So I’m a newb planning a railroad. Besides lots of industry sidings, what else should I be planning for future operations

Currently I am planning a single track mainline with passing sidings and lots on industries with a switching puzzle or 2 for phase 1 of consturction.

To get started, one doesn’t need lots of industries, depending on what you are capable of building and resources available… Industries can be added along the line, as you go…

Switching puzzles are fun to work… I have an industrial park on my layout, which somewhat simulates John Allen’s Timesaver switching puzzle…

Easiest way to get started, is to swap out like cars for like cars at the industries…

good luck with your design…

Yea, industries popped up along existing railroads, as needs and resources dictated. Why not model that way as your resources dictate? Have a main commodity for your railroad, and as time and resources (money) permit, add things along the line.

Railroads aren’t “static”, they change and adapt over time. Our model railroads can and should do the same. In correcting a design flaw (an S curve) I ended with some abandon track that I park some really ratty boxcars on.

(http://www.largescalecentral.com/public/album_photo/7a/b8/01/1b5c3_6351.JPG)

I plan on adding a switch there, and an oil well, once I get the tank car and the oil well built. Again, adding industries as my resources permit.

There’s quite a few articles on Operations that I and a few others have written.

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/19595/operations-on-the-rgs

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/20217/operations-on-the-j-amp-b-novem

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/19860/october-operations-on-the-bluest

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/19785/operations-on-the-j-amp-b

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/17145/july-2012-operations

Operations are pretty simple when you boil them down. You need two things… a place to get stuff from, and a place to take stuff to. Most common, this take the form of some kind of raw-material source (mine, timber loading) and a processing plant of some kind. Or, it could be a number of industries (warehouses, oil storage/loading, factory, etc.) and an interchange yard.

The more of these “pairs” have on your railroad, the more complex your operations can become. The “temporary” railroad I built when I first moved into my house out here consisted of a 9’ x 20’ loop of track with a passing siding and two short spurs.

(http://home.comcast.net/~kcstrong/trr/pics/construction/Trackplan.jpg)

One spur was a coal mine, the other spur had a tannery, which took in tanbark and raw hides, and shipped out finished leather. The passing siding had a freight depot. The one track on the passing siding was the “interchange” track where cars came to and from the “larger world.” Hopper cars went to the mines and back, flat cars and stock cars (loaded with tanbark) went to the tannery and back, and box cars went to any of the sidings. (Tannery–loaded with raw hides; Station–loaded with freight; mine–loaded with mine props or supplies; interchange track–returning to the outside world.)

A railroad that simple, even with only 6 or 7 cars total, still took around 30 minutes to switch everything where it needed to go.

My current railroad is somewhat expanded from that, but the basic premise still holds fast; a collection of sources and destinations for freight to be carried.

Pretty much all of my industries are located either on short passing sidings (so they can be switched out by trains traveling either direction) or on short spurs–some requiring using the passing siding as a runaround to switch the spurs.

I “operate” this with anywhere from 14 - 20 cars, and it takes me anywhere from 1.5 - 2 hours to get everything where it’s supposed to be.

(Gratuitous commercial announcement) I wrote a 4-part series on prototype operations in the garden, which is included in my new book “Garden Railway Basics,” which is available from Kalmbach (or your favorite online retailer)

You might also check out John Armstrong’s “Track Planning for Realistic Operations” (also from Kalmbach and available online). While written more for the small scales, John does a great job of laying out a lot of information about how to model industries on your model railroad, and easy ways to scale some of those aspects down to small spaces.

Also, you may want to look specifically at books on narrow gauge railroads. Regardless of whether you run standard or narrow gauge, the operations of narrow gauge railroads tend to be microcosms for the larger world, and can more easily be boiled down to garden-sized railroads. (For example, the track plans of two of my three yards on my current railroad( the ones on the lower left and right) are pretty much identical to the track plans the prototype had at these locations, with a bit of license for space available.)

One thing to consider, though is how many operators you may have on the railroad at one point. My railroad is set up for one operator, so none of my passing sidings are actually “passing” sidings where I can pass two trains by each other. If you foresee yourself hosting operating sessions with multiple operators, make sure your yards can handle two trains passing each other.

Later,

K

Accessibility. Have a clear area to walk. Step over the track/trains as little as possible, if at all. If you have an area to switch make it easy to get to.

Remember peoples reach, you can’t make a 10’ wide yard that can only be accessed from one side.

Highly detailed layouts are beautiful but are also a PITA if you have to tip toe through the industry to get to the track that you have to walk on to make the switch move.

If your building an elevated layout the same applies. Don’t make people crawl under the track and don’t hide switches behind buildings and scenery.

Have places to sit. Maybe some shade.

Clear, easily understandable switch lists.

I’m sure there is more but these are things I have noticed from going to ops sessions. The most important thing is to have fun. People aren’t perfect stuff gets goofed up, things get damaged. Life goes on.

Terry

All excellent points Terry.

I’ll add that when figuring out the access to switching locations don’t forget that many of your operators may be older and less agile than you. Getting to and switching Majestic on Bob’s railroad is always a challenge for me as there is no clear or easy path to get there.

I’d say you’re on the right track, Matt.

My own point-to-point, operations-centered pike has most industries at the towns, and a few out along the line. There’s a larger town for a lot of switching at each end of the line.

Through trial and error I eventually made three key decisions: 1. To have an adequate freightyard. 2. To raise the pike onto benchwork 39" above ground, and 3. To go with radio control.

I hold operation sessions with some buddies on my pike every Sat Morning all Summer. The pike is always under review or under construction a little at some point or other. Nature of the beast.

You’re going to have a lot of fun! Cheers.

Matt,

Are you familiar with Cass? Can’t be too far from you (Relatively speaking). Their Operations for tourism and their past history is a good example of getting a product to market and transferred to another line. Really, if you don’t do it for the exploration it would still be great inspiration every year.

Great advice given so far. I would say start with one industry all RR’s need a purpose be it passengers, hauling gold, coal, lumber, cold drinks for the operator? On my RR I bought a few hopper cars so then I needed a coal mine so built one which spawned another industry when a high quality sand was found and the CCSSSCC was born. That is the Cape Cod Souvenir Sand Supply and Coal Company and guess what that needed another siding and building for processing plus a string of covered hoppers. Then what was needed was a more efficient and cost affective way to haul these trains to the interchange other than the geared steamers and the parent RR which is the Rock Root and Pup Poop Rail Road commonly referred to as the RRPPRR leased diesels from the Cape Cod Central. Of course this arrangement didn’t happen over night it started small.
When you are planning, a continous route vs a point ot point sure is nice because you can let a train run. You can always make it a point to point by limiting your run from a siding to siding or build a spur with a industry at the end where you can pick up a product bring it the long way around and drop it on another which could be a interchange. As the crow flies my coal and sand mine is about 12 feet from the sand processing factory but the train always takes the long way around to get to it.

That is a nice track plan Kevin has it can be operated, left to run and it has lots of switching fun built in.
Happy RRing