I'm planning a small and simple but operations based switching layout and I'm looking for ideas and inspiration to base my layout on. I'm leaning towards it being in an industrial or urban setting and set in the early colorful years of Conrail with all of the patched paint. From the research I've done I can't find much about switching or industrial districts just mainline operations with long trains led by multiple units. Does anyone have any insight into what I might be looking for? Specific locations or industries, locos commonly used etc.
Pick the area in which you are interested and look at the predecessor road. That might have more information.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I agree with what dehusman said. At the time Conrail was formed, there were a lot of different types of locomotives still in use and just about anything could be found switching and in locals. I think that you've pick a great railroad and time period to model. Conrail was still trying to put everything together and rebuild locomotives that had lacked basic maintance for some time so they were using what ever they could where it was needed. There is a lot of good information on the Conrail Cyclopedia website that will can maybe be of use.
Ralph
Hi BNSF
I think these are layout design questions.
Some thoughts:
How much room do you have for the layout? A bookshelf? A spare bedroom? Part of a basement? Whatever suggestions you receive, they will need to adjust to the space available for layout trackplan. You've already developed a theme, which is a very good start. For switching trackplans, you might want to check out the Lance Mindheim layouts, and the micro layouts of Carl Arendt.
Do you have favorite cartypes? if so this will determine the types of industry for your layout, and there may not be a prototype switching district that fits your faborites.
Conrail ran from Chicago to the East Coast - a very broad area. Presumaby you are just looking for inspiration that can be adapted. Your rolling stock selection of roadnames and period appropriate locomotives will go a long way towards making it "part of the Conrail system". Industry names can be given a regional flavor. So I would go with a plausible and hypothetical switching layout. Pick your industries that feel right and can be served by whatever the size of your track plan.
Finally, and in direct answer to your question for an example:
Check out "Rails on the Philly Waterfront" [Railfan & Railroad -August 200(3?)]. Industries include dockside piers (a la Walthers kit), with imported paper and steel; automobile loading/ unloading; steel supply warehouses; transfer runs of steel to the Navy Yard; Betty Foods warehouses; and Ashland chemical plants. This area was formerly Conrail.
I would also recommend getting a copy of "Railroad Planning for Operations". Good reading, and can help prevent you from poor design elements that can cause future problems.
Good luck, and let us know your thoughts and your progress.
You might want to take alook at the Detroit Terminal. Conrail took over in 1982 after GTW sold it's 50% to them. The DT was owned by the Michigan Central (25%), the GTW (50%), and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (25%), the MC & LS&MS later came under control of the NYC. The DT route was a semi circle around Detroit, interchanges with the GTW, PM (C&O), Wabash (N&W), PRR (PC), DT&I, D&TSL. All kinds of industries, most Automotive related. The DT had a few yards and had some Baldwins, VO-1000, DS44-1000, NW-2's and a single SW-7. Brian Babbish has a book titled, Chronicles of a Detroit Railfan, vol.3, Detroit Terminal Railroad. If you Google or Bing for DT you get images and maps, you'll also see photos of the DT units after Conrail took over. Just about every large city that CR operated in had a terminal railroad that was jointly owned by a CR component road. NYC was the big kid in town in Detroit, so after PC, CR had alot of industrial lines in and out of the city. Good Luck.
James Barnes, Jr.
I grew up along side an ex-NYC, ex-PC Conrail line in a suburban area of upstate NY east of Utica NY.
Conrail power in our area from 1976 until service ended in 1981 consisted of EMD SW1's, EMD SW7's and Alco RS3m's. They started out in PC paint, progressed to black CR patchouts and then to full Conrail Blue regalia. All trains ended with transfer cabooses of the N6, N9 and N11 series, starting out in PC green, then green CR patchout and lastly Conrail blue.
Trains averaged six or seven cars and originated out of Utica yard. They consisted of covered hoppers and 40 ft. box cars for the local feed mill, box cars and gondolas for a garden tool manufacturer, coal hoppers and tank cars of home heating oil for the local fuel dealer and farm tractors in double door box cars for a farm implement dealer. Trains ran two or three times a week. They spent about an hour or so switching cars and then performed a run around move for the trip west back to Utica. Hope this helps.
The PRR had a publication calked the ct1000 that gave every industry on the entire railroad and the milepost location. They are on line at several websites. It also includes all branch lines so you should be able to find one that matches what you want?
A resource that has not been mentioned are the Conrail ZTS books. These Zone-Track-Spot books are invaluable information for any one looking to build a switching layout following a Conrail prototype. As the title states, Conrail divided its system into geographic divisions, which were then divided into Zones. Each track in these zones were illustrated on a diagram that included the specific ID number of that track as well as the numbers of individual spots be they doors, pits, spouts, chutes, etc, if applicable, as well as the customers name.
This type of information might be available on some of the Conrail oriented websites as well as the Conrail historical group.
Hi, if you subscribe to the MRR 'All-Time Digital Archives', June 2002 features an article by Jim Hediger about 'Progressive Rail'. Whilst not specific to Conrail and/or your region, the article is very descriptive of operations, with good photos and a trackplan that might all be adaptable to your proposed layout.
IM(humble)O - Mr. Hediger's article is is a superb example of Model Railroader journalism. Paul
"It's the South Shore Line, Jim - but not as we know it".
There was a PRR switching layout in mr a couple of years ago that was very well thought out. I think it was a Philly based layout
I couldn't figure out how to answer your message so I will answer here. The industries being serviced were Corrado Milling, now known as Brown's Feed and still running today (truck serviced). There was a Union Tools Plant, merged into Ames Tru Temper, plant closed in 2007 and destroyed by fire in 2013. Murtaugh's Coal and Oil, closed in 1974, torn down in 1978. Urgo's Farm Supply, closed in 1996 and converted into a convenience store. There were two other industries that closed around 1970, Acme Road Machinery (torn down, replaced by the local V.F.W., and GLF farm supply which is now part of R.M. Murdock Co., a rock quarry supply firm. All were or still are located in the Village of Frankfort, NY. Some of the buildings of Union Tool were originally shop buildings of the the West Shore Railroad.