I am new to layout construction and i am trying to build a intermodal layout, seeing as that is the main comodity out of the Port of Los Angeles. And i need some serious help in understanding how the intermodal yards work … please help me i’ve been tring to find anwsers since i started in this hobby 5 years ago at the young age of 17… please help for my sanity (^.^)
My best advice would be to drive by one if there is one in your area and take pictures (from off the property at first). Go into the office and introduce yourself to the manager and set up an appointment to meet with him/her to see about a tour of the facility. My major in college was photography, and that’s how I used to gain access to facilities.
thanks my only problem with that is the closest intermodal yard is the Port of Los Angeles at Long Beach and well since 9-11 People have not been so nice over there. Someone was harased by the police over there for taking pictures aalmost arrested to.
Not sure exactly what you are looking for - how such a yard works? Ships bring in containers from overseas, they are loaded onto railcars which are assembled into trains and transported across the country. Could you be more specific?
Bob Boudreau
the main thing i’m having problems with is the sorting and the stacking as well as the transfer equipment the cranes and things, all i now is the basic mi-jack that stradles the rails from there i’m lost
oh and how high the stacks usually go sorry about the double post
I would guess the stacks go as high as the dockside unloading crane [safely] allows.
Here’s a few links to photos of container cranes:
http://www-us.flickr.com/photos/gracedbygod/151701076/in/pool-sors/
http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/TRB1789.php
You’ll need to scroll down to see the aerial pics of container docks on this one (4th thru 6th images):
http://photohouston.com/port-of-houston-photos/cargo-shipping-oil-tanker-pictures.html
A big help could be this book:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/400-12190
I don’t have this particular book, but the books like this from Kalmbach have always been great references. Although it’s sold out at Walthers, see if your local hobby shop has a copy. If not, try scanning Ebay. Many times these books will show up there.
You don’t need to know the sorting and stacking for a model… and if you start asking questions like that you are likely to get looked at seriously by any container company’s security people… who may pass you on to the FBI and Homeland Security.
For cars we “need” to know what’s going where so that we can swicth our yards, industries and spurs but that’s all. For intermodal the containers ride the flats and well cars from facility to facility the same way as they ride around anonymously on trucks… and that’s it.
As far as I know no-one has ever successfully attempted to model a working intermodal yard. It would be difficult nd operation would be really boring… stop a train and start lifting and stacking containers. You’d have to really be into checking numbers and paperwork to find that interesting. (You’d have to renumber most of the containers you could buy as they come with very few numbers - and they are small).
The cranes and things… you’d be looking at what you can find in the Walthers catalogue or on E BAy. They have done a straddle lift and a huge forklift that I can recall… quick check confirms that… I think that Kibri do some sort of bigger straddle crane. So unless you build your own you will need to keep your stack height to 2 or 3 containers. Even then you will very soon end up needing a heck of a lot of containers at $4.98 each [:O]
If you really want to go intermodal you really need to look for the book quoted … and get where you can safely and legally watch a yard… I think you’ll find that it’s like watching paint dry.
When that’s put you off that idea take a look around at some of the ideas in this forum and various
Actually, I remember Robert Smaus publishing an article in MR ~10 years ago modeling an ultra-compressed area of the Port of LA container operation (wish I could remember the exact issue though…[%-)])
thank you so much for all the help like I said i’m trying to make a modern free-lanced regional layout "Wolf Bay & Phoenix " a double deck layout in a 18 x 9 room and this will help me so much.
My wife works for the port of houston and she explained it to me pretty well…each ship has a container list that specifies which port a container will be unloaded from and a list of containers to pick up at that specific port…the dockworkers (ie. steveadores, longshoremen ect.) fall into two catagories…those that do the paperwork / inventory and those that do the unloading / loading)…a ship is unloaded of it’s cargo and will go directly to a container truck that will deliver the goods straight from the ship, to or from the railroad, or it can go to a warehouse where the full or empty containers will be loaded and unloaded by warehouse personnel to and from the container to or from a standard 18 wheeler type truck…once the cargo is unloaded / loaded, it is then sent to the destinations that it is designated to go to / from that port, or empty containers are loaded and go back to the ship or held over to go later to another port on an entirely different ship … in addition, the ship may request for empty containers (from an empty container yard) that will also be loaded onto the ship that will be eventually loaded at a different port the ship will travel to…it’s a lot like the railroad except the ships deal with containers instead of rolling stock on wheels… so in a nut shell a port scene should have a loading dock with cranes that move the cargo to and from a ship to railroad cars and/or to trucks that haul containers only, a warehouse, some regular 18 wheeler trucks located at the warehouse, and a couple of container yards and an empty container yard…don’t forget lots of fences, U.S. Customs federal cargo inspectors, security, and a parking lot for the cars of all the people involved…chuck
I agree this book listed above gives so much informtion. OF all the yards I have seen the citainers are about 2 to 4 high depending on the Kalmar Crane.
Modeling the rail-only part of an intermodal operation shouldn’t be too difficult, since it’s rather like a large team track. Containers are brought in on stack cars, unloaded onto container carriers (exact design varies, depending on the port) and taken off to temporary storage or dockside. Other containers are brought in on carriers, either directly from the ship being unloaded or from temporary holding (more usual, given Customs and anti-terrorist inspection requirements,) and loaded onto the recently-emptied stack cars. Transfer of containers is handled either by bridge cranes, running on rails or on rubber tires, or by lifters that look like forklifts on steroids. Full containers are always lifted by the fittings at all four upper corners. Empties are sometimes handled with a simpler forklift-type device that only locks onto the fittings on the near side of the container.
Unless you have a LOT of space, keep the dock scene on the backdrop (or ignore it altogether and tell visitors that it’s in the unmodeled space behind them.) In HO, one modern container ship, two cranes and associated paved surface would eat up all of a one-car garage, and the only rails in sight would be the ones the cranes move on.
Chuck.
if you like intermodal you might want to try including a truck transfer area. a lot of the smaller container are stacked on trailer frames and trucked around. I use to work at the intermodal facility in farnham , QC. The trian would come in. uncouple and push the cars into the three sidings. a lot of care had to be taken in the arrangement as well as distance. 1 of the 3 track was in bad shape and could only get 3 cars. the crs had to be divided as equally as possible so the shunter truck wouldnt have to back too much on a track. the distance in between the car had to be just right so as not to be dangerous. Some shipment also had priority over other. what im trying to say is this: it is(was) a simple 3 track area but it was basicly turned into a inglenook puzzle. you could easily adapt this into your intermodal layout and make for an interesting switching job. if u have questions, email me
see i knew i liked this hobby for a reason, thanks for all the help
Will
on that hill overlooking the harbor is a little park with several mounted telescopes. watch things from there where it’ll take the cops forever to find and arrest you.
Angle of Mercy,
Did you go to Centenial High School? (see the e-mail I sent you.). Since this is your first layout, you might want to start out with a smaller layout or even a few modules and dioramas to grow in your modeling skills. If you start out too big, it could possibly become overwhelming and you might loose interest.
Good luck,
Sean
yeah I agree that you need it
i was planing on building it in moduels 1 at a time before moving on, oh and right school district wrong school [:D] i went ta Thurgood Marshall right behind Compton High