L&N Industrial Rail Spur

[FCIN]

Hey Ed,
I was just suggesting something like this.

Howdy Mike;
Thanks for taking the trouble to draw that up. I was pretty sure that's what you were talking about, but sometimes what I read is not necessarily what the other person meant! Having the crossdock and TransFlo on the extended team track would work and I've considered that too, but felt like having TransFlo (or a soft drink bottler) on a separate track just added some to the operation. I am a big believer in "less is more", so a plan with fewer turnouts and tracks is always something I'm looking for. Having an industry at the end of the spur and on the front edge would work okay for me too, as I can stand at the end of the bench work and see what's on spot there (not to mention that the cars would be shown in order on the switch list), but there is a potential problem, which we'll look at in a moment.

One of the (many!) industrial spurs that I've found and that appeals to me has an arrangement of industries and tracks like this:     I find industrial spurs like this very interesting, but you run in to one big problem; and that is, having enough clear track to work the industries at the end of the spur. On this industrial spur and based on Bing aerial views, you could probably work Industries A and B by using the spur to Industry C which only has 1 car spot at the end of the building or if you never had more than 1 car (perhaps 2) on spot at A and 1 on spot at B. On a prototype spur like this, you might actually have to pull everything from the industries at the end of the spur and use either the main track or a another track further up the spur to line up what must be re-spotted.

But modifying the Owensboro spur as shown, we could have a problem. Using a modified version of your drawing for reference...     Today, we have 3 cars on spot at Sara Lee (blue cars) and 3 on spot at what I'll call the warehouse (red cars) which can spot 4 cars. On our switch list, Sara Lee has 1 empty flour car which will have been moved toward the switch, another being unloaded and a tank car to be left at the end of the spur. We have to pull the empty and then we have 1 car of flour that must be placed behind the one currently being unloaded.

At the warehouse there are cars currently on spot at doors 2, 3 and 4 (numbered from end of track) the car at door 3 is an empty to pull and we have a load that must be spotted at door 1. So do we have enough clear track in order to pull our empties and then line up our cars to be spotted/re-spotted?

In this scenario, we appear to have enough room to work back and forth between the warehouse and Sara Lee to get the work done and it would sure make for some very interesting switching. In fact, I quickly see how I'd do the switching; but what if we had 3 to pull and place at Sara Lee and 3 or 4 to pull/place at the warehouse? And of course that could well happen in some sessions. See the potential problem? What do we do with those 6 or 7 outbound cars so that we can place our 6 or 7 inbound cars?

Of course that large 48in long structure could be reduced to one that only spots a couple of cars as in the diagram I've posted and that might help. So will have to look at that possibility. It could perhaps be TransFlo (or a soft drink bottler) at the end of the spur without having a separate track.

As I mentioned, I find track plans like this very interesting and have even experimented a little with expanded versions of two plans that you drew up for Larry (brakie). It is appealing, but when working up such a plan, you do have to make sure you have enough clear track somewhere to work the industries at the end of the spur, especially if every car spot was occupied.

All that said, something like this could be very interesting and is something that I will experiment with a bit more. I suppose I need to get up from this seat and lay out the Owensboro spur track plan tonight and see what develops!

Appreciate your input!