I'm thinking this is a good idea but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm missing something. Is this done in the real world...the prototype world??? Is it a good idea to have an industrial siding that looks like a passing siding? Is there a problem with this? Candy
Candy - You can do most anything with track layouts and find an example in real life. Having an double-ended industrial track is fine and I believe fairly common - makes it a whole lot easier on the switch crews. Go with it and enjoy! Just be sure to have crossing protection for each track, flashers and maybe gates on the mains and just a crossbuck (or even stop signs) on the siding.
We had a flasher at the crossing once, but he got arrested and now he has to register as that kind of offender.
That is how the old Wabash RR configured two of their big sidings in my old home town...one on either side of the main. Most of the customers they serviced in the town were along those double enders. Only the high volume customer and customers not adjacent to the mains got dead end sidings.
I know of a major siding on the BNSF Hinckley Subdivision, Cambridge, MN, that is set up just like that (road and all) a plastics company on one side of the road and a LP dealer on the other.
Of course, if you want to make operations interesting, remove the siding in the crossing or pave over the rail, and put bumpers or wheel stops on both sides.
If you are looking for types of industries to go on those sidings, the case I mentioned had a produce dealer, coal yard, ice cream plant, auto parts plant, and an alfalfa mill on one double ender...and a feed mill, oil dealer, and a long stretch of car storage along a residential area on the other.
We have several sidings like that. One of which the loads get spotting on one end, and the empties are pulled from the other.
I read somewhere (probably in one of the layout planning booklets or an article on layout planning), that some RRs are more likely to use double ended sidings when traffic to and from the industry needs to travel in either direction...especially, when there was not a convenient run-around available relatively nearby. I'd also guess a double-ended siding might be used more often when cars set out at industry spots near the middle of the siding had to be switched out more frequently than cars at industry spots closer to the siding turnouts, but someone with more knowledge of 1:1 operations/track configurations than me might be able to confirm, deny, or clarify my speculation.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.194521,-82.731137&z=16&t=h&hl=en Here's a prototype for a single industry served by a double ended siding.It's the Plusmark aka American Greetings plant in Greene county TN. Not exactly what you were asking for but close.
Thanks Z ! Is the coal yard right next to the ice cream plant? " Hey, Candy? What are those black specks on you ice cream cone? " giggles
You gotta get your carbon ration from somewhere, better'n burnt toast or apple pie ashes...:tb-wink: Candy, following your total immersion into modeling and railroading is real enjoyment.....:tb-cool:
