12-29-2013, 05:20 PM
Hello all,
"Tell us about your 4x8"
At last, a discussion I can contribute something to !
: )
Here's a summary of my 4x8:
What: Willamette City Belt Line
...a connecting railroad loosely inspired by Harbor Belt Line & LA Junction. Actual layout inspired by Nov 1993 RMC article ( Learning from a layout-- Model Trains go to School).
Where:
Willamette Valley in Oregon. Originally conceived as a fictional West Coast metropolis located north of San Francisco and south of Seattle. This was scaled back over time, I mostly model what I see , mostly industries in Salem , with a few from other places in the Valley.
When: "modern", 1980 - present.
How:
Schematically, WCBL is the cross bar in a capital "H". It connects between Union Pacific and Portland & Western RR. The UP is on the right vertical element and Portland Western is the left vertical.
The actual layout is a loop (surprise!) with two interchanges on one end. Trains operate as a turn. They come onto the layout from the UP interchange & yard, travel several loops between the Fairgrounds District (near side) and Front Street area (far side), finally reaching the interchange with PNWR, then reversing. I rebuilt the layout once, with minor changes, when I replaced brass track with NS.
Most trains are one locomotive, 8 cars maximum, plus caboose required by modelers license to due street running. Passing sidings will hold 4-6 cars.
Due to the modest layout size, industries car needs are selectively compressed, with the maximum capacity at 3 cars. Fortunately, there are several prototype industries in Salem which receive 4 or less cars: Cascade Warehouse and Truitt Brothers on Front Street, Ventura Foods (salad oils/margarines), and Oregon Cherry Growers (maraschino cherries).
Online Industries:
Cascade Warehouse Company(lumber shipping); Truitt Brothers Cannery; Oregon Cherry Growers (corn syrup in); West Coast Plastics ; Ventura Foods LLC (salad oils/margarines); Bridgeport Brewery; Oregon Transfer Co; Fairgrounds transload/team track.
Offline industries:
Minto Industrial Park - Esco (foundry/castings for wearable parts such as track links and bucket teeth); Don Panchos (packaged tortillas); Pacific Pole and Pilings (creosoted products out); Consolidated Supply Co; Great Western Chemical Co.; ; Cherry City Metals (scrap out); Ram Steelco (structural- in); R&B Rubber Products (shredded tires out); White Trucking (dairy feeds- in); Glacier NW (cement in). Via offline connections: Pacific Seafoods (frozen fish & canned catfood); Cascade Steel Mills (scrap in, rebar out)'; Corvallis Feed and Seed; Marion Ag Services (fertilizer in).
Operations:
In order to insert some independence and unpredictability for operations, for several years I used an excel worksheet to generate random car orders. This all changed when I found an online group that forwards cars to one another's layouts, via an internet waybill application. Since then, 95% of my traffic is via virtual interchange with members of that group. The downside to this is that I tend to use most of my RR time in operations ! Further development of scenery & structures is far below the scenic standards I see demonstrated on Big Blue, remaining mostly a representational approach on plywood. But hey, it's fun!
--Doug
Willamette City Belt Line
Salem, Oregon.
"Tell us about your 4x8"
At last, a discussion I can contribute something to !
: )
Here's a summary of my 4x8:
What: Willamette City Belt Line
...a connecting railroad loosely inspired by Harbor Belt Line & LA Junction. Actual layout inspired by Nov 1993 RMC article ( Learning from a layout-- Model Trains go to School).
Where:
Willamette Valley in Oregon. Originally conceived as a fictional West Coast metropolis located north of San Francisco and south of Seattle. This was scaled back over time, I mostly model what I see , mostly industries in Salem , with a few from other places in the Valley.
When: "modern", 1980 - present.
How:
Schematically, WCBL is the cross bar in a capital "H". It connects between Union Pacific and Portland & Western RR. The UP is on the right vertical element and Portland Western is the left vertical.
The actual layout is a loop (surprise!) with two interchanges on one end. Trains operate as a turn. They come onto the layout from the UP interchange & yard, travel several loops between the Fairgrounds District (near side) and Front Street area (far side), finally reaching the interchange with PNWR, then reversing. I rebuilt the layout once, with minor changes, when I replaced brass track with NS.
Most trains are one locomotive, 8 cars maximum, plus caboose required by modelers license to due street running. Passing sidings will hold 4-6 cars.
Due to the modest layout size, industries car needs are selectively compressed, with the maximum capacity at 3 cars. Fortunately, there are several prototype industries in Salem which receive 4 or less cars: Cascade Warehouse and Truitt Brothers on Front Street, Ventura Foods (salad oils/margarines), and Oregon Cherry Growers (maraschino cherries).
Online Industries:
Cascade Warehouse Company(lumber shipping); Truitt Brothers Cannery; Oregon Cherry Growers (corn syrup in); West Coast Plastics ; Ventura Foods LLC (salad oils/margarines); Bridgeport Brewery; Oregon Transfer Co; Fairgrounds transload/team track.
Offline industries:
Minto Industrial Park - Esco (foundry/castings for wearable parts such as track links and bucket teeth); Don Panchos (packaged tortillas); Pacific Pole and Pilings (creosoted products out); Consolidated Supply Co; Great Western Chemical Co.; ; Cherry City Metals (scrap out); Ram Steelco (structural- in); R&B Rubber Products (shredded tires out); White Trucking (dairy feeds- in); Glacier NW (cement in). Via offline connections: Pacific Seafoods (frozen fish & canned catfood); Cascade Steel Mills (scrap in, rebar out)'; Corvallis Feed and Seed; Marion Ag Services (fertilizer in).
Operations:
In order to insert some independence and unpredictability for operations, for several years I used an excel worksheet to generate random car orders. This all changed when I found an online group that forwards cars to one another's layouts, via an internet waybill application. Since then, 95% of my traffic is via virtual interchange with members of that group. The downside to this is that I tend to use most of my RR time in operations ! Further development of scenery & structures is far below the scenic standards I see demonstrated on Big Blue, remaining mostly a representational approach on plywood. But hey, it's fun!
--Doug
Willamette City Belt Line
Salem, Oregon.