Modern generic switching railroads - How generic can I be?

[jhock]

I am going to start this post by saying that I know it is my model and I can do I what I want, that said I would like to try and produce something that is responsibly prototypical of a modern switching railroad.

 

I am a bit of fan of Lance Mindheim and his style of modelling, producing very simple models, but are still absorbing to operate, that said I am not so keen on his chosen subject matter of LA / Miami and this is where my question comes in.

 

Does the premise of short trains and lots of switching (shunting) apply to other parts of the US or is it quite unique to his chosen subject matter?

 

I have a space of 10 feet by 18 inches to play with to make my model, I terms of area I would like to represent it would more New England, Vermont, Maine or somewhere similar, so does the principals that applied to Lances models translate to these areas?

 

If not I am happy to represent another area of the US, I just need a bit of information of where is going to allow for a railroad that operates a similar services.

 

Any help would be appreciated. 

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear?? (JHock),

 

"does (industrial switching) translate to other areas?"

 

The answer is a resounding and clear YES!

 

With the arguable exception of the wider/flatter/more-open "Granger" states,

(and there are still options, if one looks with some lateral thinking),

 

Most every state has fodder for a "proto shelf Switcher"...

 

In your nominated states, there are options ahoy from CSX, CN, various shortlines, and any number of component predecessor lines....

 

There's lessons to learn from Lance M, don't let his "preferences" in his examples unduly shutter your vision...

 

Happy modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

[Regularity]

There were, and are (but not as many as once), plenty of short lines in New England. You can always model a short industrial facility - yet again, look at Jack Hill’s website: http://oscalewcor.blogspot.co.uk

 

Do you have any particular type of traffic, type of car, or era in mind?

 

Tom Nelligan’s book sets the scene for the 70s (https://www.amazon.com/New-England-Shortlines-Railroad-Heritage/dp/093158406X), it’s a lovely book but might be too early for you?

I gave yet to acquire the Morning Sun book: https://morningsunbooks.com/products/new-england-shortlines-in-color

 

Also, have a look at the mostly steam website: https://sites.google.com/site/newenglandshortlines/

[Alcanman]

I been building small US switching layouts for a few years, including New England themed layouts. They are all built to a footprint of 9ft x 15ins.

 

You might get a few ideas. They are all here on RMweb including my current layout 'The Marlborough Branch'

 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/121892-the-marlborough-branch/page-7&do=findComment&comment=3043088

 

Westbrook, Maine

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/81192-westbrook/?hl=%2Bwestbrook+%2Bme

Edited February 14, 2018 by Alcanman

[jhock]

Thanks guys, I had a quick play around in SCARM to see what i could come up with:

 

on Flickr

 

Although it is a copy of the track plan (to a point as I don't have room for the L shaped part) of the LA Junction I would hope I could achieve a different feel with the scenery.  Along the back are a couple of generic modern buildings, not sure what they would be yet, but something that uses box cars, I like Jack Hills idea of a cardboard manufacturer, as that has box cars in and out.

 

I don't have room for staging so the cars would be staged on the left hand lead in track, there is room for 4-5 50' box cars and small engine.  Each of the rear buildings have car spots for 3 cars, so plenty of switching.

 

The bottom right spur will be a lumber yard, I have few center beam flat cars that need a home and many hours spent wrapping the loads for them!

 

In the front will be a few non rail served bits, I want to put a in a firewood dealer as I have some logging trucks I spent a while building that need a home.

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear J,

 

Looks like a good start, although I'm always prompted to suggest angling the "main" even just a few degrees,
(In this case, the plan seems to hint at a Counter-clockwise rotation for my mind),

 

so that it avoids the dead-parallel-to-the-edge look...
(a subtle bend arguably works better, but if it must be ruler-straight, a few degrees offset works wonders to the scene composition and aesthetics...)

 

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

 

PS also, don't forget to allow room for some under-track earthworks. Maine and NE are bandit locations for underpasses, creeks, and other related below-track things...

Edited February 14, 2018 by Prof Klyzlr

[F-UnitMad]

"Generic Switching Layout" certainly does translate to other areas of the USA. My interest focuses mostly on the Mid-West State of Minnesota; there are certainly plenty of examples of rail-served industries & Industrial parks there that could inspire a layout of this type, although they might be more likely to be served by Short Lines or Regionals than the Class 1's themselves.

[alfsboy]

I am modelling the SP in  the transition era .Its more or less pinned down to location by a few palm trees and dry sandy soil  and city location and Tiger Striped switches and Vandy Tenders .It wouldnt take much to make it generic though should the lust for hidden  the pleasures of other roads even eras  strike you the night .my buildings will all be mounted on bases and just plonked into position so if  a change is as good a a rest strikes I can change it very quickly .

 

Edited February 14, 2018 by alfsboy

[F-UnitMad]

I am modelling the SP in  the transition era .Its more or less pinned down to location by a few palm trees and dry sandy soil  and city location and Tiger Striped switches and Vandy Tenders .It wouldnt take much to make it generic though should the lust for hidden  the pleasures of other roads even eras  strike you the night .my buildings will all be mounted on bases and just plonked into position so if  a change is as good a a rest strikes I can change it very quickly .

 

 

The clue to the Railroad you should be interested in next is the boxcar with large letters on it, smack in the middle of your first photo!!

[scouser]

Might I suggest a paper manufacturing plant?

These are found in various parts of the USA and take a good variety of different cars.

Gonna watch this, I have a good feeling

[Conrail Joe]

Dear J,

 

Looks like a good start, although I'm always prompted to suggest angling the "main" even just a few degrees,

(In this case, the plan seems to hint at a Counter-clockwise rotation for my mind),

 

so that it avoids the dead-parallel-to-the-edge look...

(a subtle bend arguably works better, but if it must be ruler-straight, a few degrees offset works wonders to the scene composition and aesthetics...)

 

Happy Modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

 

PS also, don't forget to allow room for some under-track earthworks. Maine and NE are bandit locations for underpasses, creeks, and other related below-track things...

 

The wise Prof. offered the same advice to me, and I'm so glad I took the advice! I'm looking forward to following your build!!

 

here's a link to my 9' x 15" (plus a 6' staging cassette) current layout build based on an area in Rhode Island.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/129312-my-shelf-layout-journal/

[k-59]

Might I suggest a paper manufacturing plant?

These are found in various parts of the USA and take a good variety of different cars.

Gonna watch this, I have a good feeling

Paper is a good choice for an industry that would place the railroad in the either the Northeast or upper Midwest. Not many paper mills in Florida or California. 

 

There are still many places all over which receive a few car loads at a time and via trains which might only switch that industry at a time or maybe a few others. For example there is candy factory near to where I live in Chicago which receives about four covered hoppers every Thursday. It's the only customer left on a disused mainline, which is now basically a two mile long spur.

 

At a basic level it's perfectly possible to have a layout which a few generic industries and minimal landscaping which could just as easily be in any part of country depending on which locomotives you use. The trick is to find something like an industry or other feature which narrows it down, but there are an abundance of such things out there. 

[scouser]

Sorry to correct you K-59 but there are paper mills in Florida and California. Let's not forget Canada, they do a lot of this to.

A food factory is also a good idea as you point out.

Check out "Mike switches Batory foods in Chicago" on you tube. This is begging to be made into a layout☺

Edited February 14, 2018 by scouser

[alfsboy]

The clue to the Railroad you should be interested in next is the boxcar with large letters on it, smack in the middle of your first photo!!

Funny enough i dragged my Soo Line book out today to put on Ebay but its an interesting line  full of great potential .Its perfect for a model  short line  but not many tunnels .

[k-59]

Sorry to correct you K-59 but there are paper mills in Florida and California. Let's not forget Canada, they do a lot of this to.

A food factory is also a good idea as you point out.

Check out "Mike switches Batory foods in Chicago" on you tube. This is begging to be made into a layout☺

Hmm I suppose there are. I guess I just associate it more as a New England, Midwest, and yes an oversight on my part not to mention Canada.

 

That's video is a good example of what I mean about having a layout which could fit anywhere.  You could model that scene exactly, run a Pan Am loco instead of the Chicago Terminal one and I don't think anybody could fairly say you weren't accurately modeling somewhere in the Boston area.

 

This video came up in watch next section for me:

 

Personally I rather like the encroachment of condo high rises on a light industrial area.  

 

The Morton Salt facility is reached via switch back:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.90656,-87.6599901,204m/data=!3m1!1e3 

Edited February 15, 2018 by k-59

[F-UnitMad]

Funny enough i dragged my Soo Line book out today to put on Ebay but its an interesting line  full of great potential .Its perfect for a model  short line  but not many tunnels .

Just two tunnels, IIRC, & one of those was under a river.

 

Which book have you got?

[Regularity]

Must admit that I am non too keen on the chaos that is Facebook, but it is much easier to post pictures than on forums, and there are some useful groups on there. One of them is on H0 shelf layouts, so you may wish to have a look. I pinched this layout plan from there, to give you an idea:

 

Also worth checking out Ryan Mendell’s Algonquin Railway, http://algonquinrailway.blogspot.co.uk

[Alcanman]

I've also been looking at that plan today on FB and it is rather different in that there is no hidden staging.

 

A train is simply staged on the run around and the loco proceeds to switch the industries.

 

A nice idea for a small switching layout where space is at a premium.

[Mike Kieran]

A three industry layout that I would consider consists of the following 3 industries:

 

Food Company:

Inbound - Covered hoppers, corn syrup tank cars, cooking oil tank cars, reefers, box cars, and RBLs.

Outbound - RBLs

 

Manufacturing Company:

Inbound- Flat cars, box cars, gondolas, tank cars, plastic pellet hoppers, and coil cars.

Outbound - Box cars, flat cars, and gondolas.

 

Building Supply Co.

Inbound - Hoppers, cement covered hoppers, flat cars, box cars, and gondolas.

Outbound - None.

 

I also have a track plan that I mull over. it fits in a 10 foot by 12 inch area. I used Atlas Snap Switch turnouts, but if you use Peco turnouts (especially a 3 way), you gain extra switch lead length. Like Prof. Klyzir mentioned, angling it a few degrees counter-clockwise would also make it visually more appealing.

 

 

The lowest track could be used exclusively for building supply and car storage. I would store the locomotive on the lead to the manufacturing plant.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Mike Kieran

[dave1905]

When you get down to modeling one block it pretty much can be anywhere, the difference becomes  what industry, there are certain regional themes, but many things cut across many areas.

But don't be limited by Take paper mills.  They are a northeastern thing except for all the mills in the southern states, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.

 

Hundreds of industries can be housed in a big square, ugly concrete block building. with loading dock doors.  Just change the signs.

 

Beverage distributor?  Reefers, RBLS and insulated boxcars.
Appliance wharehouse?  Load divider and hicube boxcars.
Auto parts manufacturer?  Auto parts boxcars.

 

Run some pipes along the ground next to the spur to unload covered hoppers and tank cars.
Now it can be any of the above, plus a printing company, a food company, a bag or box manufacturer, an injection molder, etc.  Put a conveyor out the side to a gon and have a machine shop that gets steel parts or shapes in boxcars, machines them and ships them out in boxcars and the waste metal shavings in gons.

 

A generic block building isn't sexy, but it lets you change the user of the building and vary the car mix more than a very specific industry would.

[dave1905]

A lot depends on era. 

 

A building supply company in the 1950's would get hoppers of gravel or coal, boxcars and flats of lumber, boxcars of building supplies.  A building supply company today would get mostly all centerbeam flats of building materials, maybe a boxcar.

If you model the 1900's virtually every shipment more than a couple tons and that travels more than 50 miles would be by rail.  If you model the 2000's only shipments that run over a 1000 tons and go more than 500 miles would travel by rail.

 

The more modern, the fewer options there are because there are fewer single car served rail industries.

[APOLLO]

Just found this site - SPINS Southern Pacific Industrial Numbering System - lots of industrial track diagrams etc.

 

http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/spins/books.html

 

This one is San Jose

 

http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/spins/spins_san_jose_opt.pdf

 

This is how SP did switching - very interesting and this can be used for a model railroad - even a small one.

 

http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/spins/spins_overview_opt.pdf

 

The (mainly SP) site wx4.org is HUGE - you could spend the rest of your life looking at timetables, photos, memories etc.

 

http://wx4.org/to/foam/a_rrcontents.html

 

Found the site by accident a couple of hours ago and remembered this request. Hope it is of interest

 

Brit 15

Edited February 15, 2018 by APOLLO

[Mike Kieran]

Agreed Dave. I just put these 3 industries out there for car variety. It doesn't have to have all of these cars delivered at once or per week. I'm just suggesting a plausibility to running a train layout for fun, which is the real reason that we build them.

 

Generic, even replaceable buildings are another great option.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Mike Kieran

[F-UnitMad]

If you model the 2000's only shipments that run over a 1000 tons and go more than 500 miles would travel by rail.

 

The more modern, the fewer options there are because there are fewer single car served rail industries.

How about transhipment facilities? As I understand it, usually owned by the railroads, but used for swapping loads from rail to road or vice-versa, & used to serve companies that either ship/receive in smaller quantities than 'trainload', or don't have their own rail spur?

One example that comes to my mind is the tranship warehouse of Progressive Rail at Lakeville, MN.

[Regularity]

Some photos from Facebook: the layout is still under construction, but if it operates as well as it looks, it must already be a stunner.

I love the way that exit stage left is disguised with nothing more than greenery.