After my last post, Tolga went back and re-shot his OMNI Logistics photo under better conditions. Note the loading ramp on the far right of the photo.Thanks Tolga!
After my post on the “Easy Money” design, I received a few emails asking how it would be operated so let’s take a step back and talk about that.
To begin, this plan isn’t meant to sustain two hour op. sessions for multiple crews. I see it as something you could have a thirty to forty-five minute solo session with. Life is going to be much easier if you don’t jam the layout full of cars. I’d have four or five in the yard and an equal amount at the warehouse. The loco. would be idling outside of the yard office to start. He’d start by sorting the cars in the yard so they are in the correct order for the doors at the warehouse. Once that’s done, he’d shove to the warehouse. Using the incoming loads as a handle, the empties would be pulled out and put on the sorting track. The loads would then be spotted at the correct doors. The cars don’t stay there as a coupled train. There would be gaps between cars and the brake wheels set on each. The empties are then pulled back back to the yard. Work at the interchange yard, if any, would be a simple out and back move. Spotting a car at the team track would be a simple move from the yard. Keep in mind that not every industry is worked every session and not every door at the warehouse is used every session.
You could add a fun twist by having some cars at the warehouse still in the process of being unloaded which would require them to be pulled out of the way and re-spotted. Another twist would be a scenario where there isn’t enough room at the warehouse for all of the incoming cars requiring them be placed “off spot” on the sorting track until room frees up later on.
In order to keep the layout from becoming overly congested with cars, store those not involved in the op. session on a nearby open top shelf.
This is railroading and it’s happening now. Tolga Erbora caught FEC’s CIS local down in the dirt and earning revenue as it works OMNI Transload, a logistics warehouse in Miami.
It was over a decade ago when I sat in on a seminar at Cocoa Beach presented by the late TJ Bissett, a CSX conductor. The subject of the talk was switching logistics warehouses, Saddle Creek to be specific. The talk was fascinating and I could see right away that the subject had major layout design implications from the standpoint of creating challenging and plausible operating scenarios in the smallest of spaces. From a design standpoint they are “free money”. Let’s take at a look at these fascinating facilities as well as how to incorporate them into a layout design.
From the outside a logistics warehouse looks like a single industry, a nondescript “box”. It’s not. These facilities are leased out to a variety of small tenants that want rail service but can’t justify having their own spur. What looks like a building with eight or nine cargo doors is actually four, five, six, (or more) totally independent industries. As such they take a variety of car types ranging from standard boxes, Hi Cubes, standard reefers, block-out-the-sun massive reefers, and tank cars of all varieties. (Note: Tolga wrote me later to add, “The OMNI airport location also has handled flatcars with steel beams and centerbeam flats with forklifts being able to unload on the asphalt to the east side or I believe on a small easement on both sides.”)
Operationally they are a gift from gods. When a local arrives on the scene, cars needed to be spotted at specific doors. The food service industry is going to be pretty pissed if they open the cargo door and see a box of lumber spotted there! Further complicating things (or making it more interesting) is that when the local comes on the scene some of the cars on site may not have been unloaded yet. That means they need to be moved out of the way, the new loads spotted, and then the yet-to-be unloaded cars put back.
The nature of the warehouses is such that they could be easily modeled with a relatively flat structure. Even a model with four or five doors could take thirty to forty-five minutes to switch….and that’s a layout design opportunity!
A reefer sits in front of OMNI transload in Miami. Note that on most days not every single door has a car in front of it.
Tolga Erbora got this rare catch in front of OMNI a few days ago. We aren’t exactly sure what the contents of the tanks are since the placards would indicate it’s not food related. So, here we have some variety, tanks and boxcars.
OMNI transload from street side. Note the pallets of lumber which came in on boxcars.
The Cryo-Trans reefers spotted in front of this logistics warehouse in Baltimore likely contain wine. Not visible is a sorting track just behind the guard rail. Note the boxcar for a different tenant. What’s going on with the three extra reefers on the sorting track? Those are “offspots” . When they came in, the reefers at the door were still being unloaded and were in the way. When they’ve been dealt with, the local will pull them and put the offspots in place to be unloaded.
The Design
A well thought out design covers a lot of bases. It should be interesting to look at when you’re not running trains and offer up a variety of building projects that are fun for the layout owner. It should be plausible. It should be straightforward to build. The plan shown here could be made operational within a weekend and is within reach of a high school student. It also offers plenty of meat for the more experience detailed modeler. If you used Atlas code 83 track the cost would be minimal. Using Atlas’ sectional track 24 inch curves would further simplify things. I’ve include photo wallpaper for the warehouse in the How To section of this site. The “negative space” section in the middle contains no spurs and creates a sense of distance between the yard and warehouse. There is more than enough going on with the plan that putting more track here serves no purpose other than to be an eyesore.
The team track at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore. These take a variety of cars for customers that don’t have their own spur. The tanks in this shot are for an environmental services firm across town. They offer the chance to incorporate a broad variety of car types in a small space.
OMNI Transload, a logistics warehouse, is the latest addition to my new East Rail 2 layout.
Because logistics warehouses offer a lot of operational potential in a limited amount of space, they make ideal candidates for smaller layouts. On my original incarnation of East Rail I had two steel warehouses sitting on the banks of the canal. Although I was happy with their look, they really weren’t that plausible for a South Florida scene where most of the warehouses are made of block and stucco to withstand hurricanes. The new layout offers an opportunity to fix small details like this.
In the real world the OMNI warehouses are served by the FEC and located a mile or so away from East Rail. I took some artistic license and used them for inspiration anyway. Shown above is their facility at the IRIS crossing. Since I didn’t have 90 degree front view shots of this particular location, I used similar looking warehouses that I had better photos of.
I’ve put the photo wallpaper file in the “How To” section if anybody wants to make their own version. Print the image out at 2 3/4″ tall.
The last several weeks have centered on scratch building palms, scenery detailing, and some Alkem chain link fencing. Momentum is building and I can see the look of the old layout coming back to life, albeit in a subtly refined form.
A close up view of the canal leg. Miami Iron and Metal will be in the foreground.
Just for fun here’s a shot of the original layout taken around 2011 or so.
The corner “L” of the layout.
Here’s an overall view of the canal leg. The logistics warehouse is a stand in. The final version will maintain these dimensions and door spacing but will likely take on a much different overall look.
A more refined and updated version of the track plan.
One of the reasons Miami continues to be a popular destination for tourists and travelers is its close proximity to Latin America and its even closer proximity to the Caribbean.
Now, who else would figure out and work with such a geographic advantage? Businesspeople, shippers, and logistics personnel.
As Miami International Airport grew as a premier travel destination following the post-World War II boom, global trade has too. One of the results of this? Industrial development west of the airport, in the form of Cargo City and Commerce Park.
Both Cargo City and Commerce Park initially had ample rail access. It appeared the Seaboard Coast Line took advantage of Cargo City more, based on the orientation of the track switches to the several dockside industrial leads. However, in the late 1980s through the 1990s, the needs seemed to shift more towards plane-to-truck (and intermodal, for that matter), and the entire area was reconfigured to boast warehouses transloading straight from cargo plane to truck. No train, sadly. Commerce Park, served by the FEC, webbed out south and west of the initial juncture at NW 25th Street near NW 67th Avenue. A few lineside customers lined the Kendall Branch mainline, but the majority of leads swung into warehouse canyons developed in the 1970s in about a square mile of land, reaching as far west as the Palmetto Expressway. Despite an incredible scaleback, some portions of this development remain rail served, with the main apex really situated at the NW 25th Street crossing.
Naturally, the premise of this entry will be on the tangible, and still somewhat extant, FEC Commerce Park region.
Caption 1: The map of the entire built-out Commerce Park district. Up to three switchback operations made for interesting switching. Sadly, two of those faded away in the 1990s, leaving just the one in the following image.
Caption 2: Rough estimate of present, somewhat serviceable track. The lead extending past the red curve still exists but was taken out of service.
Larry Burk sums it perfectly: “That used to be a really hot job. You needed a lot of seniority to hold it. On duty 7:30am with Sunday/Monday off. And it was a fun switch. Lots of one and two car spots.”
By the 2000s it seemed railcar service became marginal to almost nonexistent. As a trucking solution the park seemed to thrive. However, it seemed that nothing really west of Milam Dairy Road supported freight rail service, or FEC just didn’t want to go through the trouble of operating over all this circuitous trackage to serve them. They would park a GP9 or GP38-2 around the curve close to the 25th Street and Palmetto Expressway interchange, but that’s about it. Maybe there were a couple customers deep in the park which did get cars, but were out of view of the main artery. The park’s fate was sealed around 2006 when it was all pulled back to just shy of NW 72nd Ave, Milam Dairy Road.
Two line-side customers on the mainline south of 25th Street continued receiving cars until the mid 2010s. Amerigas had a sizable distribution facility at the crossing, viewable from the road. Airport Brick also had a spot about a quarter mile down. A team track frequently handled transloads at NW 16th Street before moving up to NW 25th Street, the present location. Both of these folded in the mid 2010s.
Alpinos Distribution for the longest time handled boxcar service in a lengthy warehouse by 25th Street. Banner Supply, still rail served, receives gypsum and building materials in centerbeam flats. Next to it was a warehouse which regularly received boxcars. Beer is my guess. However, when the owner changed in 2010, there went the rail service. It’s in the background in this January 2017 image of a rather unusual move….
Unusual, but not as much as one may think. In recent years the Ringling Brothers Circus train used less active Commerce Park trackage to park their train. I had a field day catching the very scrappy last departure pull, which unfortunately came with a small derailment due to the erroneous choice to use an SD40-2 to pull it.
A more favorable move in less favorable weather…
Caption: The 2016 Red Unit of the Ringling Brothers Circus Train spots the passenger portion on the “Jordan Marsh” lead, presumably named for the department store having a distribution facility here. It is always the original or old names that stick.
We hit the present day. Alpinos became the second location of Omni Transloading and Logistics, and is served almost daily. Banner Supply still gets cars a couple times a month. The team track serves a variety of clients which now include Ocean Lumber, FP&T (for NS), Associated Waste Services, and Raven Environmental.
Caption: FEC job 10 (11:00 AM job) works Omni Transloading, which here receives beer in boxcars from Monterrey, Mexico. The contract sends the beer from Ferromex over the road on a nearly dedicated Union Pacific manifest and on to CSX and FEC. This industry also occasionally handles centerbeams, open flats, and reefers with potatoes.
Caption: FEC’s 12:30 am yard job pulls two empty centerbeams from Banner Supply, which receives gypsum drywall by rail. Two potential customers sit in the immediate view of the shot, but do not ship by rail. The warehouse to the right was last served by FEC in 2009, but has not reeled in a tenant that needs their services ever since.
The latest and greatest addition to “The Park” is Quality Container. They have been a slowly looming presence in the area, a mini inland port if you will. They took up a lease of about 200,000 sf of land south of 25th Street and ramp intermodal. Most of it comes from and goes to PortMiami but there have been contracts with domestic destinations as well.
Caption: A Florida East Coast yard job pulls a cut of wells from Quality Container.
Quality Container uses land that once held the former south yard leads that would continue the line down to Florida City. Despite having a good carload base, it did not seem profitable enough for FEC to sustain it for much longer. FEC’s push towards more intermodal and rock service in the 1980s led them to sell the right of way to the County and truncate rail service to Bird Road, where three customers still remained south of Miami Int’l Airport. This line handled whatever carload business remained, whatever interchange they had with CSX at Oleander (just south of here) and swing moves for autoracks being switched at the old autoramp, which is now the South Florida Logistics Center. FEC would also store cars on the loop by the airport, a practice they do to this day. All of this activity faded away as time went on, with only storage moves and special interchange happening south of here.
This facilitated making Quality the primary use of this stretch of track, as well as realigning the track to serve their needs, an interesting operational move. It’s clear the track would have had to be more arrow-straight than in the picture above.
But the silver lining is a more visually appealing scene.
This storied history, the childhood memories of the old activity that I used to see, and the incredible similarity of these scenes to the impressions that Lance has laid out inspired a layout to be made. It is nowhere near presentable at the moment, but the video above does give the gist of what has been done so far. Unsurprisingly, it is a concrete and asphalt jungle, so the scenery process has to be done patiently. However, the process is quite enjoyable and encourages the relaxing pace that should be philosophized for layout building.
