Take a look at the work of

Take a look at the work of Lance Mindheim for some ideas. ( http://www.lancemindheim.com)

You can also take a look at the work of the late Stein, Jr.  He had a whole web page dedicated to small layout plans that could be a source of inspiration.  His work has been archived, but can be found here:  https://web.archive.org/web/20151112063639/http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling/index.html

He has a range of sizes to choose from - you might be able to straighten some of them out for your space, or combine some of the shorter ideas.

Have fun!

"Timesavers"...

I would strongly avoid you use any of the 'Timesaver' or puzzle track plans that were very popular among small segments of the hobby through the 50s and 60s.

Track planning is certainly an art, but you really want to make any track plan look like one that could have (or did) exist in real life. No railroad lays track with the idea of making it as tough as possible to do switching.

No railroad lays track...

Hi all,

To quote Lee above 

But if someone puts a building/river/gorge in the way, then all bets are off. The railroad will do whatever it has to do to get track to where it has to go. If this makes it a double-shove rather than an easy "go in and get" that inconveniences the crew, then so be it. Just as long as the job get done.  

In the past, poiing, fly-shunting and rope-shunting were widely used in industry to access "difficult" sidings. These somewhat dangerous practices that made for an "easy shunt" are now largely outlawed. The alternative "safer" methods now make more work for a shunting crew.  

While working in the local steel industry, the needs of the works decided where the buildings were built and their size. The tracks went in usually at the same time as the building, but were fitted around the new buildings and other buildings already on site. Quite often this meant "taking the long way around", zig-zag moves, run-around moves or hand-offs to another loco,

Some other complications caused by existing buildings were low headroom and tight clearances that prevented either the locomotive or some types of wagons passing. Access to sidings in these areas often required the use of spacer cars to keep the locomotive and cab clear of the building or a detour to avoid the building.

For example, the access to a significant part of the works (and 3 blast furnaces) was restricted by a low corner of a existing building. When the Porter class steam locomotives arrived to replace smaller steam locomotives, they could only be operated cab-first heading into that area. If they went in "wrong way round" the building would impact the safety valve on the side of the steam dome (and did at least once that I know of). Quite often this meant turning the locomotive on a Y some distance away before the locomotive could get in to do the required shunting. Widening the curve was not an option because of other buildings and drains that were already in place. 

Lee's statement above is correct, but sometimes other "stuff" gets in the way of the "easiest way", And the job of shuffling wagons still has to be done.

Google Earth is your friend

It appears that a lot of the modern industrial areas were first developed in the 60's and early 70's, so buildings that still exist today would fit in quite nicely with your target era.  Use Google Maps and Google Earth to do map-surfing.  Maps is nice because it works in a browser and can share links easily.  Earth has the time machine feature, and you can turn on the rail line layer so that rail lines are still visible when you zoom a fair ways out.

When first researching ideas for my Office Park zone layout, I stumbled across a number of great industrial areas in the Denver area.  This little industrial park is an absolute gem in the selection of industries you can choose from: https://goo.gl/maps/nj3YTGMdZFA2. Just West of this location is another area that is a real-life around-the walls industrial park: https://goo.gl/maps/rivXiFLPDpE2. And just South is yet another great little area: https://goo.gl/maps/Rt7YGJ6kYkS2. Over on the Northwest side of town is an area with lots of lumber distributors: https://goo.gl/maps/QKEK1eWSKzB2.  The same shortline operates the first location and the last location.

In the Dallas area, there are also several excellent industrial areas. The two areas that I ended up selecting industries for my layout are here in Garland ( https://goo.gl/maps/GAB5AD4PNtD2) and Addison/Carrolton/Farmers Branch ( https://goo.gl/maps/EVg1Wu9GbnS2).

Map-surfing tips: In Google Earth, turn on the rail lines layer and zoom out over an area.  Look for the little industrial spurs that shoot off from main lines, then zoom in for a closer look.  Also, since much industrial track is gone today, look around to see where tracks would have gone in the past.  For the last link above, the line used to head further South and had 5 or 6 branches that served warehouses in a 6 or 8 square block area.

Finally, as Lance Mindheim and others have stressed, don't try to cram industries into every square inch of your layout. It took me a while to come to the realization that you really only need 3-6 industries in that area to have enjoyable operating sessions.  On my layout, trains are normally 5-7 cars and only switch about half the industries during a session, and my sessions normally run 30-40 minutes.

You've got a great little space there with lots of operating potential!

Craig

10 pounds of stuff in a 5-pound bucket

Good point. The bottom line for almost any model railroader is that there is a massive temptation to stick as much into a layout as humanly possible. This leads to industries comically tight together and most structures are downright microscopic. Condensing a large structure is one thing, but making a steel mill (something that has to be large due to its role) into the size of a small RV, while common on layouts, looks really odd in real life.

A few things people often never think of in the postwar era is the lack of parking lots or parking spaces on streets. Many modelers leave parking areas completely out of a layout.

I actually have only one real industry on my own On30 layout, and that's adjacent to the main line. The rest are spurs where people can get to the loads to take them elsewhere. You just don't need a pickle factory at the end of each spur, or worse, one factory per space for a car.

I also suggest looking at real places to get a feel for what is most correct in the place and time you want to model. This will vary wildly from place to place, and year to year.

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track planning ideas

This is the track plan of a switching layout I built as a teenager. I thought it was a pretty good arrangement for a switching railroad because it included various spurs with substantial car capacity, a runaround, 22" minimum radius, and hidden staging for cuts of cars on a lower level. Unfortunately, I discovered that I really didn't enjoy switching and I have never built another switching layout.

This layout was built in two sections which could be unbolted and moved: 15" x 112" and 18" x 84". It fit as an L-shape in a bedroom, 7 feet along one wall and 11 feet along the other wall. This doesn't match your dimensions but it may give you some ideas to think about.

If you are sold on the idea of a switching layout, I have these suggestions:

* research some structures for your industries first and plan the tracks to fit around them.
* build it flat, or mostly flat; it's easier to modify, especially for a starter layout.
* build the framework with screws, NO nails, allowing for possible salvage or reconfiguring.
* paint the surface brown for an easy start on scenery, before laying track. 
* it probably won't be a permanent layout; allow for easy salvaging of track and structures.
* avoid "custom-cutting" of turnouts so they can be salvaged for your next layout.
* don't use glued-down ballast on your track.
* make most of the spurs at least two or three cars long.
* I favor Peco turnouts with their integral hand-throw, especially handy for temporary layouts.
* Don't place buildings where they block your view of switches and uncoupling spots.
* plan for hidden staging tracks, like behind a long building front or backdrop.
* very useful to build storage shelves above and/or below the layout.

To see a reasonable emulation

To see a reasonable emulation of what you need - see The New Castle Industrial Railroad    http://oscalewcor.blogspot.co.uk/   - the site has been moribund for several years, but the info is still there and could be run as an HO railroad in a straight line as the layout as built was in O scale

Consider 1 industry

Maybe consider modeling just one industry. An example would be a brewery. Google earth views of a large Anheiser-Busch (sp) Brewery near Fort Collins Colorado shows a wealth of incoming and outgoing cars. A steel Mill is also a good choice. By modeling 1 industry in your space you could build a very believable scene with some great switching. Another option would be to have a railfloat at one end.....makes for a great connection to the world  so you can justify pretty much any rolling stock for your time period. Good Luck on your modeling quest. Would love to see what you come up with for a track plan.

Inglenooks and car floats

How about combining an Inglenook track plan serving an industry at one end combined with a car float at the other end. You can a exchange cars between the Inglenook and the car float, both of which also need switching in their own right. The car float represents the rest of the world.

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html

John L

Thanks for all the help, I

Thanks for all the help, I have now tried browsing the web now for large rail served industries and found some both model and real examples:

will post more link I find later.

New Castle Industrial Railroad Website

In my view one of the best web blogs ever.  If you dig into the inspiration section Jack Hill outlines how three industries on the Gettysburg Northern get switched.  I used part of my partially completed HO railroad to simulate these industries.  It took me about an hour and half to switch the two turnout box factory, prototype at Biglerville, PA.  This really opened my eyes to the key being spots, not industries.  Perfect for O gauge I think.

p51

"This leads to industries comically tight together..."

In my town when I was a kid, there was a two city block stretch along the GB&W and Soo Line tracks that had two large furniture and lumber/millworking plants, a baking plant, and a paper mill.  In another era, I would say that this was fairly common in urban areas before industry moved away and spread out in outlying areas.

Further overnight cogitating

Further overnight cogitating reminded me of this one, again O scale, but might be used for a part of your layout . It is a very good switching layout