I guess we really don’t know how you plan to use this facility. Will this be a static model with well cars and containers more or less permanently in place, or do you plan to switch the cars in and use the five-finger crane to load and unload?
You may also want to consider this in your design and choice of equipment.
When Heljan first released their model, they had a video showing operations using animated roads vehicles. It was overkill for a model railroad, but pretty nice as a sales video.
Just to go out on a limb with an oddity, the operating vintage Cox “Docksider Crane” (in production via Lima recently) crane spans 2 tracks nicely between the supports.
It’s also known as a “Gantry crane”. Seen here:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/coxtrainsresource/id9.html
However, it is not prototypical for a container yard, being more of a vintage shipyard crane. It also extends a track or two in width off each side.
NOS examples still pop up frequently on ebay and train shows for fairly cheap money. I acquired one for $25 unassembled in the box. I plan on having a concrete pad on my layout where it can be placed for my son to play with, but easily removed -and replaced with a non-operating scale model when I want a bit more prototypicity.
Thanks guys, you convinced me that i don’t have to get too complicted with my crane selection. I chose the Walthers Mi-jacks, and got 2 new ones in the mail yesterday (in addition to my two used ones that I may use in a kit-bash effort).
I am going to have a double track under mine,…
with a center truck lane,…like this…
