I was looking at ericboons post below, and his awe inspiring layout plan. I noticed on the east end of the layout, there is a single dead end spur that serves three seperate industries. I assume this is based on the prototype, as Erics layout is so well thought out. My question is in regards to operations on a single dead end spur that serves three seperate customers, how’d they do that? It seems like a huge pain having to move one customers cars, to get to the other, and so on. Am I missing something?
Thats exactly how it’s done, and it is a switching puzzle for sure. Thats why one might want to include it on their layout. More switching action with no extra trackage. More bang for the buck so to speak.
Most of these situations had a regular service time window. The customers knew they had to have their dockplates up by a certain time of day to allow switching. If they weren’t finished loading or unloading their car they notified the agent or the switcher crew to re-spot it, That way any customers behind them could be switched in or out. It was up to the customer to notify the freight agent if they needed a car pulled out or an empty spotted for loading.
During the late 1940’s and into the 1950’s on a Northern Pacific branch line where I lived, one dead end spur had an oil company, coal sheds a scrap yard, a lumber yard that also received sand and gravel for concrete mixing besides lumber, and an elevator, so switching was interesting, so it was / is done in the prototype
Interesting you should bring up this topic: currently I am planning to build an industrial park layout based closely on a nearby one that essentially no longer exists. Almost every spur is a dead-end with 3-5 customers, if not more. Should be fun switching action! [:)]
Several industries (more than two on a double-ended spur or a single industry on a sing-ended spur) would be somewhat rare. If there was substantial traffic, at least one of those industires had made poor business decisions, or their unexpected business success should result in revised track arrangements…
To add even more interest to the swiching puzzle, double end the siding from the short lead. A few of the industrial areas on the club layout did just that. I always enjoyed running the local peddeler during operations.
Bob K.
Update: it looks like it isn’t abandoned… sort of. There’s one industry left, and I got word that just last week they did some switching. It looks like it too from the shiny rails, crushed plants, oil drippings, etc.
Just wondering about the original topic again: When you say dead-end spur, are there passing tracks or something similar? I reviewed the industrial park layout I’m working on and it looks like there were never more than two industries on one track unless it had some sort of runaround.
