Its a nice modern plan.

Love your plan Ken. Reminds me a lot of East Penn Railway's York Industrial and Bay Colony's Millis Branch

A designated operator using a worn BCLR or Quaboag Transfer GP might look pretty sharp!

(Photo from http://www.railfanreading.com/layout/prototype/BC1703/BC1703.htm)

Merry Christmas,

Jack

Thanks guys, it's reassuring to know the plan looks good to others not just me.

Bob - hey if you want to copy bits of it or all of it go for it.  Sharing ideas is one of the reasons we post these things.

Dave - yup the time period is over a century later than yours :-)

Jack - I've read about the East Penn but never visited in person.  I have checked out the Millis branch in person, and glimpsed the Quaboag 1701 hiding in the trees on the runaround in the Palmer industrial park.  Haven't been to either location for a few years though.  I knew the 1701 had been sold off somewhere, but I didn't realize it was the East Penn.  Neat!  The Millis branch has recently had some repairs and brush clearing after a long period of disuse and there are rumors of a transformer move and perhaps even Tresca transloading there again.  Both the Quaboag and BCLR are neat paint schemes on neat diesels for sure.

This is exactly my kind of layout!     I bet you'll need at least an hour, maybe two, to make all the moves, derails, chocks/blue flags, open and close any gates etc. Works for one person or a 2-man crew.   Perfect! 

Pete

If it takes more than an hour when I'm operating by myself I'll probably spit the session across several evenings.  I haven't operated with all the trimmings before but I do plan to add them where appropriate.  Derails on all the sidings of course.  The only one that has a fence/gate is National Lumber, and only around the lot not around the warehouse.  I need to look into where a railroad crew would actually likely encounter a blue flag and request it's removal, as opposed to the industry having removed it already knowing the railroad would be switching.

Two man crews should be fun when I have a couple friends over, that's something I've done in the past and it's worked out well.

Ken,

You asked about blue flags. Typically the customer will release the cars and remove any blue flags before the railroad crew shows up but sometimes they either forget or the railroad gets there and they aren't done yet 

I would say any of the industries are open for random "call and have blue flag removed" type situations but more likely it would be the lumber or the plastic places. Sometimes it's as simple as the company has 1 shift of workers and the railroad works the best shift ( swing vs day's) so they remove the flags before closing up shop. Other industries are 24/7 so they keep working until the crew gets there. Being on the end of a branchline, they probably don't know exactly when the railroad be will show up.  Maybe the crew has a "light" day and they get there 6 hours ahead of normal times. Or 6 hours late.

Does that help?

Craig

Excellent plan Ken. I can see a regular operating session lasting over an hour on your layout. On my Georgia Northeastern layout I have a local switch job for the area of Marietta which has 7 industries available to be switched. Not every industry is switched during an ops session with the average being 5 of the 7 industries being serviced. Local trains are typically 6 to 8 cars with approximately the same number of cars being pulled. Working this one job takes over an hour for most crews.

I really like how realistic the plan appears with plenty of open spaces between the industries. It would be the perfect candidate for a freelanced short line operation. There are so many neat short lines around that almost no one has every heard of so it would be easy to come up with your own line. Many thought my Georgia Northeastern was freelanced until I showed them a prototype photo. It also gives you a chance to run some classic geeps, what could be better than that. 

As Craig mentioned, normally blue flags are removed before a crew arrives, but there are exceptions. Even when the blue flag is removed by the industry personnel, it is required that the railroad crew perform an inspection to assure the car is ready to be moved. All of this takes time and is easy to replicate during an ops session by just thinking about what a prototype crew would be doing. 

Again, I think you have a great plan and would not recommend any changes. I look forward to following your progress.

Thomas Klimoski

Modeling the Georgia Northeastern Railroad   

On the blue flags, thanks guys that makes sense.  Sounds like a fun occasional extra wrinkle to the ops.

Thomas, I guess since I’m freelancing pretty much everything else, freelancing the shortline too makes sense. :-)  It would give me a bit more freedom in choosing power and paint scheme.  It’s also good to know your thoughts on how long a session will be confirms what I’m hoping for.

Hi Ken,

Thank you for sharing your track plan. I have nearly the same space for a layout - only real difference is the width of my room is 11ft - and have been thinking of the same concept of the end of a modern industrial park branch. Just from my home town I can choose from placing either a paper mill, sand mine, or chemical company at the end. Unfortunately the paper mill shut down around 2012 or so and was recently torn down, and the sand mine ceased operation last year. But either one can live on in my basement.  
 

Time to think on that...

Dave

Dave, as they say imitation is the sincerest form of flatery.  By all means copy whatever you find useful!  That sounds like an interesting mix of industries.