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+--- Thread: Ideas for a shelf layout (/showthread.php?tid=1235)
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Ideas for a shelf layout - Sir Madog - 05-15-2009
I have only very little room available to build my dream layout. It has to go on top of an existing shelf measuring 8´ 6" by 2` . It will have to be some type of a switching layout, but I am looking for fresh ideas for a "scenic" version, set in an urban/industrial surrounding, may be with some sort of "water front" to go with it. Left and right is room for detachable switching leads of a length of 2´.
Help?
Have fun
Ulrich
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - nomad - 05-15-2009
I usually look here first for switching layouts. Maybe you can find something you like.
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Loren
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - MasonJar - 05-15-2009
Welcome to Big Blue!
If you want some material a little closer, take a look at these great threads, here at Big Blue:
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There have also been some great switching layouts in back issues of MR. Port of Los Angeles comes to mind. Find it here:
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And Bob Boudreau did some great modules, now dismantled, but you can read about them here:
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Andrew
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Squidbait - 05-24-2009
After reading a bit about the terminal railroads in New York, I started doodling this around the Walthers carfloat apron... Call it the Spaghetti terminal and dock, if you like. I see terminal buildings at the back, a pier at the front with a gantry crane or two, maybe a bulk transfer in the top right, and whatnot in the top left...
.... so how do you figure you have 8' 6", plus 2' on the left and 2' on the right? Isn't that more like 12' 6"?
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Sir Madog - 07-18-2009
After a long and thoughtful process, I have finally come up with a layout that is clos to my "dream layout" and combines a lot of my givens and druthers. I was able to squeeze out a little more room for it.
The layout has been inspired by Bob Smaus´ Port of Los Angeles layout , as well as many other ideas I saw in this forum. I quite like it!
Here it is:
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Buckler - 07-18-2009
This layout of mine just fits your space!
Check it out at
http://www.freewebs.com/buckler/kupplayard.htm
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Russ Bellinis - 07-18-2009
I don't know how I missed this thread! That layout looks perfect for the space you have available! If you wanted to make a removable "fiddle yard" to bring different rolling stock on and off the layout, that harbor on the upper right corner could consist of a tugboat and barge loaded with freight cars on wheeled cart that could be rolled into position to offload freight and load other cars for transport elsewhere. If the car was built 12 - 15 inches lower than the layout with an automobile scissor jack bolted to the top of the cart and the bottom of water scene with tugboat and barge, the scene could be rolled away from the layout and lowered so that it could be stored under the layout when not in use. In fact, if you don't need all of the space under the layout for storage, books, etc, you could put a staging yard on a shelf under the layout to store your extra rolling stock, and service it with the cart. I fact, you could eliminate the cart by mounting the tug and barge on a dumb waiter at the end of the layout transversing between the layout above and the storage/staging yard below.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - nachoman - 07-18-2009
Ha! I read your first post, and immediately thought of the Port of Los Angeles project layout from Model railroader, then scrolled down to see that you thought the same thing! That was a pretty cool layout - the tracks in the street make for a nice model.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - eightyeightfan1 - 07-18-2009
Nice looking plan.
Don't forget to take pics when you start building.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Sir Madog - 07-18-2009
Thanks for all the positive feedback on my trackplan. Without all the ideas and inspiration I gathered I would not have been able to come up with anything like it. I still have to check it in operational terms - not an easy task for me, as US prototype train operation differes considerably from what I can observe here in Germany.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Russ Bellinis - 07-20-2009
Operationally, I think there will need to be some compromise from prototype practices. Alaska is about as remote as it gets in the U.S. They would have a yard at the landing where cars to be sent back to the "lower 48" would be stored awaiting the barge. When the barge showed up, the fresh loads would be off loaded, and exchanged for the return cars. I don't know enough about the prototype to know what commodities would be shipped back South. There would probably be refrigerator cars loaded with brined or frozen fish, but I'm not sure what else. I went to Alaska on a couple of Alaskan Fisheries Patrols in the Coast Guard back in the mid 1960's. At that time the Japanese were just building drying buildings in order to utilize Alaskan timber. Prior to that time, the dampness of the Alaskan climate had precluded anyone from using Alaskan lumber because no one could figure out how to dry it before rot set in. If the drying buildings worked, there might be lumber products shipped South. The thing to remember is that going North, most of the equipment would be loads. Probably most of the cars returning South would be empties. When loading the barge, loads would be put in the center with empties on either side in order to keep the barge balanced. One advantage of modeling the Port of Seward is that even though it is on the edge of the mainland and functions as the Port for all freight going to Anchorage, it functions like an island. To my knowledge there is no railroad connection to Anchorage except through the port at Seward. Therefore industries that would be too small to receive rail service in the "lower 48" would not be a stretch to receive one or two carloads per week or even per month. In Alaska, virtually everything is imported from the "lower 48."
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Sir Madog - 07-20-2009
Hi Russ,
thanks for the comments. I never made all the way up to Alaska - Vancouver in British Columbia was the northern most point for me.
I am not quite sure whether the ARR ever exchanged cars with other roads via barge service. Nowadays I guess it is just containers, unloaded from the ships at Anchorage or Seward and either loaded onto trucks or intermodals. I will check on that one...
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Russ Bellinis - 07-21-2009
I've seen recent pictures of a barge terminal in the Seattle, Wa area where they were loading freight cars for Alaska. I think I saw the pictures on the old Gauge web site before the old "Z" site was started. It may have been before Peter bought The Gauge. I watched a video on the Alaska Railroad on RFD network a couple of years ago, and there were quite a few freight cars shown, but to my recollection, I didn't see any containers. I think the barge service was from the BNSF.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - Sir Madog - 07-21-2009
Russ,
you are right - ARR does exchange cars with the lower 48 states via a barge service between Whittier and Seattle. Here is a link:
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Puts me in the nice position to be able to run other road´s cars on "my" ARR.
Re: Ideas for a shelf layout - MasonJar - 07-22-2009
That's a great layout. Glad the Port of Los Angeles layout was inspirational!
Andrew