Further layout ideas

If you know me, you’ll know there’s two types of cars on American Railroads that I really like. Railboxes, (I have four different types in H0 scale and now one in O) and Coil cars. I have three or four different ones of those in H0 scale as well. So I’m always looking at ways to get both into a layout.

In the preview issue of the Micro Model Railway Dispatch I suggested a micro layout based around a small steel distributors/fabricator. Steel could be delivered in Coil cars and flat cars. Where finished products could be dispatched on flat cars in in boxcars. That sort of layout would be a win, win for me. Even better than a scrapyard layout perhaps.

Duluth Steel Fabricators was one such place. I'm very familiar with it as it's visible from I-35 when driving into my favourite Minnesota City. 

Google Earth view

As you can see from the aerial view, it was once served by rail. Although it is still quite a large structure, if modelled in low relief, I think the basic elements of the structure could be distilled into about three feet in length in O scale.

Below is the conceptual vision I had for the layout, as it appeared in The Micro Model Railway Dispatch. I delighted in throwing in some items that really located the model firmly in Duluth. The Overpass section of I-35 and the advertising hoarding. The billboard would work in H0 scale but might well be a bit too big for O scale.

A visualization of a simple version of the layout.

Explanatory trackplan. 

Spots for just two cars on the layout may not seem like much. One under cover for flat cars and Coil cars. One outside for boxcars. But moving one car out from under cover and replacing it with another when a the outdoor spot is occupied, calls for a judicious amount of car shuffling. I think this might work out in 6’ x 18”. It might be a bit cramped at that. But I hope I’d be able to fit a representation of the office side of the building, something else that would really help locate the model.

Distinctive structures help add atmosphere

Now all this puts me in mind of another layout I built a few years back. Hamon Deltak, where I tried to fit the largest industry I possibly could in the smallest space I had. That’s a story for another post.