It wasn’t unil I was finished that I started thinking about how this could work unloading boxcars with the two tracks. The track on the main building side would have a dock for unloading but what about the outside track?
I can’t think of a few possibilities:
have a ramp going between the car next to the dock over to the other car
only use the outside track for storage
lower the contents to the ground between the tracks
it is a fantasy and in real life this arrangement would not be used
I must live in a fantasy world. I have been to places where they unloaded freight cars and trailers from ground level. Either manpower or after the rear of the trailer was cleared. A pallet jack would be used to bring the rest of them to the door.
Using a freight car as a bridge would not be too practical but it is doable. Do both tracks go through? Or is there a bumper inside?
The ramp between parallel boxcars – such as seen on outdoor tracks at freight houses – would ironically seem to want a narrower space between the cars! So I’d likely rule that out.
Without having the model here to measure it looks to me like there would be ample space for a raised concrete or wood platform between the two tracks that would be wide enough to unload from a car on either track, although clumsy if both tracks need to be unloaded at the same time on the same platform (maybe too little room for two forklifts to pass each other). So I guess assume two platforms both at car-floor height, each to the right of each track. At some freight houses you would see a sort of conveyer with rollers so that workers would unload the cars manually and then place the loads – boxes – on the rollers. If this was a cold storage warehouse (add a refrigeration unit to roof or back side of building?) then those loads were often unloaded by hand rather than forklift. The loads might be chilled alcohol or frozen fruits and vegetables in boxes the size a worker could pick up. If on pallets then forklift.
I guess what I am saying is that the arrangements of tracks, doors and docks look plausible to me such that I would not be bothered by it, and in a world of selective compression plausibility is the goal rather than what they would “REALLY” do.
Looking at the building again. The two tracks would be a good candidate for flat car overhead crane loading/unloading. Perhaps a machine tool manufacturer or local dealer. Or something similar.
They make plates to go between the cars they just have to make sure the doors are aligned. This also applies to pararell tracks at a freight house where all the tracks are out in the open.
Actually they are called railboards when used in a railroad operation. Where my wife used to work they made railboards, attached is a spec sheet to be made out when purchasing a railboard. Note on page 3 the use of pararrell tracks and how to measure.
This is the Bears thoughts on how the railroad freight car loading/unloading area at Fedups Freight Co. could/should work. My thoughts are based on my time, many years ago, when I drove a local freight haulage tractor and trailer unit and the assorted loading bays used.
The quickly drawn internal floor plan measurements are taken off the Woodland Scenics instruction sheets, and while to “scale,” any misinterpretation and/or incorrect interpretations are my own.
In the now long gone GM assembly plant in Baltimore Maryland, there were 4 parallel indoor delivery tracks for boxcars full of parts. There were high level loading docks between the center two tracks and on both outer sides.
BUT, they also used plates that allowed forklifts to drive thru one box car and into the next. This way all the traffic did not have to go down the row and around the end of the tracks.
And several trackmobiles were available to shift cars as needed.
My memory thinks the tracks each held about 6-8 40’ or 50’ cars inside the building.
I was an electrical project manager and our company did lots of work in the plant.
I spent a fair amount of time watching cars get built…
Unload boxcars on the plant side first, open both doors, and use it to drive through?
I’ve worked one place that had parallel tracks at a dock. They used bridge plates between the cars (car-to-car railboards according to the above link), but those tracks were pretty close together.
This is the Bears thoughts on how the railroad freight car loading/unloading area at Fedups Freight Co. could/should work. My thoughts are based on my time, many years ago, when I drove a local freight haulage tractor and trailer unit and the assorted loading bays used.
The quickly drawn internal floor plan measurements are taken off the Woodland Scenics instruction sheets, and while to “scale,” any misinterpretation and/or incorrect interpretations are my own.
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What I said and the Bear drew. If the tracks were closer then no dock at all between the tracks and just have a removable metal dock plate between the two cars and the internal door, dock to the right of the tracks. Very common.
Pretty well covered above, but to consolidate in one spot there are two distinct options:
Platform along the rear wall of the building so the forklift can drive around and down the platform between the cars (as shown in the diagram posted above)
Open up the doors on both sides and drive through the “inside” car, across the second platform and into the “outside” car. Unload the “inside” car first, load it last.
I am finishing up this project and have one more question. I made an unloading dock and a wall with roll up doors for the part of the interior that is visible. Track has been laid and the foundation is in place to set the building on. Now the floor needs to be addressed.
For a building like this would the track always be set in concrete or can it be ballasted and left like that?
Going from my memory, if the unloading docks were used by both rail and road and the floor was generally concrete, though I do recall asphalt being used on occasion.
I’m not sure as to why the track would need to be ballasted in a purely rail loading dock?
The ballast is what holds the ties in place and keeps the track in alignment. You can’t just lay the ties down unsecured on top of a surface. Either the rails are secured in a concrete floor or the ties are ballasted.
Gidday Chris, I am well aware of the role that ballast plays, however, in hindsight I feel that my musing was somewhat inelegantly put, as I was envisioning that for the single railroad car loading dock, as in the OPs situation, the “track bed” may be far less elaborate than “proper” roadbed.[:)]
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
