Adding Nooksack

Draft plan for Nooksack, extended from Willow Junction to the east

Last spring I started planning for extensions to the initial attic layout, starting with this plan for Nooksack. The Nooksack section extends from Willow Junction, replacing the current location of the four-foot staging section and then cantilevers over the attic trapdoor. While later I am planning on adding additional trackage to the east, for now the plan is to continue to use the four-foot staging to the east, on the other end of Nooksack.

Operationally this plan has some upsides and some downsides. The upside is the addition of two larger industries: Curtis Cannery and Nooksack Lumber and Shingle Company. Both of them are based on similar industries in Whatcom county. For example, Everson, Washington had a large produce cannery active from the 1920's through the 1950's. The downside is the lack of "empty" running space between the initial "U" (Willow Junction) and this new section. The timetable shows around four or five miles between the two; the layout will have a full height backdrop scene divider between the two. Clearly, one-half inch and four scale miles are not the same! Perhaps, manual block division points are the operational solution.

Curtis Canning Company is represented as shallow buildings and/or flats behind a long spur siding. During the busy/harvest season it requires a fair amount of traffic. Can blanks from American Can Company in Seattle arrive with the bottom already attached. I found an interesting industrial film from the 1950's showing the can-making process. These are rather bulky loads requiring several car loads a week. The cannery also requires labels, cardboard box blanks, salt, and occasionally produce itself delivered to the siding. Canned produce will be shipped out at about the same rate as bulk cans arrive. Using several sure spots along one spur siding and the size of the facility will add operational interest/complexity.

As seen on the track plan, the lumber mill will be only partially represented on the layout, with most of the mill itself on the perpendicular backdrop/scene divider or in the aisle.  The office/warehouse, loading dock/end of drying house, and the log dump are on the layout and provide operations for the Great Northern and my logging railroad which has trackage rights over the 4th Subdivision.

Yes, it is armchair modeling, but planning for a next phase has been fun.