11-30-2009, 04:02 PM
Russ Bellinis Wrote:I would just mention that they do not use an interchange track. The class one railroads all had yards nearby, and the UP and BNSF currently have yards located on either side of Washington Blvd in Vernon or L.A., I'm not sure exactly where the border is. The LAJ will bring a cut of cars to go out on the BNSF to Hobart Yard or a cut of cars to go out on the UP to the Washington Blvd Yard, and pick up cuts left for them by the class one railroad. They will take the fresh cars back to one of their yards to sort them and work them. They drop the cuts off at the class one yards without sorting them allowing the class ones to classify them as needed. Such an operating scheme could free up another track for more industries or make more room at an already existing industry.
Mmmm - I don't quite see how freeing up the interchange track at the bottom of the yard would make more room at an already existing industry - how would that work ?
It certainly would be easy enough to use that track for extra yard storage, if you need or want that. A yard track is a yard track - you can spot anything at any track in the yard, if it works for you.
Likewise, it is perfectly possible to mentally just decide that for the current operating session the lowermost yard track really is serving an industry "in the aisle".
Calling it an interchange track was to remind my friend that one possible move would be to have an engine come into the visible part of the layout (from the hidden area behind industry B) to pick up some outbound cars, towards the end of the operating scenario. If you make industry B a little longer, you could probably sneak an engine and a couple of cars behind industry B. Or something.
Smile,
Stein