Jeff is dead on. The customer's plant itself will dictate how you switch hit. Hopefully when they built the plant the did so in a way that reduces the time it takes the railroad to switch the facility. That's not always possible however. And even if the cars are always the same, shippers don't always load or unload in order. Take a papermill for example. They may receive a switch each evening on their boxcar shed tracks. A track holding ten cars may be releasing only cars 1,3,4 and 8. That means you have to pull all ten, sort out the cars to take with you and then shove back the remaining six plus 4 new ones. I suggest in your case you build your industry the way you would like it to look and then switch it accordingly. Just like the real world!
hi here in northumberland PA the norfolk southern has a customer across from the yard off the main. its a single track with an long freight house type structure the end of the track has a loading dock where 2 car spots for boxcars and in front of them is where covered hoppers are unloaded 1 at a time the covered hopper is spotted over a narrow pit where the beans pour out onto a conveyor which loads the beans into 2000lb super sacks to be taken into the warehouse. the boxcars would get unloaded in about 2 hours while a crew was unloading the covered hopper one bay at a time when one compartment was empty a small farm tractor with a coupler will couple up an reposition the car. the NS local would show up with 2 more boxcars so the customer crews would scramble to remove the conveyor atc from under the covered hoper and lock the bay out lets, once they are done the train pulls everything onto the main covered hoppers and boxcars. the train would leave the emptys on the main and shove the loaded boxcars down the spur with the partial loaded covered hopper in the front and respot them then the train drops the empty back in the yard i have seen a couple times when the customer was not ready to move a partial car so the train drops the new cars on the spur to return a couple hours later
jeffhergertThe prototype would switch the industry however it needed to be switched. If it means the local sits and waits while a person from the customer disconnects a tank car so they can get to the covered hopper behind it, so be it. J
From the information I gathered the railroad usually calls the receiver to let him know he has a inbound car and to get switching instructions.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
The prototype would switch the industry however it needed to be switched. If it means the local sits and waits while a person from the customer disconnects a tank car so they can get to the covered hopper behind it, so be it. Just remember to respot the tank car so they can finish unloading it.
The best or most logical design of a facility from the railroad's point of view may not be from the customer's point of view. Maybe as a facility expanded, there was limited room and new loading/unloading spots were added as best they could. As someone said, less than ideal set ups just add to the work fun.
Jeff
Remember it takes time to unload a tank or covered hopper the production storage silos could become full and that will stop the unloading process.
Swan Hose here in Bucyrus would have NS to spot the inbound cars(covered hoppers) behind the car being unloaded..NS would call ahead advising they had a delivery around 3 AM(the usual time or very close) and the car unloader would already have the unloading hoses disconnected so,the car can be moved..
Have also ACF center flow hoppers like this: http://www.accurail.com/accurail/ART/2000/2001_1.jpg
Logic dictates that the cars needing physical connections like pipes and hoses should be spotted where they will not need to be disturbed. It is pretty easy to suspend loading or unloading a box car, close the doors, and wait for the switch crew to respot it. Not so easy on things that are hooked up.
You mention grain covered hoppers. A bakery would most likely get bulk flour in air-slide or pressure differential covered hoppers. These would require a hose or pipe connection to unload them and therfore should not be "first out" on the siding.
Charlie
Thanks Bruce. I also have a shelf layout. It´s 22 ft long x 18 inches deep. A rough scheme of my layout:
http://imageshack.com/a/img197/9950/trdi.jpg
73
Bruce in the Peg
Hello all,
Have a long spur, 8 feet long, and want to put a multi-spot industry, maybe a bakery. I model 2000-2010 era. It´ll get grain covered hoppers and corn syrup tank cars. I don´t know if to put the tank car spot on the back of this spur or on the front. What do you think?. How the prototype would switch a spur like this if they need to pull a car non unloaded for making a set-out?