Well after modelling Florida and the Seaboard Air Line for the past 4 years or so I think its time for a change. A new change of scenery, location, and railroad. Have taken a liking to grain elavators and the grain hoppers as I have written about in my other posts.Ive purchased the both Walthers wood and metal grain alevators along with the Concrete ADM elevator and wet/dry bins. Also I started collecting Union Pacific locomotives. (2 SD40’s, 1 SD40-2, and 1 Dash 8-40B) . Well with this said I could really use some help with a layout plan. Layouts that come to mind that really attract me is: SP Dalsa Cutoff, INRAIL. Those layouts give the feel that I am looking for but are to large. I like the small town with a train running through it and going somewhere else feel.The layout will be in a 11x10 room with no windows and a shelf all the way around all 4 walls thats 2’ wide.The duck under works out fine for me. Things I have learned from my past layouts is that hidden staging isnt a good idea. Most of the time the layout is operated by myself. The Wingate plan came to mind, but I would really like to have multple towns and one of the large concrete elevators on the layout. Being based on grain operatons and a new railroad I am open to any location to base the layout. Also I am open to widening the shelves some. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
If you want more inspiration type INrail Tom Johnson and you will get a great bunch of photos the INRail layout. Also in the midwest a lot of elevators and surrounding industries are on double ended spurs very close to the mainline. try reshearching granger railroads on google maps. Sorry I didn’t really plan my MINRail (minnesota rail corp) layout (4x8) so I can’t help you with a track plan. But i did use an L.D.E of Tom Johnsons town of Bruce lake/ Kewwana for one of my other town.
Good luck and i’ll have to say in my opinion nothing beats small towns, grain elevators, covered hoppers and other small town industries
Welcome.
You haven’t really explained the type of operations you want to have, unit grain trains passing through the layout or smaller trains switching the elevators? My first thought is that you have large-ish locomotives, want two towns, and don’t want hidden staging (which suggests you want open staging). I don’t think you have enough space for staging unit grain trains coming and going and two distinct towns. If you want this type of layout, then you’ll want broad curves which will tend to eat into the spacing of the towns.
Some ideas:
You might consider modeling one town, which will allow things to spread out more and use your big locomotives and long trains better. A layout that you might also consider looking at is is Ron Wilhelm’s L&N Mascoutah, IL layout found on page 48 of the September 2010 MR.
If you want more local switching, ideally you’ll want GP38’s or 40’s, although SD’s can be used I guess. You could devote one wall to open staging that could double as an interchange yard and one town. Take some of the cars from interchange and switch an elevator right there. Have the other town with two more elevators located on the 4th wall with another elevator located somewhere along the way. Have some of the elevators require switching on different days so the trains and ops vary.
I like your theme. It can be very realistic and fun, yet the benchwork and trackwork can be quite simple.
I really favor the short local with hoppers and tank cars going about its duties switching the local industries. I havent really got any interest in large unit train. I wouldnt mind having a couple run through trains just to add variety but I really dont know what to do with these after they pass through.
This HO Great Northern grain-elevator-themed layout is much larger than your space, but may give you a few ideas.
It is freelanced, but the town arrangements are inspired by typical practices.
For shorter trains just switch a few industries a day. Like Today so and so elevator #1 gets 2 cars, tomorrow it gets nothing. thats pretty much how my layout works
Looks like you and I think alike here.
Glad to see you want the short local. Your space suits that type of layout better. Again, I would just have the interchange/yard along one wall, and the other town on an adjacent wall, and let the train travel along the other two walls to give it a run, then make “the turn” and head back. As Gabe confirmed, different customers can be switched different days.
You might be able to sneak in a thin peninsula for an industry spur jutting into the open space in the center. Eleven feet of width gives you enough room to have three 24 inch deep tables with 30 inch aisles in between. I like an open middle area but you might not mind the 30 inch aisles.
Linked is Byron Henderson’s (aka Cuyama here on the forum) website showing Andy Sperandeo’s classic San Jacinto District plan.
http://mrsvc.blogspot.com/2008/10/sperandeos-san-jacinto-dist.html
I would probably stop collecting six axle diesels and start thinking about what four axle diesels I liked. But whatever looks best for you is what’s important…
hi Jeremy,
i agree with Doughless,
however, you did not mention if your layout is N or HO. Most posters assume HO, then your space is rather small. Short trains from the 50’s might be a better choice, the 50 feet or shorter equipment of those days is more in line with the possible radii.
It seems possible to add some visible staging on the small peninsula. While keeping the modeled passing sidings rather long, like on the HOG, by going around the corner.
I always loved the SJD by Andy Sperandeo, the footprint is great for the space you have. A lift out before the entrance would create a continuous run.
Smile
Paul
Sorry for not mentioning my scale. All of my stuff is HO. I agree that for my small space that shorter equipment would be more useful. If I dont use the UP units for this layout it doesnt hurt my feeling. I dont have to much invested in them (swap meet finds) so putting them up on a display shelf would be fine by me if it would mean that I could do alot more with my space using shorter cars. I still have all my freight cars from my Seaboard layout. They are all dated 1967 and earlier. A lot of fertilizer 2bay hoppers, boxcars, FGE reefers, etc… All my grain hoppers are 1967 ± a few years and if I could reuse them on a layout that would be great. With that being said, I know that Tom Johnson back dated his layout to PRR Vandalia branch but said that all the covered hoppers were replaced by grain boxcars. Is their a happy medium(time period) that I can get use out of these cars. Also what locomotive and railroad should I look at for a that time period, and that would have been in use doing grain local runs?
As for the layout I like the open staging on the SJD and the use of the peninsula to seperate towns and extend the run time. Also I like how it isnt all straight line track. I also have been looking at the point to point grain layout in Lance Mindheim layout book. Has anyone any opinion on this layout?
I would suggest that rather than a couple smaller towns you pick a larger city, such as Fremont, NE, Omaha, Council Bluffs, Wichita, Ft. Worth, or a destination location such as Galveston, Beaumont, Portland, etc.
They will have a mix of elevator sizes including several larger elevators in close proximity and offer a lot more activity.
There are much better railroad historians on this forum than I, but broadly speaking, I think 1970’s was sort of a transition period for rolling stock. More modern stuff was being introduced while the older stuff was still in service. I think Tom Johnson back dated to the 50’s IIRC, before he went more modern again. I don’t think you need to worry about grain boxcars, but there may still have been some used in the 70’s. That I don’t know.
As for grain hauling railroads, UP doesn’t really come to mind as much as CNW, BN, MOPAC, MILW. If you went with a
Some spots in canada still use 40 ft boxcars due to very light track. Also tom Johnson got tired of the pennsy and returened to INRail. But i think it would weird if you spotted boxcars and c/hoppers at the same time at the same elevator. A happy medium for both cars would be 1960-1980. Good luck
hi,
not sure about the layout. Lance Mindheim wrote more books, the Prairie Branch Line could be it.
Staging is done with a casette and probably by hand at the crossing with the class-1 RR.
The passing sidings seem a bit short especially in teh east-station… Anyway, a layout that is fun to build and to operate.
Paul
Its been a while from my last post. Paul, yes the Prairie Branch Line layout is the one that I was refering to. I thought about replacing Town B with the Wingate plan Tony Koester. Im still having trouble trying to find a plan that I like. On the other hand Andy’s plan has the staging and a very interesting town. I have switched gears with my railroad line. I finally found Iowa Interstate RS36, GP38-2, and C420. So the plan will be based on that line with some interchange with the UP.
Jeremy, A good source would be to get an aerial view from either Google Earth or Google Maps, the Hybrid that shows actual aerial views. I live 25 miles from Fremont, NE and Fremont is more or less a “Y” with both the BNSF and UP serving 4 to 5 grain terminals. Others are Lincoln, NE and Sioux City, IA. Have fun!
Jeremy, A good source would be to get an aerial view from either Google Earth or Google Maps, the Hybrid that shows actual aerial views. I live 25 miles from Fremont, NE and Fremont is more or less a “Y” with both the BNSF and UP serving 4 to 5 grain terminals. Others are Lincoln, NE and Sioux City, IA. Have fun!
About grain boxcars, they stopped using them in Canada in 1996. Most of the lines that they were used on were abandoned about that time.
Thank you for clearing that up
I also live about 25 miles from Fremont, NE.
It probably doesn’t matter to you but the SD40’s and B40-8’s in UP would have never seen each other. The SD40’s were retired before the SP merger and all the B40-8’s came from the SP/SSW.
If you want the lonely branch wandering through the prairie sweeping up a few grain cars here and there, the roads of the upper midwest in the pre-1980’s (Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota) can’t be beat .
If you are wanting big unit trains of covered hoppers then go for a larger midwest city (Minneapolis, Des Moines, Omaha/Council Bluffs, Kansas City, Wichita, Ft Worth, Topeka, Lincoln) in the post 1980’s. That or a major port such as Seattle, Tacoma, Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, New Orleans.