I am designing a modern day HO industrial layout. The layout is inspired by my experiences railroading in Seattle. It will feature Seattle industries that I am familiar with and have worked at as a railroad engineer. What I want. Lots of Switching Modern day equipment like: 70-20 Reefers because these things look awesome tagged up and weathered. Pressure Aide Hoppers. I see alot of these. Corn Syrup tank cars. Sweet. "The Hole". Cargill's Seattle Corn Syrup Transfer Facility. Tractors and Trailers. Some of the places I'd like to model are: PCC Logistics Occidental Street This is at BNSF's 2nd Ave or Occidental Yard. This place is a dead ringer for the Pikestuff Transfer Dock. It get's tons of BNSF 82' reefers. I'll probably do it with 70-20 reefers or Trinity 64' reefers. The Hole This is off of the Industrial Lead at BNSF Stacy Yard. Cargill's Corn Syrup Transfer Facility. And Maxum Petroleum. This is a great switching puzzle with lot's of spots and respots. Hard to keep track of because every car looks the same Franz Bakery This is on 5th Avenue on BNSF's 7th Avenue Lead. It's a great looking building and gets lot's of hoppers. All of these industries are in Seattle's SODO area. They are all off of different leads and served by different jobs, but all of the jobs work out of BNSF Stacy Yard. I've started with a track plan. The plan includes the industries I mentioned plus a team track (still working on this idea). The plan also includes a small yard, because I want to have a place to take the cars to. I've oriented the plan to share as much lead and tail track as possible. Most of the leads are sufficiently long to accomodate the associated industries full compliment of cars (Except Cargill). The shelves are 20" deep on the South and East sides. 14" deep along the West side and 12" deep on the North side. The actual construction will be a combination of free standing benchwork and shelves. Track will be primarily Peco code 83 Flex and #6 Insulfrog turnouts. ME code 70 Flex and #6 DCC Turnouts. DCC control. One block. 24" minumum radius. Locos will be goats and geeps and maybe SD40-2 if it runs OK through the 24" radius turns. Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.
Tired of the Runaround I've reworked the plan to be more prototypical. "The Hole" is pretty prototypical. By adding the Seattle Pottery Supply buildings, I hope to get that stuffed inside a box feeling of the "The Hole". It's also a cool funk of buildings painted a horrible red and is also occupied by a collector of exotic cars, so every once in a while you see some fabulous cars going in and out of this junky looking complex. I've added a fictitious track to the Port of Seattle Maintenance shop, I believe I'm just reclaiming the past, as some signs indicate this track alignment once existed. PCC Logistics is pretty much a shortened mirror image. I've placed it at the end of "The Hole" where the prototype Maxum Petroleum sits. Franz Bakery is a compromise track arrangement. But I should be able to get a fairly good representation of the building this way. The name has been updated to "The Industrial Lead" which is the actual track name leading into "The Hole".
Seattle Lighting is actually one track west of the Industrial Lead on what is called the Odom Lead. It is a huge warehouse that no longer has rail service. Instead, the adjacent Odom Lead track is leased to Cargill and is used to store Corn Syrup cars. I tried to fit the Odom Lead in to the plan, but it gets too tight against the west wall. Instead of storing cars on the Odom Lead, they are stored in the yard. The prototype track arrangement is from west to east Odom Lead, Industrial Lead, Colorado Main.
The Hole Looking South From Hanford Street the Hole Runs Between Seattle Pottery Supply and Arctic refrigeration Looking North From Horton Street. Cargill is on the west side of the tracks. Seattle Pottery Supply is on the East.
Seattle Lighting Seattle Lighting Seattle Lighting from Hanford Street I love the multiple barrel roofs on this massive warehouse. The warehouse is no longer served by rail. The Odom Lead, which is adjacent to the building is leased by Cargill for car storage.
Rearranged the lead track to avoid running it through the wall in to the closet. This will make it easier to switch. It also makes the yard larger. And eliminates my 22" radius curve in favor of a 24" radius curve. I also added depth to the west side where the window sill is. This extra depth will make it easier to model the barrel roofed Seattle Lighting. I made an alternate version with the Odom Lead prototypically situated, but lost some yard functionality and size with that alignment. I decided to keep the fictitious yard version presented here.
Hi greg, a great plan anyway. Of course i would have done a few things differently. 1) I would still build a dedicated spur for Seattle Lightning. The main would then be 2" more to the centre of your space, no real issue your plan has enough width. 2) I prefer the yard as it is drawn in the second plan and would add a run-around by leading the track next to the main onto a turnout. Have fun with the build. Paul
Thanks for responding Paul. I like your idea for a dedicated spur to Seattle Lighting, it opens up the possibility to use also Seattle Lighting as a spot track. I do give up a couple inches at Franz Bakery, but I won't lose any storage space. I'm not sure why I would need a runaround. The whole layout is oriented in one direction. Like the prototype, the Industrial Lead is a spur that dead ends at Spokane Street. Thanks again for taking the time to look at the plan and post back.
Great track plan that reflects the prototype location very well (once I reviewed the research material you provided). Should be LOADS and EMPTIES of fun
Greg,A run around is a old school switching layout "must have" since it enhances "operation" -more like a puzzle then anything.. As railroaders( I'm a former brakeman) we know most industrial leads doesn't have a run around,switched in one direction and operated in either a reverse in/pull out or pull in/reverse out move.. I really like the modern ISL designs since they follow a prototypical design instead of a modified "time saver" switching puzzle design. Please keep us updated on your progress.
Very nice, prototypical design. I will follow this with interest. I'm looking at a prototype interchange (NS & Black River and Western in NJ) which actually has a runaround loop - but it is strictly not necessary. Best, Pete.
Greg thanks for sharing this, I really like where this is going . I'm looking forward to more as you go. Your SD-40 should have no problems on this layout since you won't be going at break neck speeds. My last layout and the one I am planing now are similar in nature and size. I have one recommendation for you on your plan. I would move PCC up 2-3 grids. This will give you more distance from the "The Hole". I think you will be happier in the long run making it feel more like there really is 2 industries. there will still be plenty of room to walk into the layout Steve
The Industrial Lead - Track Plan 3 Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Some great ideas. I've refined the plan to incorporate an Odom Lead Spur, a runaround (thanks Paul and Larry you've convinced me. It'd be nice to have a little extra operational opportunity) , an extra industry and moved PCC Logistics North. I've added more detail and labels to the plan. I need to get some photo's of PCC Logistics and Franz Bakery. I think I'll need 21" deep shelves on the south and east sides since I have 20" deep work bench and drawers which will slide under the layout. I would have really liked to make everything about 18" or less, but it's a pain to have to reach over a table to work the layout. I think a lot of the buildings are going to have to be scratch built, for the most part they are pretty simple structures. The only commercial building I know for sure to use is the Pikestuff Transfer Terminal for the PCC Logistics dock. Pikestuff buildings will probably also work for the truck shop. I also think the Pikestuff elevator will work for Cargill's elevator. I'd also like to know if there is an HO scale version of these N Scale Faller Industrial Silos that has brass railings. I have one for my oNeTrak module and it is really nice looking. I've found similar HO Faller Industrial Silos, but they appear to have plastic railings. I'd like to find some tanker trucks like the ones in this photo:
Greg I was thinking of something like this. Even with just 6-8 cars you will have a hard time keeping the back en of the train from being in the hole. As far as the Faller silos let me know if you find any,I haven't even been able to get to the plastic ones. Making brass railing isn't that hard if you can get the plastic tanks to put them on. Steve
Thanks for writing back Steve. Actually the area north of PCC logistics is the doorway to the room, so I'm already to the limit on that spec. As for mixing scenes that is exactly the feeling I want. The prototype "Hole" is actually two industries: Cargill and Maxum Petroleum that are literally only a few hundred feet apart. In this plan I've replaced Maxum Petroleum with PCC Logistics (which is actually on a different lead two blocks east.) Becuase I want to run something besides tank cars
Ratled - Look on http://www.ebay.de for Faller 130476 - That's where I got mine - they come with plastic railings and ladders And just a suggestion for Greg - deepen the left side of your trackplan by 3" and fit in another yard track - it will improve operations and give you a better look to the yard Jack
Hi Greg, i probably misjudged the yellow rectangle at the top in your first drawings. Thought it was an transloading facility too. You do not really need a runaround; i like to have one with one spur heading the other way. Why?........probably the right balance for me between a timesaver and a lot of modern industrial parks. IMHO the vertical yard-lead looks better then the one in your last drawings; the first plans had a more natural flow. Especially the second drawing is showing an awesome plan. Happy New Year Paul
I had ordered two sets of them from here back in the summer. Shipping was fast-less than a week. Price seemed reasonable. http://www.micromacromundo.com/faller-130476-2-industrial-silos.asp
Stupid doors. How do they know just where to put them to mess with a good track plan? Well you know what they say, let no door stand in the way of a good track plan. Thanks for the tank leads, I'm ordering a a couple now Happy New Year everyone Steve
