M&O LDE Challenge #1

[John]

Ok, you have a space, 48" long, and about 6" inches wide. You can not move any of the track, and you also need room for a road. Your locale is Appalachia, along the Western Maryland Railroad .. what do you put here? No switching puzzles please. Small town?

[wm3798]

There wasn't much on the WM Main.  So a simple train order office, abandoned after CTC was instituted, would be appropriate.  Perhaps with some woods, bears, and maybe some drunken college students nearby.

http://www.wmwestsub.com/main.htm
Click on "Jerome"

If there's a road, it would consist of "local natural materials"

Lee

[Chris333]

Maybe a simple team track with a crane:
http://cgi.ebay.com/N-Scale-Team-Track-Crane-for-2-Tracks_W0QQitemZ360132011157QQihZ023QQcategoryZ78177QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1723Q2em118Q2el1247
 ;D
And a loading dock.

[DKS]

Depends on what you want out of the space. A nice place to look at, or a source of some traffic? Team track, small freight station, coal trestle, tiny industry, maybe even something (whisper) fictional, like a small rock quarry, brewery, mill... lots of ideas spring to mind.

[John]

Just to the left, about 6 feet is the Walthers coal mine, with 3 tracks, it can hold about 30 cars total. The inside track that you see serves as a 7 foot passing siding, and also switching lead for the offscene mine.

I was hoping to put some sort of small industry in the space .. maybe a logging operation, maybe something else .. but a team track is a possibility. Lots of space, there ..

[3rdrail]

There's no sense in having a team track unless there are small industries nearby, not rail served, that can use it.

I am an oddball, as I stay away from industries that load or unload open top cars, which leaves me with boxcars, reefers, covered hoppers and tankcars, which one cannot tell if they're loaded or empty in N scale, But it would be good location for a pulpwood loading yard, if you don't mind spotting and pulling loads, or spot empties and have the "five fingered loading fairy" put loads on them between operating sessions.  ;D ;D ;D

[cv_acr]

A small team track in a remote location might not even have a loading dock, and probably not a crane. Just a track and a gravel area where trucks can pull up.

A logging operation could use the team track to load saw logs or pulpwood that is trucked in from a local cutting operation. In certains areas, that would be really common for a really small outfit to load logs at a small team track, one car at a time. One location on my club's layout operates in this fashion, there is a small team track that occasionally ships out a single car of pulpwood.

In the city I live in, there are a couple of team track style locations that are used exclusively by the local telephone pole company. They receive poles in gondolas and flatcars (about 3-6 at a time), but their actual facility is about 10 miles from the closest rails.

[cv_acr]

The other possibility is always nothing - other than a small parking area for the station and some trees. But once upon a time the station probably had a team/shed track so that could still be in place. Or, the area where it once was would still be evident.

[John]

The other possibility is always nothing - other than a small parking area for the station and some trees. But once upon a time the station probably had a team/shed track so that could still be in place. Or, the area where it once was would still be evident.

True .. but it's rather hard to switch an abandoned team track

[DKS]

John, where is this area in relation to the one in Challenge #2 (power plant)? Is it east of that point? Regardless, perhaps a starting point for this area might be Old Town, MD. There was a station there with what looked like freight service. Further east was a WM section house, which you could relocate to Old Town.

http://www.wmwestsub.com/oldtownstation.htm

[Ed Kapuscinski]

How about a pulpwood loadout? Do you have any of those Walthers pulpwood flats?

Otherwise, maybe a wood chip loader?

[Zox]

There's no sense in having a team track unless there are small industries nearby, not rail served, that can use it.

Maybe the industries are on the other side of the canyon, and this is their closest rail access?

[wm3798]

Pulpwood load out.  There was a big one in Hancock that served the mills at Luke, and east to Glatfelters near York.
You won't have to make as many trees in that section... they would all be cut down!

Lee

[cv_acr]

Pulpwood load out.  There was a big one in Hancock that served the mills at Luke, and east to Glatfelters near York.
You won't have to make as many trees in that section... they would all be cut down!

Lee

Actually the cutting could potentially be some distance from the loading track, with lots of nice healthy trees surrounding the loadout.

[womblenz]

How about a rural merchandise outfit.

A farm supply outfit would have a range of loads
 chemical  drenches sprays etc
 wood both sawn and post poles for sheds
wire netting and fence wire
iron for buildings


or maybe a stock yards

Cheers Warren