Given the size of your layout

I'd go with the BTS model, and add some Grandt Line doors on the otherside, plus a platform.  Great look in the end.

Two tracks?

Tracks on both sides?  That would overwhelm the building's capacity and highly limit vehicle access.    I do like the looks of the BTS model.  I'd go with a single track and try to find room for a team track.  But if you are set on overwhelming the structure, I'd go with two tracks on one side and imagine workers place planks connecting to the outer freight cars via the inner cars.

Mark

Mark, you're probably right. The area I'm modeling had a combined freight house that had track access on two sides; it was used by two railroads. I was trying to see what was out there for similar models, but your comments make me think if I'm already going to be compressing the area, what's a little bit more?

I was sent a pic of an interesting ramp.

I received it in an email, and I thought I saved it somewhere on my computer, but I can't find it now.  It was an old railroad truck that had a ramp across over the top of the wheels and a fold down ramp to the off side of the truck.  It was kept on the track closest to a warehouse with two tracks next to it.  If they were loading or unloading a car on the outside track, this truck was rolled into place and the warehouse ramp lowered to one side of the truck, and the fold down ramp was lowered into position on the car.  The ramp was then used to off load or load the car on the second track.  When not in use the ramp was folded up and the truck rolled out of the way.

Hey Russ- The picture you

Hey Russ-

The picture you were thinking of was here (it looks like the link to the protoype image is long dead however you can see the end product that Phil put together). 

And Scarp, don't talk yourself out of the two track arrangment yet.  So long as one siding is set deep enough in the dirt and/or pavement I think it's a reasonably plausible scene.  Just think of one of the tracks as a secondary/storage track. 

Alternatively, if the building is wide enough you could have the laoding docks for trucks along the edge of the buliding opposite the tracks leading up to the bulding.  So long as you had enough room on that side for a bit of a parking lot it would be workable in my opinion. 

~rb

Hey I missed that one!

The pic I was thinking of was of a prototype, not a model, but that model is what the prototype pic showed, except I don't remember the ramp on the building side.  It seems to me the ramp in the prototype was in the door of the warehouse, and dropped down into the door of a car on the near track or to the fixed ramp on the truck and the drop down ramp on the truck went into the door of the car on the far track.  Of course in the Warbonnet magazine a few years ago in a feature on the Los Angeles Produce district they had shots of rows of cars two or three deep and 5 or 6 cars across being loaded where the packing house crew would put ramps down from car to car and load the farthest car first, pull that ramp and load the next car, pull that ramp and so on until they had loaded all of the cars at the packing house for the trip East.

I was thinking Prototype too

The post originally had a picture of the prototype, but it was either deleted or the link went bad, I'm not sure.

Back to your original question Scarpia, if you received the new Walthers catalog today p. 48 has a building that might work.  Check out the Suncoast Models freight station listed there.  I know nothing about hte quality of the model but I think it's the New England look you're going for.  Here's the link to the walters page. 

~rb

Walthers brick freight houses

If you are still interested in brick structures Walthers has made at least 3 different brick freight houses: one is Water Street freight building which has a brick main structures and a warehouse and can accommodate track or trucks on both sides; the second that I am aware of is the REA building which is a brick structure 2 or 3 stories tall and has freight doors on both long sides so it can handle tracks or trucks on both sides. Both are very railroady type structures. Neither of these structures ae shown as currently available. There is also Walthers Part # 933-2954, Hiawatha freight accessory building which is a smaller brick structure with freight doors both sides and can be combined in multiple kits to make a long warehouse and with Walthers Part # 933-2953 the freight office building.

John

The photo link in my post here

The photo link in my post here went bad, but if you follow the thread jump at the top of my post to the other thread, you'll see the prototype in action.

And thanks for the hat tip RB - nice to know someone actually reads what I post.

Dope!

Never even thought of Walthers. How stupid is that?

Unfortunatley the ones they have up currently in Brick are to square - I need a longer, narrower builidng.

I've tried to find  better pictures of the Suncoast models one, but it's hard to find. If I'm going to order a model I haven't seen, I'd at least appreciate better pictures up front.

Here's a quick shot of the area I'm talking about. The FH still stands, I'l try and go get some pictures this weekend. Maybe I should just scratchbuild the damn thing.

I was going to say, Scarpia

Its a fairly simple building and it might just be as easy to use some of the modular pieces from DPM and take a crack at it that way.  Wouldn't cost much so you could build three or four until you got it right.  Unless you get it right on the first try, unlike I would.   

A Freight House can be a focal point of action.

While researching for my last layout I came across several maps an images of freight houses in Elkins, Morgantown, Fairmont, and Clarkburg, West Virginia. In each case, the freight house had two closely-spaced, parallel tracks on one side of the building. In most cases, these tracks were in pavement. I recall the Morgantown freight house had the two tracks, then an open space and two more tracks. All of this was in a paved area with the two tracks across the open space more of a team track area.

Why two parallel tracks beside the building? Cars would be spotted with the doors lined up and metal plate bridges placed between cars to enable loading and unloading. Check out this image:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/704?size=_original

Although I can't see any of these plate bridges in this image, I believe it is apparent the cars at the Galewood freight house are spaced to enable easy loading using plate bridges to access cars one or two tracks from the dock. It's easy to dismiss this as a big city operation, after all it is metro-Chicago. But take a good look at Sanborn Maps, track spotting diagrams, valuation maps, or whatever prototype detail you are using to design or build your layout. I noted four West Virginia towns that had freight houses, each with two tracks along one side of the facility. These were not the biggest towns in the state.

The details I found also influenced the planning and construction of an industrial segment of a club layout in Morgantown, W.Va. Some of this is detailed at this site:

http://www.mvrrc.org/layout/stgeorge.htm

Scrolling down to the fourth image, the freight house tracks can be seen on the inside curve of the image. There are two tracks here beside the freight house. Each track holds four forty-foot cars. A team track is also in the area and is noted in the diagram directly above the image. The peak of the freight house roof is visible behind the line of box cars. This is a mock up but it follows the same dimensions of the Western Maryland Railway freight house that once stood on 12th Street in Elkins, W. Va. The dimensions came from valuation notes I copied at the Archives II facility of the National Archives.

During an ops session, the freight house and team track is pulled first with replacement cars spotted. The pulled cars go to the nearby yard for classification into outbound trains. Some are LCL cars that will go on local turns to one of four on-line towns, or sent to one of three staging areas to towns on the railroad beyond the scenery. If the op session lasts long enough, another freight house pull is done to finish the day.

A freight house and team track can add lots of action in a small space. The parallel freight house tracks can double the capacity and car movements. In the days before decent highways, this is how medium and large parcels were moved to customer delivery. Remember when the lamp arrived in "A Christmas Story"? Were those UPS guys delivering that huge crate? Nope. They brought the parcel from a local freight house, possibly under Railway Express shipping. If you model an era before 1960, then a freight house is an active part of the transportation system. If you model before WWII, then it is a vital part of the transportation system.

Eric

Eric

Eric, thanks for that thoughtful post. Here I was just looking for a model I may have overlooked, and you've helped ramp up the thread to something very useful for folks down the road.

For the moment, I'm going to hold off from any action, and go over this weekend to take some pictures as the structure still stands. The DPM modular parts may actually be the way to go....

Interesting Thread...

Scarp, it sounds like you need to scratchbuild something to suit your situation.  I'm interested in this because I had a similar idea in mind.