Industries -A Open Discussion.

[pgandw]

I've been working on a plan that is a slight twist on the "loads in/empties out". The narrow gauge line started life as a logging line. Timber is hauled from the landing area (up on the hill) to the sawmill. Lumber is transported from the mill to the dog hole port for loading into the schooners. So the traffic pattern is:

• loaded log cars from landing to mill
  empty log cars from mill to landing
  loaded lumber from mill to dock
  empty lumber cars from dock to mill

At the mill, I was struggling how to simulate converting loaded log cars to empties (dumping the logs), and simulating loading the empty lumber cars. I finally thought of having the 2 spurs disappear behind the mill into a 4 track traverser. At the beginning of a session, empty log cars are staged on one of the non-aligned traverser tracks, and loaded lumber cars are staged onto the other non-aligned track. Loaded log cars are staged at the landing, and empty lumber cars are staged at the dock.
During the session, the train arrives with loaded log cars. These are pushed past the log unloader, and onto the empty traverser track. the traverser is moved, and the loco pulls the staged empty log cars to take back to the landing.
A similar sequence works with the empty lumber cars from the dock. They arrive and are pushed behind the mill and onto the empty traverser track for "unloading". The traverser is moved and the loaded lumber cars are pulled for transport to the dock. The daily cycle is completed. Only hassle is restaging everything for the next daily cycle.

As I did more thinking, I realized the traverser could be either horizontal or vertical. The vertical traverser would be 2 shelves of 2 tracks each. In my particular case, the vertical traverser would be easier to fit into the space available.

just some ideas, I welcome comments
Fred W