Goals of the Layout

1. It's funny, but whenever you read articles about model railroading or talk to model railroaders they tell you about the goals of their layout. What were they trying to accomplish during the design and building phases of the layout. Chances are that if you are reading this you already know about layout goals, so I won't waste time explaining them. Instead I will explain here the things I would find, in order of importance, essential to the success of the New York Harbor Model RR project:The lay out has to have a very strong operational component. When all is said and done, when the track is laid and the buildings are glued down and the paint is dry we are going to want to operate the railroad and not play with trains. We are going to shuttle railroad cars and cargo across the East River in New York.
2. Despite the space and scale limitations I want this layout to look cool. The waterfront with piers and docks will represent the foreground. This is where all the railroading activity will take place. A docked ocean going freighter will be the focal point of the layout (more about that later.) The dock front warehouses, behind which we will have tall building flats and a cityscape (possibly) painted backdrop.
3. Part of the operational element is automatic railroading activity. This is made possible with DCC. The idea is that periodically some construct will move onto the scene, and you (the local engineer) have to be sure you are of the main line (as far as you would have a mainline on an industrial railroad)
4. Even though it does not exist in actuality I have been kicking around the idea of putting in an elevated train (NY EL train) that runs automatically behind the warehouse buildings. You would be able to see these trains as they passed over the cross streets. The elevated road bed is made of those beautiful laser cut jobs. 

   

   Photograph of the Fulton Harbor RR (*1)

   
5. Because I was really enamored by the little saddle tank engine I will probably end up modeling the turn of the century (I'll have to check on that to be more precise) even though I think that the N scale cars and truck available for the 1950s would make an excellent addition to the layout. Unfortunately they would not (for obvious reasons) go with the 1900's time period. 
6. I would like to get my feet wet laying my owned track and building switches. The NYD railroad lends itself beautifully to this idea. First the Car Floats will be built from scratch, probably a piece of wood to start with (nice and heavy), on which the tracks will be laid by hand of course. In addition the float bridge leading up to the car float has a cut switch, (the switch starts on the bridge, and continues on the car float) which will have to be hand laid. Finally there is a section in the prototype where several tracks cross each other in a very confined space (see photo.) I have seen people do that kind of stuff and I think it is so cool. So I would like to incorporate that as well.

And that will be it for tonight. I will probably re-read this in the morning, make some revisions and periodically come back to it to see if I sufficiently captured the vision my layout. So count on seeing some changes over time as I figure out what the real priorities of the layout are.

*1 Photo is used with permission from the author of the Yew York Dock website.  The original photo was located online in the Life Magazine archives and was taken in 1943. This photograph was part of a series of three all of which pertain to the Fulton Terminal.  http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/indloco/nyd.html