Layout Plan for Canton

[AlkemScaleModels]

I was playing around with a layout design based on the Canton area that would fit in a odd spot I have in my basement. I would access the layout from three sides. The wall is on the left. There is lots of room on the right for temporary staging tracks. The layout would be built in thee sections, 2 @ 2'x8' and 1 @ 1'x7'. One of the 2'x8's has a 1'x2' bump for the autorack loading track.


This plan is a similar to a plan I was building in my old house, except uses a 4x10 peninsula and is not modular. The Conrail tracks are red, CSX are black. Canton shares the yard, but I did not include any of Canton industries. They could be added in later expansions using the track in the upper right

Time frame is late 80s early 90s.

Operations involve CSX switching the ICTF, & GM, while Conrail switches Central Soya and an I/C track for GM. Canton could also play by sorting cars destined for them in the yard and them going off to staging on the right (not shown)

[Ian MacMillan]

Neat trackplan. Looks like it would be interesting to switch and I could see myself building it.

[wm3798]

Oh, Ed... It looks like Bernie took care of the hard part for you!

Lee

[John]

Wow .. there are some ideas in there for things I want to do in that "undeveloped" section by the door to the layout room

[AlkemScaleModels]

Do you think a siding into the gypsum plant would be worth while? I don't think had one in the prototype.

[TiVoPrince]

Consider
moving the ICTF crossover 'off property'.  Container companies dislike the insurance liability of railroad crews spending any time on the ground on thier property.   The loading tracks could be angled to increase length.  Widen the spread of the tracks so the container lifts can do some work.  A bunch of Kato yard tractors buzzing around the tracks and stacks will be cool.  Use that newly found space at the front of the layout for a highly detailed truck exit 'tollbooth' for all those cool Deluxe Innovation container chassis with Herpa, Promotex and Kato trucks.

Without a runaround it will be difficult to switch the red Conrail tracks (shouldn't they be blue?) depending on how evil you feel placement will make a difference.

When you etch the ship to land container lift, look for me in line to buy one or five...

[AlkemScaleModels]

Consider
moving the ICTF crossover 'off property'.  Container companies dislike the insurance liability of railroad crews spending any time on the ground on thier property.   The loading tracks could be angled to increase length.  Widen the spread of the tracks so the container lifts can do some work.  A bunch of Kato yard tractors buzzing around the tracks and stacks will be cool.  Use that newly found space at the front of the layout for a highly detailed truck exit 'tollbooth' for all those cool Deluxe Innovation container chassis with Herpa, Promotex and Kato trucks.

Without a runaround it will be difficult to switch the red Conrail tracks (shouldn't they be blue?) depending on how evil you feel placement will make a difference.

When you etch the ship to land container lift, look for me in line to buy one or five...

Good comments. When I was drawing this I was thinking the CSX and Canton RR would be the primary players and Conrail was a supporting actor. But the way the track plan works out Conrail gets at least equal attention, so yes a run-around should be added some place.

The idea with the ICTF tracks in the plan  is to capture two aspects.
     A. trains pull in and the engines run around to get out, and
     B. most trains need to be doubled out of the yard.

I have the engineering drawings for the Sea Girt track plan. The actual ICTF has 7 tracks ( 4 loading tracks, 2 storage tracks and one run-around) that all end up in the same yard ladder at a 90 degree bend to the main body tracks at the far end (near the main truck entrance). I don't have room for that. But there are lots of turnouts in the ICTF, so having a cross over there is not unrealistic.


This is a shot of the Sea Girt & ICTF in 1998 from the top of the grain elevator. It is a rough panorama of two shots showing an overview of Sea Girt.


The grain elevator was actively switched until about  1996. I have  many pictures of it, including some from the inside and top of the as I got a guided tour in 1998. The day I took these shots, sometime in 1992 or '93 there were two ships filling up at the grain elevator, one on each side of the pier. Note the car pullers in between the rails. The blue engine belonged to the grain elevator. I am not sure if the car pullers were operational at this time.





I also was able to arrange a tour of the Sea Girt terminal and got a ride in one of the huge container cranes. We went in the cab over the seawall when no ship was present. It was a little scary hanging out like that looking through the glass cab. This is a shot looking back at the ICTF yard area from the top of the crane.


This is a link to Sea Girt's web page. http://www.marylandports.com/CIC/seagirt.htm

Cool as it is, the  Canton RR HQ was not at its current location  in the late 80s, early 90s.

As to the container crane kit, it is underway. Here is a preview of the early pilot model.



I am thinking its time to do Canton 3.

[AlkemScaleModels]

Here are some shots from CMT 2.






The container crane in these shots is an early home built model. I still have it, but the new kit is much bigger and has the correct taper on the a frame members.

[chessie system fan]

I like it!  I'm curious, what would you do about the GM plant?  Have a cutaway of the building showing the inside or pretend that it should be that narrow and have four walls?

[AlkemScaleModels]

I like it!  I'm curious, what would you do about the GM plant?  Have a cutaway of the building showing the inside or pretend that it should be that narrow and have four walls?

Probably a cutaway to allow access. In researching how they switched the plant I interviewed the former yard master at Bayview. He told me that the plant had to be switched in a short time window in between shift changes. In the plant fork lifts need the freight cars to be present so they can cross the trenches for the tracks. Three crews were needed to switch each track using their own lead to do the switching in the alloted time window.  So to capture the feel of that in the model plan one could use two crews.  One on the right and one in the "pit" on the left. Each would have a short time to pull the cars and spot the new ones. The  car order is very important, so each spot in the plant will be numbered.  To make it tricky, some cars might need to go back in where they were. That would add a lot of switching for just two tracks. Could be cool.

The GM plant was torn down a few years ago, but I was able to capture and save the Bing Birds' Eye views that still show the GM plant. The Bing Birds' Eyes show an empty field now.  :'(  

Note the NS engine in this shot on the CR Tracks.

[AlkemScaleModels]

I was looking at a blue print of the Central Soya grain elevator and I noticed that there is a stub track leading to the dryer house. I never noticed that before, but it means that they probably had coal delivered there to power the dryers. More switching - a good thing.

[AlkemScaleModels]

If I had an extra few feet I could fit in this better representation o of the ICTF. I also added the dryer track to the grain elevator. Still thinking about the Conrail runaround and where to put it.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sheesh, I have company for the weekend, leave the computer closed, and come back to all this.

Wow!

Do you want the CR ZTS Maps? And have you seen this:
http://conrail1285.com/news.asp?storyid=51

They're basically instruction manuals for each job out of Bayview Yard. Absolutely awesome.

I think, at some point, we're going to have to have the tour of Baltimore Harbor layouts. It seems like everyone's building one these days!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh, one thing I did just notice. I'd do a proof of concept with autoracks and autoparts cars being switched (ie, shoved) on the curves you've got there.

[wm3798]

Penn Mary was one of my favorite haunts back when I worked for the East Baltimore GUIDE in 86-88.  I'd go down there at lunch time every day and watch that blue switcher hustle grain hoppers in and out of the elevator, and see Chessie switching GM.  You could also catch the Canton running up it's line toward North Point Blvd on occasion.



The old Crosse and Blackwell plant on Eastern Ave, which at the time housed Martin Gillette.  This was the line that required the bazillion dollar railroad bridge over I-95.  The plant, and the bridge, are now gone.




The Canton Warehouse Company was another staple.  In the mid 1980's, it would still get cuts of railboxes, but this traffic was beginning to dwindle.  This was located in what is now the back of the Seagirt terminal, and could be seen looking down from the Keith Avenue bridge.


A few years later, the warehouses were gone, and the tracks used for storage of bad order cars.


And there's old reliable #47.


and sister #46 in living color.


M.E. Jones, engineer aboard the 47.  Somewhere in the stacks I have the article I wrote for the paper about the Canton....  I'll have to see if I can dig it up.

Lee