I really like it. I see lots

I really like it. I see lots of fun operating this plan. My only suggestion would be to pull the tracks away from the wall in this areas maybe two to three inches. That would give you room for partial structures instead of just a building flat. Just a thought.

When you get going please share some photos with us.

Thanks for sharing and good luck.

Right there where it says "BNSF MAINLINE"

you have a perfect opertunity to make it look like it goes on forever.  Run it  90* into a mirrior glued on the wall to the left.  A building could hide the edge of the mirror.  I really like the uncomplicated plan you have developed here.  Something that you could realistically finish in a reasonable time, and large enough to keep you busy for the average time you have to operate it.  Looking forward to following your build.

while I like this plan I

while I like this plan I would reconsider the staging option. You could simply curve the BNSF strack and have it go across the lift out also. I would stub end it into either a simple one or at most two track staging yard that runs either behind a low backdrop or a false ridge. 

Having this staging would allow you to actually "run" the BNSF train and gives the sense of acually going and doing something. Secondly, it would not be a complicated addition or expense to add the trackage.

I Second

I second Neil's comments. Adding a staging track for the BNSF train would add a lot of operational potential.

-George

Mainline

Prototype operations questions to think about since you asked.

How would your train make a runaround at the interchange?   Under what authority would your railroad use the BNSF main track?  The BNSF isn't going to let your crews just pop out on their main track.  Plus when you "block out" the interchange, the BNSF isn't going to let you use their main track as a class track to switch cars into.

At minimum your crews would have to be qualified on the BNSF rules to use the main track and then recieve a track warrant or track and time from the BNSF dispatcher to make the moves and would have to report to the BNSF dispatcher that all main track switches were restored if it wasn't a signalled main track.

Next question for you to think about.

What sorting out are you going to do?  You only have one station so it not like there are any real "blocks" in the cut.  Everything goes to Ione.  Unless there was some other reason, I would just take the cut to Ione and sort it out there.  At Ione you have a main and a siding, at Newport all you have is the interchange track and storage track, so the available room is the same.

Thinking about the BNSF, I don't know that it would add that much to add the staging track.  Lets say you put the BNSF staging to the left of the plan, between the liftout and the tunnel.  If the BNSF shows up and is going to set out 15 cars and pick up 15 cars, that means that the engines will have to hang onto 30 cars at some point in the move.  That's going to put the engine somewhere near the Box Canyon bridge (or almost at the tunnel on the other side.)  Unless you had a loop for the BNSF, it could add more complexity and complications than it solves.  While i like live interchange, the KISS approach would be to use the interchange as staging.

Thumbs Up

I like the plan and your operating scheme.  I think you have the timing of your operating session just about right.  My own layout has about this much completed, and if I run a westbound (from staging) and then the local industry switcher, it takes about an hour and a half.  I go slow, blow the whistle, ring the bell, give the tower operator time to line switches, etc.  It's a lot of fun!!

If you can manage it, adding the staging track would add a whole additional train, if that's important to you.  But if you lean more toward the scenery and building, and running the one local prototypically, what you have is great.  So I'm 50/50 on the staging.

Have fun and post pics!

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Thanks for the feedback so far! I really appreciate it and it's been really helpful. Let me try to address some of what I've heard.

James - Good eye on the lumber track!  This part of the layout is already built and does stand about 3 inches off the backdrop. I just did a poor job illustrating it.

George, Neil, and Michael - Yeah, I am starting to think I should have some around the wall staging for the BNSF.  If anything it'll give me an excuse to buy big, modern road locos and run them. I've got the room for it.

Dave - Excellent points!  This whole thing about track warrants and rules about using the mainline is foreign to me but I want to do it right. I'll do a bit more research and see where that gets me.

Interchange

There are many options for the interchange. 

You could extend the "storage" track to the other end to make a run around on your railroad so you wouldn't have use the BNSF.  I would make a three track yard, but the middle track would have the switch removed at the right end (switch retired), that stub track would be the storage track and the other track would be the run around.

I would put a road along the outside edge and make that the car cleaning track.  Empty boxcars delivered in interchange would be spotted to the runaround to be cleaned and the previous day's cars would be moved to the storage track or switched out to go to the mill. 

On the left wall I would model an abondoned mill/industry/branch/lead with one or two tracks, parts of which had been abandoned/removed and use that for storage.  I would put the extra caustic soda cars there.  

Operation would be the switcher gets a switch list with the spotters for the mill.  The engine runs down to the interchange, switches the inbound caustic soda cars to the runaround, switches the required number of empty boxcars out of the storage track, switches the inbound stuff for Ione to the runaround, then as its last move, spots the new empty boxcars from the interchange cut to the runaround to be cleaned.  The train then runs to the 'soda" track/s and sets ou the new caustic soda and switches out the caustic soda  (or other chemicals) for the mill.  the train runs to Ione, switches stuff up.  When done it, runs back to the junction with the outbound cars, switches the boxcars from the runaround to the storage track (they were cleaned while the switcher was working at Ione) then makes the delivery and runs back to Ione to tie up.

By making those changes you have several additional switches to make without adding any buildings or cars.  Very low impact "industries", but very prototypical and offer a lot of detail switching, plus eliminate any complexity of BNSF stuff.

"By making those changes you

  and perhaps the Newport  recycling could be moved to the inside so no need to cross the BNSFto switch it? ......DaveB 

BNSF

Another way to think about it is to not make the BNSF "main" a thru track, if it was the end of an industrial lead or branch the "BNSF" portion could be in yard limits or at the end of the lead, so no authority would be needed and the shortline could use the "BNSF" track at will.  No BNSF train would use the "BNSF" track other than the local making the interchange delivery.  

That seriously downgrades the BNSF "main", but it solves a whole bunch of other issues and lets the shortline have more freedom to use the tracks.

Dave Husman...

I just wanted to say how much I, and I'm sure many others, appreciate your posts. You are helping us all to be better railroad modelers. The information you provide is always really informative and interesting. 

Thanks!  

Randy 

Input

Glad to help.  

I suspect the main thing is

I suspect the main thing is what is important to you. With that being said I would find a way to add staging to the layout. Three tracks should be enough and they only need to be an interchange yard. You need not model the Bnsf locos just 050 a few freight cars on and off the layout. AA good place for that is between the bnsf line and the tunnel. You could put them behind a low view block if you wanted to preserve the single track look and mount a mirror on the wall so you could see to switch the tracks. With three tracks you might have enough space to use one per session and not have to handle your equipment at all.

Slight change of plans

Slight change of plans everyone. I had a good long look at my current module and the space I've got to work with and I've decided that although it was great for it's former location, everything is just too cramped considering what I have available to me now in my new house. Along with that, I've got a few things that have been bugging me about my layout that I'd want a do-over on and I've been doing enough research on the prototype that I think there are a few areas that could be better represented.  Enough stuff that starting over from scratch seems like the right thing to do.

So in order to keep things manageable I'll be building this thing in phases concentrating on the town of Ione and the surrounding scenery first.  

Shelf is mostly 18" wide which I think is wide enough...
 

Thoughts?

This does follow the actual

This does follow the actual location a lot closer than the previous plan. With that said, I have watched your most recent video and your existing (if it still is) is very well done. So, I would expecthat this new version will just be an improvement over the version 1. 

Get out the crow bar and chain saw. 

A few questions

Well as much as I liked the module and the other plan I understand about space constraints, this will also give you that opportunity to start over. 

Lehigh Cement: Is the design here just a stand in or will it just be the single stub track? It seems like a lot of real estate for just one track and one customer? Maybe changing it to a reload with another track so you could unload/load a variety of car types including cement. Also the larger cement operations I have dealt with usually had at least one track for loads and another track for empties they often had a car mover to move the cars around which could be added to the operation. 

Vaughn Bros:  what is the reason for the two tracks? Most small building supply places had usually a single door to a building and beyond the building an area large enough to get to both sides of a centerbeam. 

Ponderay Newspaper Co: What are each of the tracks used for? They all seem to run into a building? Have you considered what other car types could be utilized for variety?

Locomotive Repair Services: Is this a customer or just a place to work on the locomotive? If it is just a place to work on the power I would just setup part of the runaround track with a small office and tie the power up there. 

RIP track

Hi Matt - Nice to see this taking off!  I've been enjoying the discussion.  If you were to eventually include Dave's suggestion of having an interchange yard at a future version of Newport, I'm with you on having the ability to model BNSF power coming and going.  I've always liked that interaction between the big class 1's and the little guys, and as Dave said, if that was the end of a BNSF branch within yard limits, your issues of accessing BNSF trackage go away.

Only suggestion I have would be to replace the locomotive repair track with a RIP track and perhaps separate it from the main a bit.  One of the first things railroads do after receiving cars in interchange is to inspect them, and for small railroads like the MFR, the associated repairs for bad-ordered cars can be a lucrative business.  The RIP track also makes another "customer" to switch, and one that can accept any car on the layout.

Looking forward to watching your progress!

RIP

A RIP track means you have to have a dedicated mechanical facility and forces.  A really small operation might not want that much overhead.  Since the interchange is "miles away" (on the other side of the room) would you really receive a car in interchange, bad order it and then haul it miles away to a repair facility?

For a really small shortline, if the car was bad order I would have one guy qualified as a car inspector, who would inspect the delivery and if a car was bad order on interchange, I would have the switch crew refuse the car as bad order and "set back" the bad car.  The Class 1 has to do the repairs and the short line can pick a charge for having to switch the car out because it was delivered bad order ($75 last time I checked a decade or so ago, depends on the shortl line's agreement with the class 1).  If its a small repair that one guy can do (straightening grab irons, replacing brake shoes), then the one car inspector can fix those when he inspects the cut and get the quick AAR billing.

Clean-out track

In some paper mills they have a clean out track which is used to remove waste paper, debris, and make small repairs to doors, floors or walls. Any major work the car is generally “Home Shopped” and sent to a repair facility to complete the work such as holes in the roof or heavily damaged interiors or major door issues. 

Paper mill

Papermills recieve wood chips or pulpwood and caustic soda.  If they are making higher grades of paper they will recieve kaolin as a whitener and to give the paper a smooth finish.  They might also recieve scrap paper or rags to supplement the chips/logs.  The rougher the paper, the more recycled stuff.  They will ship outbound in a consistent size of boxcar.  The boxcars will be chosen based on the diameter of the roll and the width of the paper.  They will want the same type of car so they can load the cars in the same manner to fit the tariff quantity of paper in the car and to minimize damage to the rolls from shifting.  

Amazing Feedback!

This is amazing gang! Thanks so much for the help!  I should probably explain a bit more about the type of operations I'm looking to recreate. Any info or suggestions you can offer is incredibly helpful!

First of all, this is a Proto-freelance layout based on real rail operations in the Pend Oreille Valley in North Eastern Washington State. The types of industries I’m looking to model actually exist (or once existed) in the valley.  They are as follows:

Lehigh Cement - Based on the Lehigh cement plant in Metaline falls. This plant used to ship Portland cement all over the Pacific Northwest. It is closed down now but in MY world they just closed the old plant and moved it from Metaline Falls to Ione. My favorite cars are 2-bay covered hoppers.  There are just so many complex little detail parts on those guys and they are nice and short so you can fit a lot of them on a little layout. The plant lives on a more scenic area of the model railroad and I figure a nice long track was enough.  The loco can use the mainline to spot loads it pulls from the plant as it replaces them with empties.

Ponderay Paper Company - The largest industry in the valley. The mill specializes in newsprint. In my world it receives Kaolin and caustic cars and ships paper via boxcar.  The third track would be used to possibly store cars or spot them temporarily while switching the plant.

Vaagen Brothers Lumber Co. - So in the real world, Vaagen Brothers ships pulpwood and woodchips via truck. (from the pictures it appears that there is still some occasional rail traffic) In my world they ship pulpwood exclusively via rail. I included two tracks here ‘cause… I dunno… Operational opportunities?
 
Locomotive Repair Services - The real world shortline (POVA) offers locomotive repair services. In my mind this would be a great home for the motive power to tie up at the end of a day as well as a place to display equipment.  I DO like the idea of using it as a RIP track as Joe suggested which would allow me to bring all kinds of cars onto the layout. One interesting feature is that the mainline runs right along the side of the building and between the storage tracks.

That's a lot of industry for a small space, so let me where I can make adjustments to make this more realistic.

Thanks for the explanation!

Matt,

Sounds like you have done our research and it really makes sense. I have drawn up a doodle of some changes that I would maybe make to optimize my space.

Lehigh Cement: I would move the switch around the corner, asseuming the customer loads and unloads all the cars at one shot pulling and spotting them on the way by heading to the paper mill.

Locomotive Services/ Contract Reapir Shop: I moved the switch to allow for a few more cars and create an industry larger then it relally is.  If you want a lot of extra car types having a contract repair shp is a great industry, you can bring on any car type and shove it down the track. Also the same cars could be picked up later or new cars could be picked up (think old car in rebuilt car out) It also could be interesting to do a loco rebuilder and get some older units, dummy them out and move them in and out of the facility. I know that they do contract work for a variety of companies. I guess it depends on how many locos or cars you have.

Paper Plant: I cut back a track to hold the caustic cars, they usually are in their own area. I also designated the end of the spur for the kaolin, that would allow the lead to hold off spot or extra cars.

On the other side I changed it to an additional runaround track to give you more room to work inbound and outbound traffic.

Vaagan Brothers: I changed this up a bit so that a log loader could load cars on two tracks. Some of these locations also load peeler logs (logs cut to lenght for Veener to make plywood). Also they could be making telephone poles to be shipped to be treated. Or they still move logs to mills in Oregon so maybe they have a contract to ship logs.

Just some thoughts, I look forward to your updates!  

not all paper mills are the same

and mechanical mills