HO Freelance Shelf / Switching Layout

[Mike Kieran]

Both of Mike's plans have interesting potential, but I should point out that if this facility is manufacturing cement, it is produced from limestone and clay quarried at the facility and the silos are for storing the finished product; to be shipped either in bulk or bagged. They don't receive sand and gravel as you might at a concrete batching plant and I don't think that fly ash is a byproduct of the process. Look around at the Google aerial view I linked to in the previous post.

Since this is a single industry switching layout - that would mean you only need the covered hoppers and box cars and thus you'd have more room to work and one less car type and track to try and squeeze in on the layout. I'd probably go with a version of the lower plan, as it requires fewer switches and doesn't look so filled with track.

Got a point there Ed. Maybe an aggregate company and an industry of some kind. This layout may be an interesting candidate for a GERN plant.