Model Railroad Blog

Miami Jai-Alai November 15

When I finished Miami Jai-Alai awhile back, I basically just plopped it on the layout surface. Over the last several weeks I’ve been working in details and vegetation around the base and around the perimeter. The bus is to ship the gamblers in!

Here’s how it looks from the back….more trees, a dumpster, and a storage trailer.

Another “One Turnout” Layout

Two boxcars sit at Family & Son, a foot products company in Miami, circa 2006. The two blue storage tanks in the foreground are for vegetable oil. This scene would be ideal for a small shelf layout and would provide a lot of operation fun as well.

I’ve been doing more and more short “mini op. sessions” lately. I find myself gravitating to one industry in particular, Family & Son. F&S is a Hispanic and Caribbean food producer that takes incoming boxcars and tanks which I suspect contain some form of food based oil . Finished product goes out via truck only. Working it is fairly simple and fun, but not necessarily quick. Typically it takes ten to fifteen minutes.

A number of years ago I published a plan called the one turnout layout. My intent wasn’t for it to be any sort of gimmick. The point was that something simple could still provide several years of construction fun and be realistic to operate. It occurred to me that Family and Son could serve as another “One Turnout” layout design.

The visual portion of the layout is 12 feet long by 16 inches deep, attainable for an apartment dweller, beginner, or somebody with limited time. You’d want to work in a few feet of staging, at least on the right side. The industry itself is forty inches long.

Operations are fairly straightforward but do vary from day to day. An incoming train does a trailing point move exchanging loads for empties. Sometimes it’s tanks, others it’s boxes, often it’s both. Sometimes two tanks, sometimes two boxes. Boxcars are often hi-cubes. It’s still active today. Tolga Erbora produced a YouTube video showing the prototype in action.

Here’s another photo showing a tank car on location.

To give you a sense of context, here’s where the F&S scene is on the layout as a whole.

Finally, a few photos of the scene on the layout….

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Grab N Go Staging

This weekend’s project was adding another shelf for my open top staging. These are floating shelves with a 1 1/2″ trim strip on top to keep the cars from rolling off. Steve Jobs big thing was his obsession with ergonomics and the user experience. A lot of this is subtle. I find that if I need to rummage through boxes in storage to find a car, I’m not likely to do it. With the shelves you can quickly cycle them on and off the layout.

The 1300 Block of 22nd Street, NW

In preparation for my upcoming open house for the Mid-Atlantic RPM, I put on a little push to finish up the scene between 13th and 14th Avenues on The Downtown Spur/Miami layout. In the shot above you’re looking west/northwest. 22nd Street is in the foreground. Right to left we have: Global Snacks, Dade Tomato, and South Appliances (aka the “Jesus Saves” building. The right of way runs behind these buildings.

Here’s the same block looking east. 14th Avenue is on the left.

Here’s an overall shot facing north.