ho scale Pier 39 Switching / Shunting Micro Layout

[jimsmodeltrains]

Micro Layouts for Ease of Moving

 

This HO scale micro layout was one of a few layouts I proposed to build to replace a large-ish modular layout due to the possibility of an impending move some time 2020. At the time I decided that it would be best to minimise the layout moving stress and dismantle the previous modular layout in favour of some smaller and easier to move modules.

 

Layout Description

 

The Pier 39 layout is a 1200mm x 300mm HO scale micro layout which has a 2 track transfer table, with each track able to hold a loco or one or two cars depending on the length of the cars. The track plan is shown below.

 

 

The track plan is based on the track plan of the same name on the late Carl Arendt’s small and micro model railroading website. I was able to add some extra trackage, such as the RIP / Loco track, and the COFC / TOFC (Container-On-Flat-Car / Trailer-On-Flat-Car) track along the top which adds more operational interest. The two team tracks in the bottom right and the TOFC / COFC track in the top left of the plan can each hold 2 cars 50 scale feet in length. The 3 yard tracks can hold 5 cars in total if 50 scale feet in length. The drill / lead track for the team tracks, can hold one short loco like a GE 44 tonner or shorter, and one car up to 60 scale feet in length. The 'runaround' track can hold 1 car up to 60 scale feet in length. This layout got operational reasonably quickly, it taking about a week to build it to an operational state, around the start of 2020. Scenery on this layout is barely started, but mostly all it will need is ballasting or 'concreting' of the track, walkways, and other clutter - not overly hard or time consuming to accomplish. It's just that I have been concentrating on the scenery on my other micro layouts and so haven't got to the scenery on this layout yet.

 

The layout almost operational - the tracks hadn't been added to the transfer table when this photo was taken.

 

The layout fully operational.

 

This layout is 'double stacked' with my Box Street micro layout (see elsewhere on RMWeb or my website), which is the same size. The photo below shows the two layouts in their custom built bookcase, the Pier 39 layout on top and the Box Street layout underneath. The photo was taken while the layouts lacked sky blue backgrounds, so the sky blue corrugated iron of the shed it was housed in during most of their construction can be seen.

 

 

Operating Sessions

 

For an operating session on this layout, the ‘aim of the game’ is to ‘swap’ inbound with outbound cars. Cars are hand staged in the yard tracks, and they have to be moved to the relevant industry track, while cars already in those tracks have to be moved to the yard tracks. Because usually only one car can be switched at a time there is a need for the train crew to think ahead, and treat the movement of cars somewhat like a strategy game. Most cars moved on this layout are virtually interchanged with other layouts through the Virtual Interchange group I am a member of. Motive power is usually a GE 44 tonner diesel loco although an Alco S2 or other similar size switcher has also been used for motive power.

 

Locale

 

The Pier 39 Yard layout is representative of an Erie Railroad car float served switching area in the metro New York city, USA area where cars arrive / depart by car float (implied rather than modelled) between the Pier 39 Yard and New Jersey.

[jimsmodeltrains]

My Pier 39 switching layout has been operational for quite a while now, but very little scenery had been added to it. Over the last week or so I have started to do something about that. I have started to add the Team Track platforms, done some ballasting and added some foliage.

 

 

There is still more work to do on the platforms. The filler I used to fill the gap between the platforms and the rails and that has been put on the foam core platforms will need to be sanded back to a more smooth surface to look like concrete. And I will probably have to paint those areas a concrete grey to complete the effect.

I am also considering what sort of building, if any, to add to help hide the transfer table while still allowing aces to lock the tracks in position when a train has to go from or to the transfer table. I have considered using a scratchbuilding building I had on my previous large-ish layout and am working towards trying to add that to see how it looks and works.

 

 

Another option is that I could model the inside of a building, with forced perspective to give the illusion of depth. I have never tried that before but it could be quite effective if I manage to do it properly.

 

Because the layout is quite small (1200mm x 300mm, 4×1 feet), and is more or less at eye height, the way I scenic the front elements of the layout will probably be quite important in providing the over all scenic effect I am trying to achieve.

[jimsmodeltrains]

Over the last few weeks, I have done a fair bit of work on my HO scale Pier 39 micro switching layout. Before I started this batch of changes, the track was un-ballasted, and there was very little scenery done. But now, most of the scenery is done including most of the ballasting, and some of the scenery elements help hide things like the track alignment bolt that keeps the transfer table aligned.

 

 

One thing I did try, as a bit of an experiment, was to paint the Atlas point motors a medium grey color to try and make them less obvious. I’m not sure it quite had the desired effect, but at least they aren’t a very obvious shiny black any more.

 

 

I am planning to add an aggregate transfer area on the team tracks lead track, as another place for hoppers and gondollas with aggregate to be spotted. I think this will add some extra operating interest.

[jimsmodeltrains]

Here are some photos of the Pier 39 switcher operating on the layout recently.

 

The COFC / TOFC / bulk transfer track faces the same way as the yard tracks, so there is no need to run around cars being moved to / from that track.

 

GE44 switcher (usually the only motive power on the layout) moving

some Canadian covered hoppers to the bulk transfer track.

 

Moving a Canadian covered hopper into yard tracks.

 

Switcher coming off the transfer table.

 

The Team Tracks face the opposite way to the yard tracks, so to move cars between the team tracks and the yard tracks requires running around and a switchback into the team track lead track for cars being moved between them.

 

Switcher (usually the only motive power on the layout) picking up an

empty reefer to move it to the yard tracks.

 

Switcher moving empty reefer to the team tracks lead track.

 

Switcher pushing the reefer onto the transfer table and runaround track.

 

Switcher running around the reefer to be able to push into the yard tracks.

 

The aggregate transfer area is adjacent the team tracks lead track, so that track is also used  for transferring aggregate between railroad cars and the aggregate transfer area. The team track lead / aggregate transfer track faces the same way as the yard tracks, so no run around of aggregate cars is required.

 

Switcher picking up a couple of short open hoppers from the yard tracks.

 

Switcher pushing open hoppers to the aggregate transfer area.

[jimsmodeltrains]

Recently I added a stone / aggregate storage area next to the Team Tracks lead track which means that the Team Track lead track can now be used as another 'industry' for spotting cars.

 

Here are some photos of the building of the storage bins, with the last one being of the finished product.

 

 

The storage bins are made of coffee stirrers and craft matchsticks.

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by jimsmodeltrains

[jimsmodeltrains]

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

 

Here is the one I made for the Pier 39 layout.

 

 

Brooklyn, NY being the area the layout is supposed to represent. I couldn't easily acquire MDF numbers '3' and '9', so opted for the name of the place where the layout represents instead.

 

Regards, James

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by jimsmodeltrains

[jimsmodeltrains]

It’s been a while since the last blog post for my Pier 39 layout, but that does not mean there have been no layout improvements. After spending quite a bit of time on improvements to my various other micro layouts over the previous year, I thought it was time to improve the look of the Pier 39 layout. The Pier 39 layout has been operational for a few years now, but little had been done to improve how it looked apart from the fairly basic primary scenery elements like ballasting, transhipment ‘concrete’ areas, and some clutter such as crates, pallets, and the like.

 

A recent (Dec 2021) photo of the Pier 39 layout before the recent improvements.

 

Over the last few months I have been busy making improvements to the Pier 39 layout. One thing that became apparent during my concentrating on the Pier 39 layout’s scenery is the course-ness of the area between the various tracks. This would cause a potential hazard to the 1:87 denizens who have to walk in the areas between the tracks or alongside some cars to do what train crews do. So I added some fine sand between the various tracks, with the odd weed poking through the sand for added scenic interest. I feel this change alone made a huge difference to the scenery.

 

Finer gravel between the tracks for better train crew safety.

 

Another thing I wanted to do was improve the background. As much as a light sky blue is pleasant enough to look at, it lacked a certain look of completeness and visual interest. I added a small low relief industrial office / workshop type building that I had stored away (which I think was on my previous Blue Island module), half hidden by the long fuel tank along the back. Then I added some more foliage in front of the building and tank to complete the scene.

 

Small low relief industrial office / workshop building

 

After that I also added some flat containers to the backscene behind the COFC / TOFC / bulk goods tranship area. The flat containers are container printouts printed on laser photo paper then glued to some stiff cardboard and then glued to the backscene. I tried to layer these printouts so that it looks like the scene is deeper than it actually is.

 

Containers added to the backscene behind the COFC / TOFC / bulk goods tranship area.

 

One of the sections of the layout that has caused me some angst is the 2 track traverser – it looked too much like a plain 2 track traverser! So I decided to give it the scenery treatment to try and disguise the fact that it was a traverser, or at least make it look more like an actual prototype traverser. To do this I added a raised concrete platform area between the 2 tracks, and then added trimmed coffee stirrers between the rails of the 2 tracks and on the front of the traverser. It looks a lot more like it ‘belongs’ in the scene now.

 

Trying to disguise the traverser.

 

In the area where the traverser is, I was dissatisfied with the backscene there. So I added a raised area behind the traverser, added some Superquick stone paper so that it looked like a stone wall, including some arches at the bottom that are partially hidden by the traverser. I had to be careful how I made this background scene, as if I didn’t do it properly the traverser would not have lined up properly for some track positions. I painted the top of the raised area to represent concrete. Then I pondered what to add on top of it. I was thinking I would add some more flat containers to this raised area, but in the end I felt that would mean too many containers and not enough scenic variety. After a fair amount of pondering, and testing buildings I had in storage to see what might enhance the scene, I decided I would butcher a Lima freight house I had in storage to make it a low relief building. This Lima building was utilised as a yard office on my Dolton Industry Park module which was dismantled a number of years ago. Now it has a new home, in a minimised format as a low relief building.

 

Backscene enhancements behind the traverser.

 

Pier 39’s GE44 on the traverser.

 

The layout after the above mentioned changes were completed.

 

There is still some work to do on the layout, but what has been done recently is a good start towards making it much more visually interesting.

 

(From https://www.jimsmodeltrains.ws/2022/02/16/pier-39-scenery-enhancements/ )

Edited February 16, 2022 by jimsmodeltrains

[jimsmodeltrains]

7 hours ago, RailroadRich said:

How does your little 44 tonner run? I'm contemplating one as a backup to my Atlas RS1.

 

It runs pretty well. Considering. It is quite old now, maybe as much as 10 years. Because my layouts of the last 10 years or so have had a lot of shunting / switching, this little loco has had a lot of use! Probably as much as twice or three times as much as my road switchers.

 

At one stage it developed binding cogs in one truck. I can't remember what caused that, only that it started happening. As a result of those binding cogs I made the axles in that truck free-wheeling. That truck still has electrical pickup, just no power transmitted from the motor to those axles. This limits it's pulling capacity somewhat, but it still works well, and it's lower pulling power is rarely a problem on my micro layouts. With half of it's axles free-wheeling it can still haul about 4 cars on level track.

Edited February 16, 2022 by jimsmodeltrains