Long time lurker, first time poster...Quick background. Been in the MR hobby for 2.5 years, fascinated with trains since day one. I have built and dismantled 3 layouts to date. This will be my 4th layout. All have been in the same room, which is dedicated to the hobby. The first 3 were a mix of continuous run and switching, accessed by a duck under. The duck under was my bane and will not do another.

My latest revision is a walk in ISL with interchange, small yard and switching. The idea, look and design has culminated from many of your own designs on this forum (for which I'm grateful) and other outside influences. If you feel a need for credit, please post and I will most certainly acknowledge.

I don't have a prototypical location or story. This is my railroad operated by my own imagination. This is what I am working with. Norfolk and Southern power (SD40-2, GP40-2), modern day freight cars, short term leases with the current industrial tenants, pull and shove platform, DCC, atlas code 100, #4 and #6's, MS Excel switching program found on the internet. Would like to give credit, but can't remember where I found it.

The benchwork is 75% complete with 50% of the track laid (nothing permanent). Photos will be available soon.

Here is an XtrakCAD rendition.

[attachment=18475]
Some questions I have been pondering. Are there too many industries? I know I said it's my railroad and my imagination, but does this "flow" ok? I envision interchange and branch traffic being left for local pick up and sorted for delivery. Most of the cut's will be shoved into the industrial siding and switch out one or two industries at a time. Cars will be brought back and sorted for interchange and branch line pick up.

Well, that's what I'm working with. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. I'll try and keep the momentum going after this post.

NSHO

Welcome! Glad you decided to post. I like the plan as is. Are you planning on installing a lot of tall buildings to give it the concrete and brick canyon look?

Welcome NSHO, I like the plan for the bottom switching area. My only suggestion would be where you have car spots on that middle track at the bottom right. I would leave it for sorting cars for the 2 sidings above and below it, I think it'll get too over crowded trying to shuffle all those cars around. If you still want that 4th car spot I would cut back the width of that building on the bottom right and add the spot on that siding.

Tyson Rayles Wrote:Welcome! Glad you decided to post. I like the plan as is. Are you planning on installing a lot of tall buildings to give it the concrete and brick canyon look?

Unfortunately, scenery has been on the back burner. I struggle with a vision of the look and feel of the over all layout. I'm envious of all the layouts I ogle on this forum. Its inspirational and jealousy at the same time.

I have several walthers and pike stuff buildings that I've built per instructions or kit bashed a bit. I'm hoping I can use what I've got to represent the industries. I'm also going to mock up the warehouse and manufacturing with cardboard and/or foam board.

So to answer your question...It's a possible maybe.

Thanks for the reply!
NSHO

Rscott417 Wrote:Welcome NSHO, I like the plan for the bottom switching area. My only suggestion would be where you have car spots on that middle track at the bottom right. I would leave it for sorting cars for the 2 sidings above and below it, I think it'll get too over crowded trying to shuffle all those cars around. If you still want that 4th car spot I would cut back the width of that building on the bottom right and add the spot on that siding.

I completely agree. I've played with this area in real time and on xtrakCAD. And there always seems to be need for sorting on that track. I was really trying to use that track for a corn syrup car I have. But more than likely its spot will be eliminated for better operations. I had at one time eliminated the distribution track in lieu of sorting the Processing job. Worked well and was able to use corn syrup tank cars.

I honestly dont see a permanence to my industries. The distribution company may fold up and leave town, leaving an empty track.

NSHO ,Glad you shared your ISL plan..
Your layout reminds me of a urban industrial lead I found while I was researching a possible track plan for my Slate Creek on Bing and Google maps.

If I may I recommend leaving the plan as it is since your crews have room to leave cars while switching the industries on the bottom of the plan and don't forget the overflow cars for those industries.

A transload track is a handy thing to have-a load of farm equipment,a load of lumber or a load of pipe might show up on your interchange track.

IMHO the last thing I would want to do is cut down on track and industries which in turns means less switching-not good for a ISL based on switching industries.

Hi NSHO and welcome.

Plenty of friendly and valuable advice here for the newbies like us, so you've made the right decision to come out of the closet

I'd like to offer you some solutions to the questions you pose, however, I'm still learning the ropes myself. For what it's worth, it looks fine to me with plenty of operating potential.

I envy the space you have too.

Good luck and keep us posted.

jonte

Welcome to the group NSHO!

You've got a really nice plan that makes good use of your available space. I wouldn't change a thing on it! I'm like Brakie, the plan reminds me of several industrial spur operations that I've seen. Hundreds of examples can be found around the country using Google Maps.

I'd say you've got enough industries on the plan to keep you quite busy for well over an hour per operating session and that's without switching every industry every session. I wouldn't eliminate any nor do I see any need to add any more. On my own industrial switching layout, I currently have only 4 industries, each with multiple car spots, and it takes me a good hour just to switch 3 of them. If I want a shorter session, I just deliver one or two cars to one of the industries and that's good for 20-30 minutes.

The one suggestion/change I'd make is shown here (in red):[attachment=18480]I'd make that spur opposite the structure marked "Manufacturing" a corn syrup transload where you could have two or three C/S tanks being off-loaded to stainless steel tank trucks. Frees up your switching lead on the right side of the plan and adds an interesting, yet simple to model scene. Of course it could also be used for any sort of commodity being handled for an off-line customer. I'm sure you'll get plenty of other suggestions as this thread grows.

Looking forward to seeing how your plan progresses.

NSHO Wrote:I had at one time eliminated the distribution track in lieu of sorting the Processing job. Worked well and was able to use corn syrup tank cars.
The distribution company may fold up and leave town, leaving an empty track.

I wouldn't eliminate an entire industry for one tank car, besides that distribution building looks like it could be a pretty interesting building with an open loading dock train cars and trucks could share it. If you want a tank car spot you can add it to either your manufacturing or processing industries since it looks like you have silos on both sidings. One of them can be a food processor which would need boxcars, reefers, and tank cars. The tank car and boxcar bring in the different ingredients and the reefer ships out the final frozen product. If you use the industry labeled processor and cut back that square shaped building you could probably get 2 corn syrup spots instead of what looks like a covered hopper.


I was looking at your yard area also and was wondering what you were planning on doing with all the space between your interchange track and engine shed, thats an awful large area to cover with scenery. Unless you have plans for that area, I made a different yard arrangement which includes the engine facility. Just throwing it out there to get the wheels turning on a different perspective.


I guess I should have used a different color but the 2 bottom right tracks are the engine shed, the track above those 2 could be for fueling and the top right is where your interchange would come in. This just cuts back on all that open space you have and also gives your engines a place to escape when bringing cars back to the yard from your switching area.

Rscott417 Wrote:I was looking at your yard area also and was wondering what you were planning on doing with all the space between your interchange track and engine shed, thats an awful large area to cover with scenery. Unless you have plans for that area, I made a different yard arrangement which includes the engine facility. Just throwing it out there to get the wheels turning on a different perspective.

Good thought..I've toyed with this area for a long time. It's been the biggest hold up on my completed design. I've tried double ended yards, stub ended terminating on the left and right and honestly just 2 or 3 staging tracks. I had this at one time.

[attachment=18482]
I agree, there's a lot of real estate there to develop. Could end up being a barren all dirt wasteland or a parking lot.

Thanks
NSHO

The reason I changed the arrangement of your yard is because when your train is returning from it's switching duties and the engine (in most cases on your layout) will be leading, how do you plan on getting the cars into your yard tracks without trapping your engine?

I just saw your other plan and see you added a runaround and yard lead, that answers my question. Good idea with the yard lead, without it you'd have to go back out onto the main. I like this yard plan, I would keep a switcher designated to yard duties only and leave it parked on that yard lead this way when your interchange arrives you don't have to worry about how many cars come in and blocking in all your engines if they're in the engine facility. I would also keep your yard office closer to your engine facility so when crews get their orders they don't have to walk across the length of the yard to get to work. Overall I like it though, I wish I had the space for something like this.

Thanks to all so far for your thoughts and comments. I foresee a new transfer company purchasing the vacant lot just north of the fourth spur.

Here are some pictures of the Processing and Distribution end of the layout. If the pictures don't upload well, I'll look into another picture host.
[attachment=18487][attachment=18486]
[attachment=18485][attachment=18484]
[attachment=18483]

More pictures...
[attachment=18490][attachment=18489][attachment=18488]

Rscott417 Wrote:The reason I changed the arrangement of your yard is because when your train is returning from it's switching duties and the engine (in most cases on your layout) will be leading, how do you plan on getting the cars into your yard tracks without trapping your engine?

I just saw your other plan and see you added a runaround and yard lead, that answers my question. Good idea with the yard lead, without it you'd have to go back out onto the main.

My first posted layout at the top has an engine escape (see picture below). However I'm only able to pull back 4 cars max to allow an engine to escape and runaround the cut.

[attachment=18492]
Or the returning cars can be left on the not welled traveled branch line and the engine can run around from below. This would allow 2 more cars on the return trip.

[attachment=18491]

That plan isn't the greatest cause you're minimizing the amount of yard storage, you'll need to 2 tracks just to store cars on 1 track. You're newer plan makes more sense and you can utilize all your yard tracks and maximize car capacity.