GraniteRailroader wrote: Stein - One question for your layout...How do you plan on working the cars on the cassette into the operating plan? It seems as if you won't be able to run around them to spot them into certain industries.
Stein - One question for your layout...
How do you plan on working the cars on the cassette into the operating plan? It seems as if you won't be able to run around them to spot them into certain industries.
That is one of the interesting twists that made this particular prototype (Progressive Rail's Airlake Industrial Park in Lakeville, MN) so interesting.
They did not have a runaround. So they stationed two switchers (sharing one crew) inside the industrial park. One was stationed on the west (left) end and switched cars into sidings facing west. The other at the east (right) end and switched cars into sidings facing east.
The two man crew just swapped engines when they had to, alternating being the the conductor and the engineer.
You can read more about it (and the evolution of my track plan) here
As for the question about how I plan to introduce cars - I plan to just push the cars by hand from the cassette onto the main towards the interchange (left hand of main) until I have a suitable number of inbound cars - probably either 8 or 12.
I could put in 16 cars, but then one cut of four cars will have to be placed on the curve towards the mill & RytWay distribution temporarily, before being joined with the rest of the cars by hand after the turnout in the main leading to the cassette has been set for straight ahead.
Then the east end engine will pull latch onto the end of the cars (simulating having just pulled them in from interchange (off to the left on the main), and start distributing inbound cars to wherever they can be stored temporarily.
I put in three tracks in the industrial park that are pure storage - for inbound or outbound cars - one on the extreme left wing (by Wausau Supply), one in the left hand corner (between the main and the Progressive Rail warehouse) and one on the extreme left wing - between the mill track and the RytWay Distribution track.
Or something roughly along those lines. I can make it simpler or more complex by how I block cars and by deciding how many cars to bring in.
Smile, Stein
Now I gotta say, that's pretty gosh darned slick!
(Check PM, btw)
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FoulRift wrote: HEdward-I quess I'm a poor judge when it comes to the age of children.Any they are still cute.To aid you in your planning you might want to download XTrakCad. It's free and it makes planning a whole lot easier.I used it for my plan. Bob
HEdward-I quess I'm a poor judge when it comes to the age of children.Any they are still cute.
To aid you in your planning you might want to download XTrakCad. It's free and it makes planning a whole lot easier.I used it for my plan. Bob
Sorry, the avatar picture is OLD! Maybe sometime I'll get some new ones up.
CAD software? Free? HA! I'm just stealing your plan, remember? Besides, that way when you come to visit, you'll need no help in learing the ops!
FoulRift wrote:Whatever floats your boat.It doesn't have a patent on it.
Don't you mean copyright? Without one, there's no fun in stealing it!
I've gotta check out the site Stein linked to earlier. Working a switching district and running a few through trains looks like a good way to keep the interest up when the railroad is "complete" and running well.