Alright, so I’ve been spending a lot of time messing around with track components, trying to get a good, working trackplan idea down. The following are pictures of the track setup, but not yet actually ‘installed’.
Basically, the coal mine branch loops around, joining with the main, and then enters a cross-over with the arrival/departure track. The two tracks in the back are classification/industry/holding tracks. The further will serve the industry or freight house to be there, and the next is a classification/holding track for the coal loads that come down from the mines to be classified for pick-up by through trains or to be delivered locally.
The two closest spurs will have an engine house (i think you can guess which one, haha) for maintenance/repairs, and then the other will be a team track/spur that holds supplies needed for engine servicing (such as tank cars for fuel, box-cars for parts, etc).
So thats that. Next, I promised you all pictures of my first handlaid turnout attempt. Well, I’ve got the frog/point assembly spiked down, but the 5 pieces of rail that i’d bought at the LHS turned out to be code 83 instead of code 70. I’m not sacrificing any more of my ME flex to make the stock rails, so this one is kind of on hiatus until I get a chance to run back up there. I haven’t decided whether to replace the throwbar, though. Its a piece of styrene, i think. I mean, it works, but its a bit big and honky. This will be rectified via painting and ballast