L&N Industrial Rail Spur

[FCIN]

I forgot to mention..Looks like there is a lot of switching to be done..

Yep Larry. There is quite a bit of switching that can be done on this plan. Just placing/pulling one car at each of the industries takes on average about an hour. But of course not every industry gets switched every session. Sometimes, I'll just bring 1 or 2 cars on to the spur for a shorter session, but when my part time conductor trainee comes over, I always make sure there is at least 1 car for each industry, along with plenty of re-spots. Good training.

What did you use for the mockups? It look like a thick material, no styrene or card stock. The walls with a realistic thickness look very good even they are mockups only. May be it is an option for the final structures too?

Reinhard;
That material is a foam board with card stock about the thickness of poster board on each side of the foam. It's 3/16 inch thick and fairly easy to work with for those so-so mockups that I made. Had to get a special foam glue to use on it, but it does set up fairly quickly. I paid $1.00 each for 20in X 40in sheets.

It's okay for the mockups, but I would not recommend it for use on permanent structures; not even for an inner core. I do think the thickness would be really great for some structure walls, but would have to find a much better material.

[FCIN]

Thought I'd post this variation of my ISL track plan that I've been experimenting with some. You'll notice that the track arrangement is only slightly changed from the previous drawing and it still provides plenty of car spots and operation; but this version uses the typical "suggestion" of including a team/transload track.     Main differences are I've moved the candy manufacturer to the extreme right end of the plan and it only spots tank cars and Airslide covered hoppers now (i.e.; Peerless Confections Chicago IL) - the location of the food processor, frozen meat distributor and the warehouse have been swapped.

The team/transload track includes a covered hopper transload shed, spot for unloading lumber/building products and a small crossdock structure (i.e.; TQW Crossdock on the Effingham Railroad) where we unload a car of beer once or twice a week. The folks in town do get thirsty!

The main thing that I don't like about this variation of the plan, is that it really doesn't give that look of your typical industrial spur with structures on both sides of the switching lead. The team/transload track does make it easier to couple/uncouple cars on that track and you can easily handle the cars that spot at the candy company structure, as that can be viewed from the right end of the bench work.

As with the previous drawing, I plan on adding a 6ft staging track on the left side of the plan and will have to make minor adjustments to the track at that point. For now, it works just fine by staging the train on the left side of the plan.

Any way, I keep experimenting with slight variations of the plan and hope to go with one or the other in the near future, once I get the health issues out of the way.

[Justinmiller171]

Hmm.... would switching the places of the team-track and candy company help?

[FCIN]

Hmm.... would switching the places of the team-track and candy company help?

Well it might very well give more of a "concrete canyon" look if I did that Justin. Might play around with that idea a little and see how that looks. Guess it's just the idea that you don't often find a team/transload track on most spurs built to access industrial park situations.

One little change that I've made on the current plan, is where I show Lowes Lumber, I've actually changed to a short team track, with the crossdock structure near the switch and room to unload lumber or other odd shipments at the end of the track, rather than have the whole track dedicated to Lowes. Works just fine, but still doesn't look quite right to me.

[SSWUPinSA]

We love CONCRETE CANYONS!!!

[FCIN]

This is the latest revision to my track plan. Only some minor changes, compared to the earlier drawings and only took me a little over an hour to make the changes.     Changes are as follows:
1) Moved the chocolates plant (4 car spots) to the end of the spur, which looks like it will work a bit better and seems a little more logical to me, as it may have been the first industry on the industrial spur and the reason for the spur in the first place.
2) The distribution warehouse (4 car spots), food processor (4 car spots) and cold storage facility (1 car spot) remain as before.
3) I now have a beverage distributor (2 car spots) located where the chocolates plant was. Needed a dedicated place for those new 62ft beer cars that I added to the fleet.
4) Added another short spur for a buildings products facility (1 car spot) for the bulkhead flats and double door box cars.
5) The industrial spur lead has a very broad "S" curve in it to swing the track over for the addition of the 6 or 8 ft staging track that I'll be adding later on. For now, the train is simply staged at the left side of the plan. Once the staging track is added, I may adjust the left side of the plan to include a dummy turnout to simulate the entrance to the spur off the "main" and include a working derail just beyond the turnout.

Will be having a couple of operating sessions to test out this version tonight and if I'm satisfied with this arrangement, then hopefully after Monday's heart surgery and things get settled down, I can actually start construction on the layout.

*** Update ***
After operating this revision of the track plan a couple of times this morning; I must say that it's working out very well and I'm quite pleased. Took over 30 minutes just to work the warehouse and the chocolates plant without any time killing other than just waiting a couple of seconds between moves. The way this is working out, the Yardmaster may well have to have two crews work this spur each day! Will have to allow for staging two different trains when I add the staging track to the layout.

The only problem that I've had with having the two industries at the front of the layout, is that due to a lack of good lighting, I sometimes have a problem getting the uncoupling pick in the right spot. Need to add better lighting above the layout!

[Southern Tuxedo]

after Monday's heart surgery and things get settled down, I can actually start construction on the layout.

Ed,
I hope that everything goes smoothly and that you have a fast recovery. This plan is shapping up to be a real interesting build and I'm looking forward to following your progress, so you really need to get back on your feet quickly.

But seriously good luck with your surgery, you'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

Mark

[FCIN]

Appreciate that Mark. Thanks!

I survived the preliminary tests that I had to have done this past Thursday and so far so good. Have had this ablation thing done before, about 6 years ago (warranty ran out I guess). They say the surgery could take up to 6 hours and will have to spend at least one night at the hospital. Really like this doctor and the hospital and that helps too.

If everything goes okay, I should be up and running within a week and then maybe, just maybe, we can really get started on the layout. And yep, the plan is shaping up well at this point and working out better than it looks on paper. Was rather surprised that just moving things around a little and adding one track made such a difference.

Thanks again.

[Brakie]

Ed,Best of luck with your surgery ..

Sounds like you're at the "finish point" of the planning stage.

I set up a mock Slate Creek using Unitrack and I was quite please with the overall plan and it should give hours of operation enjoyment...

[Mr Fixit]

All the best with your surgery Ed, I hope that everything goes smoothly and that you are back on here soon.

Mark

[Tyson Rayles]

Nice looking track plan Ed, good luck with the surgery!

[SSWUPinSA]

Hey Ed,

Hope the changes in surgery have the same great effect your changes have made...semms the imagination cap is back on... Good luck and God bless... Will mail u and see how u doing...

[FCIN]

Thanks for all the kind words gentlemen. Darn good bunch of folks on here! Trying to get caught up on the comings and goings on The Gauge this morning after my ordeal this week. Only have managed to get on here very briefly since I got home Wednesday night.

Got way more than I bargained for with the surgery thing. Was in surgery for almost 6 hours Monday when they did the ablation on my heart, and it was sure a lot rougher then when I'd had it done about 6 years ago. I think the worse part of that was when they removed the 6 sheaves (little plastic tube thingy's) from my groin and chest! Ordinarily, it would have been fun to have three young ladies hovering over me, but some how, the mood just wasn't quite right. And it was anything but fun!

The real shocker came Tuesday morning when I was expecting to get to come home and the doctor made the grand announcement that he wanted to install a pacemaker in me! The ablation went okay, but they just couldn't get my heart rate up to where they wanted it. So got that extra, unexpected addition done that afternoon. I now have a decoder in my chest, making me DCC equipped just like my locomotives.

Feel like I've been run over by a truck or perhaps an SD70ACe would be more appropriate. Have so many different medications that I'm having to take right now, that the wife has to help me keep track of it all! Going to be some time before I can do much more than operate the layout some and perhaps do some little things like finish installing the scale size couplers on all the cars, paint wheel sets; other little things like that. Will try not to do too much re-planning as the layout appears to be fairly good at this point and so far I'm quite pleased with the latest version.

One very nice surprise last night. My buddy (and conductor trainee) came by the house and presented me with a kitbashed version of an L&N cab he'd been secretly working on for me to use on the layout and I was thrilled with the results. Amazing that he got it so close by using an old Athearn bay window cab that he had on hand. Any way, here she is:         I still need to install the red marker lights on each end of the roof, along with the marker boards, on the end railings, but it's still great looking as it is. Jerry has never built a layout at all, but has a fantastic collection of L&N motive power and some equipment that he's modified and painted over the past few years. Next project is to paint my NW-2 in to the L&N Rebel Scheme for me. Friends like that are few and far between.

Once again, thanks for the kind comments and your support.

[shortliner]

Hey, hey, Ed - Glad to hear you came through the "chop-job" conversion okay and have had some extra detailing parts added - There is nothing like doing up an older model - but just remember that the exra detailing makes you that bit more fragile, and in need of careful handling! Take care of yourself! Nice job made on the caboose too! :geek:

[Brakie]

Ed,Glad everything went smooth for you.

I like that caboose..