What do I do with this Spot?

[taholmes160]

Hi Folks:

Ive got this big chunk of real estate left in my layout plan, and I am not real sure what should go in there --

Its a modern day layout depicting a very busy bridge line between the BNSF and UP across LaVeta pass (VERY Freelanced) (and in somewhat of an alternate universe)

The interchange arrival / departure yards work as fiddle / staging yards -- there will be some pass through traffic, passenger traffic (think little to no commercial aviation after 9/11) commuter traffic and tourist line traffic

THe red and green lines around the right edge of the layout are slightly elevated (My first attempt at elevation change) to represent the line over LaVeta -- im not opposed to using the red one as some sort of staging / holding etc

The area in question is the spot below the green yard tracks in the lower left of the pic -- please note that area has a long reach into it, so probably not some thing that will need huge amounts of uncoupling -- I can put in uncoupler magnets but...

the other place I need a suggestion is the light blue siding on the very left end -- small industry of some kind

Also really want to hear any other suggestions [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Maletrain]

Because the area beyond that green yard has a long reach issue, and also because much of the rest of the layout is filled with track, how about leaving that area without track, and filling it with some sort of scenery like a lake or a piece of a town?

The industry for the light blue spur could be anything that doesn't take much room to look realistic.  Even a team track, which could just be some paved area around the spur track, maybe with an unloading ramp.  Because it is a modern era layout, a lot of the small footprint items (e.g., residential customer coal dealer, independent lumber yard, farm/feed store) that work for my transition era won't look right on your layout.  But, I am sure others will have some ideas.

[nkalanaga]

Walsenburg to Alamosa to ?Salida?  Maybe the Royal Gorge had a big landslide?

If that's Alamosa, and you're freelancing anyway, how about an intermodal facility?  All it would take is a track, a crane or wheeled loader, and some pavement.  There's a lot of Colorado to the southwest, and without the narrow gauge, everything has to go by truck.

[packers#1]

Pelle Soeberg had an article or two about a safety kleen facility that received a tank car or two of waste fluids to deal with; there’s a facility in Fountain Inn SC that I think does the same thing. Smallish building, a few vertical storage tanks and you’re done. There’s also Parman Energy in Olive Branch, MS; they’re kinda like the old fuel oil dealers but they get 2-3 tank cars and have a tank farm and reasonable sized building. They actually fuel up the RJ Corman locomotive that serves the industrial park they’re in in fact 

As to your blank spot, I’d do some rolling hills to represent the pass. Have them come up and make it to where the train on the back line comes in and out of view with the hills. If you have a derailment you can always get a step stool to reach back there and fix it.

[LIRR]

scenery....

[Ed Kapuscinski]

scenery....

Beat me to it!

If there's one thing that strikes me about the area you're modeling, it's space.

I don't see much space on that layout for scenery that will replicate that sense.

I'd argue that, if you love that area, make the entire top section represent that.

Otherwise, you might as well be modeling Chicago, Philly, LA or Des Moines.

[taholmes160]

Cool -- ya that makes sense -- That whole upper loop, part of which will serve as the western portion of the layout -- will be mountain scenery thats for sure

TIM

[packers#1]

Do you have enough space for the scenery though? Those industries in the middle are warehouse flats, so you pretty much have those back two lines either hidden against the wall or you’re going to be doing most of your scenery through a backdrop and watching the trains move against that. Personally, I’d ditch that whole red line back there, and have that all be mountain scenery as well. Then you have yard, industrial branch, and plenty of breathing space to move trains across a mountain pass.

But I suppose that’s more a conversation on what exactly do you want to get out of the layout. If you’re wanting a lot of switching warehouses and the like with trains running, or do you want to model the bridge traffic and have something for a local to do

[CRL]

Beat me to it!

If there's one thing that strikes me about the area you're modeling, it's space.

I don't see much space on that layout for scenery that will replicate that sense.

I'd argue that, if you love that area, make the entire top section represent that.

Otherwise, you might as well be modeling Chicago, Philly, LA or Des Moines.

Agree with this. It’s a natural tendency to fill the layout space with track during the design stage, but a way to counter that tendency is to complete the track design, then go back and eliminate about 50% of the track. This will force you to pare the design down to its bare essentials and allow room for some believable scenery. At that point, you may be able to squeeze a few more small industries in, but only if it makes sense in the scenery scheme. Remember, you need horizontal separation as well as vertical separation or you end up with nothing but cliffs & retaining walls everywhere.

[basementcalling]

Your plan has a lot of potential.  One problematic issue I see is that you will not be able to switch either yard, green or blue, without fowling your mainline. You need a yard lead on both unless you don't plan to run mainline trains while switching cars in the yards.

[taholmes160]

Ya, Im working on that right now -- Im a lone wolf operator, so I'll just be doing one task at a time, but I am working on re-working the yard lead situation

TIM

[wazzou]

Ya, Im working on that right now -- Im a lone wolf operator, so I'll just be doing one task at a time, but I am working on re-working the yard lead situation

TIM

Even so, it's still a good idea to have the capability for a train to run around on the mainline while you safely have a place to drill cars on the yard tracks.
It's just good design.

[packers#1]

Or you can drill the yard while railfanning at the same time