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Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 9:56 am
by KVERBERK
Hello, its been awhile. If anyone remembers my 4x8, it has been dissasembled. We recently moved and I decided to start a new railroad. The room is 13x22 with shelves on one wall. The room still needs some prep work so it will be awhile before bench work begins.

I have always wanted to model plymouth in the late 80's so here is my attempt. Because of the small space for such a layout I am thinking of it as a switching layout focused around the diamond with run through trains coming from staging. Local trains will come out of the yard to switch the on-layout industries. Through trains will drop/pickup cars from the yard. Staging will be on one level of the shelves with the layout being the same height as that shelf.

You will also notice I took alot of modelers licence with the design. I used local names for industries and roads but made little attemt to replicate actual track configurations.

The biggest down sides I see with this design are the duck-under and wiring the diamond area. Has anyone wired anything like this? Also disregard the 2-foot section on the right side of the plan. I made the room too big to start. Any suggestions about the plan are welcome. If any of you run train player I can email you the plan in that format so you can try it out. Thanks and Here it is:

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Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 10:09 am
by AARR
If you're interested in modeling prototype customers to the west is/was PCA (inbound paper), Tower (outbound auto frames) and Ford (inbound plastic and outbound parts). To the south was the Toys R Us warehouse. To the east was Atlas Steel, Michigan Railcar Repair, several auto parts plants and small chemical plants.

I like your plan but am thinking it can be smoothed out a little. I'll give it some thought.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 10:17 am
by KVERBERK
Thanks AAR. Tower Automotive(smith frame) was one of the industries I wanted to include. I had it on an earlier design but it got trimmed out in later versions. I might put it where the plastics transload is. Also I really like hicube autoparts boxcars. I included ford sheldon plant for this purpose. I plan on running exactrail 60' cars rather than the 89' cars because of my 24" radius curves. These cars look really good and i think capture the feel of the 89's. Did Ford Sheldon receive plastic hoppers? Looking forward to your thoughts.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 10:33 am
by AARR
Yes, Ford Sheldon (aka Ford Heater) received plastic pellets until sometime in the 1990's IIRC. Shipped out climate control parts by rail late 2000's.

Plymouth Printer could be PCA. Wixom Cement could be Tower. Rifkin could be Toys R Us.
KVERBERK wrote:Did Ford Sheldon receive plastic hoppers? Looking forward to your thoughts.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 1:42 pm
by KVERBERK
There is a place just west of the diamond and just prior to sheldon Rd. that looks like it recieved cars at one time. This is what I am calling Plymouth Printers. Is this PCA? following google maps from plymouth to detroit there is at least one other place that looks like it recieves paper and a couple places that recieve tank cars. The place labeled bakery I figure could get corn syrup tanks on the curved siding.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 2:07 pm
by AARR
Yes, what you have labeled as Plymouth Printers is PCA.

The other place that receives paper is Valassis. They print advertisements that go in newspaper. The chemical plant in front is BASF and they ship out something in tank cars. There's also an oil dealer that transloads from a stub end track and a lumber dealer just opened next to Valassis.

There is an Awrey's Bakery on Farmington Rd. (?) that received flour. I don't know if they still do.
KVERBERK wrote:There is a place just west of the diamond and just prior to sheldon Rd. that looks like it recieved cars at one time. This is what I am calling Plymouth Printers. Is this PCA? following google maps from plymouth to detroit there is at least one other place that looks like it recieves paper and a couple places that recieve tank cars. The place labeled bakery I figure could get corn syrup tanks on the curved siding.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 2:31 pm
by KVERBERK
thanks Don,

I've spent alot of time looking at google maps around plymouth. It looks like there were alot of industries that are no longer in service or at least don't ship by rail anymore. I would love to find out what all those were and what/how trains serviced them. Must have been pretty busy at one time.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 3:05 pm
by AARR
The era you're modeling, 1989, was a very buy time on CSX's Detroit Sub. Ford Transmission received several tank cars a week and shipped out in box cars daily. There was a beer distributor that received several carloads a week. Erb Lumber at Stark Rd. received several cars a week.

In the mid 90's I recall the Detroit Sub being switched on two shifts, day and midnight including Saturdays.
KVERBERK wrote:thanks Don,

I've spent alot of time looking at google maps around plymouth. It looks like there were alot of industries that are no longer in service or at least don't ship by rail anymore. I would love to find out what all those were and what/how trains serviced them. Must have been pretty busy at one time.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 7:12 am
by GreatLakesRailfan
Depending on the height of your layout, you may want to reconsider using a duckunder. In my experience, the 40" modules we use in Ntrak are a big pain for all to crawl under every time you need to move into or out of the inside area. Because this is your "permanent" layout, any electrical or other issues under the benchwork will likely require you to spend even more time ducked under the layout. Make sure the layout is built at a height where you can comfortably duck underneath it- your knees will thank you for it down the road.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 7:28 am
by AARR
Something else to consider is CP was using CSX during 1989 and they had all sorts of engines operating including, IIRC, ALCo's.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:35 am
by KVERBERK
Yep, this was something I had originally wanted to include in the operation. I still may do that, good excuse to buy some more locos!
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Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:28 pm
by TrainWatcher
darn, that's spot on. Wow, that'll be one cool pike to run.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 7:10 pm
by AARR
If you switch Ford Sheldon and Wixom Cement and make WC Tower you'll be prototype.

Also, if you make Rifkin the Toys R Us warehouse, the plastic transload could be the plastic plant in Westland and the chemical transload could be the old G-P lumber distributer in Westland too.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:20 pm
by KVERBERK
Thanks for the suggestions. I included the fictional Wixom cement because I really like cement cars and have a bunch of them. I would like to find a way to include tower, and I could do without a lumber dealer. I'm working on switching up the industries and also working of a walk-in version to eliminate the duck-under. I would also really like to include the diamond in some form so its a little tough. Thanks again.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 1:26 pm
by GrandTrunkFan
This will be very cool! Keep us updated!!

Re: Track plan

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 11:01 am
by KVERBERK
Here is a different take on a Plymouth/Detroit plan. It is an adaptation of a plan in Trainplayer. Still working out an operating Scheme.

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Re: Track plan

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:23 pm
by hoborich
If you switch Ford Sheldon and Wixom Cement
We also had a transload at Lincoln yard.

Re: Track plan

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:21 pm
by GrandTrunkFan
KVERBERK wrote:Here is a different take on a Plymouth/Detroit plan. It is an adaptation of a plan in Trainplayer. Still working out an operating Scheme.

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Both plans look good and look like theyd be fun to run, but I like the first better with the diamonds

Re: Track plan

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 9:00 am
by KVERBERK
This is an updated version of the plan with the diamonds. I moved the yard and changed the industries a little as per suggestions. I added tower automotive for frames on flatcars. I also added Atlas Tube thinking I could have inbound coil cars, and outbound srcap. Not sure if thats what they used but I like coil cars and also wanted to include something that shipped scrap gons. I also kept wixom cement because I like cement cars and someone mentions there being a trans load there at one time. I moved the plastic transload to the Ford heater complex. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments, Enjoy.

Kyle
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Re: Track plan

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 9:18 am
by KVERBERK
Also wanted to include a description of my ideas on operating the layout:

I See Three local trains based out of the yard. Each train being short(6-8 cars). One train to switch Ford Heater. This train would consist of a few 60' autoparts boxcars and a few plastics hoppers. It would run out and back to the yard. The second would switch Atlas tube with a few coil cars and scrap gons. The Third would switch the remaining industries (plymouth printers, smith frame, chemical plant, wixom). To keep trains shorter the third train may not switch all those industries at once.

I also see trains coming out of staging and dropping and picking up a short cut of cars for these industries in yard. Just for Fun you could run a coal train or unit grain train from staging to staging.

I see an operating session with two or three people. running one local at a time and one freight from staging at a time.

Ideas are welcome. Thanks