A weighty matter (or two)

The first weighty problem, and I really do mean weighty, concerns the stock for such a layout. Just take a look at this lovely Weaver GP38-2. It weighs a ton! Oh all right. I exaggerate. It weighs three and a half pounds (1.6 kilograms). That’s a lot. Especially when you’ve become used to 3D printed locomotive kits that only weigh a matter of ounces. 

3.5lbs of brute force

It does make one think about the design of the baseboard for this little cameo. If you review some of James Hilton’s videos on his YouTube channel concerning the construction of his cameo boxes. Those are all built from 6mm MDF with no framing. Rigidity is created by adding the sides and roof to the box. This creates a very lightweight structure where the model scene just seems to float on the shelves in his office. This lightweight method works well for the smaller scales like N and 009. But is unlikely to work in the senior scale. Where something more capable of taking the weight of the locomotives will be needed.

I can see no reason why 6mm MDF couldn’t be used as the baseboard surface. But a more traditional bracing method will be needed to be used to support it. That will need some more thought.

The second weighty matter is more metaphorical than physical. 

The main attraction of the Plymouth industrial park for me has always been the Coil Cars, and as it stands there’s no place for them on the layout. Other than as a bit part player to pass through the scene, and this is weighing on my mind. 

Could I replace the fiddle yard exit on the left with another warehouse? One that takes Coil Cars. The Olympic Steel warehouse is a huge structure. A mock up ensued to see what the effect of a large structure at the end of the layout would be…

Probably not…

The reverse curve into the warehouse would be problematic

The reverse curve needed to get the track into the door entry towards the rear of the baseboard just looks awkward, being able to see the overhang on the cars. On the previous version of the layout, I was obstructing some of this with the fiddle yard exit structure. 

I did like this arrangement

So, the solution lies somewhere between the two. Then a Micro Model Railway Dispatch reader reminded me of a scheme I had proposed for a small steel distributors micro layout back in the preview issue of The Dispatch. It still has an overgrown, unused siding in place as you can see from the Google Earth view. Who knows how much rail traffic it used to see?

Duluth Steel Distributors premises

We would seem to have a solution to the problem. 

Onwards we go.

A Coil Car interlude.

Coil cars are a big part of traffic on the Plymouth Industrial Park. The main customer at the end of the spur is Olympic Steel. A big steel distributors with two warehouses. One receives steel coils, the other receives steel in sheet form. Pre Covid the facility was receiving multiple coil cars of steel daily. It was not unusual to see 10 or more cars delivered to the premises at a time. When I retired and left my place of work, deliveries were two or three times a week. 

There are many different styles of coil cars. The variety being down to the design of the protective covers. I was so amazed by the different styles that I started photographing them. Here’s just a few of them to illustrate the variation.

This is the Thrall Protector car. Only 60 were made.
These were made in HO scale by ExactRail

A more traditional single cover from the Southshore Railroad.

A mix of covers on this twin cover car. Santa Fe and Illinois Central
These traditional styles of car are made by several manufacturers

This rusty, battered cover is from the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern RR.
This is a style of cover known as "hex top"

The Reading Railroad merged into Conrail in 1976

The other side of the Reading car shows this old Reading Lines logo

The Union Pacific has several modern styles of cover. 
This is extremely boxy and very unstreamlined

Another unusual boxy, UP style. 

This Coil car was almost brand new out of the paint shops when
I caught it at Plymouth Industrial Park

The UP still has many old, ordinary covers in service.

All railroad cars are a target for graffiti, and I thought that this piece of work
was outstanding

If there's interest I can share more of my coil car images.

At the foot of the stairs…

Sits the layout. Such as it is right now. It’s there so I see it every time I head to the basement. This is a vital part of the layout planning. Do I get that “WOW” feeling when I look at it. If the layout impresses me every time I see it then it must be pretty close to being OK. And it does. Big boxcars in front of a big structure. How could you not be impressed?

Still impressed with the look.

Next thing is to look into the scene a little closer. Clearances. The loading gauge and such like. These things will dictate the depth of the baseboard. Right now, everything is laid on a baseboard 9” in depth. Though everything fits on the baseboard, depth wise. The baseboard could be deeper. The track comes to the very edge of the baseboard. That's always a no-no.  I’m thinking I should be adding another two inches. 

Checking and measuring. The track comes right to the edge of the baseboard.
Not good. 

That would make the baseboard 11 inches deep. That's still well under the four square feet micro layout limit. The extra depth can be used to make better use of the offstage exits. Starting with the left exit.

I mocked up a short section of structure for left hand side. Where it is placed has a huge effect on the feel of the area. As you can see from these photographs.

This is actually a quite brave positioning of the building.
With minimum separation between the structures things feel cramped

Moving things further apart improves the visual effect.
It already starts to feel less claustrophobic

The bigger the apparent gap is the more open things look.
I don't want to go much further or the offstage exit will come into view

I think that's the left hand exit sorted. Now I need to think about the right hand side. I'm inclined to go with some greenery. That will contrast nicely with the structures on the layout.

An inspiration album

In 2022, when I knew I was taking early retirement from work, I decided to walk as much of the remaining Plymouth  Industrial Park trackage as I could. Though some parts of the park had not seen trains in as much as 25 years, the track had not been removed, so the route was easy to trace. Though in places you needed a machete to clear a path through. Still, by the time I left my place of employment, I had pretty much photographed every piece of the line. Here’s some images of the area that share what I’d like to put across in this micro.

The only working section of line. Even though this is an industrial park,
there are trees for forming convenient view blocks on a layout.

An out of use section. Dull concrete walls would make a good backdrop

All of a sudden, a splash of colour!

A disused section of track. Ballast, weeds,  blacktop and rust.

This would be what I would like to recreate on the layout

Finally, a few views of how overgrown some of the tracks were on my explorations.

It's a good few years since these tracks saw activity.

The tracks go somewhere. But where?

The end of the line?