Woodlawn Industrial Park (was Northeastern HO scale switching layout)

[Greg@mnrr]

These older issues of MR really have some great material in them!

I once suggested to Model Railroader that they re-run some of the classic articles that appeared in Model Railroader over the years. Many of the articles and tracks plans while older, still maintain value for ideas. I have boxes of old MR and I find it fun to read the older issues and remember when I did read that issue for the first time, sometimes forty years ago.

Greg

 

[kleiner]

I once suggested to Model Railroader that they re-run some of the classic articles that appeared in Model Railroader over the years. Many of the articles and tracks plans while older, still maintain value for ideas. I have boxes of old MR and I find it fun to read the older issues and remember when I did read that issue for the first time, sometimes forty years ago.

Greg

I have a big collection of old copies of MR that friend was kind enough to give me some years ago. I keep them around as its fun to casually browse through them when I have some free time. I always find the readers letters to be particularly entertaining in the older issues

 

[kleiner]

So here is what the modules look like now. I'm finally making some good progress. I have finished the carpentry work, leveled the modules and now I'm glueing down the foam layer. As you can see I have been able to put my heavy railroad books to good use

I thought I had my layout design fully worked out but the West Agony design suggested by @Sirfoldalot has really given me some new ideas to mull over. Also, the 32nd Street design posted by @Rico looks promising too. But this is fun and is exactly why I retired!

 

[kleiner]

This plan is adapted from one called "64th street" in the link sent by @Rico . Its looking good and uses the available space very nicely. I could easily live with this design.

 

[Rico]

I like that one too! Nice variety of freight yet not overcrowded.
The industry to the lower left could easily be a transload with tracks in concrete, all kind of rail traffic!
Now if you play around with the two lower switches you could still make use of a diamond, c'mon you know you still want that! lol
In fact there's a diamond south of here built right in a road crossing, something I might model myself...

 

[kleiner]

And the benchwork is completely done! Now, just the small matter of building the railroad remains

 

[kleiner]

Big change is that I was able to bring back the crossover in a natural way. Also, I was able to get everything to work out well with #6 turnouts (Atlas Customline #6)

I am done with track planning and am going to order the parts for this plan. I will first see if I can salvage any of the turnouts from my old temporary layout. I just hope there are no shortages right now.

 

[Rico]

Ah very nice!
That triangular building to the right would make an awesome scrapyard scene.
I loves me an awesome scrapyard scene!
(who’s building this dang thing anyway, you’d think it was me! )

 

[kleiner]

Ah very nice!
That triangular building to the right would make an awesome scrapyard scene.
I loves me an awesome scrapyard scene!
(who’s build this dang thing anyway, you’d think it was me! )

You must have read my mind - I was thinking of a scrap yard for the lower right!

One thought that just occurred to me is that I need to make sure there is enough room for the Caboose ground throws for the two turnouts on either side of the crossover. Although, if I used Peco instead of Atlas, I would not have to use ground throws. Hmm...

 

[santafewillie]

The throwbar on an Atlas turnout can be reversed if needed.

 

[kleiner]

The throwbar on an Atlas turnout can be reversed if needed.

Thats a good trick and I have used it a few times. I was wondering even with that flexibility off there was enough room. In the worst case, I could use the wire-in-tube technique to have a remote pull. But I don't think it will come to that.

 

[Ned Torbin]

Hi guys, I've been following and learning a lot in this thread. I've also read other discussions about prototypical vs. "switching puzzle" industrial areas. Would you guys say this falls more in the prototypical category? I'm still trying to recognize the key differences between these two labels. Thanks!

 

[kleiner]

Hi guys, I've been following and learning a lot in this thread. I've also read other discussions about prototypical vs. "switching puzzle" industrial areas. Would you guys say this falls more in the prototypical category? I'm still trying to recognize the key differences between these two labels. Thanks!

Its somewhat prototypical - I have seen some rail served industries here in New Jersey (especially near Newark) that sort of resemble my design. In practice however, nowadays you don't see rail served industries clustered together so closely. So its unprototypical in that sense. If you want to see really prototypical looking US-based switching layouts, Lance Mindheim's designs come to mind.

 

[santafewillie]

Hi guys, I've been following and learning a lot in this thread. I've also read other discussions about prototypical vs. "switching puzzle" industrial areas. Would you guys say this falls more in the prototypical category? I'm still trying to recognize the key differences between these two labels. Thanks!

In my opinion, it actually falls into both categories when you consider the lower left part. It does look to me that any car parked at the leftmost industry would have to be removed in order to spot a car at the industry in the middle. Maybe there's enough room, I just can't tell. It might be prototypical for an eastern RR where things aren't as spread out as much as the western ones that I am most familiar with.

 

[Rico]

I’m with Willie, the track to the lower left makes it a bit of a puzzle but I have seen where an industry has been shoehorned in later on a small piece of land and tied onto a spur.
The rest of the plan is actually quite prototypical.

Just a thought, I know you figured you were done planning but what if the two crossovers traded places? It would make the track to the upper left more versatile plus define the main track? I can just picture the main tracks to the right disappearing under a highway underpass, the track to the left is nicely hidden by the building!
Im loving this layout so far, just might add this to mine!

 

[kleiner]

I’m with Willie, the track to the lower left makes it a bit of a puzzle but I have seen where an industry has been shoehorned in later on a small piece of land and tied onto a spur.
The rest of the plan is actually quite prototypical.

Just a thought, I know you figured you were done planning but what if the two crossovers traded places? It would make the track to the upper left more versatile plus define the main track? I can just picture the main tracks to the right disappearing under a highway underpass, the track to the left is nicely hidden by the building!
Im loving this layout so far, just might add this to mine!

The bottom left is definitely a bit of puzzle thrown in just to make things a bit harder for the operator but I wanted at least one kickback spur.

I could reverse the crossovers but I don't want any crossover to be situated over a module boundary so the positioning of the turnouts was a little tricky. Incidentally, the upper left is supposed to be the connection to the outside world so new trains will be arriving there and departing from there.

 

[kleiner]

This was a quick-and-dirty temporary layout I built last year just to see how a switching layout might work. I built this just using bits and pieces from old layouts - I only spent about $100. I will salvage the ground throws and some of the turnouts

 

[kleiner]

Time well spent: managed to salvage all of the ground throws and turnouts

 

[Rico]

Ah I see what you mean about the module joints.
So if you take the left hand crossover to the left and slide'r over to where the right hand crossover is you’d then need to put a left hand switch left of the diamond where the crossover is then put a right hand switch left of the joint towards the building.
Biggest reason to look at this is when a train enters the layout from the left it can’t run into the siding without backing into it.
Sorry to keep raining on your parade, it’s looking great as is this is just how I think the 1:1 guys would look at it.
Anyone else have thoughts?

 

[Ned Torbin]

The bottom left is definitely a bit of puzzle thrown in just to make things a bit harder for the operator but I wanted at least one kickback spur.

I could reverse the crossovers but I don't want any crossover to be situated over a module boundary so the positioning of the turnouts was a little tricky. Incidentally, the upper left is supposed to be the connection to the outside world so new trains will be arriving there and departing from there.

Interesting, I figured it was more on the prototypical side as it resembles several aspects to the photos that @Rico posted on the first page of this thread.

Since the room I plan to use is still a few months away from being ready, I've been playing around in SCARM to see what might fit. I'm hoping to do a shelf-around-the-room setup, and I've been using SCARM to recreate various single-wall shelf layouts I've seen online. The neat thing is I can then simply copy/paste & adjust to see if it makes sense or not along any given wall in the room. The Ideas you have been sharing in your exploration along with everyone's observations that led to adjustments benefits everyone here. Thanks, and looking forward to reading your continued progress!