Missouri Pacific Arkansas Division, Hoxie Sub-Jacksonville Industrial Park

[MichaelWinicki]

Got the mainline track glued down today AND...after conferring with Dave Foxx put in some super elevation on the large west curve...looks cool watching the train lean into the curve as it goes around!

Going to glue a few turnouts on the inner track, but probably won't get all the sidings installed tonight. Dinner is almost ready and might just crash on the couch for awhile.

Hey Mike, looking good!

Anyway you can change/adjust the elevation for any of the industrial sidings... Just a little to give the trackage a little "texture".  Certainly you don't have to go "up" either.  You can dig-down into that blue foam a little.

[MichaelT]

Hey Mike, looking good!

Anyway you can change/adjust the elevation for any of the industrial sidings... Just a little to give the trackage a little "texture".  Certainly you don't have to go "up" either.  You can dig-down into that blue foam a little.

Definite possibility Michael. I've also thought of sanding down the roadbed to the foam on one or two sidings to lower the depth of the siding trackage as well. If not on the loop will definitely do that on the sidings along the route to the staging tracks. Saw that in an article in NSR from a while back.

[MichaelT]

A short update:

I've glued all the track down on the J&N Industrial park except the inside runaround on the west curve. That's six spurs serving five industries in a compact area, so quite pleased with how it's looking so far. It will probably be Thursday before I'll be able to tackle the runaround curve, but I can shove some cars in and out of the sidings and check car capacities until then.

[MichaelT]

My apologies for going so long without pictures, but it's been a little busy the last few days. I've snapped some shots tonight that shows MP GP38-2 #850 with transfer caboose 13835 with some track inspectors on board touring the Jacksonville Industrial area. Buildings are not permanent (will put the permanent structures down when I get them built and start landscaping.


Here MP 850 has come from the North Little Rock Jenks yard (wast staging, future build) and is just getting to the Jacksonville Y to get into the Industrial Branch line.


Hitting the runaround the GP38-2 backs into the siding for Lomanco's pellets and storage warehouse. Here hoppers will unload plastic pellets to make doohickies for all sorts of aluminum housing products such as roof and crawl space vents, whirly birds, and other housing products. Lomanco will also receive aluminum rolls and other products as necessary.


Next #850 and caboose pull out and then hit the siding for White Plains bag & box company; makers of paper bags and container boxes of all shapes and sizes.


Here we see MP GP15 # 1635 sitting on the siding for Ashland Chemicals. Plastic pellets in hoppers and tankers of chemicals will fill these two spurs quite often.


Getting back on the main branch line, #850 leans into Redmond Curve which has a slight elevation to it. It's not very noticeable, but enough to see it lean when the train is moving. This takes the engine and caboose across West Main Street to the other end of the Industrial branch.


850 backs into the siding for Conestoga Cabinets and we catch just purchased Arkansas Midland GP40 #10 (former IC GP40 3014) is being measured for cabinets and shelving before going to the Jenks paint and body shop for its' new colors. Conestoga will receive all types of woods and hardware deliveries and will ship bulk cabinets out.


Near the end of the Jacksonville branch line we run past Conner Wholesale and the Jacksonville freight supply (LCL and team track). Conner's handles housing supplies, bulk landscape materials, and appliances, and Jacksonville freight doubles as a team track for a number of businesses in town that utilize the railroad to ship their products.


At the end of the Jacksonville branch, MP 850 returns to the Hoxie Sub mainline and heads east towards the Doniphan branch and Bald Knob (east staging).

So as you can see just from these few pics, there is a whole lot to be done, but things are moving along as best we can manage with minimal time. I've put my layout on a revolving "train guys" calendar that a number of local model railroaders go to layouts and either work or operate them depending on what's going on at the time. When they come here (last Thursday night of the month) I'll have some "chores" listed that hopefully some will volunteer for and work on, while the others will sit back with coffee and tell tall tales while "supervising" the others work.

[MichaelT]

Took the Mrs. for a medical procedure this morning; good news is she looks good and will not have to be screened for another ten years! After bringing her home and getting her in bed to sleep the day away, I was able to get the inner loop connected and glued down which completes the track work for the 40x82" peninsula for the MP Hoxie Sub! I've been running GP38-2 #850 with a ten car train and transfer caboose for about ten minutes now and not nary a problem so far; inside runaround, outside loop, both are tracking well.

Now I can clear off the layout of track laying tools and start working on some landscaping and start putting some structures together to fill up the Jacksonville Industrial branch.

[MichaelT]

Ahh, well that's just pretty darn cool!

Thanks David!

OK here's a short video of MP #855 pulling a ten car freight through Redmond Curve.

[DKS]

Click the YouTube button. Paste the link. Done.

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice progress - always good to see a new pike coming together.

(wast staging, future build)

This gets my vote for most ambiguous typo of the day award: wast <--> east or west? 

[DKS]

This gets my vote for most ambiguous typo of the day award: wast <--> east or west?

Actually, this might be a brilliant way of dealing with layouts having looped mainlines (which is probably quite a few). Which way is the train headed? Wast!

[MichaelT]

Quick question:

What's the general width for a street, two lane, with a middle turn lane? No sidewalks, it's the industrial drive that will go down the mid of the peninsula? I'll be doing a search but thought I'd ask here in case anyone is looking quickly.

[MichaelT]

Nice progress - always good to see a new pike coming together.

This gets my vote for most ambiguous typo of the day award: wast <--> east or west? 

Actually, this might be a brilliant way of dealing with layouts having looped mainlines (which is probably quite a few). Which way is the train headed? Wast!

HA! Didn't catch that...

Well I started putting some landforms into the mix.





A little hill on the wast west side of Redmond curve.





A minor rise along the entrance into the Industrial branch (which is actually going to go well with the main road rising up and over the tracks to meet this rise).



Cutouts for sizing the footprint of the chemical plant and the box company (using Walthers kits for measurements for now).



And the wholesale and LCL team track (back) and Lomanco's pellets storage bins and warehouse.



And a quick overall of the 40"x82" space so far. I'll probably glue down the foam ridges and hills before I quit tonight so I can start shaping tomorrow and Friday, then some light weight spackling and then paint (getting rid of the blue boy look).

For now I'm estimating 3" for the main road in and out of the industrial park. I'll get better measurements from one of my books later. What I do like is having the industries accounted for and measured out, the main industrial road, and taking some extra for parking lots, I still have quite a bit of space for open areas, trees, possibly a small park (we have a place called Paradise Lake park in our industrial park, might try and emulate that) to deal with. It won't be solid industry after industry but I still have some space for a few smaller non railroad industries as well.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Looking good. Keep up the good work.

[MichaelT]

I glued the foam down this morning on the hillside and the track cut on the west and east sides of the industrial branch. I think I'll have time tonight to mold and shape the cuts to more land form looks, and then spackle and paint. On the east side cut near the Wye, I'm going to scratch the rise from ground level to about ten scale feet to mimic backhoes and other machinery clearing away rock and earth to lay the track, so will have some rock outcroppings and earth along with some weeds and growth along the face, then smooth it toward the top. That space I'm considering adding one lane of First Street that runs along the UP mainline well above the track level. That will give me the ability to raise the industrial road to an overpass over the tracks there and meet First Street at the corner, in the process giving a small view block.

[davefoxx]

Don't forget to plow out some drainage ditches in those cuts.

[MichaelT]

Don't forget to plow out some drainage ditches in those cuts.

Yes! thanks for the reminder...sometimes I miss the necessary details.