Brewery shelf layout- Feedback appreciated

[Corsair]

I have 94" x 17" space to build a layout and have decided to model a brewery/malting plant. The era is roughly 1980 and the setting is the PNW. Here is what I have come up with so far



At the far right is the elevator and malting facility, with daily hoppers in and out. The brewery itself is at center with occasional shipments by boxcar. Spotting spurs for corn syrup tanks and fuel for the power station. The space doesn't allow for extensions or cassettes off the end, so everything needs to fit on the board.

I want to build this into a shadow box that can later be incorporated into a layout. In the grand scheme of things, this would be the end of the line with the left lead becoming the track to town. Because of that, there will eventually be a hole in the side of the box that I would like to cover.

I would like any feedback on the track arrangement, as well as suggestions on what to do scenically to cover the future track exit at stage left. I'm leaning towards a river with a nice bridge leading into a tunnel.
Maybe that would balance all the buildings and track everywhere else.

Thanks!


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[lajry]

Seems like a lot of empty space on left side. Extend the left spurs into there. Might even find more switching opportunities. Beer could also be shipped cold in reefers &/or insulated boxcars like Coors.

[Brakie]

Seems like a lot of empty space on left side. Extend the left spurs into there. Might even find more switching opportunities. Beer could also be shipped cold in reefers &/or insulated boxcars like Coors.

Andy, Its always good to leave some open space for trailer lots and a place to stage truck loads of grain from local grain elevators.

[Corsair]

The space on the left is what I am most unsure about. It's about 3 square feet, which is enough to do a small scene not related to the switching action, or I can rearrange things a little. It's worth noting that I drew this with snap track, but it will all be hand laid. The arrangement can be as flexible as it needs to be.

I bought MR's industries along the tracks Vol 2 with breweries, which helped a ton with figuring out what I needed in terms of siding space. By my era almost all the beer and most of the packaging shipped by truck, so it's mostly loads in, empties out. The malting operation adds loads out, and ups the grain shipments in both directions. Adding another scene later with a feed mill would give a destination for spent grain.

Operationally, you would switch 4-5 cars in a session. As a module, you could five finger them onto the yard tracks. As part of a later layout, the brewery traffic would be pushed in from the left with a locomotive at the rear. Presumably from the adjacent town where there is a longer passing siding.

Ideally, I would love to turn the lead on the left into street running, and put some town buildings behind the track/street, with a hill in back rising up to meet the background. The road and tracks could enter the brewery complex through a gate about 2' into the scene. My concern there is how to handle the extreme left end of the layout. I want to avoid the look of rails running into a wall. I'm not sure if I can manage the sight angles well enough to hide the "end of the world" without using a tunnel.


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[Brakie]

Ideally, I would love to turn the lead on the left into street running, and put some town buildings behind the track/street, with a hill in back rising up to meet the background. The road and tracks could enter the brewery complex through a gate about 2' into the scene. My concern there is how to handle the extreme left end of the layout. I want to avoid the look of rails running into a wall. I'm not sure if I can manage the sight angles well enough to hide the "end of the world" without using a tunnel.


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Seven foot doesn't give you much of a layout to build on so,I would keep it industrial with a trailer lot and grain truck staging area since this can be removed when this section joins a larger layout with street running.

Or

I would add a street with a Mom & Pop restaurant and couple of stores. I would use DPM building kits for this.

[Corsair]

Ideally, I would love to turn the lead on the left into street running, and put some town buildings behind the track/street, with a hill in back rising up to meet the background. The road and tracks could enter the brewery complex through a gate about 2' into the scene. My concern there is how to handle the extreme left end of the layout. I want to avoid the look of rails running into a wall. I'm not sure if I can manage the sight angles well enough to hide the "end of the world" without using a tunnel.


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I would add a street with a Mom & Pop restaurant and couple of stores. I would use DPM building kits for this.

This was the original thought. There are so many neat craftsmen type kits for 'town' buildings that I wanted a space for that, but seeing it on screen I'm having trouble visualizing things.

Maybe this is the answer



I'm not super stoked about the switch back into the corn syrup spur, although that and the warehouse dock would see less than daily traffic so maybe it wouldn't be a deal breaker for a prototype. The stub at left could either hold a small loco shed, or act as the switch lead depending on how it's done


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[Brakie]

Well, Ahem oh, gee-whiz.. I don't mean to be brutal but,I'll lose some of that track. If that corn syrup is for the brewery then it can go on the end of the brewery siding. If not, then any of those two left side bottom sidings will work as a transload track from rail to rubber..

Here's what my first Slate Creek looked like.. The one I should have kept! I would be wise to rebuild it. This was a 1' x 10'

[Corsair]

That's a great suggestion to move the corn syrup to the end of the brewery spur. Switch back gone.

So the two yard tracks at the bottom. I mainly based that on looking at the local Coors plant. They have a couple of yards on their complex and they're both always full. Besides which, this will be my only layout for a while and some semi-static display space is not a bad thing.


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[lajry]

To work the corn unloading spur (switchback) all cars on other end will ALWAYS have to be moved. Find another spot for it.

[Mike Kieran]

Corsair, why not just extend the shipping/receiving track further to the left and use the corn syrup unloading on the beginning of that spur next to the turnout?

[Corsair]

Read a few books and took another crack at this. Not shown is the 2' fiddle yard off stage to the left. The roadway is elevated to help hide the hole. I'm not sure if I left enough space for the scale, but it just needs enough space to weigh and then spot a single 100T hopper to operate.

I think this might be fun to operate. Start by getting the switcher fueled and sanded, then swap cars to and from the fiddle yard.


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[Charlie B]

Make sure the brand of beer you are brewing uses corn, barley is a common beer grain. And don't forget the malt making facility and storage.
Charlie

[Mike Kieran]

Corsair,
I thought that your track plan on April 24 was perfect. I would just move the Shipping & Receiving and Brewery Building further to the left, eliminate the turnout to the corn syrup unloading track, and just add the corn syrup unloading at the beginning of the siding (so the order from the turnout to the end of the siding would be corn syrup unloading, brewery, and shipping & receiving).

[dave1905]

The brewery that was on my territory in Houston got in two types of covered hoppers, grain in generic railroad covered hoppers and hops in green CNW covered hoppers. Beer was shipped out in RBL boxcars if it was pasteurized (cans and bottles) and in reefers if it wasn't (kegs). Bottles, cans/canstock and packaging came in in boxcars. It did not receive fuel or corn syrup.

[dave1905]

If you want to make brewery, I would take the scale and grain silo track and make that inbound side with a spot each for bottles, cans and packaging.

I would extend the brewery spur parallel to the shipping/receiving spur and put a loading dock between them as the beer loading area, RBL's on one track, reefers and overflow RBL's on the other.

I would extend the service track and make it two tracks in the power house area and make that the grain unloading area. One spot for hops, another for grain.

I would lose the engine house and power plant. Unless you are modeling 1920, they aren't going to have a coal fired brewery.

Since the loading tracks are most likely covered (inside the building, you could swap the sides with the loading tracks and the grain tracks and have the loading tracks along the front edge where you can see inside the building.