Roadbed

[santino]

Since I am starting back up in the hobby here is my next question. I used to always put down cork roadbed on industrial spurs on my old layout. The only place without roadbed was the yard and engine terminal. Do you guys use roadbed in your industries or not? Any opinions? Thanx

 

[Beachbum]

Usually, but I use cork and sand it down so it's substantially lower than the mainline. The cork "dust" can be used as a scenic material elsewhere on the layout.

 

[UP2CSX]

I sometimes use roadbed for industrial spurs if they serve a large enough industry that there are several cars a day in and out. Most of the time, I lay the tracks right on the foam and use a combination of ballast and ground foliage to give it a little used look.

 

[RexHea]

Most of my industrial track at heavy manufacturing sites are directly on the sub roadbed. I like to cover the areas with fine ballast and near-cover the ties with only the rails showing, as you would find at real industrial sites. One problem you always have is the transition from the main level to these areas. Where this may be a problem, I cover the entire area with foam board (the thickness of the roadbed) to even it up. My light industry tracks to shipping docks will usually have roadbed. BTW: An option to cork is the Woodland Scenics foam roadbed. Many of us have found it to be equal to cork, but easier to work with. Once ballast is on it (or cork) there is no difference in looks or sound deadening.

 

[santino]

Thanx for the info!

 

[Trussrod]

Hi Santino,
Modeling an early time period with only a single track main line much of my trackage is at ground level at towns and for most spur lines as that is probably the most realistic way that things were done and in many cases, as Rex somewhat pointed, the ties tended to even be sunk in the soft dirt/mud.

Also it seems to me that unless a freight house or warehouse was purposely built high using road bed along side them would cause the car floors to be quite a bit higher than the loading dock?

HTH

 

[UP2CSX]

David, even back in your era, most freight houses and industries served by a loading dock had the dock at a near standard height for a boxcar door and a little lower than the typical mainline profile. The more loadings, the more likely the spur would have nearly the same profile as the mainline grade. Lesser used docks would be built lower because the spur wasn't heavily graded. The height was usually planned in advance of the building with the railroad that would be serving the business. There were always variances, of course, so that's why businesses with loading docks had portable ramps handy.

 

[Trussrod]

Hi Santino,
This is where things get interesting and learning takes place as you get different viewpoints to consider and determine what fits your situation. With only few exceptions
most situations will be the same.

Jim, In all the various real life situations I seen, indeed I use to work for a business - Service Paper - an industrial paper supply house right along the Southern Pacific Mainline in down town Fresno, Ca., I'm fairly certain that the spur line that served this industry, Purina and others on down the line were at ground level, no ballast or very minimal was used so the docks were built to match up approximately with the height of the Box car floors that were serving them! Actually now that I'm thinking back it seems I
did help unload and load some merchandise from a box car spotted along side them.

I'll have to take a few pictures the next time I'm down in that area. On the same note all these warehouses are also served by trucks too not only to deliver goods to be shipped but also pick-up goods to be delivered to businesses and locations not served by the RR line's so the loading docks for the trucks also had to be at about the same height also as fare as the larger truck trailers that might be backed in at theiur place and I did also deliver some goods to Merced by a Bobtail truck. How I managed to squeze inbetween the two other trucks when backing into the Merced dock I'll never know, luck I guess.

So these are two reasons why most all tracks for sidings to businesses are at or near ground level. The third reason is that No Mainline actually serves any business directly.

Only passing sidings might tend to be built at the same level as the mainline and indeed they are most always heavily ballasted especially for the more modern stuff but I magine even going back quite a ways to probably into the early part of the 19th century but probably only the the heavier used lines and depending upon the surfade of the ground too poossibly.

I know that in the SP yard in Fresno there is minimal balast used, I know an Engineer there, he told me that in one area of the yard as he moved the engine forward he could actually see the rails lifting up in front of the engine, ties and all due to soft ground from poor dranage of rain water. Of course this is getting away from the sidding/spur line
issue but in a way it isn't as the rail yard receives some of the heaviest traffic and their rails are on or near level ground and No raised ballast.

HTH

 

[UP2CSX]

David, no arguement about the loading dock heights. As I said, the people thaqt designed the building got together with the railroad and knew the profile height, so they built the loading docks to match. Having low docks, especially in industrial areas, where the dock also serves trucks, is common. As I also said, companies kept a variety of ramps on hand to deal with varying car floor height. The types of loads handled also influenced the height of docks. Look at the picture at http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/cdmg21&CISOPTR=4336&CISOSHOW=4117&REC=11 to see how high the dock was built to be able unload vehicles from a low profile track.

 

[Beachbum]

Also depends on who owns / maintains the siding - customer or railroad? And sidings are typically lighter rail so they will look lower than the main anyway (usually).

 

[tankist]

thank you guys. i wanted to ask same thing.