L&N Industrial Rail Spur - Printable Version

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Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 04-04-2012

Brakie Wrote:Ed,This has to be one of the most thought provoking ISL topics I ever had the pleasure to read and participate in.

I know my Slate Creek plan was improved several times because of this discussion.

Its getting close to a Slate Creek revisited but,I think I will do the revisit topic as a update leading into a ISL build topic..There's three loose ends I need to do first and that is build the three rail served industries. Icon_lol

I favor having the industries built so I can fit the track to the structure.This saves a lot of oops! which leads to rework and a waste of time.
Well thanks Larry!

As for the structures; I've wondered about that aspect of it too, should I build the structures then lay the track or lay the track then build the structures. Besides frequently changing my mind about what industries I want to include; it looks like all my structures will have to be built from scratch or in a couple of cases just kit-bashed from available kits, but in that regard I can fit the structures to the track.

For the soft drink bottler, I'll just try and find one of those rather expensive Great West Models kits and use the wall sections to get the length and depth I need. The candy plant or bakery, as mentioned will be kit bashed from the Walther's kit. I wanted to use those storage silos from the Walther's kit on something, but right now that's sort of up in the air.

You'll have to let us know what sort of industries you plan on having. Maybe I've run across an interesting prototype some where that you might want to base one or more of them on. Lord knows I've spent enough time looking around on Bing and Google!

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - Brakie - 04-04-2012

Ed:You'll have to let us know what sort of industries you plan on having. Maybe I've run across an interesting prototype some where that you might want to base one or more of them on. Lord knows I've spent enough time looking around on Bing and Google!
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Well,the industries I plan using in N won't work in HO..I can find the scrap tire piles for the scrap tire company but,not the loads.I can't find a suitable building for a Pillsbury batch plant that I like..

Heres the buildings I will be using along the backdrop.

I already have these two:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3192">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3192</a><!-- m -->

And looking for this one for the front edge of the layout:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3191">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3191</a><!-- m -->

I will add 2 storage tanks one for plastic pellets and one for Jayflex (plasticizer).

The transload track will serve 4 customers-one is a steel pipe dealer and a off line lumber company(Carters?).I have no clue what the other two may be.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 04-17-2012

I really should close this thread once and for all and start a new one, as believe it or not; I think I've finally hit on THE plan! After operating the plan as shown in my posting of April 3rd several times, it still just didn't feel right to me and didn't have the overall look that I was after. So after several days (and nights) of traveling around on Google/Bing maps and tossing around the various industries that I could have on the plan - I've come up with this:     As always, the bench work is 18 inches deep by 20 feet long. The plan is purely freelance and could be located most anywhere. The era modeled is 1978-1984.

I've actually managed to include one more spur/industry and have things spaced out a bit more by choosing prototype industries that only spot 1 or 2 cars, but still have at least one large industry as a center piece (our man Larry's term). I've found a lot of prototype industrial spurs that seem to be filled with structures that only spot one, two or three cars and that appeals to me for model railroading purposes.

I hope to start re-laying the track as shown in the next day or so as I'm more than eager to actually build the darn thing! I know everyone is tired of the constant changes, as am I, but I guess all this planning, re-planning and testing has been the way to go (and it kept me off the streets). Really just aren't too many options for this bench work footprint, but I think it does capture the look and feel of many industrial spurs.

Industries are pretty much the same as I've included on various other plans, but with a few minor changes here and there, based on prototypes that I've found. Also managed to not have a team/transload track on the plan.

* Vegetable Oil Dealer - Based on the American Vegetable Oils facility that I found in Commerce, CA. A simple low shoebox type structure that receives 25,500-30,000 gal general service tanks of various cooking oils.
* Pet Food Plant - Based on Higgins Premium Pet Foods in Hialeah, FL - receives covered hoppers and occasional box cars of feed grains for producing pet foods.
* Building Products - Your typical Lowes, 84 Lumber, etc. - receives bulkhead flats of lumber and box cars of plywood and wallboard.
* Distribution Warehouse - No particular prototype but will be based on one of several such facilities that I've seen - receives box cars of various commodities.
* Food Products Warehouse - Again no particular prototype, but there are many such facilities around the country and I based the building footprint on a couple of warehouses that I've seen - like that angled look. Receives reefers of meat/produce and box cars of dry goods.
* Soft Drink Bottler - based on G&J Bottling in nearby Lexington - receives corn syrup tanks.
* Bakery - based on a couple of rail served bakeries that I've run across and receives Airslide hoppers of flour. This could be a small candy or confections plant which would then receive Airslide hoppers of sugar, but I think I'll go with the bakery so I can utilize the Walther's kit I got and those neat looking silos.

I've included several non rail served structures to continue the "concrete canyon" look through the length of the spur and also an out of service spur to a facility that no longer ships/receives by rail. These structures help to disguise the staging track/switching lead and the highway overpass at the end of the plan gives the feel that the spur goes on to connect with the "main".

Guess I'll start a new thread once I pick an appropriate sounding name for the plan and actually get construction under way. Although I worked for the L&N (and several other railroads over the years) and have several L&N locomotives, I also have a few other loco's from various roads, so I won't pin myself down to just the L&N.

That's it for now.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - Brakie - 04-17-2012

Ed,I really like that plan since it has the looks and feel of a urban concrete canyon industrial branch. Thumbsup

I like the pet food plant..

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - alcanman - 04-18-2012

Hi Ed,

Your latest plan looks well balanced with 3 spurs either side of the lead. The pet food plant looks interesting , do you have any links to this facility or pics? I'm currently looking at industries based in Florida for my new layout.

Looks like you and I could be building new layouts simultaneously, could be fun. Thumbsup

I'll also start a new thread once I've finalised my track plan.


regards,

Mal

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - shortliner - 04-18-2012

Mal - this should show it <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9bjlmM3JkODljNHd0Jmx2bD0yMC4wMiZkaXI9MzUzLjQ1JnN0eT1i">http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9bjlmM3JkO ... Q1JnN0eT1i</a><!-- m -->
Well - that didn't work! lets try this
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://g.co/maps/k3p88">http://g.co/maps/k3p88</a><!-- m --> That one seems to work!

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - alcanman - 04-18-2012

Thanks Jack,

Looks interesting, must find out more.

regards,

Mal

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 04-18-2012

Mal;

Jack beat me to the Google views of Higgins but here's the Bing view http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=n9f3n589c5m1&lvl=20.02&dir=353.45&sty=o&where1=Hialeah%2C%20FL&form=LMLTCC for some further details. Be sure and check out the Google street views of the facility too. I like the red/yellow band around the otherwise white shoebox structure.

The Higgins http://www.higginspremium.com/ facility is what I'd call a typical modern small feed mill structure and very similar ones can be found in many parts of the country. Here's an example of another relatively new one in the Liverpool, NY area: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r5qq0j8nhfy6&lvl=18.55&dir=1.13&sty=o&where1=Liverpool%2C%20NY&form=LMLTCC. Quite a few of these feed mill facilities of various sizes in my area.

I have some small RIx grain bins and other details that I plan on using to build a representation of this structure and not necessarily a model of this particular facility. In fact, mine may end up just being generic feed mill, as there are a couple of industrial spurs close by that have or had such facilities on them.

I'll probably just have a compressed version of the shoebox structure with one rail door/dock, the mixing tower and a couple of grain bins laid out in a similar configuration to what you see in the views. Of course Walther's now has more appropriate bins available for such a facility.     What appealed to me about this was that it was a bit different and is "model railroad" size as it can only spot one or two covered hoppers at a time, but also has a couple of doors where box cars can be spotted for possibly shipping out the finished product. In older Bing views that I captured, you can see a covered hopper spotted by the facility:     Looks like in this view, they are still in the process of adding grain bins to the facility, so the Higgins facility is a relatively new structure.

Finally getting around tonight to re-laying the track to the new configuration and should have it running in a few hours for testing purposes. Assuming everything works out and I can stop myself from more "re-planning" then I'll start a new thread.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - faraway - 04-19-2012

That looks very interesting. You can do lots of piping as the prototype has lots of them on top of the tall tower. There is also a very tall elevator right to the tall tower. The Walters grain elevator may have the right hight and will make it a real landmark.
Do you have plans how to do the top third of the tower building? The surface has a very special structure.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 04-19-2012

faraway Wrote:Do you have plans how to do the top third of the tower building? The surface has a very special structure.
Reinhard;
To make the top of the mixing tower, I'd probably use some O scale scribed siding for the horizontal look and then just cement suitable sized square material for the vertical bracing. The section below that would be done with some corrugated metal siding material. The Walther's grain conveyor leg kit would be perfect (15 3/4 inches tall):     Along with their Support Trusses For Guywires & Piping (if you really want it to be detailed):     Those kits along with the Wet/Dry grain bins would give you a very nice model of a feed mill operation. Of course we're talking some money here to get all those kits and detail parts. I'll probably just use some of the other grain handling details that I've accumulated over the past few years, but we'll see. Feed mills come in all shapes and sizes and are often misidentified as being grain elevators - not the same thing.

Little update on the new track plan: I've just about finished re-laying all the track and am eager to do some test operations. So far I like the look of it very well and will have to throw together some structure mockups to at least make it appear like a layout in progress.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - alcanman - 04-19-2012

What appealed to me about this was that it was a bit different and is "model railroad" size as it can only spot one or two covered hoppers at a time, but also has a couple of doors where box cars can be spotted for possibly shipping out the finished product. In older Bing views that I captured, you can see a covered hopper spotted by the facility:

That's exactly what appeals to me too.

Thanks for the info, Ed. I've almost finalised my track plan but still looking for suitable small industries.

Mal

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 04-19-2012

alcanman Wrote:Thanks for the info, Ed. I've almost finalised my track plan but still looking for suitable small industries.
Mal
You're quite welcome and I'm happy that I ran across another industry that has peaked a little interest. I've spent a lot of time looking for various industries that I've termed "model railroad size" and that would work well on a small switching layout. Many I've talked about on this thread as I continuously planned and re-planned and may be a few in the "Industries Along The Rails" forum. I'll have to go through my notes and see if there are some ideas that I can send to you off-list that might inspire you a little.

Have completed laying the track and been doing a little test operating, although no "formal" session thus far, and I'm pretty well pleased with the way this plan is looking and operating. Soon be time to start a new thread once I've built a few structure mockups. Right now, I'm using mockups from my previous efforts as stand in's, but of course they don't fit quite right.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - hyawn - 06-10-2012

Ed:

Any updates ?

Howard

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - FCIN - 06-21-2012

hyawn Wrote:Ed:

Any updates ?

Howard
Only just saw this posting Howard. But no updates for a while. Although I have the track laid out as shown in the last plan and do operate the layout two or three times a week, right now construction is at a halt. Between rail fanning and working on my book about the Frankfort & Cincinnati Railroad, probably won't get much more done until this fall. Once I start working more on the layout, I'll start a new thread for my freelance layout that I'm calling: Kentucky Street Industrial Spur.

Re: L&N Industrial Rail Spur - Brakie - 06-22-2012

Kentucky Street Industrial Spur.
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Sounds good.

I have a wacky idea-like always.. Icon_lol

Why not the F&C industrial lead?

A new industrial park open on the old F&C and track was relayed on the old F&C roadbed.