Florida ISL - Ocala

[Mike Kieran]

I like what you have done with Chris's plan Mike, but rather than an engine house, perhaps have a couple of open air sidings/roads for engine and caboose storage – that’s what i did on a previous layout, Lawley Street:

Hey Jez,
I love the Lawley Street layout. I am absolutely in love with your weathered Rail America engines. The engine house is optional. I just put it in for an option so that maintenance crews aren’t exposed to the elements.


Hey Larry (fastcar),
My design is based on his Florida Highlands design, but as a push/pull operation. I find that a prototypical runaround is at least a quarter of a mile long (15.17241379310345 feet in HO) and that even with selective compression, eats up a lot of real estate. Even a runaround that fits a 4 car train is 5.25 feet (1.6 meters). Trying to squeeze a runaround track with the area that Chris is working in would be tough (but not impossible). I was just trying to go with a clean, uncluttered design.

I wasn’t trying to model the Ocala Line exactly, just use it as a guide. I didn’t get the feeling that Chris was modeling the line track for track, but I may be wrong. I know that he wants to use Pinsley Railroad CF-7s on the layout. I’m using #6 Atlas turnouts in my track plan with a minimum radius of 22 inches. With the drop leaf added at the end of the peninsula by the yard, the switch lead is 48 inches.


Hey Larry (Brakie),
If the railroad had a runaround to serve a customer, then wouldn’t they use the runaround? I’m not arguing with you, I’m just figuring that a railroad’s first priority would be to serve that customer since each freight car is necessary revenue and if other customers hear complaints from one, then they may be more reluctant to use rail service.

I, personally, eschew runarounds in favor of push/pull railroading (mostly because I loves me some cabeese). The B&M had a branch line that they used to service by shoving a caboose up the branch.

If I had the space, I would not have the yard and would instead have a runaround with my engine house right there (even minimal traffic short lines like the M&NJ had engine houses). The runaround would be used for interchange (like the Ballard Terminal does) and sorting out the train. We would then tack the caboose onto the front of the train while the engine goes onto the rear so that it may shove the consist up the branch line.

My runaround would be at the interchange end of the line. One end of the runaround would be a length of track 18 inches long so that the engine has room to maneuver to hook up to the train. The other end of the runaround would be the branch line.

I just wonder how much fuel costs would be annually with an engine on either end and while using DCC, would you have to constantly reassign the throttle to the correct engine.