L&N somewhere in Eastern Kentucky

[LIRR]

Yep....old photos I was sorting thru. On the one hand the time-stamp has spoiled a few good photos, but on the other hand the stamp has marked a timeline of the under construction sequence shots...

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

The best thing with digital cams is you don't need to date stamp the photo. If you open the properties of the file it will tell you the date, time, cam type, exposure, zoom and almost any other info you might need about the photo. If you use a smartphone with the GPS on and you haven't adjusted the default setting then it will also give your location.

[LIRR]

I've since taken the date stamp off.....

[LIRR]

Added some gates.....

[Philip H]

looks like your fence came out really nicely.

[LIRR]

Some leased LV power waits for it's next assignment......

[MichaelWinicki]

I bet it doesn't need a helper.

[LIRR]

I am getting back to work on the paper mill after finishing the coal dealer. The conveyor-house/ silo combo never looked right.....the silo looked to slender, so I built another a wee bit higher with a larger diameter...



The ventilators (?) atop the silo looked good initially, but when I added the railing, the railing made the equipment look to small.....so I made new ventilators out of styrene tubing AFTER adding the railing....



The height differential between the conveyor house and silo didn't look right either....i didn't think it all thru before I started building. It wouldn't accommodate this equipment that spans the gap between the two structures...



Or the service platform....



I added a penthouse to raise the conveyor house rooftop level, but it looked contrived....



So i am building a new higher conveyor house....




More too come....

[LIRR]

Moving along.....

[LIRR]

Like any self-respecting modeler I have multiple projects underway. I've put the paper mill work aside and have decided to expand.

I recently come to realize there’s a flaw in my operating sequence. The paper mill and the roof plant each generate enough traffic to warrant their own turn. Coal moves are independent. The last train of the cycle is a local out to Calhoun. It starts out with barely 5 or 6 cars, drops 1 or 2 empty wood racks at the pulp yard and occasionally drops a stray car at the paper mill or roof plant (all 3 on the way from the originating yard) and continues to Calhoun with only 2 or 3 cars. The track arrangement is such that the coal yard is a trailing point move, but the (yet-to-be-modelled) furniture factory is a switch-back-facing-point move. Interesting buy problematic. My staging (thru the backdrop & curves to the right at the back of the photo) is such that it’s not practical to switch the furniture plant as a trailing point move with a local operating in this direction (towards the camera)



That said, I’ve decided to add a branch line to the layout. It will veer off the main in Calhoun and head along a 17-foot long wall in the other half of the basement. This way, the coal yard can be switched as the local heads west and the furniture plant is switched as it heads back. Two or three new customers on the branch will get the local up to a dozen cars or so.

Naturally there will be significant track changes here. The non-negotiable goal here is not to disturb the coal dealer I just finished a few weeks ago. I also want to maintain the track-in-the street feature.

[LIRR]

I will cut a new switch into the street...



And the branch will head off to the left...



Along this wall....



Roughed in track plan.....

[basementcalling]

Love that high tech super accurate 3D planning software. 

The coal dealer is a must keep. Was hoping to see more of how your  paper mill looks.

Love the camera angles there in Calhoun.

[GaryHinshaw]

Wow, you had a whole spare wall all along and you didn't already annex it?  Such self-control!  That will be a nice addition that will add a lot of interest.   I have been pondering how to squeeze in a compact branch off my north staging yard (when it gets built) to add a similar bit of variety to my operations.   Looking forward to seeing yours evolve.

[LIRR]

I've been contemplating using this wall for some time. Now that the kids are off at college this side of the basement is barely used.....

[LIRR]

First cut.....




No turning back now......