Well, I have almost finished building the track on this part of the layout, and are now playing with some ideas of what to do with the area. I was thinking about something like the attached picture, a small town with a main street, crossing under the track on the left, and a grade crossing on the right. Some small town buildings (DPM and alike), some residential buildings, and 2 industries. For the industries I was thinking of a cement plant on the right and maybe a citrus packing facility or a lumber yard on the left. But... I'm open for any suggestions, so what would you do in this area?. The 2 blue lines in the middle shows the view block. Jesper http://community.webshots.com/user/jkristia
I don't have any suggestions except some industries. Went to your web site and am impressed with the way you have it layed out.
Something else that goes well as a neighbor for a cement plant is a landscaping supply company.Bins of differant gravels,decorative stone.Large stone,Patio blocks,decorative cement block Cast sculptures of animals,Pit run gravel,Black dirt etc etc etc.It can get rather colorful.A forklift or 2 and a few delivery trucks,Perhaps even a tree nursery can all be combined.You could even add a greenhouse or 2 if you have the room. Very nice layout pictures.Trackwork must have taken awhile.
tileguy, the landscaping supply company is an interesting idea. I don't remember ever seeing that on any layout. But that would be located next to the cement plant, I still need some ideas for the 2 tracks on the left. This picture shows the entire area. I think I will cut the view divider where shown, to let the road go under the tracks instead of having the tracks go through a tunnel. I'm still open for other ideas . Jesper
How about a transflo style transloading facility? This is where they move bulk cargo and transload it to trucks. Salt, phosphates, grain, even gas and oil can be trans-loaded. These began to spring up in the beginning of the diesel era, and are common in less built up areas where there is not a lot of one commodity shipped, but a little of a lot of commodities. It will also allow you a wide variety of rolling stock.
