LNRR

The GE 44-ton had 33 inch dia wheels and the 70-ton had 36 inch dia wheels. The first railroad I worked for in 1969 - the Frankfort and Cincinnati Railroad, had GE 70 locomotives.

Both of the sketches you have are very typical of what you'd find along rail lines in the Midwest and West (in fact all over the country). In some cases, You'd simply have the passing siding and then a long siding that usually ran behind the station and whatever industries there were would be along that siding. Often the customers would be grain elevators or feed mills and perhaps an oil dealer or other customer. Also you'd have team track customers on that siding too. When your local freight worked the town, some customers might be switched from one or the other end of the "industry siding" or perhaps everything switched from just one end, depending on how the local's schedule was. Of course, any cars that were still unloading or loading, would have to be re-spotted. There can be quite a bit of switching involved on such a simple looking plan, but of course you need a lot or room on each end of the sidings in order to work the town - often a problem for us modelers. On my own current "end of branch" track plan, I switch everything from one end of the long "industrial spur", after the train arrives and the power is switched to the other end.

Another nice and realistic switching layout plan! Certainly don't need a runaround siding and you have a nice selection of industries. Looking forward to seeing this progress. My current switching layout has basically one large industry (a cardboard container plant) and a smaller team track. I included a runaround siding on the plan, strictly so the locomotive would be able to lead the train both coming into and leaving the scene, but to be honest, in some ways it's almost an aggravation and by reversing the direction of the team track I could eliminate the siding all together. In fact, if there is no work to be done on the team track, I will simply shove the inbound cars to the container plant. I don't recall at the moment where I saw you say something about possibly using some sort of switch list generating program, but I can recommend JMRI/Operations. I've been using it for operations on my layout and find that it works very well - even allowing for off-spots. There is a great tutorial you can find here: https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/27829 that explains some of the oddities about the program and how it can work great on a switching layout. Any way, keep up the great work!

Outstanding! Seeing beautifully detailed and realistic switching layouts like yours inspires me to go ahead an start putting scenery on my own 20ft x 18in switching layout. Thanks for sharing!

The 'X' indicates the car is privately owned rather than owned by a railroad.

No problem just correcting some information. Not familiar with that particular Facebook group, but I've noticed on a lot of model railroad web sites that people often "imagine" what the inbound/outbound traffic is at a particular location. As model railroaders, we can certainly use "modelers license" and have the traffic we want at our industries.

Living just about 2 miles from this facility (Washington-Penn Plastics) I can tell that they don't ship out anything by rail. All the covered hoppers contain different grades of plastic pellets used to produce the plastic parts, which are shipped out via truck. This facility was constructed in the 1970s and was originally General Electric Plastics; producing the plastic liners for GE Refrigerators manufactured in Louisville, KY. There was only a single spur there at that time. Later it became Frankfort Plastics - still supplying the plastic liners for GE Refrigerators and some other manufacturers. Not sure when Washington Penn took over the facility, but the additional spurs were added at that time. Still makes for some interesting switching as specific cars must be placed where W-P wants them, empties pulled, and cars re-spotted. The line serving this facility is operated by R J Corman and was the former L&N/CSX line between Louisville, KY (HK Tower) and Winchester, KY. Incidentally, I worked for the L&N in the 1970s and the last railroad job I had in 2008 was with R J Corman.

Great video of a classic ALCo RS-3 and a unique short line!

Wendell, I'd bet good money that Model Railroad Hobbyist would be happy to have an article about Mal's layout. Track plan, theme, construction, how it's operated, and of course a couple of his videos. Mal's layout's are every bit as good as what Lance M has done with his small layouts and there are plenty of people out here in model railroad land that could use the inspiration that featuring small layouts would give. Ed, Kentucky

Wendell, It's a real shame that such great small "achievable" (and realistic) layout's like this one aren't featured more often in the magazines. I guess we all start out thinking that we must have a very large layout, but few of us will ever build one. I've been modeling since I was a teenager (more years ago than I care to remember) and although I started several large layouts, none of them ever got past getting some track laid and operating, before I gave up on them. Since I retired in 2009, I've gotten more enjoyment out of messing around with my 18 in X 20 ft "switching layout" then I ever did with some of the never completed "dream layouts". I think Mal should submit his layout to a couple of the magazines and see if we can get more people interested in a small layout that can actually be completed and most of all - is prototypical. Would love to see more small layout plans then the constant articles about layouts that fill a basement and took 10 people to build and that many to operate it. Ed, Kentucky

Yes, on the prototype we often had to align couplers, especially on sharp curves - so it doesn't bother me to have to "help" couplers line up when working my layout. We had a lot of 50 foot boxcars with Hydraframe 60 couplers (cushion underframes where the drawbar slides and extends some distance out from the car) in pool service at the distilleries in Frankfort, KY, and you haven't lived until you have to try and align the couplers on one of those. The Case House Track at the Schenley Distillery had a sharp "S" curve going to the building and we kept a couple of pieces of rebar laying near the switch to make it easier to align those couplers! In Maysville KY on the L&N there was a tobacco processing plant that received cars of coal which unloaded on a curved trestle and it was a nightmare to get cars to couple on that curve. You just barely had room on the narrow platform on the trestle to be able to safely align the couplers and it would often take 2 or 3 tries to get a car coupled. So having to align couplers on our models to couple them on curves is quite realistic.

Very nice present from Santa! I have two of the Intermountain GP-10's with the LokSound decoders that feature the Drive Hold. They sound just great and motor control is the best I've ever seen. I don't use the Drive Hold feature very often, but it is nice to get the locomotive running at a set speed and and be able to put the prime mover into idle and watch the train coast along. Also nice that I can simulate pumping up the air using that feature. Bit of a problem using it when switching, as it's easy to forget if the Drive Hold is on or off.

Great video. Really interesting watching the Warwick's Atlas working.

I know the plan you're talking about and many more like it. I think the "positive reaction" you see is based on a general lack of knowledge about how real railroads are operated and built with the least amount of track necessary, and the worn out thinking that "operation" means you have to have more track and switches or it's boring; rather than duplicating actual operations. How many times have you seen people post something like "you'll be sorry if you don't put a runaround siding/loop on your plan" even if what you're modeling wouldn't have any need for it. Stick to your guns!

Really looking good!! Love the weathering and the realistic look of your layout. Far better and prototypical than some of the horrid "switching puzzle layouts" that I've seen lately with a dozen switches and one car spurs squeezed into a small area.

Really looking good! Love the overgrown look you've achieved! Want to do something like that myself, as the prototype location my layout is based upon, was very overgrown in its last years of operation. In a couple of photos from a book I purchased, you can barely see the rails on the three yard tracks and only see a hint of ties and ballast.

Mal - Hadn't checked on your thread for a while and was a bit surprised to see that you'd changed things around and eliminated some track and structures. You mention adding an unused warehouse and abandoned spur to the plan, which would fit just great where the trans-load facility used to be and would of course create a view block for your staging. But you've probably already thought of that! One of the features on my under construction end of branch theme layout will be an abandoned grain elevator and spur, which could be found in many small towns in the late 70s - early 80s. Seems to add interest to the scenery to have something like that. Will be watching progress on this revised theme with interest. Your work is always inspiring. Always enjoy the videos too! Ed

Another very nice layout design Mal. Sort of resembles what I've been working on for the past few months. Your plans always seem to make the best use of your available space; have a very prototypical look; and aren't filled with track and one car industries that is supposed to "add operation" like so many switching layout plans you see. Less is more and real operation comes from using prototype practices! My current plan on my 18 inch x 20 foot shelf represents the end of a fictional L&N branch line serving a handful of customers. Although I haven't made the track plan permanent at this point, I find myself operating the layout pretty much daily. I find your layout's very inspirational and always look forward to seeing the progress you make.

Ray; Certainly an interesting track plan and sure looks like a lot of industrial spurs I've seen (and worked back in the day) where you have spurs in both directions, but no runaround on the spur. My only question is: Do cars for Industry D (Bright Spark) spot inside the building only, or do some of them spot on what would be the lead track (where I see the red dots)? So I'm wondering if cars do spot on the lead, it looks like you don't have enough room to be able to work Industry C (brewery). Other than that, I like the overall look of this plan. Ed

Regarding the DIFFCO type side dump car; here's a video I shot of one being unloaded on the NS near my home in 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7NhUqQ_Ek