It's been a bit more than twenty years since I built a layout. This one's a beginner-type layout to try out some track construction ideas, operation, and other stuff. The concept is a dead-end spur located between Chelsea Avenue and the Wolf River near Watkins Road, just east of what was known as the Firestone Loop in north Memphis left over from the old Union Railway Company of Memphis. Nice run-on sentence, no? Era is 1996 through 2006. The layout is 72 by 10 inches, with a 50-inch stick to the right that spans a door and functions as staging and extra switching lead. The available lead is 68 inches which is roughly eight 50-foot cars plus a GP-type locomotive. The Elvis Track holds five 50-foot cars, and the Rodeo Track holds four 50-foot cars in the clear. New Chicago Supply Co. is likely a distributor for GERN's patented Non-Magnetic Flux product line.
A nice simple track plan with the potential for a lot of switching. I've found that simple is the best route to take for a switching layout, especially since most industrial spurs are themselves very simple in design. If your primary goal is to fine-tune your track laying and structure building skills, simple is certainly the way to go for a first layout.
I'd go a with food products distributor as the main industry as you could receive general service tank cars of cooking oils, box cars of packaged food products and refrigerators with produce or frozen meats. That's one of the main industries on my current plant and it has plenty of car variety and the requirement for certain car types to be spotted at specific locations. These facilities are certainly found all over the country. Using the end of the Elvis track for a transload/team track, gives you yet other potential car types, such as bulkhead flats and box cars of lumber and building products; perhaps covered hoppers of feed or plastics for an off-line industry, etc.
When going with a first time layout, far too many people tend to reject a prototypical plan that isn't filled with turnouts and track in every inch of the available space, when just a simple plan with one or two industrial spurs and interesting industries along with prototype operations is all you really need to enjoy a layout. I've found that a simple plan like Lance Mindheim's Palmetto Spur to be a very interesting layout, especially if you can expand its length and have at least three prototypical sized industries that can spot at least 4 cars each at specific spots. And of course the spur can be located any where you want it to be and operated as any railroad you choose. Even his recent single industry plan, based on a large bakery in Miami, FL, has a lot of potential and of course it wouldn't have to be in Miami, FL. Similar industrial spurs with only one or two industries on them are found all over the country.
I've been quite interested in the Memphis, TN area myself, as of course it was a terminal point for the L&N and there are many interesting industrial spurs in the area. Being a former L&N employee, the main theme of my freelance switching layout will be an L&N industrial spur, but since it's freelance, I'm free to choose the industries I want on the layout and can also operate it as a different railroad, should I desire to do so. I'm also considering having the ability to change the industries from time to time for further variety. I'm pretty much going with the same era as you, although I'm limiting it to 1977-1980 so I can justify the many short line IPD box cars that I have acquired over the past few years.
Depending on the era, you have a wide choice of railroad prototypes in the Memphis area, so you can use different motive power from any of the roads that served Memphis. R. J. Corman also operates several industrial spurs in the Memphis area on behalf of BNSF, so there again is another potential operating company, although that would put you in to the current era.
Will be looking forward to seeing how your layout progresses. Might inspire me to stop experimenting and start building!
Ed - Thank you for your response! These days CNIC switches the Owens Corning shingle plant back there. The key to such an utterly simple track layout is the long lead, and 50 inches is a fair piece. That makes it work. As I get going on this I'd like to post some non-standard but truly simple solutions to track. I dig track.
Memphis is a weird yet wild and family place. Five class 1 railroads. I really need to build a layout and get running. Y'all on these boards are so inspirational it's almost impossible to resist the building twitch. I've got a bit more room than this little layout will use, and I'm wanting to get it fairly complete in around two years. All track gonna be hand built code 55. I finally got a new airbrush, and I'm only wondering how to model kudzu! Ric
eje Wrote:The key to such an utterly simple track layout is the long lead, and 50 inches is a fair piece.
Absolutely! I've seen a lot of proposed switching layout plans that don't have an ample switching lead to work the first industry or two on the plan. On my own layout (20ft long) I always allow for at least a 7 or 8 foot long lead before the first industry. Not only does it give me ample room to work the first industrial spurs, it allows me some running distance for the train too. A typical train of 5 or 6 cars, has a nice long slow 10mph run to the end of the spur where I then start working the industries back toward the imagined main line connection. Although I've avoided it thus far, I do have the option of using more of the present benchwork for industries, by adding a 6 or 8 foot long detachable staging track. Time will tell if I go that route. Right now, it works just fine as currently designed.
eje Wrote:All track gonna be hand built code 55.
Is this layout N or HO? Code 55 would really be a nice effect in either scale. I wish I'd gone with Code 70 on my own layout at times. As for modeling kudzu, I have no idea how you'd approach that! From the areas around here where someone made the mistake of planting that years ago, it looks like everything is covered with that stuff!
Ed - It's HO, and I have a jones for beat up small rail in the mud! Nice being retired. I can listen to the Morse code on 30 meters and converse with you. Completely agree with your philosophy regarding switching lead length. In my case I'm able to turn the door liability into a no-pressure part of the layout that functions. This room has a nine-foot ceiling, and I anticipate the "benchwork" (shelfwork?) will be around 58". That leaves exactly 50", so if I want to fabricate the stick on a hinge, I'll lose an inch or two. So if the layout is, say, 56", everything will fit. Pardon me for thinking out loud. 50" gives me a five-car train (50-foot cars) and a GP-type locomotive with a couple inches to spare. On the centerline drawing the switch points are 18" from the end, but making the track from scratch I'm sure I can get at least another inch. I have installed Sergent couplers on a few pieces of rolling stock and plan to use them generally. All it takes is a Nimrod car with Kadees on one end to satisfy the rest of the world!
I also admire Lance Mindheim's take on miniature reality, and especially the excellent Jack Hill blog.
FCIN Wrote:....Depending on the era, you have a wide choice of railroad prototypes in the Memphis area, so you can use different motive power from any of the roads that served Memphis. R. J. Corman also operates several industrial spurs in the Memphis area on behalf of BNSF, so there again is another potential operating company, although that would put you in to the current era....
The area west of olive branch airport looks very interesting for a modern ISL http://goo.gl/maps/xhFX0. I had it under close consideration when I painted my Corman geeps.
faraway Wrote:The area west of olive branch airport looks very interesting for a modern ISL http://goo.gl/maps/xhFX0. I had it under close consideration when I painted my Corman geeps.
Reinhard; In addition to the Olive Branch spur, Corman also operates these areas:
Distribution Drive (just south of TN 175): http://maps.google.de/maps?q=memphis+tn&...e&t=m&z=15 This spur off the BNSF yard between Hungerford Rd and Clarke Rd http://maps.google.de/maps?q=memphis+tn&...e&t=m&z=15 If you look at aerial views of the yard, you'll see Corman power there and then they also perform switching on the spurs in this area (go to aerial view to see the several spurs) http://maps.google.de/maps?q=memphis+tn&...e&t=m&z=17 You'll see Corman power stationed along one of these spurs near a corn syrup transloading facility. Plenty of places to choose from. Handling switching operations for various railroads is becoming a big business for Mr. Corman.
Ed, thanks for the pointers. This one is very unique http://goo.gl/maps/zTpE5. A double track curved trackage virtually within a building complex. You can do your layout as crazy as you like, there will always be a prototype for it
eje Wrote:Completely agree with your philosophy regarding switching lead length. In my case I'm able to turn the door liability into a no-pressure part of the layout that functions. This room has a nine-foot ceiling, and I anticipate the "benchwork" (shelfwork?) will be around 58". That leaves exactly 50", so if I want to fabricate the stick on a hinge, I'll lose an inch or two.
I'd thought about having a hinged staging track, but would limit the length because of layout height and the drop ceiling. If I added that additional staging shelf, I'd just make it semi-permanent so should access be needed on that end, I could remove it without too much trouble.
eje Wrote:I have installed Sergent couplers on a few pieces of rolling stock and plan to use them generally. All it takes is a Nimrod car with Kadees on one end to satisfy the rest of the world!
I've wanted to experiment with the Sergent Couplers, but I for now, I'm quite happy with the (more or less) scale size couplers and manually uncoupling them. I have a feeling if I tried out the Sergent couplers and was happy with them, then I'd be looking at spending a lot of money to upgrade all the loco's and cars! Being retired, I have to watch my expenditures.
eje Wrote:I also admire Lance Mindheim's take on miniature reality, and especially the excellent Jack Hill blog.
Lance has really brought prototype operations and layout design to a new level and clearly demonstrated that simple can be better. I also really like what Jack Hill has done, especially showing how the prototype works certain industries and what can be accomplished in O scale. But am worried about what has happened to Jack. His blog hasn't been updated in over 2 years.
faraway Wrote:Ed, thanks for the pointers. This one is very unique http://goo.gl/maps/zTpE5. A double track curved trackage virtually within a building complex. You can do your layout as crazy as you like, there will always be a prototype for it
That section is really neat looking. Sure wish at times I wasn't limited to having the layout confined to a straight benchwork arrangement. I really like the way those two tracks curve in between the sections of that structure. Also like the switchback lead to the Georgia-Pacific plant, but unlike what you find on many model railroads, this one gives you plenty of room to work if you don't have all those cars in storage on the lead. There is indeed a prototype for most everything!
Lance has really brought prototype operations and layout design to a new level and clearly demonstrated that simple can be better.
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Ed,I think Lance may have finally put the "Time Saver" where it belong for years-the trash can.John Allen designed that thing for a switching contest for a NMRA meet.I don't think John meant for that design to take on a life form of its own.
Of course there are those that mentions the "Time Saver" or the "Inglenook" switching puzzle design every time a ISL design topic comes up on other forums. My guess is they don't understand what a true switching layout is.
At any rate I'm glad to see modelers that's interested in prototype switching layouts turning to Lance's ISL design lessons and turning to Google and Bing maps for design ideas.
Larry
Engineman
Summerset Ry
Make Safety your first thought, Not your last! Safety First!
Just be careful of the switch lead that spans the door. I would scenic it as if it was in a cut so that you can have scenery one inch deep on each side of the track and you have safeguards from your rolling stock proving the theory of gravity. I would also not power the last 9 inches of the lead so that your engine stops before the end of track.
Mike Kieran
Port Able Lines
" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.
That's a good idea Mike - Thanks! There's actually a low levee back by the river, so that could logically be modeled as one side edge of the staging plank. There are old concrete foundations and retaining walls left over from previous industrial activity, and it's all overgrown with swampy vegetation. For whatever reason, there seems to be some sort of unwritten law in Memphis that after a structure has outlived its usefulness, it's not removed, but just left to rot. The number of derelict structures is notable. I'm likely to hinge the staging plank at the wall end so it just folds up against the wall behind the door when not in use. A dirt simple layout like this won't require too many cars, so rolling them off the staging plank will be low effort, my fave.
I installed the double-slot shelving brackets. Gonna use 1x4's for the framing. It's way overkill, but I already have the wood, and don't anticipate needing the layout to be super portable.
There is a very small and very run-down and very scary trailer park near the intersection of Chelsea and Watkins. Lawson's Trailer Park. I wonder if it's a time share? Many thanks to Ed and Reinhard for the excellent satellite views. In 2004 for about six months I had a contract job in the engineering department of a company located at Distribution Drive and Mendenhall Avenue. The office I worked in was on the second floor and had a west-facing window that gave an excellent view of the Frisco yard hump lead.
Mike Kieran Wrote:Just be careful of the switch lead that spans the door. I would scenic it as if it was in a cut so that you can have scenery one inch deep on each side of the track and you have safeguards from your rolling stock proving the theory of gravity. I would also not power the last 9 inches of the lead so that your engine stops before the end of track.
Mike - As you well know, with DC it's easy to de-power a preferred direction with diodes. How would I do this with DCC? The QBD solution would be to isolate one rail on the last nine inches or so of the removable lead and turn it on or off with a SPST switch, but that would not be automatically foolproof. I've looked elsewhere on Big Blue for a more elegant solution, but no soap thus far. Guess I'll keep looking.
I'm preparing to do a mock-up with prefab track; how could anything possibly go wrong?
My guess is they don't understand what a true switching layout is.