Model Railroad Blog

Preparing For “The Day”

You’re 55, 60, or 65. You’ve wanted a layout your entire life and you spend hours fantasizing about ‘the day’. By that I mean the day when the kids are out of the nest, retirement final yields some free time, or the necessary space frees up. Fantasizing is one thing but what about effective preparation? With a little thought now, you can effectively prepare for the day you are ready for a layout (and have a lot of fun in the process). Before we get started let’s think about what doesn’t constitute effective preparation. Random spending on rolling stock and structures frequently ends up being dollars down the drain that doesn’t move you in the direction you’ll want to go.

I suggest developing some basic skills now. In addition, take a much more focused approach to equipment and tools you will, without question, need. Here are some simple suggestions that will not only provide you with some relaxing afternoons but also put you in a great position later. The ‘layout on a plank’ blogs would be a good platform to work with.

Practice basic electrical skills

Learn to solder simply by practicing on a scrap of flex track. Start by practicing making feeders soldered to the rail. All you need is 18 gauge hook up wire (All Electronics), a 40Watt soldering gun and .032” solder (Radio Shack) and Flux (Team Trinity part 5004). Next, practice tapping the feeder into a scrap of 14 gauge wire. You can buy the 14 gauge wire by the foot at The Home Depot and 14 to 18 tap connectors can be picked up Radio Shack. The point is to get used to making the solder flow and making good connections in the controlled environment of your work bench

Learn To Use DCC and program a locomotive

Put yourself in a position where you have two smooth running, fully operational and tuned, DCC locomotives. If you’re positive you will have a layout, it makes sense to get the basic system now and learn how to use it. Even four or five feet of test track is enough. With no disrespect to other systems, you can’t go wrong with the NCE or CVP EasyDCC wireless. Setting up your DCC system is no harder than setting up a new television set. Hook it up to your test layout and begin experimenting with locomotive programming. You won’t blow anything up and if you really screw up the programming just do a reset. In terms of decoders I suggest the Soundtraxx Tsunami (great directions, high quality, very tunable). For starters I suggest having a professional install the decoders for you.

Practice Track laying

Pick up some Atlas or Micro Engineering flex track, joiners and a turnout or two. Practice laying straight track, curves, placing turnouts, and transitions to curves that are free of kinks. You’ll need some Xuron rail cutters and one small jewelers file to clean up any burrs. If you want roadbed I suggest Midwest brand cork, secured with adhesive caulk.

Practice laying ballast

You want even applications free of particles on top of the ties or sticking to the sides of the rail. The easiest way to get a successful application is work in several layers as opposed to trying to bringing it to full height in one shot. Life is much simpler if you use natural rock blends such as Smith and Sons or Arizona Rock and Mineral.

Start now on posts, signs, and sheds

Layouts have a voracious appetite for signs, utility poles and small sheds. Why not start assembling those now.  These are small achievable projects that build assembly skills, don’t take a lot of time, and can be easily stored without taking up much room.

Learn to use an airbrush

Paasche and Iwata are two excellent brands. You will also need a compressor. Start by practicing with dilute india ink washes as these clean up easily and then move on to paint. You’ll also need a high quality respirator to protect your lungs.

Practice Rolling Stock Weathering

Learn how various weathering mediums feel in your hand. These can be oils, enamels, acrylics, craft paint, ink washes, and chalks. Start now as it really does take LOTS of practice to get good results. I suggest picking up the cheapest freight cars you can find and work with those first. Begin with basic subdued looks before going on to the more complex weathered patterns. Grimy black or rail brown dusted with brown chalk or dusted with dark brown is a good starting point. Dullcote the car. Practice subdued washes (Diosol with a few drops of grimy black and roof brown) fogged onto the car. Read up and practice the techniques on The Rust Bucket Forum. When weathering, work hard at light layers and self restraint (easier said than done you’ll find).

Puttering around with some of these ideas over the next several years will not only be fun for you but also give you an early ramp up on the learning curve for when you do have that layout. The basic skills needed to build a medium to large layout are really no different than those for a four square foot test layout. You just repeat the same steps more often.

On the Outside Looking In

From time to time the various magazines will run a poll in an attempt to gain some insight into the state of the hobby and the current breakdown of the multitude of tribal sub-interest groups. It’s a good idea. The quality of the results, however, will only be as good as the questions that are asked and therein lies the challenge. Some of the important questions are easy: scale, years in the hobby, era of interest etc. Others, are not so apparent and hard to quantify.

At the top of my list would be finding some sort of measure of how deeply somebody wants to be immersed in the hobby. An immediate follow up would be where they feel they are now with respect to how deeply they’d like to be involved. How do you even measure that? I don’t know but I am sure the second part is pretty darn important in terms of where we need to focus our efforts with respect to recruiting, supporting, developing, and retaining newcomers.

Most of us have a number of interests. Some we participate in on a cursory level but enjoy nonetheless. Other hobbies we dig into more deeply and thus get a much richer level of satisfaction from them. Model railroading is no different. Some hobbyists participate at a modest level and enjoy doing so. Others totally immerse themselves in the hobby. How deeply we delve into an area of interest doesn’t matter if, and it’s a big if, we are where we want to be. A big problem arises though if we have a longing to be deeply immersed in an activity, don’t know how to go about doing so, and as a result feel shut out. We feel like we are on the outside looking in. Based solely on anecdotal evidence, and my gut, I have a sense that this is a major issue in model railroading. I can’t shake the feeling that there exists a rather significant number of individuals that aren’t involved in the hobby at all or to the extent they’d like to be.

Does it matter? Yes, it matters. It matters to the individual that isn’t able to access something that would be so fulfilling. They miss out on the therapeutic value of creating something by hand. It matters to the hobby because we suffer by not having these folks on our side of the fence.

Who are these ‘outsiders’? Typically they are older, say age 40 and above. (Those on the younger side either have no problems jumping into the fray or are temporarily pre-occupied with school and early adult responsibilities). These ‘outsiders’ tend to be very bright. Even though they may not have built a single model, this group is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to prototype railroading. Their primary interest is in said prototypes. Professionally they tend to be very successful at whatever career they’ve chosen whether it be business ownership, medicine, law enforcement, military service, teaching, etc. They have an intense interest in railroading in general. Unlike the bulk of the hobby, they have no interest in a layout that is a generic ‘toy’. They want a ‘model of a railroad’.

Now let’s be clear, a portion on the outside really aren’t as serious about being involved in model railroading as they profess. Just as I enjoy the sport of surfing vicariously, they enjoy the hobby as casual observers. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you’re honest with yourself (the likelihood of me riding a forty foot wave on the north shore of Hawaii is pretty close to zero). I’m addressing those folks that are seriously frustrated about feeling locked out of something they really, truly want to be involved in.

If these outsiders are so interested in being more deeply immersed in the hobby, why aren’t they? The reasons are an equal split between the hobby environment in general and the inertia they’ve created for themselves through inaccurate perceptions and poor time management.

Within the individual’s control there are a number or reasons for this fix they find themselves in.

  • Lack of confidence. They are embarrassed about their beginner level skills. This is a faulty point of view. For one, it entails an overestimation of how much other people care about where you are on the skills spectrum. Others shouldn’t care and for the most part they don’t. Becoming better at anything is a lifelong journey. Where you are on the path doesn’t matter and we all have areas we want to improve. If you’re embarrassed, keep your early efforts to yourself. Let your own satisfaction be the litmus test. Rather than posting your early efforts on the net, limit feedback requests to a few trusted sources that will give objective feedback. I volunteer for that role for anybody that’s interested.
  • Poor leisure time management. I’m sure many will throw the hail Mary excuse up that they just don’t have the time. Although there are some exceptions, the no time excuse is generally just that, an excuse. If Rod Stewart can tour with a rock band, raise a family, and build a model railroad, most people should be able to also. The reason this group is so successful professionally is they have the ruthless ability to understand the difference between PRODUCTIVITY and ACTIVITY. At least at work they are great time managers. When they leave the office though something happens and many don’t take these time management skills home and apply them to managing and prioritizing their own happiness. In recent years a major player is the addiction, and yes it is an addiction, to technological toys. I’m talking about hours frittered way on smart phones, Facebook, Twitter, mindless chat forums etc. Most have the time, they just let it slip away on things that contribute nothing to their quality of life or happiness level.
  • Fatigue and inertia. For whatever reason, more than ever people are pretty fried when they come home from work. The solution here is a self awareness as to when you’re personal energy level is at it’s peak AND you have free time. Focus on small, easy to achieve projects such as assembling a shanty, adding license plates to a vehicle, etc.
  • All or nothing mindset. This is another inaccurate, self defeating point of view. For whatever reason, the ‘outsiders’ are under the impression that it’s all or nothing. If they can’t have an 800 square foot layout then it’s not worth participating at all, at any level. The space never materializes until retirement and at that point they’ve wasted decades that could have been spent developing skills, gaining friends, and enhancing their quality of life. Everybody has enough space to build a module, a freight car, a small structure, or a diorama. Develop these skills now so if and when more space materializes you’ll have them under your belt. I’ve never ever heard a person complain that they didn’t like their layout because it was too small or too simple. It just doesn’t happen.
  • They don’t know how to “play”. The second side of the technology sword, and we are starting to see it with kids, is that at an ever increasing rate people just don’t know how to recreate. Old habits die hard. One strategy is to set a time in your home when all internet and wifi connections will be turned off. For example, 8pm. After a month of cold sweats the body will adjust, freeing up time for more beneficial activities.
  • They don’t know how to jump in. They don’t know to participate (do I build freight cars, structures, locomotives, a module?) , how to start, or which skills create the most impact. This brings me to other contributor to the problem,……

The other half of this conundrum has to do with the current hobby environment as a whole. Although the foundation for solving any problem lies with taking responsibility for how you got yourself into a particular situation in the first place, I don’t put sole blame on the outsider. In the last one or two decades those on the inside haven’t exactly rolled out the red carpet or handed over roadmaps as to how to join the club. The number of compelling reasons and inspirational examples for joining the hobby hasn’t exactly been on pace with previous decades.

This group, the outsiders, want a ‘model of a railroad’. They aren’t motivated by the generic layout typified by a double track dog bone loop, sprinklings of monotone ground foam, un-modified Walthers structures, and general look alike model railroads they are seeing. They want a convincing miniature replica of railroading that can be built taking into account their available space, entry level skills, and time limitations. Of course that can be done, it’s just that there isn’t anybody out there explaining to them how to do it.

More than any other group the press drives our hobby. Like it or not, they assume the leadership role and as they go, so does the hobby. Unfortunately, the advent of the internet has thrown all print media, including the model railroad press, completely off balance and they’ve yet to find completely find their way. The problems the hobby press face are numerous, some self inflicted, many by shifts in technology and the business climate. The current magazine environment is one of covers emblazoned with “How To” followed by whatever the trick of the month is. The problem is they never really tie them all together in a cohesive manner and show you how they relate so that you can build a ‘model of a railroad’. Dig deep articles on top tier layouts have become more rare than they were in the past. A wonderfully executed model railroad receives the same page count as an average layout, both of which fade to oblivion when the next “how to cover’ hits the shelves, typically never to be seen again.

What is leadership in the press? Press leadership is one of going to whatever lengths necessary to root out inspiring model railroads and cover and highlight them in proportion to their quality. It’s showing how to ‘model a railroad’ via a cohesive, month to month approach of explaining how various technique interrelate to and meld to create the overall effect. The ‘one hit, how to’ articles still have their place but it should be a secondary, filler focus more of a side bar if you will, not the main thrust.

The most obvious example of the approach I’m talking about was Allan McClealland’s V&O. Lost in the fray was that McClelland’s modeling was only half of the brilliance, the other half, was the way it was written about and presented to the public over a several year time frame. That article series transformed the hobby and for the most part is a formula that hasn’t been repeated since. Yes, it was a large layout but the concepts applied to all. Allen and the writers made you want to run to your work bench and get to work and they showed you how to do it. They showed you how all the concepts fit together and related. In the past several decades we’ve gotten away from that approach.

Personally, I feel the way out of the doldrums is to dust off this dig deep journalistic approach, bring it a back with changed emphasis on smaller, more attainable layouts skewed towards the modern era. Put the, one hit how to wonders in a supporting/filler role. Focus on a start to finish approach to modeling an inspiring, attainable, railroad laid out in simple achievable steps, and the reasoning why certain approaches are followed.

If the outsiders see something that motivates them consistently in print, feel they too can build it, and feel it fits their space and lifestyle they’ll start putting down their Androids and picking up track cutters.

No Skills, No Problem

 

Many view me as a champion of small model railroads.  I’m really not.  They’re just a means to an end.  What I am is a strong believer in is finding ways to get those not actively engaged in the hobby actually in the game.  Small, easy to achieve, layouts are just the most practical way of doing so.

I am a steadfast believer in the increased quality of life that comes from creating something by hand.  While buying ‘stuff’ may give a short term high, much like a candy bar buzz, it quickly wears off leaving you where you started.  The satisfaction that comes from creating something, however, is long lasting and therapeutic.  For those that don’t have layouts, you owe it to yourself to find a way to do so.  Small, simple, it doesn’t matter and is probably better for a first go around.

If most people acknowledge they would find having a small layout satisfying why don’t they build one?  The first issue is that they don’t know how to go about it.  I’ve addressed that at length in my books.

An equally large reason is that they don’t think they have the skills and are somewhat embarrassed at the prospect of putting something up that doesn’t measure up to their self imposed standards.  I’m going to address the skill issue here.  No skills?  No problem.  You can still have a decent looking layout and if you follow along could have one by the New Year.

How could that be?  We all see the ‘magic bullet’ commercials on television that promise weight loss, instant riches etc. with no expenditure of effort.  We also know its so much hogwash.  What makes model railroading different?Model railroading is different because we can compensate for entry level skills by careful selection of materials and color.   The big three in producing a great looking model railroad are: scene composition, color selection, and material selection.

Follow along and I’ll show you how to have a surprisingly sharp looking layout in a few weekends.   As I go through this I want to emphasize that, since the ultimate appearance is driven by material and color selection, it is very important that you use the exact items I discuss.   No substituting!  No freelancing!  Use the specific colors and materials I suggest.  Let’s get started.  Here’s a step by step breakdown.

Design:  For our basic plan let’s stick with the tried and true shelf style industrial switching layout.  Operation potential is secured by selecting an industry that requires multiple car spots.

NoSkills

 

Bench work: Pick up an eight foot long by ten inch wide pine board from the hardware store.  Mount this on the wall shelf style.

Front trim strip:  This is extremely important and will go a long ways towards getting buy in from your spouse.  Pick up some floor molding and tack it to the front of the shelf with panel board nails.  Paint the front trim strip a semi-gloss dark olive.  Actually, do this even if you don’t have a spouse.

Bench work surface:  For this project we are going to skip any form of scenery surface.  No foam base.  No cork sub-roadbed.  Paint the surface of the shelf your soil color.  You want a very pale, muddy, light gray.  If you can find it, Delta Ceramcoat “Mudstone” is a good color.  I believe AC Moore has it.  If not, it should be easy to find something close.

Track:  Micro engineering code 70 flex track and turnouts.  Not Atlas, not Walthers,  Micro Engineering.  Paint the track Rustoleum Brown Camouflage paint.  Most hardware stores carry it.   Do NOT substitute other colors!  After painting, lay the track directly on the painted wood shelf surface. There is no cork sub-roadbed.   Secure it with a few drops of white glue spaced six inches apart.

Soil base:  For now we won’t worry about ballast or soils.

Grass: For the grass and brush pick up Heki 1576 Pasture Green Wildgrass grass fiber.  Again, No substituting of products or colors!  Use this exact product.    Don’t even glue the grass down.  Stretch it out, rip off patches and pat it loosely in place on the layout surface.

Structures:  Pick up some of the Jefferson Street Radical flats from King Mill and place them along the back of the layout as your primary industry as well to serve as a backdrop.

Things to avoid:  For now I suggest skipping a painted backdrop.  If you feel compelled to do so, just paint an 18 inch tall pale blue band on the wall.  No painted clouds, no painted trees, no painted hills.  No photo murals.

All done!  I think you’ll be surprised how good this looks.  At his point you can finally say that you “have a layout” and a professional looking one at that.   To say that it doesn’t count because it doesn’t meet some arbitrary square footage bench mark is the epitome of flawed thinking.  It does count.  The design also lends itself to fairly sophisticated operating sessions.  After you’ve been up and running awhile you can go back and start refining the project with ballast, soil, and details.  If there’s enough interest, and a few people actually take this to heart I’ll follow up with a future blog.  Time to put down that iPad, get off the chat forums and hit the hardware store!

Operations

NoSkills2

Here’s some ideas on how the layout could be operated.  For lack of a better term the lead to the right that curves down to the fascia is the “main”.  The term main would more likely mean the primary track through an industrial area as opposed to a class one main line for multi-unit, full blown freights.  The arrangement with the main taking the diverging route through the turnout is not that common but does occur in the field.  In terms of industries, keep in mind that many structures see a turnover in tenants over the years.  A traditional brick structure may be a warehouse for awhile, then a plastics business, then a furniture business etc.  The point being that within reason you could have the structure represent whatever industry you want.  It’s very common for industries to locate their internal storage tanks inside the structure itself.  This is handy for us modelers because we can simply represent the tanks with a hose out front.  Examples of internal holding tanks taking rail cars include: chemicals, paint, corn syrup, and vegetable oil to name a few.

No Skills3

This plain Jane structure could house any number of industries.  At the present the tenant is a paint manufacturer.  The paint chemicals are unloaded into tanks located inside the structure.  If the paint business vacated the site a totally different, rail served business could move in. Note the hoses next to the wall for unloading.  Solder, painted with gray primer, is good for representing the hoses.

 

In the ‘No Skills’ track plan above the industry is multi-spot meaning specific cars go to specific locations (or spots).  Boxcars go to one set of doors, tank cars next to the unloading hoses etc.  Cars can be ‘double parked’ on the parallel track with unloading via car to car bridge ramps.  Sorting and re-shuffling cars can be done on the section of the main that curves down towards the fascia.  Add a gravel drive near the entrance to one of the spurs and the location can double as team track unloading.

Keep in mind though that the point of the ‘No Skills’ layout is not to be an intellectual exercise.  Its sole purpose is to mobilize folks to get something, anything up on the wall.  That ‘anything on the wall’ would also look pretty decent if the modeler follows the techniques and uses the materials and colors outlined in the first installment.

 

 

 

Picking a Theme For Your Layout

Although there is no right or wrong way to participate in model railroading, there is, without question, a measuring stick of how successful we are at it.   Success is measured by how much enjoyment and satisfaction we get from our involvement.   To that extent the guy with the Lionel set that is on cloud nine is highly successful, period.     Success isn’t measured by the quality of our assembly and painting skills, how often we’ve been published, or how accurately we copy a given element in miniature.    There is however the barometer of enjoyment and satisfaction that can’t be ignored.   Typically it’s not so cut and dried though.  A modeler may be somewhat content while, at the same time, have the subtle feeling that boredom is creeping in without really knowing why.

Having established there is no right or wrong way to pursue the hobby, if your enjoyment level is a six out of ten then why not explore ways to get it to an eight or nine, whatever path that takes?

This takes me to the point of the discussion, selecting the theme for your layout.  Personally, I feel modelers limit themselves by being way too quick to settle on a totally generic, themeless model railroad.  This approach is often driven by randomly accumulating whatever freight car or structure catches the eye on a particular day and then bending the layout to incorporate said purchases.  This isn’t so important on a first layout where the goal should be skills development.  However, by the time you’re on layout two it’s an important enough subject to give more than lip service to.  The second factor that drives this malaise is a lack of self awareness as to what we find satisfying (or perhaps having the self awareness but not accepting it).

With three and a half decades in the hobby, my fly on the wall perspective is that those modelers that base their layouts on a specific place get more enjoyment and a deeper satisfaction out of the hobby.  This isn’t a prototype vs. freelance discussion.  Note that I said theme ‘based’ upon a place that they draw inspiration from.  You can have a quasi freelance layout that is still tied closely to a specific town.  Also I want to be crystal clear that I said ‘get more enjoyment and satisfaction’ from the hobby.  I didn’t say they were superior, better modelers, or higher and mightier, just more content as a group.

A major part of the payoff comes from the fact that once you pick a specific place to model, you open up a second world totally separate from model building, the thrill of discovery associated with exploring and learning about the town(s) you are modeling.  You get as much satisfaction from delving into the details and culture of the town as you do the modeling.  Every month seems to unveil an ‘aha’ moment of “I didn’t know that about town X, even if it’s your own home town’.

Let’s face it, model railroader’s are odd ducks in terms of what they find fascinating.  They are blissfully content exploring the back roads of Livingston, MT, Altoona, PA, North Little Rock, AR or Compton, CA.   Given the choice between Disneyworld or being trackside watching a Los Angeles Junction switcher working a ratty industry in our twisted minds we’d pick the LAJ trip every time.

That being the case, have the self awareness to recognize and acknowledge our fascination with these places that the tour buses deliberately avoid.  Model a specific location and delve into it as deeply as your time and resources allow.  Visit the town.  Talk to the locals at the diner.  Track down the employees that work or worked there.   Go beyond the tracks and learn what makes the town tick.  Continually re-visit.  Immerse yourself and enjoy the thrill of discovery.  The more you learn, the more fascinating the place becomes and the more satisfying it becomes having a miniature version of it in your basement.

How do you pick a location?  First, you need to know what aspects of the hobby you enjoy most.  If you enjoy switching operations, certainly you want a spot that has that activity.  If your interest is more in tune with modeling scenes and less so on operations, factor that in.  How much of the line still exists?  The more that still exists, the more interesting in my view.  That’s why I enjoy modeling the modern era so much.   The location has to be something that pushes your buttons, a place that produces an emotional response, regardless of what others think.  Finally, given the limitations of space and time we all have it’s unrealistic to think we can model much of even a mid-size town.  Modeling a small portion of it well will hit the spot.

Not a month goes by where somebody doesn’t email me a fascinating industrial park that I didn’t even know existed.  Sadly I know most of these deserving themes will never be modeled.  At the same time every time we open a model railroad magazine there’s another generic layout, built by a modeler that is ‘pretty happy’.  Maybe that’s you, you’re pretty happy, fairly satisfied.  Don’t you owe it to yourself to at least consider the possibility that there is another approach to the hobby that would make you even happier and more satisfied?   Food for thought when your current layout has run its course and you’re faced with a clean piece of paper and ready to start anew.

Using Likely Op. Session Length To Determine The Best Size for Your Layout

Topic: Model Railroad Layout Design

How much  layout do you need to do accomplish what’s important to you? I mean, realistically, how much model railroad do you REALLY need to be satisfied?  Most newcomers, and many veterans, grossly over estimate their requirements and by doing so create a lot of unnecessary expense and angst for themselves.  Certainly there are many factors that could go into determining how large of a layout you design for yourself.  My hunch however is that, as a hobby, we are so petrified that our layout will be too small that we pursue the subject with blinders on.   With no basis in reality, many begin the design process from the negative viewpoint that they don’t have enough space. Every decision is based on the shoehorn strategy.  How do I shoehorn in “one more industry, one more turnout”.  This panic driven approach to layout design often results in model railroads that are too large for the individual’s lifestyle and frequently never get built.   In those cases where the layout does get built the owner may find they designed in far, far more operational capacity than they could ever hope to utilize.  The visual result is a model railroad packed with overly compressed, unrealistic scenes.

Unlike the hobby as a whole, the majority of the followers of this website are interested in operations.  Many are just starting, or are about to start, construction of their first layout.   A fair number of folks have a generous amount of space available.  (They may not realize it yet but they do.)

So, if your primary interest is operations and space is adequate, how much capacity do you design in?   How many industries or car spots do you need to get the satisfaction you want from the layout?   If you had a thousand square foot basement would you design a layout to use all of it?  Of course not, you’d never be able to utilize that much capacity.

To start we need to know a few things:  How often will we operate alone, how often will we operate with guests, and finally, how long do we want an operating session to last.  I’m going to divide op. sessions into two types.  The first is the full blown session with guests.  Outside feedback continues to confirm that most guests start getting burned out at the three hour mark.  Three hours (or a bit less) is generally the ideal session length when guests are over.   However, this is the upper end of session length.  The frequency of these sessions with guests should also be taken into account.   Despite the best of intentions, for most people these full blown/guest operator sessions don’t happen nearly as often as they initially thought, perhaps three or four times a year max.

By far the most common op. session scenario is the layout owner running by himself, or it least it should be.  Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a session has to be the full three hour deal with guests vs. nothing at all.   For planning purposes assume that when you’re running by yourself that you go for twenty minutes to an hour at most.  Let’s say you do this once or twice a week (ideally more).

At this point we know the lay of the land.   If  the maximum load on our layout is when we have guest operators over, we only need enough capacity for, at most, a three hour session.

Now we get to the design part.  The key question is this, how much layout does it take to create a three operating hour session?  How many industries, or to be more accurate, how many car spots do we need?   This is where people get into trouble.  It takes far less layout than you would think because the individual operational tasks take far longer than you’d think.

It takes about eight industries.   Eight industries will give you a three hour session.  Certainly there will be some variation in this number depending on the type of industry but this is a good starting point.  It certainly isn’t fifteen or twenty (or fifty).

If you have the space, it doesn’t hurt to put in a few extra to allow for some variety from session to session.  If you had a dozen industries that would give you enough cushion so each session wouldn’t be identical.   I don’t view this as being critical though because in the real world there IS a fair amount of repetition from week to week.  The larger, more active customers, are often switched every session.  Remember also that the full blown, three hour session is the exception not the rule.

Of those eight industries I’d shoot for:

  • 1 or 2 industries that have three or more car spots each.
  • 4 or 5 that have just one or two car spots.
  • A couple of team track locations on the main for unloading into the street or a parking lot.

This is just a guide though.  A basic two track corn syrup facility could take two or three hours by itself to be switched (which by the way is the design solution if you don’t room for eight industries).

If your design starts running to more than a dozen industries, you may be designing in and building in more capacity than you can utilize.

There may be other reasons beyond operational variety for having a larger layout but, you have to start asking yourself some very pointed questions as to what you are accomplishing  with the extra capacity and square footage.

DowntownSpurOps

The diagram above shows the tasks from my last op. session.  I had a guest over and it took about three hours.   There were no tricks or complexities, the guest made no operational errors, and we worked at a realistic but relaxed pace.  The work at the two scrap yards was about as simple as it gets, swapping loads for empties.  Even so the first 55 minutes of the session were spent here.  It took about 20 minutes to swap out a load for an empty at Trujillo and about 25 minutes working the two industries on the switchback (which required particularly slow speed running and the use of fusee’s for the grade crossings).  The rest of the time was spent on the remaining industries, running down the main, brake tests, and pausing to review the paperwork.  Note that there were many industries that were NOT worked.  The two scrap yards, Trujillo Foods, and Family & Son would be switched every session.