05-10-2014, 03:57 PM
I have been tempted from time to time by the thought of adding a narrow penninsula down the middle my layout room to accommodate a yard. The drawback would be substantially reduced walking space in the room and I'd lose immediate access from one side of the layout to the other.
I've pondered turning the "holding yard" at KP steel into a general yard, but accessing the last couple of feet of the ladder tracks is an issue. Using these tracks as a place to pick up and set out strings of hoppers or coil cars together is no problem but if I wanted to pull one boxcar in back for a train it wouldn't be very easy. The other consideration is I wouldn't want to lose the steel complex as a rail customer and switching location
The small yard by my car float affords some opportunities for assembling locals to serve industries in the immediate area. I don't make all of the ops from the car float simple transfer runs in which all arrivals by barge get assembled into a train to go to another yard. Some are separated for convenient delivery to Empire Grain, Sal's Salvage, and GERN right in town. So this way I get some train assembly action.
The other possibility, and the most unlikely, is making a hole in the wall to the other side of the basement where the furnace and laundry machines are. It intrigues me to have a yard in a remote location but the space is rough and I'm really not sure I want that much layout. I' d also be stretching the limits of my wife's otherwise very supportive good nature about the hobby.
Meanwhile, I feel like I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from the existing operations potential on the Kings Port Division.
I've pondered turning the "holding yard" at KP steel into a general yard, but accessing the last couple of feet of the ladder tracks is an issue. Using these tracks as a place to pick up and set out strings of hoppers or coil cars together is no problem but if I wanted to pull one boxcar in back for a train it wouldn't be very easy. The other consideration is I wouldn't want to lose the steel complex as a rail customer and switching location
The small yard by my car float affords some opportunities for assembling locals to serve industries in the immediate area. I don't make all of the ops from the car float simple transfer runs in which all arrivals by barge get assembled into a train to go to another yard. Some are separated for convenient delivery to Empire Grain, Sal's Salvage, and GERN right in town. So this way I get some train assembly action.
The other possibility, and the most unlikely, is making a hole in the wall to the other side of the basement where the furnace and laundry machines are. It intrigues me to have a yard in a remote location but the space is rough and I'm really not sure I want that much layout. I' d also be stretching the limits of my wife's otherwise very supportive good nature about the hobby.
Meanwhile, I feel like I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from the existing operations potential on the Kings Port Division.