SpaceMouse wrote:Let me ask the question this way. I ordered a piano. It came into the freight station and is waiting to be picked up. How do I get that piano into my flatbed truck?
Are you kidding? In case you're not.... You and several friends would slide it from the platorm to the flatbed. The closer those are in height, the easier the task. The hard part will be getting the piano from the truck to the inside of your house. Using a dolly would make this whole process easier. Easier yet would be to hire a professional to do the job while you sip lemonade.
Mark
I like your LDE plan. The simple track plan leaves lots of room for scenery yet offers a good amount of operation. It replicates the "small town feel" where the typical track arrangement is a double-ended spur to serve the local industries and which most modelers incorrectly identify as a passing siding.
To me, the quintessential small-town track arrangement was like that at Danville, California, on Southern Pacific's San Ramon Branch (milepost 54.6). There were two double-ended sidings: one on each side of the branch's "mainline." One was the house track 1807 feet long serving the combination depot and the corral (stock pen and chute). The other was 1567 feet long and served two warehouses and an unidentified industry. North of these tracks was a single-ended spur 811 feet long serving more warehouses. As of the track plan's 1912 date, Danville was a small agricultural village. Now the community is suburban yuppyville, and the railroad is long gone.
steinjr wrote: I see your point. Maybe something like this (dumping the lumber shed, moving the south elevator and feed storage right, downsizing the north elevator to open up a bit):
I thought about that but I was trying to keep the lumber shed to vary the cars and commodities inbound. Maybe keep the lumber shed, turn it 90 degr, but they use the team track to recieve cars. You could also move the shed to another location and park a flatbed with the lumber company name on it at the team track, or maybe a truck with an A frame winch to unload bundles of lumber.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusman wrote: My concern is the location of the south elevator and stock yards. Are they far enough away from the siding and main track switches to allow a car to be spotted at the industry and not foul the main track or siding?
My concern is the location of the south elevator and stock yards. Are they far enough away from the siding and main track switches to allow a car to be spotted at the industry and not foul the main track or siding?
Stock pen loading chute (is that the right word ?) is far enough away from the turnout to allow unloading from a center side door w/o fouling the main. South elevator isn't, though. Thanks for pointing that one out!
dehusman wrote: I would be concerned that it looks too congested trying to fit so much in such a small space. I would be tempted to lose the feed storage and move the south elevator 3" to the right and every thing else 3" to the left and try to open it up a little. An alternative is to lose the feed storage and make the north elevator about half the size you've drawn to open things up.
I would be concerned that it looks too congested trying to fit so much in such a small space. I would be tempted to lose the feed storage and move the south elevator 3" to the right and every thing else 3" to the left and try to open it up a little. An alternative is to lose the feed storage and make the north elevator about half the size you've drawn to open things up.
I see your point. Maybe something like this (dumping the lumber shed, moving the south elevator and feed storage right, downsizing the north elevator to open up a bit):
dehusman wrote: I would probably make the buildings along the rear only an inch or two thick at the most to open up the street and make sure I had depth to the foreground buildings.
I would probably make the buildings along the rear only an inch or two thick at the most to open up the street and make sure I had depth to the foreground buildings.
I have them at 1.5" (behind north elevator) and 3" depth (downtown) now. Could obviously shave off a little more if I get too pressed for depth.
dehusman wrote: You want the downtown buildings fairly narrow and compressed, but away from that 1 block "downtown" things should open back up and have space between the buildings for that small town look.
You want the downtown buildings fairly narrow and compressed, but away from that 1 block "downtown" things should open back up and have space between the buildings for that small town look.
How about if I open it up a little between the Clayton warehouse and the downtown area ?
Smile, Stein
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse wrote: Interesting choices. It makes a lot of difference what era you are modeling. I also wouldn't mind knowing what road name you are modeling.
Interesting choices.
It makes a lot of difference what era you are modeling. I also wouldn't mind knowing what road name you are modeling.
Late 1940s/early 1950s.
IC = Illinois Central.
SpaceMouse wrote: Either way, I'm concerned about the freight platform/team area. Assuming we are talking about an era where trucks are used. The freight platform does not seen to allow access by trucks.
Either way, I'm concerned about the freight platform/team area. Assuming we are talking about an era where trucks are used. The freight platform does not seen to allow access by trucks.
Platform was used for LCL (Less than carload) freight - packages, essensially. Which were stored at the depot until picked up.
SpaceMouse wrote: Likewise, the "team area" does not have a loading dock. It's a riddle, no doubt, but I think you need to provide a way for trucks to load and off-load freight for transfer to and from the freight cars.
Likewise, the "team area" does not have a loading dock. It's a riddle, no doubt, but I think you need to provide a way for trucks to load and off-load freight for transfer to and from the freight cars.
Back the truck up to the side door of the freight car, lift stuff across. Pretty common procedure in the olden days. They used manpower, rather than forklifts to transfer loads.
May not need it. In many cases the freight platform next to the main was for unloading LCL from a train on the main into the freight portion of the depot. A team could pull up along side the dock to unload. Remember it was built before automobiles.
Likewise, the "team area" does not have a loading dock.
It is very common NOT to have a dock at a team track.
but I think you need to provide a way for trucks to load and off-load freight for transfer to and from the freight cars.
You just back the wagon/truck up to the door of the rail car. If you look at old pictures of team tracks you will see that is very very common.
My concern is the location of the south elevator and stock yards. Are they far enough away from the siding and main track switches to allow a car to be spotted at the industry and not foul the main track or siding? I would be concerned that it looks too congested trying to fit so much in such a small space. I would be tempted to lose the feed storage and move the south elevator 3" to the right and every thing else 3" to the left and try to open it up a little. An alternative is to lose the feed storage and make the north elevator about half the size you've drawn to open things up. I would probably make the buildings along the rear only an inch or two thick at the most to open up the street and make sure I had depth to the foreground buildings. You want the downtown buildings fairly narrow and compressed, but away from that 1 block "downtown" things should open back up and have space between the buildings for that small town look.
Either way, I'm concerned about the freight platform/team area. Assuming we are talking about an era where trucks are used. The freight platform does not seen to allow access by trucks. Likewise, the "team area" does not have a loading dock. It's a riddle, no doubt, but I think you need to provide a way for trucks to load and off-load freight for transfer to and from the freight cars.
Hi --
Following Chip's post where he proposed a design contest for a H0 scale 2x8 LDE (Layout Design Element - part of a larger layout, based on a real life prototype) based on a small midwestern agricultural town in the 1950s, two of the forum regulars (ICRR1964 and steinjr) hereby present one such design: Thawville, IL.
The main givens Chip defined was (as we understood them):
Here is the layout plan we have come up with thus far (click on image to see max size):
Layout plan
Prototype information Here is a link to a web page describing the prototype location (right click on link and select "open in new window" to see this forum page and the presentation in two separate web browser windows on your screen):
http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling/thawville/index.html
Discussion of design decisions: The main feature of Thawville, from a railroading modelling perspective, is that we have just one double ended siding, and not a very long siding at that (about 400 yards long in the prototype), shared between several businesses, with quite a few different types of RR cars being unloaded (or loaded) on that one siding.
The double ended siding could be used for runaround moves (if there is no cars being loaded or unloaded at the time). But we envision that it is more likely that it will not be used this way normally - instead the double ended siding probably will be treated more or less as two single ended sidings back to back - the southern (left) half switched by trains going south, and the northern (right) half switched by trains going north.
We envision that there normally would be cars spotted for no more than two or three out of the seven industries along the siding (feed, lumber, LCL, team spot, mill, coal, livestock).
The stuff we think is essensial to give "The Flavor of Thawville" (tm :-) is:
We added some extra stuff:
We are open to comments and suggestions on how to improve this LDE.