Yard grade crossings

Nice work adapting the prototype to your layout, Joe. Rubber crossing surfaces are used mainly in high vehicular traffic and/or heavy truck grade crossings. The railroad could have had extra pads from previous installations and decided to use them in the yard, especially that heavy car repair trucks (and the occasional MW truck) would be crossing the tracks at this point. I did that once or twice on Conrail.

Fran Giacoma

Spill containment?

Might it also have bee put there to catch dripping substances?

Geof

Neat idea.

Great little detail to add like usual!  You pulled it off well.  

Steve

Access

Hi Joe,

Your crossing to no where could also be an access point for a track inspector to put on or off. I’ve seen this done before and it kind of reminds me of that. But more than likely it is for utility vehicles to cross the tracks to access that particular end of the yard. The tracks looked like they are spaced far enough apart for an off road carman or even a Jeep driven by a utility brakeman. Sometimes little points like this come in handy to access ends of cuts of cars to release or set hand brakes or to remove or hang an EOT.

Tim

Rubber pads

Fran, you may very well be right about these having been used just because they were on hand.  I forgot to mention that there's also one at the opposite end of the yard.

Geof, I appreciate the input.  Pretty sure these are grade crossing mats though.

Steve, thank you!  I think it's fun finding little things like this that'd been hiding in plain sight for years.

Tim, I'll bet you're right about this also being used by crews.  Lots of reasons for lots of people to need to get back there for sure.

Great

Joe as always your modeling has purpose. Your ability to produce what you want and then document it is amazing. I only wish I had taken 100 times the photos of my modeling area and not just of locomotives. Good planning ahead for your layout!
 

?? For you, is that mill behind the container lift a 3D building or part of the backdrop? 
 

Tom

Where the rubber pads come from....

I wonder if they are essentially recycled - It seems to me that most of them in my area have been replaced by the modular concrete pads. 

Crossing pads

Tom, thanks very much.  Unfortunately, I'm guilty of the same thing you mentioned.  I thought I'd taken a ton of pics in my era, or at least in 2005 as a whole, but as I dig into projects now, I find gaps in a lot of what I need for that timeframe.  I might have thought I covered a particular subject, but then realize that some detail changed between my 2003 and 2008 pics and I have no idea what was correct for May 2005.  I blame the locomotives too.  IAIS had just received 22 new-to-them GP38-2s and SD38-2s a few months prior - a big part of the reason I picked this era - so my focus was largely on shooting them.

Regarding the elevator, that's a backdrop photo.  Here's the prototype (which I see was also peeking out in the pic at the top of this thread):

...and here's a wider shot of the layout from a few years ago.

Jeff, I'd imagine you're right about recycling these.  Even lil' ol' IAIS had begun installing concrete pads in 2005 or before, so it's quite possible that these were recovered from those projects.

Crossing

Looking good as always Joe. Question, How does the Wagner get out? Kevin 

Skinny little ramp, big wide container crane

Yeah, that's a real problem on my layout.  On the prototype, that ramp occupies a space where 7 yard tracks (#3 - #9) once served the RI.  You can get a feel for the width in this Brad Williams aerial view, where the ramp is the muddy area between the two strings of well cars.

Unfortunately, replicating that ramp width on the layout would have made an already-deep scene another 12" deeper, which was a non-starter for me.  Even as it is, I really have to work to reach the Old Main against the backdrop for track cleaning, and I'm 6'4".

So, my answer was to hide the ramp the best I could behind containers (which doesn't bother me, because there were often containers stacked 2-3 high along there on the prototype - just not the day Brad flew over!).  The location of the crane wasn't ideal, since it's clear that it can't fit on my skinny little ramp, but I was hoping its presence would help to "sell" the validity of the ramp.  After all, if there's a crane that big, the scene must be deeper than it looks, right?

Here's another prototype view showing the containers:

Wagner

Looking at you layout picture could you put your rubber crossing between your tank cars  and maybe have your piggy packer visit the Mack fuel truck occasionally? Where the camp trailer is parked. Kevin

Refueling the Piggy Packer

That’s a good thought Kevin. However, that camping trailer sits where the office for the anhydrous transload will eventually be (tank car on the left) and is surrounded by fencing, so nothing’s going out that way.  Once my Atlantic work is done, that scene may not be too far behind. 

Sounds good Joe

Can't wait to see the new project. Kevin