As mentioned in the other forums, I’m returning to model railroading and was thinking of an HO shelf switching layout in the Modern Era. Any previous layouts were steam/transition era.
Now, either I’ve gotten more exacting or the modern industrial world makes my plan impossible. It must be shear size of business these days but I’m having a hard time putting realistic looking businesses into the track plan. Here are some ideas/problems I’ve had
I thought an Ethanol Processing plant would be interesting especially with the Walthers line currently available. Even assuming I model the backside (trackside?) of the business and forgo the fermentation tanks that can be off board, I was looking at a 12" x 40" footprint.
Then you have an intermodal station. At one time, this would be a ramp and the end of a single spur; but, now you’re talking having a crane, concrete pads, and containers stacked 4x4. Minimum space here was 10"x24"
The shelf layout really has only one backside so not every business can be backdrop modelled. Are there any resources for modelling modern indutries in smaller spaces or will my industrial layout be forced to N gauge with 60% open space?
You don´t state how much space you have actually available, but yes, it is true that modern businesses cover a lot of real estate, if you intend to model them completely.
Unless you venture into N scale, the only answer is selective compression. If you want to have an ethanol plant on your layout, selct those “signature” elements out of it to represent the plant - this saves a lot of space.
I am modeling an Ethanol plant and an intermodal yard. I can’t fit the entire ethanol series buildings, so I selected the ones that I thought were important. Which was the loading/unloading sheds, tank loading, processing center, and energy center.
And my intermodal yard is 2 tracks and about 6’ long. But you can use just one track. And have the crane. But the crane I have Mi-Jack, is wide enough for two tracks.
One of the masters of modern layouts is Lance Mindheim. He has published several books you might want to sample.
Also…could you reduce the 40" length of the Ethanol plant by modeling only a corner of the main building, instead of the entire backside?
Options for other industries:
A propane dealership really just needs a small office building and a few storage tanks. Same with an oil distributor. I can think of an example of each near where I live that receive 3-4 car cuts every few days. Neither would take much space.
A rural feed mill or fertilizer dealer generally require only short cuts of cars and don’t take up much footprint.
A cement distributor, like the Walthers Medusa Cement, has a small footprint but provides some veritcality.
A lumber dealer/supplier may receive a couple of cars a week. Only a small portion needs to be modeled to make it effective looking.
Generally, if you are modeling a PRODUCTION facility, yes, they are large and require lots of space to model a good portion of the building(s). But a DESTINATION for cars provides more opportunities for smaller businesses, therefore requiring a smaller building and shorter spur.
Ethanol plants and intermodel facilities are large and are also synonymous with unit trains. Everything about those industries tend to be larger than average.
I think this is the time when the backdrop is taking a much more important role in modelling than it used to. People are using frontage shells, partial/kitbashed structures placed nearer the back wall and backdrop, and then the backdrop does the rest of the work completing the illusion of a wider expanse.
In other words, you need something close to a photo, or a photo, showing the complex from a certain angle that will work when viewed from eye-height, or from a lower camera lens angle if that is going to be more important. Your track plan would be part of that, but it would have to fit into the illusion. In that sense, it only needs to be a portion of the real footprint.
My Ethanol Plant was half of the Corn Storage & Unloading Shed with half of the storage tank then the loading racks. I could also fit in the storage silo and elevator on the other side of the unloading shed. The rest of the plant would be imagined to be behind this.
The start of my plan was the Altas Southside Connecting http://www.atlasrr.com/code100web/pages/10026.htmstreteched to be 2’ wide and 14’ long or so. I used to love that layout and was going to have the mainline be the third track up on the right and then extending the mainline off a branch on the bottom past the turntable. I had wanted the intermodal track to be the dead end one in the middle but space may require that I take over the two track “yard” on the right. Not sure where to keep the cars while switching then.
The idea of a switching layout is to spot 1 or 2 cars at a time at numerous different places. The industries you’ve been looking at are “sources” for rail traffic, and you should probably be thinking about destinations instead. A decent-sized chemical plant might take only 1 or 2 ethanol tankers in a session, and it could be modeled with a short siding and a thin background flat. The same plant could take hoppers of plastic pellets, either shipping or receiving. A furniture factory would take in wood, either in a boxcar or a flat, and ship out product in boxcars, but again, only one or two at a time. A scrapyard with a track for gondolas fits any era, steam to modern.
Instead of moving forward in time, move back. Move back to the 19th Century, or Turn of the Century. Practically everything moved by rail. Team tracks were vital parts of every town, in addition to the rail service (now done by truck) for all the town infrastructure providers. By this, I mean the saw mill, the feed mill, ice storage, coal and/or firewood, kerosene and oil (generally in small cans back then). Large factories did exist - and had extensive rail yards and tracks to service the plant. LCL and rail epxress freight were big businesses. Bottom line is lots of choices, both large and small.
Cars and locomotives take up half the length, and carried 1/4 as much freight, so a lot more car movements were needed.
It will take more model building than modeling more modern eras, but there are plenty of suitable kits for both rolling stock and structures. The hard point will be locating suitable locomotives - but you only need a couple for a shelf layout. Anything from Bachmann’s re-run 0-6-0T to a 2-8-0 with footboards to even some 4-4-0 conversions.
Photos for inspiration are available with just a minimum of searching at both Shorpy and the Library of Congress. Many historical societies and museums have lots of additional research information.
There are still lots of interesting smaller industries out there, which will probably get you far more interesting equipment than the big operations you’ve described.
Ditch the intermodal facility, containers and trailer on flatcar are handled in large facilities and mostly only handled by priority trains that lift that traffic right from the intermodal yard. Not something you’d ever see handled in a local industrial area like you would model on a shelf layout.
Also, ethanol plants are all the fad these days, but are large facilities that handle trainloads of traffic. Again, probably too big to be appropriate for your shelf layout, and at any rate they’re not that common. Not every city and industrial park has one.
Some ideas based on industries local to me:
Cardboard box factory (has a single spur along the building with 5-6 doors, receives boxcars of boxboard or craft paper, finished product out the other side by truck) Most of these cars are CSX.
Metal recycler (ships shredded steel scrap acquired from local manufacturing industries in gondolas (those manufucturing companies are otherwise truck only))
A fiberglass company receives some sort of powdered clay or resin in covered hoppers, 1 or 2 at a time. They lease several pressure-flow hoppers with ACFX and SHPX markings. All other shipping by truck.
Plastic pellet rail to truck transfer (just a bunch of tracks with driveways beside them)
Grain transloader/distributor - elevator that receives covered hoppers. Has a few spurs into the facility plus storage tracks out back. You can scale this up or down however you like.
Chemicals - a couple of small chemical companys that ship and receive tank cars. One went out of business and the facility is now owned by a transloading company to transfer liquids from rail to truck
Lumber - lumber distributor that receives dimensional lumber (2x4s etc) in centrebeam flatcars and 60’ double door boxcars
Everything is bigger on the modern railroads. I’ve had that same give & take, before, as mentioned above, turning back time to the 50s. Smaller cars, locomotives, industries, etc. Everything just “fits” better in the space I have. The overall visual impression works much better and even small businesses look more appropriate next to the trains. I could have gone to N scale ( and in fact did model N scale modern for about 15 years), but as many say, time and eyeballs work in favor of the larger size.
The modern era has enormous possibilities and is well suited to switching layouts. One huge advantage is you can actually see your modeling subject in operation. With today’s technology research is also much easier through vehicles like Bing Maps Birdseye, Google Streetview etc. As the other forum members already advised, the key is industry selection.
I did an article in Model Railroad Hobbyist ( http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/) earlier the year which may give you some ideas. I think it was the June issue. I have two modern switching layouts on my website which also may give you some ideas.
Things are taking shape. I would love a junkyard for the top down junk pile modeling but the modern equivalent is more of a transfer station. I guess I’d need to see more photos of modern material reclaimation centers.
I moved the Intermodal station and I’m happy (for now) since the stacked containers can form the backdrop for an imagined yard full of containers off board.
Atlas track plans tend to cram as much track into a given space as possible. Maybe you’ll need to modify it a bit more to accomplish the same goal with less track, which would give you more space for buildings. Can’t really tell by your post, but you probably won’t want to keep the turntable. Modern layouts and diesel locomotives don’t need turntables.
You are picking BIG modern industries so you need a BIG footprint. If I picked BIG 1900 era industries I would need a BIG 1900 footprint.
Pick industries with a smaller footprint that deal in carload rather than trainload quantities. For a shelf switching layout, an intermodal terminal is a horrible choice. Its big and there is minimal switching.
An oil dealer, beer distributor, scrap yard/recycling center, paper product warehouse, food processor, printing plant, injection molder, appliance maker, auto part maker, steel products distributor , boiler works, contract car shop all have smaller footprints, can use a variety of cars and require more single car switching.
