Since I had to take down the Greenville and Northern GMU Extension layout for my fiancé’s work from home setup, I’ve just been messing around with some different layout designs and ideas; however, I think I’ve finally settled on a track plan that will be fun to operate. I haven’t figured out where as yet this would fit into the web of old tracks and railroads here in the Upstate, but I’ve got a few ideas in mind. Perhaps a freelanced manufacturing railroad that ran from Piedmont, SC, to just up from Easley, SC, through Powdersville, or a new take on the Belton trackage that was part of the Piedmont and Northern before being bought by the SCL and passed to CSX. It’s now the Greenville and Western RR between Pelzer and Belton, with CSX operating down from Spartanburg. I’m leaning towards this being somewhere outside Williamston, with the local working down from Greenville.
The layout is an L shape, and will be about 9’ 6” long by 44” wide at the L. Shelf will be about 18” deep, and there’s a fiddle track extension about three feet long behind the door. See the track plan below; the line comes from behind the industrial buildings and into the “on scene” area. The industrial park branches off the main here and goes to serve a plastic packaging film manufacturer and a brass fitting plant. The trackage and film industry are based off of the Missouri North Central in Chillicothe, MO, with the brass fitting plant replacing the cold storage facility. The brass fitting plant comes from the Ozark Valley in Mexico, MO. The line then swings around a curve and completes the passing siding. On the back side of the layout is a lumber distributor in the corner; I don’t have a specific prototype building to base it off yet but it will fit in somehow.
Chillicothe, MO:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/J5M2cCjVvFRU6A9j9?g_st=icMexico, MO:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oiFujAFdK9SxoB7UA?g_st=ic
This is just a quick sketch, but I’ve already got the track laid out and confirmed it all fits properly. Benchwork will end up being a grid of 1x3’s mounted on shelf brackets; I’ll be putting a Masonite backdrop and fascia on this as well. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to extend the staging out to the desk area or not, that’s a negotiation as yet to happen with the land grant committee.
At the moment, operationally, this is treated as the end of the local’s territory. The train comes in from behind the industrial buildings, then immediately goes to work in the industrial park. The plastics plant has 4 specific car spots for different types of plastics, and similar to the corn syrup tankers we always talk about, each hopper has to go back into the same spot and each incoming one has to go in its proper space for the different plastic type; that’s how the power cable plant I worked at had to do it, and per my fiancé who’s a packaging engineer, some films can have up to seven different types of plastic in them. That combined with the various usage rates would mean a lot, and I mean a lot, of hoppers, even with shipments coming in Gaylord boxes or bulk trailers. There will be room for about two or three off spot hoppers, plus whatever else gets put on the park lead. That combined with the two switches will make for a lot of moves there. The brass fitting plant would get boxcars probably about every 4 days to a week, I’m imagining of brass tubing to press into the fittings. While I could see them shipping out fittings in boxcars to big box store DCs, I don’t really see that being something in reality they would choose to do.
After shifting the park, the local would pull out, recouple its train, then run around it and work the lumberyard, if needed. Up the line between Greenville and here is a box plant and steel distributor, so those cars will come in and leave with the local. One of the spurs will be imagined as trailing point so sometimes the local might have to shuffle cars in town before heading back, not sure which one it will be. I’m toying with the idea of there being an industry between here and the end of the other local’s territory further down that they will occasionally go serve, pushing out from here. I could also see the local swapping cars with the other one, destined for either Norfolk Southern in Greenville or CSX in Greenville or Spartanburg, depending on how far down I would say CSX sold/leased the line. The other end local would operate from Greenwood and another connection with CSX. Again, whether there’s another local staged or it can push down will depend on if I can extend the staging out over the desk for operations, or if I’ll just stage those cars in town.
I’m also toying with the idea of a switch engine being based in the industrial park, with a road freight from Greenville/Spartanburg or Greenwood dropping cars for the park and other local industries. The engine would then serve the park and make runs each way to serve the industries not modeled. We shall see which way that goes, I’ll at least try out both ideas.
Scenically, I think there’s a enough separation from where the track will disappear and the industrial park that it won’t be obvious the rail continues under the buildings. Overall I’m really excited about this plan and think it’s going to be a fun layout to build. The layout will be semi-sectional so I can merge it into another layout in the future as time goes on.
Scenically,
