12-10-2010, 02:26 PM
Great sequence shots, Gary. Nice to see those new Genset switchers at work. The clean engines really stand out in contrast with the painted out reefers.
As for real life switching vs. timesaver puzzles, I have a few thoughts on that as well. This industry takes multiple cars of the same type in a single loading zone divided by two tracks. The dedicated spots provide the challenge - how do you split 6 cars between two tracks after pulling 7 cars already split. It's not necessarily a puzzle, but still a challenge
A timesaver has multiple single spots for a variety of cars. It's nothing like a modern industrial park big-box factory. In its purest form it's a switching puzzle in which the type of cars matters less, only as pieces in the game. But add some structures and you can created dedicated spots. Part of the challenge for the timesaver is the limited length of the single runaround needed in order to access all the spots.
So this potato industry is just like a timesaver in one regard - limited space is a challenge. In one case, it's a limited number of dedicated spots. For the timesaver, it's a limited space for completing the moves to put single car in a spot. Our model railroads are more often like the timesaver due to our limited space than the potato industry. That trend seems to be changing as more layouts are built like modern prototypes, but I don't think single-car industries will disappear from the modeling world anytime soon as long as folks build layouts in spare rooms.
Galen
As for real life switching vs. timesaver puzzles, I have a few thoughts on that as well. This industry takes multiple cars of the same type in a single loading zone divided by two tracks. The dedicated spots provide the challenge - how do you split 6 cars between two tracks after pulling 7 cars already split. It's not necessarily a puzzle, but still a challenge
A timesaver has multiple single spots for a variety of cars. It's nothing like a modern industrial park big-box factory. In its purest form it's a switching puzzle in which the type of cars matters less, only as pieces in the game. But add some structures and you can created dedicated spots. Part of the challenge for the timesaver is the limited length of the single runaround needed in order to access all the spots.
So this potato industry is just like a timesaver in one regard - limited space is a challenge. In one case, it's a limited number of dedicated spots. For the timesaver, it's a limited space for completing the moves to put single car in a spot. Our model railroads are more often like the timesaver due to our limited space than the potato industry. That trend seems to be changing as more layouts are built like modern prototypes, but I don't think single-car industries will disappear from the modeling world anytime soon as long as folks build layouts in spare rooms.
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!