08-16-2011, 03:24 PM
Brakie Wrote:Justin,ISLs don't really need a theme other then choosing the industries you're good to start the planing stage-and as a caution I suggest the industries be completely independent businesses that ships and receives their cars off line and not from each other since they are close together..You see a shuttle truck service could handle that business much better then rail.
I have to agree with Brakie. I plan my switching areas by a combination of track plans I like, and selecting industries and an operating scheme for each industry.
For instance, the sawmill on my 1900-era logging line. A rail-served sawmill needs a decent quantity of logs coming in, and a stock pile of logs to pick from. In the west, water storage was the most common form of storage. A river/stream was dammed to create a log pond. So at a minimum I need a spur to serve the log dump. Cars would be unloaded, and then "parked" until a train into the woods could take them back as empties. Similarly, empty flat or box cars would be needed to load the sawn lumber, and parked until a train hauled the lumber to its destination. So another spur to load lumber, and some track to hold cars and put outgoing trains together. Typically, trains would deliver and pickup at the beginning and end of the day. If the mill was isolated, some sort of provision was made to bring workers to and from the site - could be a passenger car, or maybe just a flat car. Mills of that era were powered by steam; boilers would use wood scraps for fuel, so no need for loads of fuel. Logs and lumber would be moved around the mill by flumes, conveyors, rollers, or trams - or some combination of these methods. And that's just one industry.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W