My layout has a fairly large coke works that I would like to enclose in a fence. There are a pair of sidings that diverge off the mainline to service the coke works. How should I handle the fencing around these tracks? Would there be large gates through which the trains would pass and which would be otherwise closed? This would seem to be the logical thing to do but I have never seen this on a layout or in the real world and am trying to get a feel for what it should look like. Does anyone have any examples (real or model) they could share? Thanks.
I have seen various prototype examples of what you are talking about. I have seen this for facilitieas as small as a lumber yard, and as large as Army installations such as Ft Carson (there are a couple of miles of fence along the spur leading to the yard in Ft Carson, along with gates at each grade crossing). One of my “favorites” was the track leading into the old LCRA power plant in New Braunfels, TX. There was a track that came off the MoPac mainline and it ran along the outside of the perimiter fence of the power plant. Cars would be stored there, and on that same spur, there was a switch that went into the power plant, and there was a gate right past the switch.
The type of industry that this was the most prevelant are the cement plants in the area that I am from. There would be a gate on the single track leading into the plant yard.
Ride an Amtrak from anywhere to anywhere and you will probably see the prototype you are talking about (you will also be late for what ever you were going to do). Fenced in sidings are vary common and you have it correct; the siding will be a distance from the main to accommodate the fence and the gate crossing the track will usually be perpendicular to the track so that the already long gate can have as much support as possible. I have seen this kind of gate on every size of industry and in many states of use ranging from probably scheduled for condemnation to currently accepting freight cars.
I work in the middle of the “world of refineries and plants” in the Houston area and all plants are enclosed by a fence. (Imagine that!) All trains in this area must go thru a gated fence into each of the plants and some of them must be opened for the train by a company or contract security gaurd so that each train is documented entering or leaving the plant. Some plants are so big that the trains switch 24 -7 and the gate never closes. (But still there is a gate.) There are some plants that are gated, but the siding is outside of the plant and the siding is not fenced but they still must go thru a fence entering the plant with any rolling stock. The siding is not fenced because the railroad workers carry a key to lock and unlock the switch stands. The locks are on most turnouts so intruders won’t tamper with them by setting the switch against the main railroad traffic. Walthers has a nice fence thats relatively easy to put together in their “Cornerstone” series .
Virtually every business that extends past the walls of a single building will have a fenced space. If a rail siding extends into that space, it will have a gate. 99% of the gates will be of the chain link fence variety, and will be perpendicular to the centerline of the siding.
Note that the fence itself may not be chain link. I have seen concrete block walls on the rail side. The street side can have anything the owners want to display the image of their choice - fancy wrought iron, brick, multitextured masonry or whatever (down to and including dilapidated boards.)
Back during the transition era, there was a one-pager in Model Railroader about some modeler’s design for snap-open chain link gates. The gate was held closed by friction with the adjacent fence. When nudged by a coupler, asymmetric hinges would cause it to swing clear of the track. I can see this as an interesting, “once per operating session,” gadget.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with nary a chain link fence in sight)
The project illustrated section from the May 2006 issue of MR is about these gates. To open and close them, there is a knob on the fascia that conects to the gate through a seiries of wire levers. This way the gates can be opened for switching the industry and closed when the job is done.