ho scale Box Street Switching / Shunting Micro Layout

[jimsmodeltrains]

The Box Street micro HO scale switching / shunting layout that is 1200mm x 300mm in size, the track plan based on the Boxer Shortline plan that can be found on the late Carl Arendt’s small and micro layouts website. But I did add some extra trackage, and industry switching possibilities due to the extra width of the layout compared with that in the original Boxer Shortline plan. Below is the track plan I decided on.

 

Layout Description

 

The layout has 2 standard turnout / points, a single slip, a double slip and a sector plate.

 

 

The sector plate can hold 1 short switcher and a 40 scale foot car, or a longer loco and no car. There is a run around track for getting to the other side of car to switch some of the tracks, a 2 track ‘yard’ where trains ‘arrive’ from, 2 team tracks, a flour and grain industry spur, and a food manufacturer. The sector plate is also used to serve some industries, and is part of the scenic area of the layout rather than having it hidden away. This layout progressed quite quickly to an operating state, and when I finally decided to do the scenery, the scenery was fairly quickly added as well, although there is more to do (isn't there always). This layout, along with another micro switching / shunting layout called "Pier 39", was added to a custom built bookshelf so that the two 1200mm x 300mm layouts only take up a little more than 1200mm x 300mm in floor space as they are housed in the bookshelf 'double stacked' one on top of the other.

 

 

The layout can handle about 6 cars an operating session, with some cars already in industry spurs and some in the interchange tracks. It is built to be operated as part of the Virtual Interchange operations group I am a member of, which tends to have 1 or 2 cars per waybill and most spurs can hold about 2 cars each..

 

How It Is Operated

 

The start of an operating sessions sees some cars in industry tracks awaiting moving, and a loco and some cars (placed there by hand) in the interchange tracks. The loco crew has to work out how to best perform the required moves in the minimum time and with the minimum amount of moves, This usually means that an operating session is akin to playing chess, each move having to be thought out in advance especially when the number of cars is close to capacity for the layout.

 

 

Locale

 

The layout represents a small switching area near the B&OCT Barr yard in Riverdale, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA. It’s motive power is either a B&O S4, or a CM / MPAC switcher from CM / MPAC Blue Island. CM = Colorado Midland, and MPAC = Midland Pacific, 2 model railroads operated by another member of the Virtual Interchanging group I am a member of.

 

[jimsmodeltrains]

Photo of this layout and my Pier 39 switching / shunting layout (see elsewhere on RMWeb or my website) 'doubles stacked' in their custom built bookshelf. This photo was taken before the bookshelf has it's sky blue background added, so the sky blue corrugated iron wall of the shed they were in at the time can be seen.

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by jimsmodeltrains
added links to other page / website

[jimsmodeltrains]

Recently I added lighting over my HO scale Box Street micro switching layout. To do this I added LED lights, a switch and power supply (in this case a 9 volt battery) under the baseboard for the Pier 39 layout which sits above it. When the room the layout it is in is darker than usual and the layout lights are on, it frames the layout rather nicely.

 

Above: Before lighting

 

Above: After lighting.

 

Here are a few photos of the lighting set up:

 

The switch that turns the lighting on and off is attached under the frame for the Pier 39 layout, which keeps it hidden from general view and doesn’t detract from the scenery on the layout. Depending on how the 9 volt battery works out, I might wire the LED lights into a 12 volt power supply.

[jimsmodeltrains]

Recently I started creating some name boards using MDF lettering for my various micro layouts.

 

Here is the one I made for the Box Street Micro layout.

 

[jimsmodeltrains]

Scaling back the track arrangement on my 4×1 feet HO scale Box Street micro switching layout to be more similar to the track plan that inspired it and re-arrangement of industries.

 

A few days ago, I was contemplating my Box Street micro layout, and thinking about how I can improve it. I was initially thinking about a totally new track arrangement based on a Peco 3 way turnout, but when I saw how much they cost I decided against that idea. I looked through the Carl Arendt authored books I have for small and micro layouts, and I happened upon the Boxer Shortline plan on which my Box Street layout is based. After a bit of thinking, I decided I would change the track arrangement on the Box Street layout to be more like the Boxer Shortline plan. Here are the reason why I decided to do that:

• No extra cost to buy more track.
• Simplifies the track arrangement.
• De-clutters the layout.

The proposed track arrangement would be almost identical to the Boxer Shortline plan, except for one extra spur in the ‘ interchange yard’ area.

 

Revised track plan

 

Two of the spurs would be removed, and replaced with scenery, and the location of industries changed to suit the new track arrangement. Here is what it looked like before the changes were made.

 

Industries: Left: multi-industry building & Jaxxs Snaxxs; Centre: South Chicago Flour & Grains; Right team tracks. The Hot Mix Asphalt plant at the centre front of the layout can also receive cars, but they either foul the double slip or use the Jaxxs Snaxxs spur.

 

After the industries in the back centre and back right of the layout and un-needed trackage was removed, and the existing track re-aligned and a turnout installed to replace the single slip, it looked quite bare.

 

 

But it wasn’t long before the changes were complete, thanks to a Monday afternoon that I could dedicate to making the required changes.

 

Industries: Left: multi-industry building & Jaxxs Snaxxs; Centre: team track; Right: South Chicago Flour & Grains.

 

In the process of making the changes, the abandoned building that was next to the team tracks was removed, and some grassed areas were added where spurs and buildings were previously.

 

Operationally, it will be a little different to how it was before. The capacity of the spurs has been lowered by 3 cars. But there is still room for about 6 cars in the various industry spurs, and 4 in the interchange yard. Although now the runaround track is also the track that serves the team track so that will make the layout more of a switching puzzle than it was before.

 

This post derived from my blog at: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/01/19/less-is-more/

Edited January 19, 2021 by jimsmodeltrains

[jimsmodeltrains]

Today I uploaded my first video of the Box Street layout to YouTube, featuring an operating session with an Also S2 and 4 cars. The operating session featured in the video was done yesterday.

 

 

Regards, James

[jimsmodeltrains]

Hi all.

It's been a while since I posted something on this forum, so thought I would add a post about intricacies of operations on the Box Street layout.

I've been having regular operating session on my various micro layouts for a while now, and am getting used to the somewhat quirky nature of switching the Box Street layout, and having to think a few moves ahead when operating it. Mostly this is necessary because of the smallness of the layout, and my need to move as many of 6 or so virtually interchanged cars on some operating sessions. With 6 or more cars the layout it can be somewhat short of space for moving cars around.

The cars at the start of the session I had today are shown in the photo below.



There were 3 cars in the 'yard' (foreground right side of photo) which had insulated packaging materials for Midwest Foods which is in the tall building on the back left hand side of the layout. There were 2 reefers in the Team Track in the middle of the layout (1 of them being a 50 foot car) which had been unloaded and were ready to moved to Riverdale. There was also an empty box car to be moved to Riverdale and a covered hopper to be returned empty to Colorado at left hand side of the layout.

To complete all the movements required for the operating session it took about an hour to complete.

Part of the reason it took that long was the 3 cars for Midwest Foods could not all be moved there to be unloaded as the spur is only long enough for 2 40 foot cars, so I had to push 2 cars into that spur for unloading them shuffle one of those cars out to move the last of the 3 in to be unloaded after I had made other car movements. Because of the lack of available space to store cars I also made my fair share of switching mistakes (or are they switching experiments) which meant a bit more time to complete the session.

Here is a screenshot the switchlist of the cars that had to be moved, from the web-based Model Railroad Interchange Car Forwarding application.



Regards, James

[jimsmodeltrains]

Shortening some longer covered hoppers to enhance operation HO scale Box Street micro layout.

 

After my recent successful shortening of a bay window caboose (see post on my Tropical Pizza / Bamboo Island layout on 1st September 2021), I was pondering some 56 scale feet covered hoppers that I purchased some years ago but couldn’t really use on Box Street or my other micro layouts due to their length. I have 5 of them, and wondered whether I could shorten them like I did the caboose. Each of the covered hoppers looked like this, but with different color schemes representing different railroads.

 

 

The first thing I had to do was figure out how to dismantle the cars. As all the cars are the same, except for color scheme, I could dismantle one car and that would allow me to see how best to shorten all of them. After a while I was able to dismantle one, and upon investigation realised shortening them would be relatively easy.

 

 

Because each car had 3 ‘panels’ on the side, I could remove the middle panel then glue the two ends together, then do something similar with the chassis, then cut the roof and walk way on the top to fit the shortened car. I decided to try shortening the car I had dismantled to see how it went, then if it went successfully I would shorten the other ones. On a Saturday night, I did the dismantled car and was rather pleased with the end result.

 

 

On this first car, I made a mistake with the chassis which resulted in there being a gap between the two sections, but as it would not usually be seen and the chassis wasn’t where the car got most of it’s rigidity / strength from I figured it was not too big a problem. I thought I could shorten the chassis on the other subsequent cars a different way so that there was no gap.

 

 

 

The next day, I shortened 3 of the others, but left one of them 56 scale feet long as the couplings on that car required attention. The end result was that I now have an extra 4 covered hoppers that are about 39 scale feet in length that I can use on the Box Street micro layout, but also on my other layouts where necessary.

 

 

The joins can be seen on the sides of each model, but they’re not overly obvious, and can probably be disguised with some graffiti or other painting. Over all, I’m quite pleased with the result.

 

(From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/10/17/covered-hoppers-for-box-street/ )

Edited October 17, 2021 by jimsmodeltrains

[jimsmodeltrains]

Since I built the HO scale Box Street micro industrial switching layout, I have had a number of structures at the front of the layout, between the track and the front edge of the layout. When I placed them there, I felt it was a good way to add a scenic break, allowing the trains to partially disappear while moving around the layout. The structures performed that function well. But one thing I didn’t count on was the potential for damage to the structures I placed at the front of the layout.

 

 

The Hot Mix Asphalt Plant structures in the front of the layout, shown at the bottom of the photo above, have been knocked loose, bumped, and generally damaged, a number of times since their placement there. Partly this was because they were high compared with the fascia, and they were directly in front of some of the turnouts. So each time I needed to change the position of turnout blades, there was potential for the structures getting knocked and damaged. I thought it was time I did something about that. The first thing I needed to do was figure out what to put in that space, if anything, once those structures were removed. I could have just removed the structures and had a nice stone covered area, but that seemed a little too plain. I wanted something of visual interest there. I also wanted the hot mix asphalt plant to be at least hinted at, as it is a source of traffic for the train crews.

 

 

The photo above shows the empty space after the Hot Mix Asphalt Plant structures were removed.

 

In the past I have made a number of low-relief or background buildings for use on various layouts, using the Evan Designs “Model Builder” software. I found this to work very well in the past so I decided to try building a small shed for the empty space. I created a building using the available textures in the Model Builder software, and built it using card as the walls, and coffee stirrers and matchsticks to add some extra internal strength. I also felt that the asphalt storage tank in a position right near the edge of the layout would be suggestive of the Hot Mix Asphalt Plant and so decided to include that in the empty area. Once I had added the completed shed and the asphalt storage tank to the scene I scattered a light coloured sand (from a nearby river bank) around the objects and fixed it using the usual diluted PVA glue mix. Then I filled in any left over areas on the edge of the scene using a mixture of sand, small bushes, static grass and real dirt.

 

 

 

 

I purchased a 1:87 scale backhoe to suggest the need for aggregate for the industry – previously the need for aggregate was suggested by a stone container above a mixing conveyor belt. Delivery of the backhoe would take a while, it being ordered close to Christmas.

 

After some further mulling over the new scenery arrangement I felt that a pile of broken up asphalt suitable for recycling awaiting pick up could be added, so I added that to the area near the asphalt storage tank.

I feel the end result looks ok and it still suggests the need for the same commodities to be delivered or picked up from that part of the layout so has not negatively impacted on traffic requirements on the layout.

 

 

But wait that’s not all…

 

While I was waiting for the backhoe to arrive, I decided to make some further scenery changes to the layout. The area I felt needed changing was around the freight platform and silos at the back of the layout, as shown below before the changes.

 

 

The platform was just a little too short to have the doors of a 40 foot boxcar nicely aligned to it, and so I decided I would change things there around a bit to be able to add a bit of extra length into the platform. This meant I had to either remove or change the position of the silos. This would give me an opportunity to enhance the scenery in that part of the layout a bit too. I decided to keep the silos, but re-align it as the silos are a nice feature to have at the back of the layout. So I re-aligned it so it isn’t on an angle, added an extra section to the freight platform, and sceniced around the platform and silos.

 

 

There is still a little more to do, but apart from adding some grass between the silos and the brick wall at the back of the layout, and maybe some future 1:87 inhabitants, the changes are now complete.

 

Eventually the backhoe arrived, and as it was quite expensive I’m not going to glue it down to the layout. This means I can place it wherever it looks like it’s needed. Here it is waiting patiently for a gondolla load of stone for the now mostly off-scene Hot Mix Asphalt plant.

 

 

(This post derived from: https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2021/12/23/minimising-structure-damage/ )