I have decided to build a small 6 foot long and about 15" deep shelf switching layout so I can get to do some switching while I start work on my “big” (for my house …) MTRY layout.
My main train room is still a mess of tools and materials which has to be shiftet somewhere else before the room can be prepped for layout building. In other words - I will need to finish some other house projects to create space other places before building can start on my main layout.
Anyways - I am thinking about building a small H0 shelf layout that would have trackwork something like the drawing below - this particular layout I have named “craftroom 4” (it will be built on a shelf in my wife’s craft room, and is iteration no 4 of this plan).
I am looking for some inspiration on selecting suitable industries for this layout and generating appropriate traffic for my industries.
What I want to accomplish is a somewhat Twin Cities urban/industrial feel, with industrial structures that somewhat towers over the engines and cars.
In particular, I’d like to have some industry spots where it would be appropriate to deliver and pick up covered hoppers, boxcars and tank cars. I am thinking maybe flour milling related industries ?
Perferably without having to buy any extra structures or cars. This shelf layout I’d like to do with stuff I already have at hand - to keep cost down.
Some of the structure kits I have laying around, available for building and/or kitbashing:
Full size buildings :
Walthers Open-Air Transloading building (25" long, 5 1/4" wide, about 3" tall)
Walthers Red Wing Milling Company (11" wide, 8" deep, 10" tall)
Walthers Valley Cement plant
Building 1 (silos): 9" wide
I think your design is pretty good. While reading, the first thought I had was some sort of food processing plant, where boxcars, covered hoppers, tank cars and possibly refers would be plentiful. Upon further reading, it looks like that’s what you have in mind. I think it works best if the buildings are towards the wall and the main line is up front. I presume that is the way it would face. I might also remove Industry Track A to make a little more space for a building, and extend the other siding (Industry B track 1) along the wall…or keep it the way it is. It should work.
Think about putting some structures away from the walls, and having the trains run behind them. The “urban canyons” look is interesting, and I find that my layout seems bigger because the trains are running behind and between scenic elements, playing peek-a-boo with the viewer.
Take a look at WPF for the past weekend. Tomkat-13 has some nice industrial siding work on page 2. There was also an article in MR (I think, might have been RMC) about 6 or 8 months ago about modelling some urban switching areas.
I’ve got an Arrowhead Ale kit myself (just got it last week) and I’m thinking of detailing the very shallow interior. My layout is a table, but I want to put this building right on the edge anyway. I think “slicing” it this way will be an interesting accent, regardless of which side it’s viewed from.
I concur with the suggestion of having some of the tracks run behind the buildings to create the “urban canyon”, as this can expand the apparent depth of the shelf.
Even in urban settings, there can still be a place for a “team track”, where items can be unloaded from trains to trucks. The advantage for us is that most any kind of freightcar can be handled there. With a small conveyor belt or auger, even covered hoppers can be found at such sites. A roadway and perhaps a fence is all you need, and it can then justify all sorts of rail traffic… the amount of detailing you add along the fenceline will be up to you.
You might want to consider “flipping” the layout to get the “run around” track to the front. You willbe doing a good deal of coupling and uncoupling there. Having the “run around” track at the front will eliminate the need to reach over and hence damage foreground scenery and structures.
I agree with Dog that flipping the track would be a good idea and putting the buildings against the backdrop. I’m a little slow with the inch/metric conversion, but it seems like you have a lot of track in that 15 inches. Do the buildings really fit the way you have them planned?
I liked that plan when you posted it on my thread.
You might consider a 2 foot drop-down lift out peninsula on each side of the main and lead. that way you can switch larger trains and add to your operational complexity.
I agree that the urban canyon look is cool. I am already planning a partial urban canyon effect at the end of the diagonal going down towards the lower right hand corner of the layout: between the building labelled “heritage” (furniture) and the building labelled “centennial” (mills). These buildings are both fours stories tall.
I don’t really see how I could rearrange the trackwork to get room to run behind buildings much more, and still have room to reach over to uncouple cars or a good enough view to spot cars at loading docks.
WPF ? I probably should know that abbreviation, but I am drawing a blank here. I’ll have a look through back issues of MR. Remember anything else about the article ?
Mmm - that is a thought - putting stuff at the very outer edge of the layout. That would obv
WPF is Weekend Photo Fun. Someone starts one up every Friday (times may vary, but usually around noon or 2PM EST) and we all show off new stuff, finished projects, in the works projects, 12" to the foot (prototype) pics, etc.
I think Mr. B means the WPF thread from May 3-6 (Actually the title was something like “Early WPF May 3-6”, because we all thought they were taking away the forum for the weekend) - though he might be talking about the one prior to that.
Welcome! And a team track is a good idea. I could convert one of my tracks to a team track instead. Say the Arrowhead one or the topmost of the two fuel tracks - using two tracks for fuel unloading is maybe a little on the extravagant side given the area I have to work with.
I am sorry, but I don’t quite get what you are suggesting. Here is the layout with labels again:
By runaround track I assume you mean the track between turnouts T2 and T4 ?
Oh - I see. I have not actually indicated on what side of the layout the person running the trains will be, have I ? Above the layout, where the labels are. Below the layout is the end wall of a very small room. Here is a drawing showing the entire room I have available for this particular layout:
Thanks for posting this question. It has certainly generated much good discussion. It also hits home for me. I also have to share my wife’s craft room and am in the process of building a shelf layout along two walls. I’ve just finished the modules and have hung them on Rubbermaid standards and brackets from Home Depot. I’ve got a shelf 2 x 7’ along one wall and 2 x 10’ along the adjacent wall. Now I’m having trouble finalizing a track plan. Your plan looks very interesting, especially given that I’ve got many of the same kits as you do. If you could expand it another 10’ or so, what would you do? The plan that I’ve been seriously pondering can be found at the following link: http://members.aol.com/PWhiteMR/ateton.html. I be curious to hear your opinion. Good luck with your plan. It looks like it will provide hours of enjoyment.
How would I have used a space of maybe 17’ x 2’ for a layout for myself ?
To answer the last one first: I probably would have wanted to take inspiration from something like
Linda Sand’s unnamed layout (“Big-City Railroads don’t require big spaces”, MRP 1999, page 38). This is a U-shaped layout that fits a 5’9’ space, with room for an operator aisle down the middle - can be unfolded to make a 17 1/2’ x 1 1/2’ space. Fits a small class yard with four tracks (longest about 4’ long, shortest 2’ long, an engine service track, an engine house track, a bridge, a two track intermodal yard and 5 industries without looking crowded
Linda Sand’s Nicolet Avenue layout (MRP 1998, page 52: “Industrial Switching in N and H0”) - a 2’ wide L-shaped shelf layout with both wings of the L being 11’6".
Both of the designs above take advantage of having the running track down the center of the shelf instead of along the front of the shelf, with industries branching off both towards the back wall and towards the aisle. Both layouts also make judicious use of nice scenic dividers like highway bridges across the track.
Or maybe Jerry Strangarity’s Reading Co City Scene ("Indu
I am a fool - instead of going to bed I got started simulating traffic on Mike’s layout. Looks to me like it could be worked reasonably okay. Some cases:
8-car + engine train from staging to yard, sort, send to staging again
Switcher parked on industry lead in footnine (leftmost leg of lower 3-way turnout)
Train from staging comes to stop on lead from staging, above top 3-way turnout
Road engine on arriving train cut off, taken down to the engine service area (rightmost track of footnine yard).
Yard switcher moves up to staging lead, grabs first five cars of train from staging lead, backs down the industry lead, then forward through yard throat onto track to ateton.
Cut off switcher, leave the five cars on the mainline (or do this with four cars at a time and leave them on siding instead).
Take switcher around five cars using runaround
Push cars down into longest yard track (capacity 7 cars)
Cut off switcher, go up and grab rest of arriving train (either 3 or 4 cars, depending on whether you grabbed 5 or 4 the first time).
Repeat runaround maneuver. Leave cars on yard track
Road engine can either be left at engine service track, be sent back to staging w/o cars or pick up outbound cars from yard and take those back to staging - up to 8 outbound cars can temporarily be stashed on the running track/mainline in the footnine yard area (track no 4 from right in footnine yard) so a departing engine can take them to staging.
Switching Ateton (right wing of layout)
Arriving train from footnine yard can leave up to five cars on mainline between footnine and aterton (or 4 cars on siding).
It is also possible to use the team track (second track on bottom at rightmost end of layout) to temporarily store up to 7 cars - it takes a runaround move to push cars into the team
This is an interesting thread, as many of us online “modelers” are actually typing from our armchairs. [;)] I’m working on a small, shelf layout myself as a precursor to a large, basement layout. Whether for reasons of not enough space, not enough money and/or not enough time, a small switching layout can be exactly what is needed to get out of the armchair for good. Besides, those three little C&NW Also S1’s I got on the cheap need a home if nothing else.
As far as the OP’s question on industries appropriate for the Twin Cities region in Minnesota, flour milling was and continues to be big business there. I was flying into MSP last week and got a good overhead view of the Hiawatha Avenue area just south of downtown Minneapolis. This former CMStP&P (Milwaukee Road) branch is now operated by the Minnesota Commercial, a terminal shortline operating in the area. Lots of milling plants with large concrete elevators similar to the Walther’s ADM kit, and one where the silos looked like the Walther’s concrete plant.
(If anyone is passing through MSP and has a few hour’s layover, take the light rail north from the airport to Hiawatha Avenue for photos.)
I attended the 1999 NMRA National Convention in St. Paul and at the LDSIG banquet dinner an official with the MN Commercial gave the keynote speech. A highlight of the talk was on the operation of the Hiawatha Switching District and we were handed schematic maps of the trackage in the mills - the exact ones used by the pro railroad crews. I might be able to share a copy if you’re interested - PM me.
Other industrial operations include the large refining operation south of St. Paul in Roseport, along with other scattered industries similar to what you’d find elsewhere in N. America. Since you’re using largely 40’ cars and small
Umm - there must be some really obvious way of doing this, but I am having a little trouble figuring out how to send a private message on this forum. How do I do that ?
Smile,
Stein, probably a little low on brainpower at 4 am my time
Thanks so much for taking time away from your night’s rest to offer your comments. I genuinely appreciate the thought and work you have put into your response and will undoubtedly incorporate your ideas into my final plan. I especially appreciate your comments on operation. I am now more convinced than ever that this plan is worth developing into my layout. Following on your suggestions, I feel pretty confident to start laying track and look forward to finally moving out of the armchair. Thanks again and I look forward to reading your continued postings.
It sounds as if your layout construction follows Don Spiro’s articles in the October and November 2005 issues of RMC. I used that same style in constructing my HO shelf layout - 2’ depth along two walls and then extending into what was the closet. This week I spiked down the first turnout and 3’ of track, so it is definately a work just beginning. I have thought about this space for a long time, however, and offer the following suggestions based on the layout provided in the sketch:
(a) Curves in the corner can be greatly eased by adding a 45 degree triangle… just extending out 6" on each side can make it much easier to align your “main” with tracks toward the front of the layout.
(b) I have wrapped the backdrop out toward the front of my layout near a corner, and thus will be able to back my coal mine up against the backdrop, with a foundry on the other side allowing for constant loads out of the mine and constant empties out of the foundry. Looking at the plan on the link, perhaps a similar arrangement could be made with the grain elevator on one side and the flour mill on the other.
Following those Spiro articles, I only did some general sketches in preparation. I know that I am bound by this space, and I have multiple structures left from the former layout. With the finished shelf in place, I am positioning and re-positioning some actual structures and turnouts on the space and developing the actual track plan in that way.
