Layout changes: End of 2024

 

 Hello!

A year ago I made a major change on my layout by removing a large loop and transforming a continuous run track plan on two levels into an "out and back" configuration with a new yard for building and staging trains.   I've been enjoying this new arrangement that provides more operations options.

I posted about this change in February of 2023.

Since then I've been looking at ways to further enhance the appearance of this set up and to increase its model railroad operations potential.

While the new Williams Yard worked well, I regretted losing the locomotive facilities I had on the original layout and I also thought the yard seemed too visibly "close" to the rest of  the layout.    I wanted trains to appear to travel farther to and from the staging yard.

In December 2023 I resolved this proximity issue by creating the visual divider that can be seen on the right side of the photo below.   Light blue foam core boards reinforced with wood strips separate the yard lead to Williams Yard (its tower can be seen in the foreground)

.....from the rest of the yard and the new city scene in the background on the other side.  Buildings extending over the tracks cover the holes in the foam core divider on either side.

The advantage of this new arrangement is that trains staged in the yard are relatively out of sight and seem to come out on the left side of the divider as if they had traveled some distance before emerging on the scene.  The Penn Central U Boat and the B&M Geeps seen at the bottom right of the photo below represent trains coming out of Williams Yard.

If you look in the background of the photo above you will see the new location for Peerless Appliance.  This industry was originally one of my "Facade Industries"  that I used in our Penn Central Car Movement (PCCM) virtual ops with John and Neal to increase the number of businesses they could send cars to.

Here is is as it used to be...a mere building flat on my shelf layout for staged photos to suggest KP&W switching action at the industry.

 

 Now its a three dimensional industry where I can actually perform switching operations.!

Battaglia Brother's Warehouse was another PCCM industry that was just a building flat.   Its location didn't allow for a track to serve it

So, I imagined that it shared the industrial spur that passed under Blue Ribbon Flour by the green tower seen below.  I suggested the set outs at Battaglia Brothers by shoving freight cars under the bridge where they would supposedly reach a lower level loading dock at the warehouse.

After creating a brick building to disguise the opening on the Williams Yard side of the visual divider it occurred to me that it, along with an already existing long brick building behind the yard tracks, could become the new Battaglia Brother's Warehouse, another three dimensional switchable business and a sizeable PCCM consignee!

 I also took this new remodeling as an opportunity to add features that I previously kept in storage and only brought out as needed for PCCM moves such as the dock where pipes are off loaded for the Hudson Valley Co-op.   The crane has just unloaded the flat car at the dock.

You can see one of the locomotive facility's sand towers to the right of the crane.

Here is an image of the locomotive service area before I removed the large loop from the original layout.  The narrow straight section I created in the loop's place to create Williams Yard didn't provide space for the engine house.

 

Here is a photo from November 2023 of Williams Yard on its narrow straight benchwork.  No room for the locomotive servicing area!

I recently added this removable four inch wide extension to the front of the Williams Yard scene that allows me to place the engine house over one live track in the yard and create two additional dummy tracks to make the scene look like a busy locomotive servicing area. 

That little bit of extra width helped create this scene.  The track emerging from the farthest engine house door is the live track.   A locomotive can now be called from the house to later couple up with cars on other tracks prior to being dispatched from Williams Yard.

That's the update from Kings Port!   As John recently noted, it is often said that a model railroad is never really finished!  Stay tuned for photos and video featuring this remodeled portion of the layout in future PCCM virtual ops series!