rail and long turnouts looks really good.

Filler

By popular demand, here's some content to keep you readers sated! Actually it's been a crazy week as I had a big meeting at work and have been sick on top of that, so not much time for trains lately. I have been reading a great book on L&N diesels though and it's got great information on what diesels were likely to be seen in northwest Florida during my era. It's helping me narrow down the time period I want to model/operate. I really liked the idea of modeling the late 40s (just seems more quaint and nostalgic to me than the 50s), but most of the interesting diesels weren't around until 1950 or later, so now I'm thinking 1951.

Oh yeah, this photo is of the Tallahassee passenger depot sometime around 1910. This is the same building that still exists, although most of the architectural flourish has been removed.

Pensacola Pier

Here's the Pensacola port area in the 1940s. If I'm looking at this right I think the L&N pier is on the left, and the Frisco pier is on the right.

Here's the L&N coal tipple on the Pensacola pier. At this point I don't think I'll have room to model the pier itself, although I might have a spur track running off the layout to represent the pier.

Here's downtown Pensacola in 1959, showing the L&N yards.

Milton Station

Jennifer and I visited her family in Milton this weekend, and we stopped by the station for a few pictures. It now houses the West Florida Railroad Museum and a hobby shop.

The museum includes some freight and passenger cars, and a separate building for a model train layout.

Here's an historic photo from about the same angle. I've been looking at model kits, but none look very similar to this. The roof design of this station is different than most kits, but I may be able to kitbash something.

Trackplan - Upper Level

Here's the upper level, showing Tallahassee, Pensacola, Cottondale, and Milton. Tallahassee and Pensacola actually overlap, so that trains ending there run at one end of the route can "reappear" at the other end. The grade crossing at Cottondale represents the interchange with the Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay (the "Bay Line") that runs south to Panama City. The two ends of the L are helixes with 3-4 levels. The figures in inches represent elevation above the lowest track level at Chattahoochee yard. There should be about 9 inches of separation between Chattahoochee on the lower level and Milton above.

This trackplan doesn't include all the details, like industrial spurs and such. I can be more flexible with those.

Trackplan - Lower Level

I'm finally honing in on the trackplan, although I'm sure things will continue to change as I get further along. Here's the lower level, showing the yard and wye at Chattahoochee. This is the central point of the route, where the L&N and Seaboard meet. It's also the northern terminus of the Apalachicola Northern Railroad, although I haven't included any trackage specifically for the AN at this point. Also I may consider adding some additional storage/staging trackage on this level if it will fit.

Florida Gravel Co.

This is the Florida Gravel Co. facility on the Apalachicola River just west of Chattahoochee. This would be a great industry to model if I can figure out how to fit the river onto the layout somewhere!


Here's a cloesup. Apparently they're dredging gravel directly from the river bottom and shipping by rail. Both of these photos are from the 1920s.

Benchwork

At last, my benchwork is far enough along that it's worth showing pictures. This first photo shows the leg of the L plan along the south wall of the room.

Here's the other leg of the "L", along the west wall, along with my two layout-building helpers. So far this is just the leg assemblies and L-girders. Here's a closeup of a leg assembly/L-girder attachment, showing the hex bolts I used to attach the legs, for easy removal if necessary:

So I'm finally on my way! Now it's time to finalize the trackplan so I can start adding joists and risers, and then the subroadbed. I hope to post a trackplan sometime later this week.

Tallahassee Station

Here are the Seaboard Air Line stations at Tallahassee. The passenger station is in front, with the freight depot behind. Both buildings are still here, although the passenger platform is gone. The freight depot is now used as the Tallahassee Amtrak station, and also houses some city offices, while the passenger depot is CSX property. This photo is dated 1969, but those baggage carts suggest an earlier era.

Heralds

I'm just posting these here so they'll have a permanent home on my blog for reference elsewhere.

Train Room

After negotiations with the Minister of the Interior (Jennifer), my train layout is going in our front bedroom. It's a 14' by 12' room, and the layout will be an L-shape along two walls. This view shows the southwest corner of the room, where the center of the layout will be.


This view is of the northwest corner. The room will also house a desk, bookshelf, and the game cabinet (as per negotiations). I've already started on benchwork, I'll post a photo of my progress in the next few days.

Roundhouse

This is the L&N roundhouse in Pensacola in 1926. The structure appears to be made of wood siding, at least from about the roofline up. Possibly concrete or masonry below that. It will be a challenge to model, as most roundhouse kits I've come across are brick buildings. Note the large sanding facility in the foreground.

This photo was taken in Pensacola in 1951. There is clearly a turntable and apparently a roundhouse behind the engine, but I'm not positive if it's the same structure as above. The roofline is different (peak is more centered in the top photo). Anway, this shot shows more details of the building construction showing a concrete/masonry foundation. It's possible that the roundhouse was rebuilt sometime between the two photos. Since this is close to the era I'm planning to model, I may try to do something similar to this structure.

Namesake

Thought I would add a photo showing what this blog is named after. The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) was once found throughout much of north Florida. Most of it has now been logged (a big reason why the railroads came to Florida in the 1800s). This photo of mesic flatwoods is actually from Dunn's Creek State Park in Putnam County, southwest of Jacksonville. These may actually be slash pines not longleaf, but use your imagination. Photo by Brenda Herring, Florida Natural Areas Inventory.

Routemap

Here's a map of the area I'm planning to model (click on the map for a larger version). I've chosen to model portions of divisions from two railroads - the Louisville & Nashville from Pensacola to Chattahoochee, and the Seaboard Air Line from Chattahoochee to Tallahassee. The L&N division actually starts in Alabama, while the SAL division continues east to Jacksonville. While it's unusual to model portions of divisions from two railroads in one layout, I really want to capture the route from Pensacola to Tallahassee, so I'm giving it a shot. I'll explain more about how I plan to simulate the two railroads' operations in a future post.

Welcome to Rails Through the Longleaf! This blog will document my work on a scale model railroad layout depicting the Seaboard Airline and L&N railroads in north Florida in the early 1950s. I'll be posting photos and updates on the layout as it progresses. More to come....