07-29-2012, 09:23 PM
Please pardon me for coming to this thread so late. Ed, the magnetic wand that operates the Sergent couplers can be applied to the top of the coupler from the side horizontally, as opposed to being applied from above vertically. So one should be able to uncouple in a structure with an open side parallel to a track adjacent to the layout edge. Ideally, your brakeman would apply the wand and then your engineer would pull. Slack is required. The Sergent couplers are very, very nice, as you know. They are a little fussy to assemble, so I use the pre-built ones on a limited number of cars and one locomotive thus far. HO is not my principal scale now that decent N-scale wheels and body-mount couplers are becoming more the norm.
With the more standard Kadee types, I suppose one could hinge the roof of the structure or make the roof removable to gain access from above. I like your idea of an open-sided structure with the track inside. In N scale, I plan to take the easy way out for the ISL front edge and make an electric utility storage yard for large hardware, line poles, aggregates, and such. Operationally it is not much different than a scrap yard or team track.
Here in South Texas between Ingleside and Aransas Pass in the Mesquite trees and sand there is a construction contracting company that receives some pretty big steel shapes and sheets/plates on flatcars and in gons. The two spurs are maybe fifty yards from their shop buildings and there are two fairly large mobile cranes I presume they use to cart the steel into the shops. That business struck me as one that could be useful as a layout-edge industry. Both the construction company and the utility storage yard require some specialized material-handling machinery, but no obstructing structures on a layout front edge.
There are some great ideas in this thread above. Thank y'all! Ric
With the more standard Kadee types, I suppose one could hinge the roof of the structure or make the roof removable to gain access from above. I like your idea of an open-sided structure with the track inside. In N scale, I plan to take the easy way out for the ISL front edge and make an electric utility storage yard for large hardware, line poles, aggregates, and such. Operationally it is not much different than a scrap yard or team track.
Here in South Texas between Ingleside and Aransas Pass in the Mesquite trees and sand there is a construction contracting company that receives some pretty big steel shapes and sheets/plates on flatcars and in gons. The two spurs are maybe fifty yards from their shop buildings and there are two fairly large mobile cranes I presume they use to cart the steel into the shops. That business struck me as one that could be useful as a layout-edge industry. Both the construction company and the utility storage yard require some specialized material-handling machinery, but no obstructing structures on a layout front edge.
There are some great ideas in this thread above. Thank y'all! Ric