L&N Industrial Rail Spur

[shortliner]

I've heard of cramming in sidings........

[FCIN]

Ed,I don't think track planing programs is all that acturate since I know you can have more then 3 switches on a 6' N scale ISL yet that's the most I can do with my current track planing program-its the same one you use-I'm on my daughter laptop and can't recall the name.

Larry, the program that I've been using is AnyRail http://www.anyrail.com/. I've found it to be very accurate as far as the templates for Peco turnouts (at least the HO ones) and it's easy to use.

When I changed the configuration of my track plan, I should have known that it wouldn't work, but did want to try out that arrangement as I just liked the way it looked. Ended up putting the separate spur for G&J Bottling back so that both industries could be worked, but now that I've done all that, I'm not happy with the overall plan (again!).

I'm finally moved and now have a 10' long wall to use for Slate Creek.

Wondered where you'd been lately. Glad to hear that you've managed to come up with a bit more space for Slate Creek. Assuming that you're going with N scale, that should give you a lot more room to work with.

Sounds like it's back to the drawing board for both of us.

[Mike Kieran]

Hey Ed,
Now I see why you have that extra siding like such. It was baffling me why there's always an extra track at the end of a spur. Now it makes sense.

[Brakie]

Ed,I'm still not satisified anyrail is that accurate as far as N Scale. :?:

At any rate I'm looking hard at HO but,I can't cut the N Scale strings as easily as I thought and happily I'm well aware of the trade offs of both scales.

I decided to plan as I build Slate Creek instead of drawing a plan that may not work or all that accurate.

[Mike Kieran]

What kind of space do you have now?

[Brakie]

Mike,I have way to much furniture including some 100 year old antiques so,I'm stuck with a 1'x10' as it stands now.I'm thinking outside of the box and go simple with detailing as a goal as well as general modeling like weathering cars,detailing my old BB and newer RTR locomotives.

Here's my choice of buildings for HO.

2 of these:

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

and either this

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3184">http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3184</a><!-- m -->

or this with a covered hopper or tank car unloading area

<!-- 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 details to these buildings,have a small trailer drop lot and one or two small none rail served industries nothing fancy..

[shortliner]

Larry - hope you have the last two in stock, because Walthers don't and have no expected date

[Brakie]

Larry - hope you have the last two in stock, because Walthers don't and have no expected date

I seen that..I will need to locate these buildings-maybe e-Bay or the local use market.

[Mike Kieran]

Larry, if I had 10 feet, I would go with the Tenderfoot Industrial Railroad:



http://www.shenware.com/layouts/images/tender.gif

[Brakie]

Mike,That's a nice looker but,I'm thinking more on the line of Palmetto Spur with focus on detailing.I'm really not sure yet.

[porthos]

Larry - hope you have the last two in stock, because Walthers don't and have no expected date

I seen that..I will need to locate these buildings-maybe e-Bay or the local use market.

Check Caboose Hobbies in Denver, I believe I saw both of those on the shelf last week.

[Len Turner]

I've been following this very interesting thread for some time now. I'm impressed at the level of planning that you are putting into your switching layout. I'm currently planning my own and should have some ideas to post soon. Thanks for sharing your ideas and planning progress.

[SSWUPinSA]

Sounds like it's back to the drawing board for both of us.

How big is that board of yours ED??? Just teasing...hope you are well

[shortliner]

I think what happens is that whenever we see a neat industrial spur or a neat picture, we try to see how that would fit into our space and that leads to a new track-plan, but then a few days later something else captures our imagination and that leads to another track-plan.]

Very true and a disease that probably effects a lot of us. One thing that I've had to wrestle with is finding suitable industries that would support my freight car fleet and then having the room to include such industries on the plan. Then of course you'll have this or that industry in mind and suddenly you see something else that is even more interesting to you and you're off in another direction. I have come to the realization, that I may well just have to mothball some of my cars if I can't find suitable and believable industries for them. Maybe that will help a little with the planning phaserealize that the entire layout is only 9 feet in length.

Ed - this struck me, particularly the last bit, as Serendipity - due to the fact that today I was reading Lances latest blog for January 11th What particularly struck me was the following quote,
[quote}
When I started out modeling the Miami industrial scene, I rather naively set the year as "Today". Reality has set in. It's just not practical to do so. Things change much faster than anybody can build models to reflect such changes. To be accurate you would be in a situation where you are constantly re-building structures and changing rolling stock. Industrial tenants come and go. Industries that saw rail service give it up. In other locations new tenants move into vacant buildings and start up rail service. Buildings in Miami are constantly repainted. CSX has phased in it's new locomotive paint style. I just can't say I'm modeling the present and keep up. For that reason I'm setting the date I'm modeling as 2007. In 2007 the Miami Produce Market still received cars in their courtyard. In 2007 the Seaboard Warehouse was still going strong. I will fudge a bit though. A number of new industries have started taking rail shipments and I'm not above adding those into the layout.[unquote}

This gives an ideal opportunity to run anything we like - all we need to do is change trhe date! If we simply decide that our railroad exists in a 10-15 year period, Industries come and go, change their operating practices, newer industries take over shipping different items, and need different cars to move their inbound/outbound traffic. They may ship in by rail, and out by truck or vice versa – so mothballing, and replacing, part of your fleet will be quite prototypical. You can have two versions of an industry building, painted differently, perhaps with tanks or silos in one version and with different signs. Run one version for a month [or until you feel the need for a change} and then change your year of operation. Your operating company may have bought/hired/leased a new loco too. It expands the entire concept of the layout.This gives an ideal opportunity to run anything we like - all we need to do is change trhe date! If we simply decide that our railroad exists in a 10-15 year period, Industries come and go, change their operating practices, newer industries take over shipping different items, and need different cars to move their inbound/outbound traffic. They may ship in by rail, and out by truck or vice versa – so mothballing, and replacing, part of your fleet will be quite prototypical. You can have two versions of an industry building, painted differently, perhaps with tanks or silos in one version and with different signs. Run one version for a month [or until you feel the need for a change} and then change your year of operation. Your operating company may have bought/hired/leased a new loco too. It expands the entire concept of the layout.

[FCIN]

I always enjoy reading Lance's blog postings and read the latest one just the other night. He sure makes some valid points regarding modeling "today". I have always set my era as being between 1977 and 1980, so that I can justify having all those colorful IPD box cars and also to support the other equipment types in my collection that fit in to that era.

There are several industries that I've picked out over the past few months that really appeal to me and that I'd like to be able to include on the layout, but have to admit that I'd never considered doing something like swapping out the industries from time to time as a way to be able to include various industries. It is something to think about.

Right now, I've really hit a slump with trying to develop a "final" track plan that really appeals to me and have actually lost interest in the layout to some extent. I have track "temporarily" laid out and can operate the layout when the mood strikes me, but I think I've spent so much time "planning" that I've really burned myself out on that aspect. Every time I sit down and try to come up with a "different" track plan, I seem to get stuck with what is more or less the same design, but with only different industries and slight variations to the track plan. I suppose I'm putting too much emphasis on the track plan, as after all, it is just an industrial spur and when you get right down to it, most industrial spurs are pretty simple affairs.

I had, more or less, reached the decision that it just might not be possible to have valid destinations for all the car types I have in the collection although it really bothers me to think that I might end up with several boxes full of perfectly good cars that I can't use on the layout. So in that regard, the concept of changing industries from time to time might just to the answer. Will have to think that idea over some and see what I might come up with.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. Maybe this will get me out of the slump.