I am just getting ready to leave in the morning for Minot, ND to train new conductor/engineers and I may not have time to did it out. But, I drew up a trackplan and had photos of the COER for MR (never sent it to them and then steam was gone) which showed all the industries and associated track after visiting them, photographing the property and enjoying a cab ride on the 2-8-0.

It would have made a nice little railroad.

Barry

Ed -Industry B either a scrapyard (gons or flats), with a couple of containers or an old caravan suitably weathered and rusted



converted into office/ secure storage for valuable & attractive items ,put a fence arpound it and have a couple of attack dogs



on chains (or free) and a grab crane too - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kibri-Walthers-HO-Liebherr-934-Excavator-Crane-Scrap-yard-steel-crane-11282-/270829093919?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3f0eac041f">http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kibri-Walthers- ... 3f0eac041f</a><!-- m --> - a timber yard, (boxes or wood cars) with timber piles and a covered storage area bottom right (in the corner) or a building supplies with an Office block(something like this in the corner



. a single storey covered storage for bagged cement, pallets with bricks, block, prefabricated roof trusses, etc. etc.

Industry D - run a hardstanding area in from the road between B & D - and make it a teamtrack for off-line industries - put a ramp and platform at the road end with truck load/unload at the lefyt end, park a portable conveyor down there and have one of the customers send a truck and fork lift down to do the work, or your local fuel dealer can send a tanker down to unload a tank car ( may take him a whie!) You could also send ta road tanker down to refuel your loco under contract there - you can run absolutely anything in there then.

This gives you low height industries that shouldn't interfere with reaching in or blocking your view, but will give you switching alternatives

BOK Wrote:... I drew up a trackplan and had photos of the COER for MR (never sent it to them and then steam was gone) which showed all the industries and associated track after visiting them, photographing the property and enjoying a cab ride on the 2-8-0.

It would have made a nice little railroad.

Barry

Barry;
I've visited the COER several times over the years. Even have slides in the collection of the 2-8-0 pulling pig flats. Always thought it would make for a great model railroad, but just couldn't fit the 8 miles in to the space I had available. Even their Herrin, IL line would be interesting.

shortliner Wrote:Ed -Industry B either a scrapyard - a timber yard - a single storey covered storage for bagged cement, pallets with bricks, block, prefabricated roof trusses, etc. etc.

Industry D - run a hardstanding area in from the road between B & D - and make it a teamtrack for off-line industries

Some interesting ideas here, but I'm just needing something for bulkhead flat cars, double sliding door box cars and covered hoppers - so the idea of Industry D becoming a team track will probably work the best and Industry B - a lumber dealer. At least for now. Once I get the track re-laid and running, I should get a better feel for what may work the best.

I'm rather liking the idea of Industry B being a Coke or Pepsi bottling plant with just the tank car unloading modeled, but can't find any one that has the Walther's tank car rack kit http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3104 available! Argh!!! Look's like that would have to be scratch built if I went with it.

Ed,One thing I have considered is a bulkhead flat with a pipe load for the distribution track from time to time.

Of course as you may know I like odd industries.

FCIN Wrote:I'm rather liking the idea of Industry B being a Coke or Pepsi bottling plant with just the tank car unloading modeled, but can't find any one that has the Walther's tank car rack kit http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3104 available! Argh!!! Look's like that would have to be scratch built if I went with it.

Ed,

There two of them on eBay right now. One is up for auction and the other is a Buy it Now. Search the Walthers part number in title and description.

Mark

Darn it - just typed a reply and lost it

The teamtrack can really help to provide some extra traffic scenarios for the layout - for example

#1 Due to exceptionally heavy rain and bad weather further north, the local dam/river banks/bridge/levees needre-inforcing
= ship in thwe materials for transloading to trucks

#2 A Highway /interstate construction project is authorised and your town is the nearest railhead - get ready to oofload concrete brige section, cement, and loads of construction equipment

#3 An Ethanol plant is to be built (off layout) ,they need pipes, metal siding , tanks, machinery - you are in a great position to tender for, and win, the transport contract

#4 Harvest season, a great year - a glut of vegetables to be shipped out to markets and processing plants is a windfall for you

#5 A local strike of unobtanium is made and needs shipping outbound - another windfall - unprocessed in hoppers, processed Hi-grade in tanks
You can run any of these scenarios, and think up a few of your own - run one for a month, then go back to "sleepy Hollow" mode for a month, then fish another out - to see if you should use one or stay "Sleepy Hollow" roll a dice (die?)e - anything but a six is quiet time,

Another great thing for an ISL is to use a die (dice?) to simulate weather and its effects - I can email you a thing about the "Games Theory for this if you want it
Best
Jack

Southern Tuxedo Wrote:Ed,

There two of them on eBay right now. One is up for auction and the other is a Buy it Now. Search the Walthers part number in title and description.

Mark

Thanks Mark. Guess I need to look around on eBay more than I do. May just order the Buy It now one, even though the price is higher then what Walther's advertises on sale and out of stock LOL.

Here are two variations of the track plan as I see it right now:

Version A - Which has a long structure on the front edge (Industry D) based on a Trinidad Benham processing plant. Not ideal, but if the structure is just slightly higher then a car and the track is spaced a couple of inches away from the structure, it's workable. Alternately, it could just be a dedicated trans-load track where the covered hoppers are off-loaded with conveyors to trucks and no structure required. Industry B would be a lumber dealer.[attachment=9224]
Version B - Has Industry B as a soft drink bottler where tank cars are unloaded and Industry D then becomes strictly a trans-load/team track with a dock and ramp for lumber products and where covered hoppers would be off-loaded with conveyors to trucks.[attachment=9223]Will work on re-laying the track this afternoon and after that, I'll be able to test out both variations. Really undecided right now as to which variation would work out the best. As Jack says, the trans-load/team track can provide for some occasional odd shipments, if desired; but the dedicated industry seems a bit more logical to me for an industrial spur. Decisions, decisions...

Ed, I would go with a transload track for the reasons outlined by jack PLUS other traffic. Macentyre Fuels in New England receives fuel at a team transload track, coal or gravel, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Jack, what is this dice game that you are talking about. I use dice for figuring out how many inbound loads I have coming in. I don't even need to carry dice. I just shake my phone and let my downloaded dice game decide.

Small update....

All the track is laid and operating smoothly. Need to make up a couple of switch lists and test out the operations and also try and decide how I'll end up handling the two tracks on the front edge of the layout.

After laying out the track according to my plan, I'm wondering right now if I may have to add a narrow staging track on the left side of the layout to give myself a little more breathing room. Should be ample room to work the first two tracks as it is, but I'd like to have a bit of a run before actually getting to the working area. An 8in X 6ft shelf would be simple enough to add. Test sessions should tell the tale.

Mark - I ordered the Walther's fuel rack kit off eBay this evening - so that may well influence how the plan ends up, once I get the kit and see what I can do with it. Thanks again for the info!

** UPDATE 11/5/2011 **
Have operated the new track arrangement twice now (using the Version B industry arrangement) and everything seems just fine. Sessions are taking 60-70 minutes without any "time killing" and that's just placing/pulling one or two cars at each industry. Plenty of room to work all the tracks, but still considering adding a 6 to 8ft long staging track on the left side at some point. It could have two tracks on it where two different trains could be staged.

Need to make some more structure mockups since the older ones no longer fit anywhere, but will hold off on that until I'm sure of the industry placement.

Still have a few ideas floating around in the old brain, but don't want to keep boring you with changes. Will continue to test this out for a while before making any more changes. BUT.... for an entirely different plan, see my posting regarding a Peanut Butter plant http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=24&t=4911 Hummmmmm?

Mike - send me an email to chacmool at lineone dot net and I'll send you a scan

Ed, I strongly suggest you try out having the peanut butter plant on your layout, not only is it fun to operate, but it is also a unique industry.

It seems like every layout has a generic warehouse or food processor, but how many layouts have a peanut butter plant?

Justinmiller171 Wrote:It seems like every layout has a generic warehouse or food processor, but how many layouts have a peanut butter plant?

Well as far as I know, you currently have the only layout plan that I've seen that has a peanut butter plant as the main industry; and a unique industry at that. Nice to see that someone took interest in the peanut butter plant as a main industry for a layout. Only a very few that I'm aware of include a food products distributor (not processor), which is a great industry for car variety and rail traffic. I dropped the "generic" warehouse from my planning some time ago, although it is a common rail served industry found all over the country.

An ISL with one large rail served industry and a handful of smaller, now and then customers, makes for a nice theme for a switching layout, but then so does one that includes several moderate sized rail served industries, such as my current plan. It can be a tough decision to make.

Any way, I have worked up a plan that would be based on a peanut butter plant as the main industry:[attachment=9425]There is another variation of this plan on the Peanut Butter Plant thread, but this one works out a little better in some ways. The plan does have possibilities, but I'm pretty well pleased with the current design at this point:[attachment=9424]Both plans have a lot of switching involved, but I'm just not sure that I want to change everything (again!) at this point. I've also been playing around some with a track plan that would represent a self-contained short line or switching operation, but so far haven't come up with one that really suits me. I'm more in to a plan representing a spur off a main line railroad (L&N specifically) then a freelance short line or switching company.

FCIN Wrote:Both plans have a lot of switching involved, but I'm just not sure that I want to change everything (again!) at this point.

Don't worry about changing, I think it would definitely be worth it.

You could run the layout as a separate switching company without changing the track-plan by keeping the loco stored on the Peanut butter plan spur, similar to what the Kendallville Terminal does.

By the way, thank you for giving me the idea for a peanut butter plant, I would of never thought of it by myself.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Don't worry about changing, I think it would definitely be worth it.

Well I'm still thinking it over at the moment, but for now I'm just going with the way I have the plan set up and see if it continues to keep me interested. Can't really see any gain with changing the plan as far as switching operations are concerned.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:You could run the layout as a separate switching company without changing the track-plan by keeping the loco stored on the Peanut butter plan spur, similar to what the Kendallville Terminal does.

Yep, but that would require having a runaround track on the left side of the plan in order to interchange traffic. Don't really want that at this point, but would be something to consider. If I did change the plan, then operating it as though it were at the end of a spur works just fine.

Justinmiller171 Wrote:By the way, thank you for giving me the idea for a peanut butter plant, I would of never thought of it by myself.

You're quite welcome. Very happy to see that one of the industries I've suggested from time to time has inspired someone to model it!

It's been some time since I've posted anything on this thread and since it's managed to get off topic a bit, thought I'd show the latest track plan that I've been tossing around. The plan is based on a CSXT (L&N) industrial spur in Owensboro, KY, http://maps.google.com/?ll=37.769078,-87...17&vpsrc=6 and more or less follows the prototype track arrangement. Layout size is 18 inches X 20 feet.

The prototype spur serves three industries: Packaging Unlimited, Domar Paper and the one and only Ragu' sauce plant in the US. Using modelers license, I've added one spur and industry (Transflo) and changed the Ragu' plant to a Sara Lee bakery and Domar Paper to Americold Warehouse for more equipment variety. Here's the plan so far:[attachment=9773] One thing that appeals to me about this industrial spur is how the switching lead swings away from the Packaging Unlimited warehouse. The prototype spur, when first constructed, originally just served that facility, but was extended when Ragu' built their plant in the industrial park.

Transflo spots corn sugar tank cars for trans-loading to trucks and has a simple pump house along with a trailer office and truck scale. Sara Lee will receive Airslide hoppers of flour and tank cars of vegetable oil. Americold Warehouse receives box and refrigerator cars and Packaging Unlimited receives box cars. On this plan, I would model only a loading dock with canopy to represent Americold, which would allow viewing of the cars on spot and would have a fork lift or two along with pallets and other odds and ends you might see on the dock. Packaging Unlimited receives box cars and is your typical shoebox style structure. Sara Lee will be built from a modified Walther's Magic Pan bakery kit and based on a prototype Sara Lee bakery located in Knoxville, TN.

Although not found on the prototype, I've added a highway overpass on the staging end of the plan to disguise the end of the spur where it curves toward the main line. Besides, I need to use that Rix Highway Overpass kit I picked up the other day.

I do have a slight variation of the plan, which replaces the Americold Warehouse with a team track as shown here:[attachment=9772]If I did go with this variation, the small crossdock (based on a prototype on the Effingham Railroad) would have both the track side door and one of the two truck doors open with a fork lift visible inside and then of course other equipment types such as bulkhead flats and box cars of building materials and covered hoppers of feed or fertilizer could be spotted for off-loading to trucks.

The team track version does provide for more of my equipment types that would not be used on the first version of the plan, but just feels a little out of place to me. Of course I need only adjust the track spacing to try out either version of the plan. I've also come to the conclusion that like it or not, I may have to mothball some of my equipment and not be able to include everything that I'd like to on my layout.

Going on a long rail fanning trip this morning, so while I'm racking up the miles, I'll try and decide if I want to give this plan a try. I seem to have hit that old snag that I always run into when working on a layout ----- once I can start running a train and doing some prototype switching ---- nothing else seems to get done!!