Cannot afford Apple's overpriced products Paul. Their profit margins are HUGE, so they could very easily be cheaper, but they like to protect the "designer brand" image I guess. [end rant] I will look at switching methods, etc. when I get some experience of running the layout. Have quite a few car spots, so should be interesting to operate.
I will have to agree with the switching. It is nice to run long trains, but I too prefer switching. Long trains have to come from somewhere and the local switcher that brings all the cars full of freight to the yards is where the long trains come from. On my layout, it can take a local freight 2 or more hours to complete all of its switching to the various industries along the main line. Trackage and industries were purposely built to present a switching problem. I can run a long train around the layout if I want using hidden staging tracks, but I very seldom do that. After switching, cars are taken to one of two yards, where an outbounf freight train is made up and that train will move "off stage" onto hidden tracks. That train can reappear bringing inbound freight into the yard for the local switcher to handle. Being that I am a lone operator, I can keep myself busy for hours.
I switch with two train one for boxcars, gondolas and the other for tank and grain cars, both can take over an hour to switch based on the car list. Next project is to assemble the foot processing plant then the corn silos
Sounds like fun. I love the transfer caboose. How do you like the switching layout compared to your old running one? It seems to me that "testing" the layout is very important, I would make time for a lot of "testing".
Yes I am really enjoying the new operating style. Using a switch list and having purpose makes operations interesting. I think the secret is having multiple industries with different loads, each session takes approx an hour. I am utilising two trains, one switches boxcars, reefers and gondolas with the second train switching grain and tanker cars. I have two interchange roads, one to the Mopac and one to the west transfer, when a car is left on either interchange they are removed off the layout. The switch list then has cars arrive to either interchange for switching to the industries so my whole fleet gets used.
Believe it or not, Geekster, that's a road caboose. MP had some of these doghouse-on-a-flatcar crummies built in the mid-to-late 1970s. However, it does make a good stand-in for a transfer caboose (and something tells me the MP guys who rode these in real life would rather they were strictly in transfer service). I'm with ya on the testing stage thing- or as David Barrow would say, "Scenery? We don't need no steenkeeng scenery!"
Scenery on this type of layout=dirt+a few weeds+a little industrial junk+some spilled grain=simple+looks great.
This evening i completed painting and assembling this structure which will be Ciccone food processing plant, Still need to install roof
The hard part in industrial scenery is printing off hundreds of fast food wrappers to leave blowing around on the ground and stuck against fences.
very true Geeky, the real challenge will be adding lot of detail to a very sparse scene, chain wire fencing, litter, and trying to capture the real industrial scene
Where factories are concerned, the track side is the back side. Even a well kept and operated factory will have a lot of "stuff" around- usually where it's not visible from the street. Castoff machine tools and other things usually thought of as junk aren't as common as they used to be, but racks, pallets, wire baskets, steel tubs and things of that sort are often stored outside where they don't take up floor space in the plant but are still accessible by forklift. All that stuff makes for a rich and interesting landscape.
Well I am starting to think about painting the track in the near future, whats the best way and best product to use? I was thinking spray can rather than air brushing due to paint availability. Do you paint the rails separately then the ties or both the same colour? what are your thoughts?
