My intermodal yard is in the early stages of construction, but in answer to a request for information, here are a few pics and details. The first two photos are overall views of one end of the two track yard. The building under construction at the far end is the car repair shop. On the left are containers and a building flat which will help to give the impression of a bigger yard. I really do need a suitable backdrop for the yard. The other photos show close-ups of the 'concrete' roadways. This was made with household plaster filler "Polyfiller" which was spread over the whole area, levelled out a bit, and left to dry. A simple scraper was made from thin brass sheet, so that when scraped along the tracks, it carved out flangeways, and the rest was left slightly below rail level, to allow track cleaning. When I was satisfied with the surface, I painted it to represent concrete. I prefer this method to using styrene sheet, as the surface is not quite so 'perfect', and has small defects like true concrete. Still to add are the yellow safety stripes, white parking stripes for the truck chassis, a container handling crane, and numerous other things to bring it to life. My whole layout is as yet devoid of people I must go and do some recruiting [ 02 September 2001: Message edited by: Alan ]</p>
Alan,the yard looks great,but what I want to know is,where did you get all those neat spinecars??? <marquee>North American Rail Alliance</marquee>
Alan, This might be a stupid question, but, Did you paint the plaster white or some other off white color. Also, did you brush paint or airbrush? Thanks BTW, It looks great...and thanks for sharing the info.
Matt, the plaster is sort of off-white, then I painted it very light grey, (Humbrol #147), I brush painted it, as this gives a slightly eneven look, rather than a smooth sprayed finish. It seems to be getting 'weathered' a bit as I clean the track!
Hi Jennifer, good to hear from you again I have one Atlas front runner, which a gift from my son. It is a bit iffy at tracking, even after adding weight the trailer it is carrying. Although I suspect they may perform better on wide radius curves. I can only run mine near the rear of the train, otherwise it derails due to being pulled off by the trailing cars. I plan on producing cast metal models of four runners, so they will hopefully hold the rails better.
Alan The layout and surface texture look fine and the equipment is outstanding. You may want to consider weathering the roadways and concrete areas. In a busy terminal there will generally be spills and stains of various types from the moving equipment (both railcars and trailers/yard tractors and trailer/container stacker/crane) and perhaps an occasional tire mark. How much weathering is enough? Rules 1 - 3 apply: l. It is your railroad 2. Model railroading is fun 3. When in doubt, refer to Rules 1-3 eNjoy DB
Don, you are so right! Weathering is definitely needed. But I will do that after I lay the yellow safety stripes, etc. My son Matt had an HO layout, which he took around to exhibitions. He had a concrete area in a chemical plant. Whilst working on the layout, he spilt some dirty brush cleaning spirit on it. They were the most perfect looking spillage stains we had ever seen Not sure I will use the same method, though
Alan, Have you heard the expression - "No amount of planning replaces Dumb Luck!"? Your yard looks great, can't wait to see how you improve on that Hank [ 15 April 2001: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
Alan Your yard looks great. Thanks for the tip on using plaster for cement. I have been thinking how to make a street with sidewalks through my town. How thick did you mix the plaster. I was thinking about thin so it would pour easier but that would make it deficult forming the sidewalk
Dick, my plaster (filler) is not 'pourable'. I mix it to a fairly thick consistency and it is spread over the area and levelled with a spatula or similar to roughly the level I want. It is the thicknes of the height of the track, about 1/8" I guess. For streets it could be thinner, but the sidewalk would need to be done seperately, by putting a 'dam' to contain it. May be easier to do the road, then use styrene or similar to make the sidewalk, as many are paved, so you could scribe the joins. The finished level is acheived by scraping with the edge of a metal sheet. Any large undulations or holes can then be filled and the scraping process repeated until satisfied, but it shoud not be too perfect
Thanks Alan. I haven't done any work on my N Gauge since before Christmas as I started working at Wal Mart then and have been too pooped to do anythings else except take care of my wife as she has a bad heart. She is getting better and I am getting used to working again so may I may have enough omph to do some more work on my layout.
Alan, Thank you so much for sharing. I was the one who requested the info. You have motivated me to get started and stop planning my intermodal yard. If anyone else wants to share their efforts and plans I love to hear them! I plan to have only one track (due to space considerations). I will have a overhead crane serving the track as well as one of the container fork lifts for stacking contaners in the back area like Alan has. My main line runs behind the intermodal yard which will provide an active backdrop. There is then a hill behind the mainline. I will probably try to use styrene first but may go to Alan's methods if I'm not pleased with the results. Scot
From the photos and track plan above, I'm wondering how the straddle loader would load/unload onto the trailers? It looks like the tracks are too close together to put the trailers in the middle, and I've never seen a loader wide enough to do two tracks and a roadway for the trailers. I would suspect that there should be two loaders, each straddling one track and one traffic lane. What do you think?
Good point, Ed! I messed up on the drawing, it should show the loader over the one track and the roadway. But until I get a loader, I am not sure if it will fit between the tracks I intended originally to have a side loader, but the straddle loaders look so much better. Just hope I don't have to relocate one track, and relay all that concrete
Here is the design for my intermodal terminal which will be built on a module. Gats helped with the design [ 17 April 2001: Message edited by: Colonel ]
Paul - That plan looks good - plenty of room for equipment. The hardest part about designing intermodal yards is leaving enough room for the trucks. Watch out for the S curves around the Office tho - those 89' flats need 89' of straight track before they will want to change direction! Alan - maybe you should serve Guiness over your yard to help with the natural spillage weathering effects I saw a great trick in an old MR to give more room and maximize your container investment - just like your building flat you can cut containers in half (the long way) for a container flat. If you arn't hurting for the extra space, you can put the top and end containers on full width and no one will ever know that the back is just empty space! What't the highest anyone has seen containers stacked up in storage? I don't think I have ever seen them more than 5 high.
I do plan on cutting some containers in half! Saw this in a book I have changed the plan of my intermodal yard, (above), to correctly locate the straddle loader. Also added the security gatehouse.
My intermodal yard will only have one track. Thats all I have room for. It will have the guard shack as well. Alan, I bought the styrene yesturday, looked at it for about 2 whole minutes, and decided to use your method for concrete. Wish me luck!
