Team tracks - a useful and easy-to-model...
#1
...industry to add to your layout, team tracks were used from the beginning of rail transport, right up to the present day. If you have room for a siding and at least part of a roadway or parking lot alongside of it, you have room for a team track. The name is derived from the teams of horses that pulled the wagons that were used to bring the cargo to or from the team track. A team track can both ship and receive loads, so it can generate a lot of traffic, if you so desire.
In its simplest form, the wagon or truck pulled up alongside of the freight car, and the load was transferred.

   

Hopper cars could also be handled at a team track, using simple conveyors and elevators to transfer the material from freight car to truck, or vice versa. Here, coal is being unloaded from a hopper...

   

and transferred to a truck.

   

Some teamtracks had a ramp for loading or unloading vehicles or farm machinery. In this example, crates of vegetables will simply be handled across the platform and into a waiting truck.

   

....or bagged product from a truck to this boxcar:

   

Here's the ramp in Elfrida, awaiting the next load of new farm machinery.

   

Elfrida also has a storage shed, made from a wreck-damaged boxcar, that's used to store goods after unloading, useful for minimizing per diem charges, as the freight car that brought the load can be emptied and returned to its owner-road quickly. This is especially true for LCL (less than carload) shipments, where there are shipments in the same car which need to be moved to the next town along the line

   

Dunnville, where most of these pictures were taken, also boasts an overhead crane, for unloading heavy or bulky cargo. (The model is by Kibri, I think)

   

   

In smaller towns, where traffic to the teamtrack may not be as frequent, the agent works out of the local station. However, in Dunnville, an office is right on-site. It also provides a lunchroom when the crane operator is on duty.

   

Modern team tracks also can be set up with equipment to handle covered hoppers and tankcars, and probably just about any other type of car that you'd care to run, making this an almost universal industry.

Wayne
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#2
Very nice!! Thumbsup
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#3
Wayne, beautifully done!! Thumbsup Thumbsup
Josh Mader

Maders Trains
Offering everyday low prices for the Model Railroad World
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#4
This needs to go up to the top! Great information & great modeling Thumbsup
Steve
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#5
Your right , they do provide a lot of interest in a small space ...one of my weaknesses is cranes and almost any type will do ...jib , dockside , gantry .....they really add a lot of character . I really like my little Tichy steam crane .

T
To err is human, to blame it on somebody else shows management potential.
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#6
Teejay, thanks for bringing this topic to the top again. I had forgot Wayne had done it, and it is exactly what I am working on now.
Thanks Wayne for all the good ideas.
Charlie
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#7
Photos restored in this thread.

Wayne
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