The question here is in regards to an industrial switching layout design. How many rail customers do you need to keep the layout interesting to switch over time? I am assuming that the layout is run with switch lists, fed from a four track fiddle yard, and there is some sort of theorem or program for generating the inbound cars’ arrival. I have not looked into any software for generating switch lists yet and would recommend any suggestions. The issue I have is keeping the layout interesting to operate while I am building it and the scenery. The current design I have has 19 places to spot cars and two of them are team tracks. The layout design has room to have a five car train leave the yard to work the customer sidings. I suspect, from what I have read, that is plenty, but I am just ignorant enough to ask. How much is enough to keep the operational interest alive for a decade or so, without repeating the same switching moves very often? As always, your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I have had a couple of small layouts and found them fun. I’ve also helped others develop small layouts and operations plans for small layouts.
You can do a lot with 19 car spots, but expecting the layout to provide a decade or more of unique operating scenarios may be expecting a lot, at least if you plan to operate often. Of course, a small layout can be easily rebuilt if it begins to feel routine.
Some of the keys are seasonality, larger industries with “sure spots”, interchange with another railroad, and cycling in fresh rolling stock. I wrote about a number of these on my web page on operating fun for small model railroad layouts.
My current small N scale switching layout moves about 14-16 cars per session.
[And still there’s no scenery!]
I used three interleaved fixed switchlists for a while, then went to car cards and waybills or handwritten switchlists, which makes it very easy to add variety. There are a number of “sure spots” such as numbered doors, the tank car rack, etc. As you mentioned, a team track allows a variety of commodities to be spotted. There’s also interchange with another railroad.
A layout I designed for a client consists of one yard module and one industry module. This is a great combination, since it allows one to sort cars in one location, then deliver them to another. These N scale T-Trak operating modules can be arranged in a couple of different ways, with or without curve modules.
They move about 20-30 cars per
I too am in the process of designing an building a switching layout. Face with the same issue of operations and how much I am creating some industries that do double duty. With some manufacturing plants I am going to say that for every two loads in of componets, one load of finished goods must be scheduled out. This way operations can be faily busy to take care of both the incoming loads for an industry as well as do planning on shipping out loads.