Does anyone have any examples, layout plans or even prototype info in intermodal operation & auto industry? In N or HO.
I have an existing 4X3 N scale bashing layout, bit of everything plus a 4X1.5 staging/sotrage/terminal yard. However, after impulsive purchasing decisions, I think I have a distinctive timeline break of 70’s and 90’s. The modern stuff are mostly trailer/container and auto rack unit trains with 3 or 4 lashups of modern locos.
So I thought I might build a second layout just for the modern stuff plus so I can put my Amtrak stuff on it too since I will be needing broad curves anyway.
The thing is, it’s always so hard to model these long unit trains. I have a model airport that I can demolish and I can reclaim about 7X5 of space plus walls the around my apartment.
Any input would be great because I am realy get a bit sick and tired of the current bashing layout. Not only it’s boring but also unreliable in operation but I think I spend more time trying to try to make it work then just having fun with it and I have way too many rolling stock in comparison to the track length.
So, I am hoping to have a mainline, a terminal for both containers/auto and passenger but not sure if I should try to connect the 2 layout since they will be in 2 different rooms (one in my study and one is main lounge about 10’ apart with a doorway and a hallway).
Unfortunately what you are considering are the modern day equivalents of steel mills occupying vast amounts of real estate. Entire ports are dedicated to intermodal and auto plants can be over a mile long (like hot strip mills). The only suggestion I would have is to consider doing some research into the Detroit Toledo and Ironton railroad which serviced much of Ford in Detroit. Pictures will give you an idea of cars and engines through the years and hopefully have some of the industries in the background for ideas. Beyond that I can’t help you.
I am working on an intermodal facility. I don’t have pictures yet but should be posting some this weekend (depending upon progress). It’s my own creation but I am adding a couple of container cranes.
Yes, to model entire dock would be crazy but I saw some small yards that they just park a few auto racks to load and unload cars…it looks almost just like a carpark in K-Mart or something except with some tracks…
I am thinking perhaps a small terminal or part of a terminal area and then the rest just model say part of the Cahone (sorry forgot how to spell) Pass where the BNSF and UP mainline pass through regularly with container unit trains and mus pass to go from northeast states to LA on the BNSF mainline. And may be throw in a small portion of he Denver Union Station or something but it may get a bit too busy or ambitious again.
Thanks for that! Otherwise I would not know where to start looking!
I was so happy when I finally finished reading the Feb issue of MR and start flipping through the March issue because the answers were right there in front of me all along! They have a special intermodal story in there. Containers are by far the most hauled freight today. It also suggested that using the Google Earth but you got to know where to look. And looks like I wasn’t doing too much wrong either because the intermodal terminal can just be a strip of concrete with a crane and some trailers/trucks and just a pile of containers in the background. I think I might give it a similar treatment for the auto yard and put them side-by-side! I think I can dress up my staging yard and as my original plan, make everything into one and Union Station on the other side for passenger trains. Because all these things gets bloody long alright!
Actually, did anyone tried to follow the mainline for the above? That place has some major railroad action going on!!! 2 huge freight yard and some heavuduty industrial place too near the river! Looks like a good prototype place to model! Practically can just pick any spot or selective compression!
About 5 years back or so, MRR ran a two part series on modeling the auto industry. I can’t recall what issues however. I do remember that they include two track plans in HO.
Yes, that is HO. The “concrete” is .060’ styrene. I wasn’t sure I wanted the concrete look but the entire concrete section is my own fabrication. I started with a 1/8" piece of hardboard. The track sits on it and that keeps the track level with the Woodland Scenics roadbed that leads into the internodal area. Here’s an end shot:
I then added a layer of .030" and then .060" styrene, but not underneath the track. I formed the two channels for the track to go into by cutting the styrene but leaving a channel for the track. The .030 and .060 brought the level up to the top of the ties. Then I added one more level of .060" which forms the top. I cut it longer so that it goes over the ties and almost flush with the rails. I then scored the top level with a utility knife to give the appearance of expansion joints. I put an edge around it of .060" x .100" styrene glued to .060" x .312" styrene. I glued it all together, primed it and then painted it with two coats of Polyscale concrete.
I am trying to determine what type of lighting to add for the loading area, if any. I use Minitronics yard lights in other areas. One thing I have to watch out for is not puting lighting in the way of the loading area so a light tower between the tracks is not practical. I also need to add track bumpers and a lot more detail parts. I am open to suggestions on track bumpers:
I’ve used a number of the Walthers bumpers but for this area I am thinking I might fabricate one out of styrene and paint it concrete color. I am also thinking about paint lines on the concrete to direct
The intermodal yard is on the site of the former PRR yard that was the main freight yard for Pittsburgh. Nearby is the (former) Westinghouse East Pittsburgh works, United States Steel Duquesne Works (site), USS National Tube Works (site) in McKeesport, and Jones & Laughlin South Side Works (site). This was rail route that led a visitor to remark that Pittsburgh was “Hell with the lid off.”
This is actual very similar in a layout plan by Ed Lynch’s ‘Milwaukee Road in Montana’ which I am planning to moderise it similar to what you done with one of the yards in that layout except I think originally where you had the intermodal terminal, the original plan had the engine house. So I am planning to do is sort of replicate that layout plan but with modern industries and equipment and in that yard, I will have the intermodal terminal where you have the tracks and the engine house and then where you have the container terminal, I will add like a auto rack unloading area…park a couple of multi-level modern auto rack and park a few new cars etc to model unloading or loading and so forth…
I was going to completely replicate the version set out by Kato using the Unitrack, but then I saw the DVD on Woodland Scenic’s sub-terrain material and not sure if I should just just Unitrack or go with Flex-Tracks for the more realistic look…WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK? I REALLY WANT TO GET THIS DONE QUICKLY because I am really sick and tired of my old layout, after adding the yard in my old one, there is a level difference and I am trying to fix it by raising the old portion with multiple layers of trackbeds and then I didn’t glue the tracks because I anticipate a move in about 6-12 months so I am paying for it now because everytime I bumped it accidentally with my chair, the whole thing moves and now I got piers half hanging out the layout and affecting relibility…and I don’t know why but I got more engines and rolling stock to cover the entire track length may be 2-3 times over…so I am desperately needing a second larger layout for modern stuff…
[quote user=“jbinkley60”]
Yes, that is HO. The “concrete” is .060’ styrene. I wasn’t sure I wanted the concrete look
I do not remember the book I read it in, but there is a statement to the effect that ‘a long train’ is anything too long to fit in the scene. If your track goes around a corner or behind a big building you get a scenic endpoint. So you could place scenery every two feet or so and have only to make trains that are 3+ feet long (not difficult with modern carlengths).
In more open scenery, ‘a long train’ is too long to focus on both ends at once. This works out to about 15 40-ft cars in HO scale; if N scale is half as long then 15 89-ft piggyback spines or maybe 25 container wells (5 articulated well cars?).
Model Railroader’s Guide to Industries By the Tracks has a section on the automobile industry which may help you out. Mega Motors will be wanting LOTS of hi-cube cars full of auto parts coming in, as well as PLENTY of autoracks going out.
If you are clever and have good skills with a backdrop, you could have the empty autoracks delivered to an indoor loading site at Mega Motors and pushed in the door; the track extends into the building, through the backdrop, and out next to a car dealership. The railroad can now pick up the enpty autoracks from Smithson New Cars and return them to Mega Motors to be ‘refilled’. A parallel spur coming from another building at Mega Motors spits out the loaded autoracks that go to Smithson … where they are pushed behind the office building (and through the backdrop) … so you get two-way traffic that you never have to actually push little automobiles all the way in/out of those long cars.
Re: connecting the two layouts - I think it would be fun once in a while to have a ‘ghost train’ pass through the other layout, assuming clearances are not a problem. Imagine your adult friends’ faces when they see a Penn Central locomotive (and caboose) passing by Smithson New Cars. Conversely, CSX delivering Ford Pintos would be a good Trackside Photo for the Hallow
I have seen a few examples of layouts in Model Railroader which use some kind of hiden storage. Why not have two groups of trains “old” and “new” so that you can switch between modern rail and older rail. Your scenery would have to be generic, but how much do hills, rivers and buildings change over time.
There are a couple of examples that I’m familiar with.
Check out Google Earth or similar for a look at Naperville, Illinois on the BNSF Racetrack. A few miles west of the station used to be a Y-arrangement that led south from the mainline to an auto unloading facility. Just 2 or 3 stub ended tracks inside a large fenced area. That was closed and tracks removed within the past few years.
The other possibility is the NORTH side of Clyde Yard in Cicero, Illinois, also on the BNSF. Clyde is huge, but you could do some selective compression of the north side, which is much smaller than the south side of Clyde. Just a mess of trailers and a couple of loaders run over some through tracks.
I have no knowledge of ports or auto manufacturers
Just a point of interest, if you look closely at this view, you’ll see the former turntable pit and 360 degree radial tracks surrounding it. Would make for an interesting modeling detail. Pitcairn used to be one big yard, and if I recall, prior to the opening of Sam Rea Shops it was the primary PRR freght car shop.
