Woodchips, Containers and Trailers

[funnelfan]

Been working on a couple projects in the back lower corner of the club layout to improve a area that was barren and undeveloped on the layout. On the right hand side it was decided to add a intermodal yard. It took a long time to settle on a final design for the yard. There were some differing ideas on what should be done, but I had a vision of what the yard should be and took the lead on the project. I knew from the get go I wanted to use the Walthers Mi-Jack crane. The Walthers model is a bit on the wide side compared to prototypes, and can straddle three lanes instead of just two like many prototypes. This limited how I could place the tracks and I settled on two long tracks on either side of a single truck lane. Some club members thought the tracks should be straight, but I realized from my design work that it wold severely shorten the tracks and crimp capacity. Only by making a moderate bend in the tracks I could fit two 5-packs of well cars on each track. I knew there were intermodal yards with bends in them, including a full 90 degree bend in one east coast ramp. Later I discovered that my tracks closely matched UP's Global 1 facility in Chicago.
Another thought was that a third track should come off at the bend and continue straight, but that would only con-volute the yard and eat space for trailer parking. I drew up some plans and got final approval a couple months ago. I started building the yard right away. The hardest part was the huge paving job, took a lot of effort and grout to cover such a large area and smooth it out. I actually laid the pavement in three phases because I kept running out of material. I also built the near Mi-Jack crane while another club member assembled the further Mi-Jack. I plan to add a piggypacker on the backside of the tracks when circumstances allow.

 

[funnelfan]

On the left hand side of the back corner is a longer term project that I've been working on for the past year. The big project last year was rebuilding the main classification yard. The plans for the new yard also included new heavy industry at the lead end. I'm modeling a newsprint style mill that makes low quality paper and newsprint. I had a surplus part of the Walthers Paper Mill, having used the Kraft Mill at home. Behind the mill I added a kitbashed Rix kit for the simple digester building and a place to load/unload pulp bales. I added a second inside loading track allow for 6 hi-cube boxcars to load at a time. On the outside are two tracks. The track nearest the building is for chemical tankcars and a Pulp boxcar loading dock. The other track is the woodchip track with a tilt dumper near the far end. The most recent part of the mill was the woodchip handling system which I just completed. The area of the woodchip pile is actually a lift-out, and I needed to keep it easily remove-albe. I mostly scratch built and kitbashed a series of conveyors and a tilt dump table (kinda like a teeter-tauter) to end dump woodchip cars. The tilt table dumps woodchips into a underground pit. The chips are then brought back up and dumped on the radial stacker which deposits them on the pile. A bulldozer shoves the chips into a reclaim where they are whisked to the plant.
There is still a lot of scenery work to do on both sides.

 

[Rico]

Good work!
I like the bend in the IM yard, adds interest I think.
You managed to squeeze a lot of action into the Paper mill, I still have to add to the pulp unloading area on mine.
Also have to hook up my chip truck unloader...

 

[Motley]

Oh Oh Oh, I like it! Very nice. I like your MiJack cranes, very nice, and weathering is good. (I also have one of those, I still need to build it.)

And the paper mill looks awesome! That is a great looking scene, with piles of woodchips.