Autorack Facility

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello All,

I have an 8 foot long by 3 foot wide space that I would like to fit a modern autorack facility. Does anyone have ideas or pics on what they have done? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Nad

2

One of the nicest facilities (incl yard) that I have seen was done by the Dry Hill club (they have a modular layout @ the Sprnigfield train show). Do a Google on the model railclub and sort through some of the pictures.

If you’re looking for buildings, etc you may be SOL. I had to search far and wide for Walthers Cornerstone Auto Distribution buildings, including the ramps that offload the cars. They come up every now and again on Ebay. I would assume this would be a great seller - not sure why Walthers has not re-released this…

3

A couple of prototypes I’ve seen would be easy to model. A modern metal office building, I’m guessing to house the staff to complete paperwork, arrange delivery, the folks unloading the cars and maybe the waiting truck drivers. An portable offloading ramp or two and lots of fencing to protect the new vehicles. I’ve seen the tracks, still on ballast, ran right up to the asphalt/concrete where the ramps are and I’ve also the tracks ran in the asphalt/concrete. And you’ll need lots of lights for security.

EDIT: Looks like part of the building has inspection bays

Too bad the Walthers unloading ramps and the auto carriers (trucks) are out of production. But as someone said, you can still find them occasionally on the auction sites.

Here are some overheads of Denver facility

http://maps.google.com/maps?gbv=2&hl=en&q=autorack+facility&ie=UTF8&sll=39.876925,-104.890187&sspn=0.002976,0.004812&filter=0&rq=1&ev=zi&radius=0.13&hq=autorack+facility&hnear=&ll=39.876867,-104.889543&spn=0.002976,0.004812&t=h&z=18

4

One thing I would do is to go to the railroad websites (BNSF, UP, CSX, etc.) and look up the facilities. They may be under automobiles or transloading. After you get an address go to Google Earth and look at the aerial photographs and see what they have. What I did for my autorack facility was to put it at the edge of my layout. That way I do not have to worry about modeling the ramps.

5

Silver Bow, MT has to have one of the smallest auto ramps.

6

NS had one in Venice IL. that was very small , it had 4 short tracks that each held 5 autoracks , there were 4 permanent ramps , a small wooden building and several old trailers used as offices and storage , there was enough parking for maybe 60 pick up trucks , and a guard shack . The whole facility was fenced and surronded by a deep ditch , and it sat next to the NS main as well as CSX , and KCS . It always seemed like it was a compressed model of a prototype .

7

Sorry for the dumb question, but what era did we start seeing Autorack Facilities?

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Multi-auto racks came into common use in the late 1950’s, so it stands to reason that facilities would have been around at least since then. Prior to the modern racks, autos were shipped in boxcars, usually two to a car, sometimes more. One notable exception was the “vertipack” that was designed to ship Chevy Vegas back in the 70’s. These allowed cars to move while standing on their noses, more or less hanging from the rack rather than riding on top of it. This didn’t work out so well, as various vehicle fluids ended up where it wasn’t supposed to be, and unloading without damage proved to be difficult.

There was a medium sized transloading facility on the N&W in Hagerstown that was used by Chrysler. It closed in the late 70’s, but I remember seeing the moveable ramps and signage in the yard into the mid 1980’s.

Here’s a good compact design in Jessup, Maryland on CSX (former B&O)

Lee

9

I suspect that’s a dealer’s distribution point.The cars are reloaded at a “mixing pool” and then ship to smaller “dealer” distribution points where they are loaded onto auto transports.

Since a regular mixing pool covers several acres IMHO a smaller distribution point would be the best one to model.

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Another (large) example: New Boston, MI, served by CSX

11

Hey guys, don’t forget too, that autorack fac. can be treated like grain silos, you don’t have to see
a) all of the parking
b)almost any parking at all

If he delegates 4 ft to autoracks, a foot or to for the ramps aand office, or tuck the office space in the back where the switch ladder is smallest, laid a service road out, set up a fence, and parked a few cars at the far end f the 8ft limit, and if needbem fence a curve, head the parking lot/service road to the layout edge, or the wall, you get the allusion of something that might be larger than we see.

There’s a neat litle layout design Kalmbach did recently in a layout guide for a compact autorack, let me see if I can find it.

(EDIT: I think it’s the “6 railroads you can model” supplament that came out, which I don’t have handy at the moment. It was towards the back.)

Also, Walthers seems to be working back through their industry sets, so you might twiddle your thumbs and see if they re-release the auto stuff

EDIT: FOund this: http://www.railroad.net/articles/columns/alongtheline/njdiv2/media/snell-doremus.jpg

EDIT2: I was havogn some fun with RTS

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While not an autorack as we know it, specific design box cars were used in the 30s to ship autos 2 at time.