Switching layout


Burlington Bob

Burlington Bob

Well-Known Member
This is a switching layout plan I found on Trainboard that was posted by txronharris. I really like the basics of it and want to see if anybody has some suggestions that I might use to modify it before I get beyond the insulation board stage. It's 2x8 feet and would be fairly easy to incorporate into a larger layout later on.

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Thanks, Rico. A couple of things that I plan on changing is putting an unloading dock where the three silos are and making that a team track. Where the lumber yard is I have a large foundry to go there. I have a Walthers Medusa Cement model so the cement plant will stay. I haven't decided about the LP facility, I may put in another factory instead. Not sure whether to go with a big grain silos or one of the older style grain elevators with a new grain bin or two and a Walther's Sunset Feed store.

Other than making the tracks fit the buildings, I plan on them staying close to the way they are. I like that it has plenty going on but doesn't look like everything is shoe-horned in to fit. Some open space is important to me, but it desn't have to be the wide open prairie. Definitely open to suggestions.
 
I think that it's really nice as it is. Why modify? I'm partial to grain hoppers, cement hoppers and tank cars so it would suit me rather well if I didn't already have a layout and needed a drop in module for the future. For the record, I already have six grain elevators and another planned.
Well you posted as I was composing, puts a different light on things. Let me think about it some more.
 
My only comment might be on the "..incorporate into a larger layout later on. .."

I'm working on a project right now that fits this part of your plans.
On my shelf, I left the last 9" of 'mainline' unglued and unballasted (just spiked down with soft foam bumpers.)
Now that I want to extend the shelf, I find the track is situated wrong. But, all I have to do is pull the spikes to fix it.

e.g. The branchline on the left might need a slight curve to the right (toward silos) a couple of years (or months) down the road.:)
 
Good idea about not fastening the track ends to allow moving them to fit up better for expansion. The branch line where the team track is will have weeds growing up just past the turnout for the team track to show its impending abandonment.
 
Bob: I like that layout and I may make a few changes 2.5 X 10 feet for my layout expansion. I enjoy switching and this may do the trick and with the extra width I'll have I can can some trackage and length of track along the front.

Is the plan N or HO?

Thanks.

greg
 
Greg@mnrr said:
Bob: I like that layout and I may make a few changes 2.5 X 10 feet for my layout expansion. I enjoy switching and this may do the trick and with the extra width I'll have I can can some trackage and length of track along the front.

Is the plan N or HO?

Thanks.

greg
Click to expand...

It looks like N scale, that is a lot of going on in 8' in HO. The spur to the cement plant looks about 9"radius at most assuming the 12" squares. When I was looking at it I thought I would hate to be a surveyor in that town, the property lines would have to go every which way. It does look fun to switch though.
 
I was thinking, this plan reminds me of Cottonwood, ID, on the Camas Prairie. The tracks have been pulled up for years but it is a small agricultural town on a curve. It had several grain elevators and a large wooden trestle. The main industries are on the curve so there are some funky shaped buildings.

Another interesting town at the end of the line is Grangeville, ID. It had several more elevators and a large sawmill. Since it was the end of the line, it had a wye for turning power and the rotary snowplow used to clear the cuts in winter.

A town with a branchline junction was a little way the other way from Cottonwood and is called Craigmont, ID. It had more elevators and an interchange with the Nez Perce RR on the south side of town. Near town, most traces of the Nez Perce are gone but the line's grade can be seen between Fisher Rd and US95. A little way out of town was an interchange with logging railroad Craig Mountain RR. The Craig Mountain interchange was north near the intersection of Ruebens Rd and Craig Jct Rd. Craigmont is currently the end of the track but no trains will ever come because one of the trestles in Lapwai Canyon burned in a wildfire a few yeas ago.

All of this was a going concern in the 1970s, generating an entire train of traffic that ran from Lewiston, ID to Northtown, MN. I think Craig Mountain quit in the late 1960s or 1970s and the Nez Perce in the 1980s. By the 1990s service was one train a week, usually out on Friday back on Saturday. It all ended in the early 2000s.
 
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Badger2 said:
Was this to be N or HO?
Click to expand...

It was the plan that I started before we moved to Tennessee. It is designed for N scale and it was one that I "stole" from another model RR site. I had it built on a mobile base with two metal file cabinets at each end for support and storage. I was in the process of laying out the exact location of the tracks when we bought our house and moved. Everything is still in boxes for the time being.:(
 
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