My new (and maybe improved) layout


A2TwrOpr

A2TwrOpr

Member
Figured it was time to post a few pics of my layout progress. The old milwaukee road one was good but didn't do exactly what I had hoped for. So after some serious research and thinking I came up with a new plan. This one will be a modern industrial switching layout but also have some country feel to it.
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this will be the more country area with a corn field, team track, elevator, and grocery distributor.
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The town will be located here. I'm planning to have a diner, classic car resto company, and some misc buildings
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The track curves out of town passing the trucking company (front track) and fruit company (rear track). There's a run around track here that holds 6-7 cars.
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This will be the location of Mars candy, and nonrail served industries.
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Looking down the main, we've got more industries ( still to be determined)
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The recycling company is on your left in the foreground, inland cement to the right and a cabinet company to left at top corner. The track still needs to be laid for them. I'm debating making a 1 or 2 track staging yard that would actually come off the cabinet company's spur and run 6 inches off the wall for about 6.5 feet. I'm not sure about it though.
 
Looks fun. About an hour of operating in 1 session? I like it except for that turnout by the red grain elevator. I would change it to a left hand to eliminate the double 'S' it creates.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Looks fun. About an hour of operating in 1 session? I like it except for that turnout by the red grain elevator. I would change it to a left hand to eliminate the double 'S' it creates.
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It's funny that you mention that turn out. It's been giving me some issues with cars derailing when they go over it. None of the track is spiked so it would be easy to replace or change.
It takes about 45 minutes to operate the layout. The big companies like Mars, inland cement and the fruit company all take cars the most frequently. I'm thinking of having cars go from the fruit company to the grocery distributor to add another dimension to the crews work. What do you guys think?
 
A2TwrOpr said:
... I'm thinking of having cars go from the fruit company to the grocery distributor to add another dimension to the crews work. What do you guys think?
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You may want to avoid having industries in close proximity [i.e. served by the same way-freight] exchanging their goods by rail - not very realistic; in real life the grocery distributor would just have the fruit trucked over. I recommend having the refrigerator cars coming from unseen shippers far away, i.e. staging. You'll still have the same amount of switching activity.
 
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CSX_road_slug said:
You may want to avoid having industries in close proximity [i.e. served by the same way-freight] exchanging their goods by rail - not very realistic; in real life the grocery distributor would just have the fruit trucked over. I recommend having the refrigerator cars coming from unseen shippers far away, i.e. staging. You'll still have the same amount of switching activity.
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Thanks for the input. I wasn't sure how realistic it would be to have cars go from one online company to another.
 
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Last night I started another business for the layout. This will be a grocery distributor. It's a pikestuff truck transfer kit that I kitbashed. Right now it's just kind of mocked up, but hopefully you get the idea of how it will look. I also got my track all painted finally.
 
For a novice about prototypical model railroads like me, this is a great thread to follow!
 
logandsawman said:
It looks like you just took a can of spray paint and painted the track that way? How does that work

lasm
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Ya I paint my track too. For track thats already laid down, I mask off the area and rattle can spay paint it. Using rail brown and dusting of black. The new track I'm laying right now I'm painting before I secure it down. Rubbing some oil on the top of the rails before painting enables you to clean it with paint thinner easier.
 
that sounds way to easy, I tried painting my rails only with the wc stick and then with a small paint brush when I thought that would be easier, and it works but boy does that take time. Wish I would have painted the whole mess outside before I started, would have saved a ton of time.

lasm
 
logandsawman said:
that sounds way to easy, I tried painting my rails only with the wc stick and then with a small paint brush when I thought that would be easier, and it works but boy does that take time. Wish I would have painted the whole mess outside before I started, would have saved a ton of time.

lasm
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Yep I did that too. Some parts of my layout, I had already ballasted the track, and was using the floquil paint pens. Very tedious work. Now I've learned my lesson. Paint track before laying it down.
 
Thanks fellas. I just laid the track, and then hit it with some different brown spray paints. Be sure to clean it as you go though. Otherwise it's a pain to clean!
 
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Some more progress shots of the grocery dist. I've gotta fix the roof, it's sagging in the middle and have to decal and weather is still also. The CNW boxcar I just finished weathering. The bnsf reefer is brand new, to replace my older less detailed reefer.
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This here is a city classics building kit that I just started working on. It's spray painted red for now until I can get all the other color paints and finish it. Nothing too fancy but it will serve it's purpose just fine.
 
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