Container Yard


Larry

Larry

Long Winded Old Fart
I'm getting ready to add a large container yard to my layout. It will be 34" wide & 16ft long. Should I route out the plywood where the track is going or just leave it at the top of the plywood like everything else on the layout?

In the pictures in the magazines it shows the tracks embedded in concrete.
I was going to route out the width of the ties & then fill everything back in w/sheetrock mudd. There's going to be 4 tracks w/2 turnouts hooked into 1 of the mainlines. I haven't did any of the actual planning for the tracks. I'll do that after I get the tables built. Not using steel this time for tables, will be all pressure treated wood. one by 6's & 1 by 4's.

Larry:D
 
Larry, being an Intermodal modeler, im looking forward to seeing you progress and seeing some pics. Sounds like you have a very large space for the intermodal yard!!

Looking forward to some progress!! Ive always wanted to do a intermoal yard, but i just dont have the space to do one right now lol
 
Most intermodal yards are covered in asphalt, cheaper and more plyable than concrete. Either way, I would not use drywall mud, too much shrinkage, long drying times creating tons and tons of cracks. A lot of people use scultpamold. Dries quicker, almost no cracks from shrinkage.

There have been many articles and how to's on doing asphalt and concrete to cover tracks. I would lay the tracks directly on your plywood or foam, and cover them with sculptamold. Work slowly and sections at a time, using a junker car to clean out the flangeways. It is a tedious process, however you do it, but done right, it looks fabulous.
 
It will be at least a month before I will have the money to buy the wood for the tables & then I can easily build it in a day. I wasn't thinking right about the mudd(you're right about the shrinkage). I meant to say Patching Plaster. On a layout before this one I had 2 tracks running thru the streets & I used plaster to fill in around the tracks & it worked out real well. Never had any cracks. I used a Kadee track gage to groove the plaster for the wheel flange. I may do the asphalt thing instead of the concrete. Would probably be easier to do in a large space.
 
Laidoffsick said:
Most intermodal yards are covered in asphalt, cheaper and more plyable than concrete. Either way, I would not use drywall mud, too much shrinkage, long drying times creating tons and tons of cracks. A lot of people use scultpamold. Dries quicker, almost no cracks from shrinkage.

There have been many articles and how to's on doing asphalt and concrete to cover tracks. I would lay the tracks directly on your plywood or foam, and cover them with sculptamold. Work slowly and sections at a time, using a junker car to clean out the flangeways. It is a tedious process, however you do it, but done right, it looks fabulous.
Click to expand...


I missed your question about the tracks in an indermodal yard i guess lol

anyways, most of the intermodal yards that i have seen are concrete, but i have seen quite a few that are asphalt as well. Either way they both look good.

if your up for itand fairly patient person, i would highly suggesting using the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It road System. The stuff yeilds great results with some patients.

get yourself some Woodland Scenics Sculptamold, lay a coat of that down in and around the tracks, really all your doing is creating a base layer for the Smooth-It. This layer of the sculptamold does not have to be smooth at all, just make sure its a fairly thin coat and it does not come above the tops of the ties anywhere in the yard.

Take the Woodland Scenics Paving Tape and lay strips of it about 5-6" apart, i forget how wide the piece of plastic is that comes with the pack of paving tape, but that is the spreader you use to smooth the smooth-it


Next use the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It and mix it up with some water to get a mixture to the consistance of a medium to thick paste. Make sure you mix it well so there are no chunks of powder. Pour it over the area you want to have covered to represent concrete/asphalt, smooth it out so only the tops of the railheads are visable. This first coat of Smooth-It is a base coat and does not have to be absoultely smooth at all, its just a rough coat to get you started. While this is drying, take a NMRA HO scale standards track gauge and use the "Flangewheels" tool on the gauge to carve out the wheel flangeways for the tracks. This doesnt have to be perfect, just needs to be somewhat carved out so that it doesnt dry solid

After this is dry, remove any Paving Tape you may have used for the first coat of Smooth-It. On the second coat you mix up, make this one more watery. Fill in the gaps from the paving tape, and smooth out any gaps, dips.... that were left from the first coat of smooth-it. This coat is the semi smooth coat, so you want to try and make this coat smooth. Fill in the flangeways that you carved out with the NMRA Guage, making sure that the areas between the rails are semi-smooth. Its okay if these areas and the areas on the outsides of the rails are not perfect, as they are never smooth on the prototype.

While this second coat is drying, take your NMRA Guage and dig the flangways out again. At this point, the rails tops should be level with the yard, with only the flangeways dug out.

When this coat is dry, go over it one more time with a finer coat of Smooth-It. This is the final coat and this coat is to get any remaining dips.... smoothed out and smooth. 1 coat after this may be required also, depending on your preferences.

This is the way i do my grade crossings, and with a little patients and time, you get great results

Here are a couple pictures of one of my grade crossings i had on my old shelf layout

SL371280.png


SL371281.png


SL371282.png


I plan on doing a tutorial on this when i start some of my modules, but until then, i hope this helps
 
The only problem w/the Sculpamold is the cost. I can buy a bag of patching plaster for $11.00 which is 40 pounds. I'm talking about 16ft long by 34 in.'s wide. That would take a bundle of WS Sculpamold($$$$) to cover that much space. I do the patching plaster about the same way. I start out w/a cover coat(I paint the bare wood w/any color of latex 1st.)of plaster & then put it on in layers so it will dry correctly. Then I add more thinner coats until I get the correct thickness. same as you did w/the other stuff.
Anyway, I'm going to experiment w/ a few diff. idea's & see what looks best. I'm a penny pincher when it comes to using local available products & usually what I end up works great(usually).

Larry
 
Larry, hows this for a view of the yard. San Bernardino uses wheeled cranes, similar to the Walthers Mi-jack. The pad around the tracks is Concrete, to be more stable for the crane. The rest is blacktop. The area's to turn the cranes, at the ends of the loading ramps are concrete.
 
Thanks Josh for the photo's. I'll use them in the makeup of the yards.

Larry
 
is there anyone on this forum that has a lot of containers they want to get rid of cheap?
At the last train show(Ft.Myers) I went to in Nov. of 2008 I got 15 for $15.00 & 15--53ft trailers for $15.00. I used up all the containers on my MT well cars, so, I need about 100 to 150 to populate the new yard. Probably have to make a bunch myself out of styrene sheet. saw a company in MRR mag that makes decals for your present fleet of containers. I could make my own HO scale decals & do the same thing.(maybe)

Larry
 
Larry The yards I have been in around Chicago had everthing from concrete black top and plane old gravel.

most of the older yards used blacktop as its cost was 1/2 of that than concrete. Some of the upgraded yads are now all going with Concrete as it last longer and the trucks and equipment can move around better on the smoother surface. I remember as a kid going to work in dads truck, the Conrail and IC yards just had a paved road along the tracks and then gravel where the trailers were parked. I think Josh has the best plan to sink the tracks below grade. this is how I make grade crossings and it works well. As for the trailers same some $$$ and cut out some styreen and use them to make it look like trailer tops and ends. build a wall or 2 with real ones then add the fake ones. Dont forget that intermodal are not just filled with containers. trailers and chassie frames fill up a large part of a yard.


cant wait to see pics!
Trent
 
Larry said:
Meaning of that Please?:confused:
Click to expand...

Meaning that the switches are not surrounded by concrete, they are left open so no loose materials get stuck in them and prevent the switch from operating correctly

And i said i used Sculptamold in my last post about the crossings/imbeding tracks, i was mistaken, i use Woodland Scenics Create-A-Scene Plaster, comes in a large carton like the Smooth-It
 
you should also consider taking a look at styrene for a container yard, no mess, easy to paint, easy to glue details to.
I used styrene in my paper mill with tracks embedded and had great results. I have also used the Walthers street track inserts for the switches, also happy with the results.
 
I used styrene sheets for roads, building bases & some scratchbuilt buildings. The bldg. roofs were OK, but everything else warped real bad. The heat in my building caused everything to pop up that was sitting on it. I glued it down real good w/the proper adhesive, but, it still poped up in places. I had to rip it all up & start over. Getting the glue off the boards were the biggest headache. That took me about a week working 2 or 3 hrs. a day. So, styrene base isn't for me. I'll stick to embedding the track in the plywood base & then finishing it off w/whatever works best.
I want to THANK everyone for the idea's & keep them coming. I'm always open to other venues of idea's. Like they say we learn from our mistakes(most of the time).
I probably have enough sheet plastic to cover 50 layouts totally & when I got it for free that was my thinking.

larry
 
Laidoffsick said:
Either way, I would not use drywall mud, too much shrinkage, long drying times creating tons and tons of cracks. A lot of people use scultpamold. Dries quicker, almost no cracks from shrinkage.
Click to expand...

That is why when we use drywall mud for our layouts you need to go with extremely thin coats and layer it with 4 or 5 coats. This way the effect is minimal, plus you can cover a LOT more ground with a bucket of joint compound than you can sculptamold.

Most intermodal facilities I have seen are paved in concrete, or at least the truck routes and crane pads were. It depends on the facility.
 
The concrete also covers the major utlities at the end of each strip track at the A-Yard and also at Hobart. And the big concrete pillars at the end of each track with a number and light have been replaced several times each as the truck drivers cut the turn to many times and knock them over. They pour new ones quite often. ;)
 
Trucklover said:
I missed your question about the tracks in an indermodal yard i guess lol

anyways, most of the intermodal yards that i have seen are concrete, but i have seen quite a few that are asphalt as well. Either way they both look good.

if your up for itand fairly patient person, i would highly suggesting using the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It road System. The stuff yeilds great results with some patients.

get yourself some Woodland Scenics Sculptamold, lay a coat of that down in and around the tracks, really all your doing is creating a base layer for the Smooth-It. This layer of the sculptamold does not have to be smooth at all, just make sure its a fairly thin coat and it does not come above the tops of the ties anywhere in the yard.

Take the Woodland Scenics Paving Tape and lay strips of it about 5-6" apart, i forget how wide the piece of plastic is that comes with the pack of paving tape, but that is the spreader you use to smooth the smooth-it


Next use the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It and mix it up with some water to get a mixture to the consistance of a medium to thick paste. Make sure you mix it well so there are no chunks of powder. Pour it over the area you want to have covered to represent concrete/asphalt, smooth it out so only the tops of the railheads are visable. This first coat of Smooth-It is a base coat and does not have to be absoultely smooth at all, its just a rough coat to get you started. While this is drying, take a NMRA HO scale standards track gauge and use the "Flangewheels" tool on the gauge to carve out the wheel flangeways for the tracks. This doesnt have to be perfect, just needs to be somewhat carved out so that it doesnt dry solid

After this is dry, remove any Paving Tape you may have used for the first coat of Smooth-It. On the second coat you mix up, make this one more watery. Fill in the gaps from the paving tape, and smooth out any gaps, dips.... that were left from the first coat of smooth-it. This coat is the semi smooth coat, so you want to try and make this coat smooth. Fill in the flangeways that you carved out with the NMRA Guage, making sure that the areas between the rails are semi-smooth. Its okay if these areas and the areas on the outsides of the rails are not perfect, as they are never smooth on the prototype.

While this second coat is drying, take your NMRA Guage and dig the flangways out again. At this point, the rails tops should be level with the yard, with only the flangeways dug out.

When this coat is dry, go over it one more time with a finer coat of Smooth-It. This is the final coat and this coat is to get any remaining dips.... smoothed out and smooth. 1 coat after this may be required also, depending on your preferences.

This is the way i do my grade crossings, and with a little patients and time, you get great results

Here are a couple pictures of one of my grade crossings i had on my old shelf layout

SL371280.png


SL371281.png


SL371282.png


I plan on doing a tutorial on this when i start some of my modules, but until then, i hope this helps
Click to expand...

You lost with the paving tape. Where are you putting the 5-6" strips of paving tape?

Larry
 
I do all of my crossings w/Mudd. On the real rough crossings I leave the cracks.
 
Larry,

you only need to put strips of paving tape 5-6" apart if your road will be wider then 6", if your road is only 4" wide then you would only need tape on either side and pour the Smooth-It in between and smooth it out. if your road is to be wider then 6" then you need to space the tape out so the smoother will reach all the way across to the other piece of tape

take a look at this pic, it shows how i had to lay the paving tape out so i could spread the mixture with the provided spreader:

4-2.png


This is on my photo diorama, as you can see i had to lay the paving tape so that i could use the plastic spreader easily on the right side of the picture where the road was supposed to go. I even had to do a little triangle so the spreader would reach across from paving tape to paving tape. Either do this or get a larger/longer spreader then the one that is provided by WS with the paving tape. The spreader that comes with it is in the bottom right of the picture.

This is what it looked like after the Smooth-It was poured in:

5-4.png


And this is what it looks like when the paving tape is pulled up:

6-2.png


After this you have to fill in where the paving tape was:

10-1.png


And a look after final sanding and painting:

12-1.png
 
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