Building the Beer Line in N Scale

[DKS]

Sorry to keep inflicting my track planning ideas on everyone, but this is plan at present...

Apologies unnecessary. This is, after all, the Layout Engineering Report forum. I really like your current plan, especially how you've incorporated the chunks of satellite data; it certainly simplifies the process of trying to design the structural settings and keep them properly proportioned. This is going to be fun to watch. (And now I will likely be swiping ideas from you for Cody's urban layout design, since what has been seen cannot be unseen.)

[Dave Schneider]

Chuck,

The structures are from scanned aerial photos. I spent a day at the University of Wisconsin map library last year and scanned all of their 9x9 inch aerial photo prints of the Beer Line from 1950, 1956, 1963 and 1970. I use AnyRail for track planning, and incorporating the photos involves cropping the structure out of the scanned file, creating a layer box in AnyRail and then filling it with the cropped image. I bit clunky but it works for me. It would be nice if they allowed direct overlay of a jpg that you could scale more easily

David,

Thanks for the kind words. I use a fair bit of geospatial image data in my work life, so this is a natural way for me to think about track planning.  My goal is to build a railroad with structures that look like the prototype, and this is the best way for me to think about it.

Best wishes, Dave

[GaryHinshaw]

Enough with the pleasantries; let's see a little progress on this cool project.    

[Dave Schneider]

Enough with the pleasantries; let's see a little progress on this cool project.    

Hey, I just moved 25 tons of gravel yesterday and posted the pics on the Weekend Update to prove it!  We are on the way!

  back at you!
Best wishes, Dave

[GaryHinshaw]

LOL. My bad - I hadn't seen Weekend Update yet.  Great to hear!

-Gary

[chuck geiger]

Hey Dave, Marty Quass in Palmer has a sweet layout and got
invited to an operating session, we should hook up. Can I do
the same thing with the APU with Google?

[Dave Schneider]

Hi Chuck,

I am familiar with Marty's display layout. Does he have a home layout as well?
As for the photos, I see no reason why you couldn't use aerial images from Google Maps or Bing Map for visualization purposes. I do it in AnyRail, but it could be done in many different programs.

Best wishes, Dave

[sirenwerks]

Not keeping up with Railwire posts these days so going back a bit... what's up with the Ma Baensch structure? I'm having a hard time making the match between the two images. Did it have a serious addition or demo or is the new image of an angle not featured in the older pic?

[Dave Schneider]

Bryan,

The older image is a publicity drawing and it looks like they stretched the dimensions a bit to advertise that Ma B had both spiced herring AND potato salad. There is no way that would all fit on the real building. We used to have Ma B's herring at Christmas and New Years, but my very German grandmother provided the potato salad. There was no way she would consider purchasing something like that. I had no idea that Ma B's was along the Beer Line until a couple of years ago. It was a building that I had to add.

Best wishes, Dave

[chuck geiger]

Here's his link: http://alaskamodelrrnews.homestead.com/index.html

[Dave Schneider]

I am seriously contemplating a complete revision of the Beer Line. As my layout space comes into focus, I have come to recognize some shortcomings in my original design. First of all, I was not taking good advantage of the two end walls, and were mainly dedicating them to staging. The Snake Track peninsula is pleasing to me, but that is about it. I had been thinking of doing an unconventional take on the Beer Line, but in the end I strayed too far.

So, here for your consideration, is a revised plan that focuses on the operations at Schlitz and Pabst. The red lines around the perimeter indicate the windows on my space.


On lower left is the Juneau Ave. team track, Lincoln Warehouse, and the Milwaukee Journal newsprint transload. On the upper right is the Commerce Street Yard where Pabst was transloaded from trucks to RBs. At the top of the plan is the Schlitz brewery. The main beer loading is from the C house, which will be modeled as a thin flat alone the aisle, and a bump-out for the loading tracks.







Humboldt Yard is on the right/lower right of the plan. This yard will receive and make up the Beer Train transfers.


Staging hasn't been worked out yet. Maybe a detachable yard on an angled peninsula into the middle.
These are my quick thoughts at present. I welcome thoughts or suggestions. How to deal with staging is the biggest unknown at present. I want to keep the area to the left of the door for my workbench and not block the window.

Best wishes, Dave

[wazzou]

Gonna have to see your aerial photo overlays to fully appreciate the concept. 
No show loop on this one? 

[Dave Schneider]

Haven't finished the photo overlays yet. It is a bit more difficult because I ACTUALLY compressed the middle portion so I didn't have to build a 6-ft long bottling plant! No show loop on this plan. It's kinda hard to work in since the Beer Line dead-ends into a warehouse. That is a drawback to be sure, which is what put me down my previous path. I did manage to fit in the Roller Coaster track in the upper right, which is a signature scene on the Beer Line. The geometry of the curves is a bit hanky in that area, but I should be able to smooth that out. Still need to add some cross-overs as well.

The Roller Coaster track.


Best wishes, Dave

[Dave Schneider]

Making slow progress on the Beer Line. Managed to hang a new door on the trailer, and finished painting the interior.



Here is the latest version of the Beer Line, with most of the major industries labeled.  I am pretty happy with this latest version, but need to fix some of the track geometry, mainly in the "corners". I have shortened Humboldt Yard from the previous version, so that it is more to scale with the rest of the line. This allows for the inclusion of Milwaukee Lace Paper and Tews Lime and Cement. I have figured out how to include staging without resorting to spanning the door opening.



My plan is to start on the left side, with the Lincoln Warehouse and Milwaukee Journal newsprint dock. These are both cool structures. The Lincoln warehouse can be seen in the photo above, with the large painted Blatz beer sign. It had two tracks that entered the building, see below. I will likely model this as an open structure so that I can access the circuit breaker panel, as seen in the photo of the interior above. Not sure how high to go with the rail height. The cabinets are 36 inches high, so I am thinking about 50 inches or so for the rail height so I can utilize the bench countertop. However that might be a bit high for switching.

Here is a view of the Journal dock, and a truck with newsprint rolls (not sure what they did when it rained).






An interior view of Lincoln Warehouse tracks.


These four photos courtesy Dick Cecil.

Anyhow, this is where I am at. I am happy with the plan, but still welcome suggestions.
Best wishes, Dave

[MVW]

Dave, this is a pure pleasure to see this come together. Love the process and the research, and the historical info and photos you've dug up.

Jim