Operation on a Modified Rice Harbour layout

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Hi Guys, I’m new to posting in these forums but have been surfing them for a year or so now. I’ll give you some back story first followed by my question. I apologize in advance for the long post.

I had a small layout as a child, then when I was going through college I had a very poorly build layout in my parents basement. My girlfriend and I bought a house a couple months ago and within days of moving in I began planning my layout. I took inspiration from the Rice Harbour layout track plan as I had seen it in the Magazines and watched a few videos posted here on the site. I had room for a 4x8 with a 2x6 add-on available, so I knew I had to take advantage of the small space. I ended up modifying the Rice Harbour layout and went to work.

My question is: I’ve never really had a layout with realistic operations or spurs, mainly just loops or unfinished siding. Could anyone give me some beginner tips to set me on the right track to realisitc operations? I like the feel of the layout and wouldn’t want to make any major changes but could always tweak things if needed.

I have been posting my progress on my youtube channel where I give all details of what I’m doing and I’ve been trying to post How-To videos on my way of getting things done. That should give you some insight on what I’ve got to work with. As of the last video I was gluing down some roadbed, but I haven’t gotten very far so I could always make any necessary changes if need be.

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips you guys can offer!

Dave

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For some reason my URL didn’t work, so here is a link to my youtube playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfoevhZmzG2rMi7WmGQ94kvXLsc3sCYIa

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Starting ops on an HO 4X8

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HI Dave

I based my own layout on layout article in 1973. The results are on my website www.xdford.digitalzones.com under “operating my layout”. If you would like, I can also send you a PDF of the original article - totally free, no cost, no obligation totally gratis… just PM me with a private email address.

I have also written a couple of articles for our club magazine particularly http://www.meltonmrc.org.au/newsletters/issue20-march13.pdf and

http://www.meltonmrc.org.au/newsletters/issue22-september13.pdf which may be of interest to you.

I admit I am not familiar with the Rice Harbor layout but will have a look anyway!

Cheers from Australia

Trevor

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Hi, Dave,

We’ve run many articles on various aspects of operation over the years, including Andy Sperandeo’s excellent ongoing column “The Operators.” But if you’re just at the stage where you’re wondering what to do with all those spurs, I’ll try to hit the high points.

The point of a railroad is to move cargos from point A to point B. Simulating this is the first step beyond simply running trains around in a circle. At its most basic level, what trains do is pick up loaded cars from industries, take them where they need to go, and drop them off. They also pick up empty cars and take them to industries for loading.

Step 1 is to look at the industrial sidings (including “universal industries” like interchanges, team tracks, and transloading points) on your layout and make a list of what those industries do. In other words, what cargos would those industries have shipped in and what they would ship out. Then figure out what kind of rail cars those cargos would travel in, and how often they’d be needed.

You don’t say what modifications you’ve made to our Rice Harbor plan, so I’ll use the spurs and sidings on our version of Rice Harbor for an example. Most importantly, there’s the car float, which is the ultimate source and destination for all cars entering and leaving the layout, and the two-track dockfront yard, which can be used as a universal industry and as a place to make up, break down, and rearrange cars.

In addition, there’s the Atlantic Shipping Co. warehouse, which can receive and ship all kinds of dry goods; the Consolidated Shipping Co., which does the same; Coastal Canneries, which receives empty refrigerated cars and boxcars of empty cans and ships out loads of canned fish; the coal dealer, which receives loads of coal but ships out only empties; the building supply, which receives boxcars and flatcars of lumber, brick, block, and building fixtures; the oil dealer, which receives oil tank cars an

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One thing I would definitely do is make the carfloat removeable, and make 2 or even 3 of them. These can function as “casettes” and serve some of the functions of staging.

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I wanted to thank everyone who posted so far, there has been a lot of great information which inspired me to do a ton of research and start looking at what changes I can make to my layout.

Thanks again everyone!