I couldn't find the time to learn the image posting method before the contest deadline, but now I know, so here goes.
If you take everything I remember from growing up in southern California, throw in a little Switchman's Nightmare by Linn Westcott, and try to follow some contest rules, this is what I came up with.
I imagine this as the end of a branch line that extends into the orange groves picking up loads and dropping off empties at 2 or 3 packing houses. The packing house should be almost half as long as the shelf. It needs to look large enough to justify rail service. The fuel dealer recieves oil and fuels used by local farmers. As things in the valley get better, the building supply yard will get more and more business. The lead to the fuel dealer is also used as the team track. I threw in a fruit stand across the street from the packing house to sell local produce.
As for operation, I imagined a turn travelling up this branch every morning with 10 to 15 empty reefers and assorted other freight cars, swapping empties for loads at each packing house. Loads are left at each stop and picked up on the return trip. By the time the train arrives (by hand) at the end of the branch, there are only 2 or 3 reefers to switch out. The switch lead is long enough that the entire packing house lead can be pulled and swapped without any unnecessary moves. Loads would be set out on the middle yard lead. In reality, a runaround would be completed between the main and middle yard lead, but it has to be imagined here.
You could either go with SP and PFE reefers or ATSF and SFRD reefers. 4-axle switchers and 40' to 50' reefers. The runaround for the building supply spur can handle a car over 60' in length. The radius at the team track is 30" so coupling/uncoupling should be possible anywhere along the team track. I tried to leave at least 6" between curves to eliminate 'S' curve problems. I left extra space between the main and adjacent tracks to allow the main to be slightly higher than the adjacent trackage. Since the trackplan and operation are so basic, I selected the 'industries' along the front edge of the shelf to make it easier for the operator to use manual uncoupling and ground throws. There are two #6's turnouts at the right, four #4's, a #4 wye, and one 30 deg. crossing.
If I could add a few feet to each end, I would complete the runaround mentioned above, increase the distance between the runaround already included, and add another industry to the left of the fuel dealer.
Thanks for looking,
Hank
Looks interesting, nice work!
Have fun
I like you plan. Some of the things I like:
Subject matter (California citrus growing area) is undoubtedly "small agricultural town" and yet a fresh and uncommon choice of location. It is not yet another midwestern town.
You have placed trackage at a slight slant instead of parallell to the front edge - will make things look slightly bigger than they actually are, and also give a better 3D effect for the packing house - good job - that is a nice trick that is often overlooked!
The industry yard area on the left is functional.
You have provided ample leads to pull (or set out) all cars on each industry track in one move. Switchbacks for one and one car looks cute, but unprototypical - people who work on railroads instead of playing with them want switching moves to be simple.
I have no clue as for whether the double yard ladder is prototyical trackage for this time and place, but from a model railroad viewpoint it was a smart trick to in effect use a classification yard type runaround - a track parallell to the yard ladder, connected to the yard ladder at top and bottom.
And then letting two industry tracks branch out from the yard runaround and cross each other on their way to frontside corner industries. Good use of space to let the runaround double as part of the industry lead for the fuel dealer and yard track two (closest to bottom) double as a switchback and part of lead to building supply dealer.
Good design to put front side industries in the corner, for two reasons:
1) It allows you good access to turnouts (and tracks) in the center of the layout. 2) It allows you to imagine the the front side industries continue to the sides, off the layout.
The latter is only a point if you were are going to operate it as a standalone module instead of a part of a larger layout. If so, you could maybe have let the industries get "cut off" at the right and left edge of the layout, and appear bigger.
But if you plan to use this as a module in a bigger layout, then cutting off industries would look dumb when the module is made part of a bigger layout.
As you note yourself - this module would work even better as part of a bigger layout you had a few more feet to either side, and could convert what is now single ended yard track 1 (closest to main) into a double ended siding long enough to hold a full cut of cars to the citrus packing plan, by joining the far left end of yard track 1 to the mainline a foot or 18" off to the left of the module.
In short - and for whatever it is worth, from my point of view this is a good module design.
In my opinion if this one had been submitted in time for the 2x8 contest, it very likely would have finished somewhere among the top third of the layouts. Hard to say exactly where - that is totally dependent on the preferences of those who vote.
Btw - there is an interesting spread of locations here now:
Mid-Atlantic states: DE (2), PA (1), NY(1), ME(1) Midwest: IN (2), IL(1), MN(1) and "somewhere between Colorado and Kansas City"(1) West Coast: your layout set in CA Non-US: Komatsu, Japan (1)
Plus two generic locations : Town of Random and Town of Unknown.
Smile, Stein
Nice,
I'll add it to the contest page after the contest.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
The runaround was actually inspired by the Switchman's Nightmare trackplan. I just stretched it out to make it more functional and used 6's at the right end to 'hide' the runaround a little by eliminating the symmetry.
It was drawn in AutoCad and colored in Microsoft Paint. In converting from AutoCad to bitmap I introduced the jagged lines, but I don't have anything available to go straight to jpeg yet.
Thank you all for taking the time to look at the plan and the kind words of encouragement.