8x1.5 foot Port Able Railway HO Scale Timesaver Variation

[Mike Kieran]

 

I now have the final(?) track plan for the Port Able Railway. I am planning on an easily transportable (hence the name Port Able) layout 8 feet long by 1.5 feet wide that stores easily and sets up quickly. It will have two wings on each end so that it will fold into a 48x18x3 inch carrying case/sleeve that I will slide the layout into. The layout will be 3 inches deep so that I can store the rolling stock, power supply, and support legs within the layout and carrying case. The structures will be transported in a separate tote. I plan on modeling the summer of 1979 because I have an obsession with IPD box cars.

 

The backstory is that once the Port Able Shipbuilding Company shut down in 1978, the city of Port Able bought the property and repurposed it into an industrial park. The Port Able Railway was named as the designated operator to provide rail service to the former shipyard. The Atlantic Lines bring in cars from the left side of the layout and drops them off into either yard track 1 or 2.

 

I was originally going to go with an 8x1 foot track plan, but I decided to add another track to the “yard” so that sorting will be easier and so that I had a little more room for scenery. With the extra width, I will be able to add the crane canopy for the manufacturing company in the upper left corner of the plan. I also bent the track in the lower left corner of the plan so that center beam flat cars may be unloaded from both sides. There is a small dock in the lower left hand corner so that I have a reason to give the layout a maritime name.

 

The one at the top for E.D. Ibble Foods is designed to allow for whatever car is loading at E.D.Ibble Foods as well as space for two freight cars and a locomotive with a slight space to spare. At 28 inches + 9.863 inches for a total of 37.863 inches, it's a drill track with a rail served industry at the end. This way, E.D. Ibble Foods doesn't have to be emptied.

 

The switchback in the upper right of the plan is long enough to accommodate a car in E. D. Ibble Foods and a small train of 2 cars and a locomotive to serve the manufacturing plant and chair company. I designed the layout so that at maximum, one car would be pulled and one car would be dropped at each spur. I plan to run 3-5 cars per operating session by rolling a dice and using a shuffled deck of index cards for each industry.

 

Here is a list of the maximum number of car loadings per week:

Customers                                                                    Loads in/out

Uranus Hertz Chair Corp.                                                        4/1

E. D. Ibble Foods Inc.                                                              4/1

Hardley-Able Manufacturing Corp.                                          4/1

RU Ready Mix Co.                                                                   3/0

Whist Building Supply                                                              3/0

Reese Eichel Salvage Co.                                                       0/2

Arrowmatic Fish Co.                                                                0/2  

Maximum cars handled per week:                                         18/7

Approximately 1000 car loads are handled annually.

[beezer]

Very nice design! I noticed it on another forum, but could not visualize a suggestion that was made - "consider flipping the left crossover" (to gain runaround length on both the main track and lower siding). Has anything been drawn that makes this clear?

[Mike Kieran]

At first, I had the turnout going toward E.D. Ibble foods all the way on the left of the middle 4 foot section. I had to have it that way to provide enough room on the switchback going into Hardley Able and Uranus Hertz for 2 cars and a locomotive. It made the runaround a little tight, but manageable. I had originally planned for the turnout for the runaround all the way on the left, but I found that it would make that switchback too short. I had discussed my plan with a renowned track planner and he mentioned the same thing. The runaround was a little tight. It was a compromise that I may have had to contend with. With a helpful suggestion on the other forum, I can have the longer runaround, an easier time switching the two industries in the upper left, and still have a yard (while smaller, it will still be enough to do the job).

 

That made a lot of sense. I just redrew the track plan to this:

[Mike Kieran]

I came up with a third plan variation. In this plan, I added a drill track under the siding in the upper right corner to the chair company. That way I could use it to drill the manufacturing and food companies as well as use it for yard sorting before I start switching industries.

 

I went back to my longer yard tracks just to give me more room. I also added an engine house where the railroad offices will also be located.

 

[E-L man tom]

Mike,

Nice compact track plan! If I may make one suggestion, you may want to put an extension on your lead track off the main to your yard, so that you can pull cars from full tracks. A single track clamp-on or bolt-on extension may work here, with some sort of "plug in" electrical connectors.

I love the industry names!  

[Mike Kieran]

Hey Tom, I thought of that too, but then I realized that I would only handle 4-5 cars max train length per operating session and that's what I can handle to the end of the lead track. Besides, the area that I'm running the layout is only 100 inches long.