Allegheny2-6-6-6 I've been making some progress on my Lakehurst yard and was wondering other then the obvious railroad related industries machine shop, rebuilding shops etc.What types of industries if any would populate a freight yard. Not necessarily in the yard area it self but lets say bordering it.
Depending on era and location, quite a few industries could be found in or near freight yards, especially n urban surroundings.
On the west bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, you could in the late steam/early transition era find e.g:
1) Railroad freight houses for less than carload traffic. Often had two or more parallel tracks in front of the building - boxcars on the second/third etc track could be unloaded using steel plates as bridges between the emptied boxcars on the track closest to the building and the car on the next track.
Can create interesting switching on a model railroad layout if you need to pull empty cars from track 1, re-spot partially emptied cars from track 2 to track 1, and spot new loaded cars for unloading later on track 2. Could often be modeled as a long and low (one story) building, ie an aisle side industry, which you can reach over to uncouple cars in the yard beyond, with trucks at loading ramps right at the aisle.
2) Produce tracks - a specialized form of team track. I've seen produce tracks right in the middle of a flat switched urban yard, using just part of a longer track.
Good destination for reefers. Can be modeled in the middle of the yard, if desired - may even create some interesting play value by making it necessary to ensure one doesn't block the road across the neighboring tracks to the roadway for cars along the produce track(s). Can also create some interesting play value by it being a product that shouldn't wait for long before being spotted and unloaded.
3) Some other industries along the sides of urban yards in Minneapolis, which could be switched by the yard switchers include mills and warehouses. Could probably best be modeled as tall backdrop flats behind the yard for a model railroad.
Just a couple of ideas - no warranties that they will work for your location, even though they are appropriate for the steamer era you like :-)
Smile, Stein
Wayne,
I found your pictures very inspirational! Nice work!
Regards,
Greg
Greg Shindledecker Modeling the =WM= Thomas Sub in the mid-70s
Once again, thanks to all for the kind words, and keep your own pictures coming, too - we all can take inspiration from seeing the work of others.
Wayne
This is my favorite industry on my layout, the operating gravel loader. Tyco operating hoppers have been detailed and repainted into Southern Pacific. Visiting operators like to operate a switch engine to move the cars under a loader. An old telephone magnedo is used to bump the solonoid that lifts the plug at the letting the gravel (real river sand) run out of the bottom of the hopper. The gravel is dumped elsewhere on the layout.
doctorwayne... keep your own pictures coming, too - we all can take inspiration from seeing the work of others ...
OK Wayne, here's the only decent shot I have of a yard with industries beside it. In fact you probably have seen it dozens of times already:
I guess you might also say I've got "a little bit of yard with my structures"...
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
MAN ;thats big ,it just dwarfs those train cars ....nice work...Jerry
Does locomotive first and second line repair count....as in...a roundhouse?
Bruce, I like your photo of the loader (I'm a big fan of "live" loads, although mine are loaded and unloaded by the very versatile 0-5-0) and it's nice to see a Baldwin in service, too.
Ken, I'm not sure if I've seen that particular photo before or not, but it would certainly be worth another look (and another, and another). It's always nice to see an industry that, as Jerry says, "dwarfs the trains".
selectorDoes locomotive first and second line repair count....as in...a roundhouse?
Why not? Somebody has to keep the trains running in order to serve all of these industries.
Here's my largest modelled employer, and the railroad's largest customer, too. It's situated adjacent to a section of double-tracked main line that's probably the closest thing to a yard on my layout, as it serves as an interchange point/train make-up area.
The "yard" reverts to a single line as it heads through the plant and off to a staging track across the aisle:
I had to limit the height, as there's another level of the layout yet to be built overhead, but at a length of 6.5' and with three sidings of its own, it's a great traffic generator: