Adding industries to increase operations fun!

As my interest in operations increased so did my belief that the Kings Port Division could use more businesses and industries for local trains to serve.   When I first designed the layout I included industries more as scenic elements and places to store freight cars than as opportunities to actually set them out or pick them up.    The Ops bug has bitten, however, and I'm afraid the infection is permanent.    Since then, I've been continuously looking at my layout to see if there are any ways to improve or expand model railroad operations opportunities.     I should add that I do this with no intention of enlarging the layout.   The Kings Port Division has negotiated a reasonable amount of real estate in the family home and is nicely contained in its own room in the basement.    This contributes to family harmony.   I really don't want it to get any larger from a maintenance standpoint either.  The layout is big enough.

SO, how to get more ops fun from a layout that wasn't originally designed for that purpose?

One way has been to make some fairly easy modifications to the track plan and structures.    

Example #1 is making Canton Box Company a rail served customer after merely being a "scenic" trackside structure for many years.   

There isn't enough room to run a spur in front of the Canton Box Company, but locating a left-hand turnout oriented so the curve follows the mainline while the straight section continues beyond the end of  the building made it possible.  Now I can include this formally ignored business to my switch lists. 

All that was needed beyond the new turnout and a foot of track was to install a loading dock to the existing structure.   I'm especially pleased by this development because the layout needed more destinations served by boxcars.

Example #2 is  Reynolds Beverage Distributors.   I had two industries along this spur, the Team Track and Booms Ready Mix.   Wanting to find yet another site where boxcars might be plausible, I conceived Reynolds Beverage Distributors, a short term storage location for pallets of cans and bottles in a refrigerated building.   I condensed the Booms Ready Mix foot print to accommodate the new business and extended the track behind Booms to allow for set-outs there.  The Team Track platform is still in place as a destination, although not pictured, to the right of Reynolds.

Example #3.  Rearranging Empire Grain to make both the covered hopper loading bay and the boxcar loading doors functional and also to make the branch to Mayfield look more like a branch line and less like a siding. 

For years, Empire Grain had a switchback track arrangement that allowed cars to be set out in front of this  part of the complex that used to have a loading bay overhang for covered hoppers .  

But, when I developed more of an interest in operations, I craved staging space and extended the spur into the tunnel seen below where a turnout and two lengths of track can stage two nine-car trains.  Problem was, I had a branch line with loading bays unrealistically hanging over it, as if cars might be spotted there and block the branch line.

I removed the loading bay overhang and focused all car movements for Empire Grain on the right side of the complex.  I built Empire Grain in removable sections so I can access hidden track behind the company.  It was easy to shuffle the components around and come up with this arrangement, making ops for both covered hoppers and boxcars more likely.

That's it for now.
Next UP:  Industries that aren't really there!