Industrial layout ideas

 Thanks for the information Russ, 1980's to 1990's would suit me down to a tee for an era to model within.  Also great to know that I will be able to model most of the RR's that I mentioned because of a wonderful thing called pool power.  I'm actually a bit disappointed about the interchange, however if I stick to my original thoughts of a freelanced/mythical railroad based in area like you suggested I may still add one.  I really liked the idea of interchange that would run off to hidden staging and allow for increased operations.

Do you have any links to photos or reference material for that era and the RR's that I mentioned and that you have also suggested relating to "pool power"?

Thanks once again for all the help!

Jason...

The use of an interchange is more than just getting different roads on your layout. As you said it is a SOURCE and DESTINATION for cars, a great industry if your are going to use a car fowarding system. And ANY type of car can be used as well. So there are many benefits to have one. Go for it Jason.

Steve 

Thanks Steve, it is increasingly appealing to me the more I think about.  I just have to use a little lateral thinking, and my good books to figure out how to achieve it!  It will be ideal for solving my space issue for forwarding my coal runs to a fictional industry and the return of empties from a hidden staging area off the interchange/branch.

Jason...

Its hard to beat the bang for the buck you get from a harbor scene. Not only do you get a concentrated industrial area, you get a wide variety of goods and the cars that carry them.

At a recent presentation at a NMRA meeting I got a handout that was a copy of an article about why a harbor scene is the ideal industrial switching scenario for a model railroad. It makes an excellent case.. not just that it is interesting but that that it is very well suited to the constraints of a model railroad.

Byron discusses the plan here: Schoof's "Free Haven Terminal" – Inspirational Layout #8

If you can find the original article its really quite good.

This and other recent experiences operating experiences have led me to think that some kind of wharf scene needs to make it into my layout..

Chris

Chris , fellows.

Ships big, load lots . Train carry lots. That said , the areas of ship / train exchange are usually busy congested areas which are interesting to me. However some of the Ann Arbor railroad "transfer "? areas seem rather open .

A small carfloat does not need a big area. Carfloat "A" on the Tidewater line takes two square feet  . The fellow who sticks to a certain prototype is limited to what was . I have in mind  that some of my floats go "upriver " , or down , as the case may be.

This is very much like car lading in my operation . We do not want to know , do not care . We move freight cars , what the secretarial pool does with BOL's is their business.

I like harbor scenes , so I model them . The added bonus is that a float is an interchange yard , is a float ..etc..moral is , any car , any time . A great thing to have on a model railroad.

Robert Smaus did a series of articles in the early 1990's on the Port of Los Angeles as a compact model portable layout.  The articles are reprinted by Kalmbach several years ago in one of their layout planning books - but darned if I can remember the name.

Robert Smaus did a series of articles in the early 1990's on the Port of Los Angeles as a compact model portable layout.

That was Byron's Inspriational Layout #1 I think..

It was a great series of articles... I was reading through those Model Railroaders last summer.

Chris

Hey Chris we have something in common.  I wanted to originally have a harbour/wharf/shipping container yard on my layout.  

Although with the space available it would have taken up a lot of room.  The link you provided to Byron's blog is fantastic, some really good information in there for newbies such as myself to absorb.

Thanks,

Jason...

Now something along this line could work well!......  Great Link.  

Thanks Philip & Chris.

The only problem is that interchanges only occur where two or more railroads are in close proximity of each other.  I'm not familiar with the entire railroading scene in the US & Canada.  The U.S. is about 3000 miles wide East-West, adn probably 2000 miles North-South.  Railroads originally developed in this country in specific regions.  The U.P. is headquartered in Omaha, Neb.  and runs roughly from the Mississippi River to the West Coast.  Santa Fe ran from Southern California to Chicago and the Gulf Coast of Texas to Chicago.  The Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, and the Chicago Burlington & Quincy (if I remember correctly) ran in the Northwest from Chicago to Seattle, Wa and Portland, Or.  Other railroads ran in the Northeast to Chicago such as the New York Central and the Pennsy.  The Southern, Norfolk & Western, C & O, B & O, etc ran from the Southeast to Chicago. 

In addition there were a few regional carriers that didn't get all the way from where they were headquartered to Chicago or either coast.  They would interchange with railroads in their area that did go to either Chicago or one of the coasts.

The point of all of this is that you can add a lot of operational interest with interchanges, but you can't realistically interchange with every railroad in the U.S. 

We have not even begun to discuss the different climates and therefore different scenery in various parts of this country.

I would suggest that you pick out what part of the U.S. you would prefer to model, then put in interchanges between all of the railroads that are in that area.  If I remember correctly from your opening post, you like the UP, SP, SF, and CSX.  The Santa Fe ran through the Southwest, but the only places where they interchanged with the UP was near Barstow at Yermal where the UP had a prototype staging yard for trains to go on SF trackage to go down Cajon Pass, and in the Los Angeles area.  The SF has trackage rights over Tehachapi, and runs a line part way up the Central Valley parrallel to the S.P. into Oakland.  The San Francisco Chief used to terminate in Oakland with ferry service across the bay to San Francisco. 

The SP ran up and down the Pacific Coast between California North to Portland, Or.  I'm not sure if they ever crossed over the Columbia River into Washington.  The SP's main route East was over Donner Pass to meet the UP in Ogden, Utah.  The UP also bought the WP about 1972 which gave them the route through the Feather River Canyon into the San Francisco Bay area. 

The UP also operated into the Pacific Northwest, but Like the SP, I don't know if they got into Washington or not.  I think they did reach Oregon, and I know they went into the Idaho panhandle.

About the same time as the UP takeover of the WP, the Great Northern, NP, CB&Q, and Portland,Spokane & Seattle merged forming the Burlington Northern. 

The piont of all of this is that you could realistically have interchanges between SF, SP, and UP in Southern Ca.  You could have an interchange between UP & SP in Northern Ca, but I'm not sure if the SF had any interchanges in Northern Ca. with the UP.  I think they did have some with the SP. 

CSX has never been West of the Mississippi, so you would have to use pool power to have run CSX realistically with the other railroads.  If you model the Southeast to run CSX, you could have interchanges with other Southeastern railroads, but not the Western roads.

This has gotten kind of long, but I hope it is helpful to you.