Operational Possibilities for Inglenook Layout?

Spooked Aug 17, 2016

  1. Spooked

    Spooked TrainBoard Member

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    Hey everyone,

    I've tentatively decided to try and build an N scale 1' x 4' inglenook layout for my first model railroad, but I'm not quite sure what sort of industry I should be looking at. Going over my fairly small selection of freight cars, it seems I've primarily collected Grain Train hoppers from Eastern Washington, and 1950's Pacific Fruit Express Reefers from Southern Pacific.

    Which one seems to make more sense in terms of operation on a small layout like this? Switching full/empty grain hoppers, or switching out full/empty refrigerator cars with a possible icing platform? Any advice? I feel more adept at creating scenery than understanding all the nuances of switching layouts (though hopefully this will help me learn).
     
  2. DougL

    DougL TrainBoard Member

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  3. ViperBugloss

    ViperBugloss TrainBoard Member

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    Initially, does it have to be representative of anything? I have a built an Inglenook layout in Z scale on bare MDF. Build one, use it, and go from there.
     
  4. subwayaz

    subwayaz TrainBoard Member

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    I'm no expert, but as long as it makes sense to you in operating it and provides interest in multiple ways than No it doesn't have to represent anything real Life. I'm sure some folks find it easier if it does represent something but it's sure not mandatory
     
  5. Spooked

    Spooked TrainBoard Member

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    I have seen that site Doug, but thank you for bringing it up again. I guess what I'm driving at is: given the way cars are switched or moved on an inglenook layout, is there one option that might make more sense than another? (From a prototypical standpoint. I'm not trying to re-create anything specific here, just mimic reality.)
     
  6. DougL

    DougL TrainBoard Member

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    no.

    A little more operation for you: after reefers are emptied they are cleaned out before re-icing. You could dedicate one track to cleaning.
    • move empty from warehouse to cleaning track
    • move loaded to warehouse
    • move cleaned empty to icing track
    • re-assemble train for leaving
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2016
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  7. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    I used to live in Sherman, TX (something I don't brag about), and just a few blocks from where I lived is a segment of a former MKT branch that is used to serve a ConAgra flour mill. A crew from DGNO shoves loaded covered hoppers down the branch to a three-track holding yard. A small switcher (they use a former GTW SW9) takes out a cut of loads, and shoves them into the unloading track. Once emptied, the cars are put back into the holding yard, and another cut of loads is switched in. The switcher is operated by a singer person using a radio pack. Flour is loaded into Airslide hoppers on another track that is served by BNSF, off the former Frisco main.

    You could have one locomotive from the connetcing road, and a smaller locomotive lettered for the plant. And for an addition, you could also include spotting empty Airslides (or boxcars of you're loading bagged flour) and pulling loads.
     
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  8. RBrodzinsky

    RBrodzinsky November 18, 2022 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    Isn't the point of an Inglenook to randomly pull a set of cars from a randomly distributed set? It is a puzzle that best models creating a specific train with cars optimally placed for future delivery in a yard, not an efficient method of servicing an industry.

    Doesn't mean one can't create industrial scenery around one (I'm doing that too at the end of my yard), just that operating for the scene will be different than operating for the puzzle. If really interested in the puzzle, just make sure you can easily couple and uncouple every car on each track, as necessary.
     
  9. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I would buy a pair of DPM warehouses and place then on the outer 2 tracks and buy boxcars
     
  10. Spooked

    Spooked TrainBoard Member

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    Some food for thought at least. I just wanted a small train layout to play with. Look at the can of worms I opened! :LOL:

    So these were my two latest finds / sources of inspiration: Ken's Dawson Station and Chris Gilberts' Haston Nomad (though I'd convert it from HO to N) Video here.
     
  11. Spooked

    Spooked TrainBoard Member

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    I'm leaning towards using Ken Olsen's Dawson Station layout but switching the location to Eastern Washington for grain car pick up / drop off. Looking at how involved he's become in such a small layout is both inspiring and daunting at the same time...
     
  12. thx712517

    thx712517 TrainBoard Member

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    My home layout is an Inglenook. It's modeled on a brewery. The way I operate is to imagine I'm pulling empties and assembling them into a train to haul off-scene. I also "rotate stock" for another way to use the layout, pulling an empty grain hopper from the spot and replacing it with a full hopper. I use the main leg for my loading dock, one of the short legs for the grain tower, and the third leg was initially for corn syrup until my tankers met a tragic end (too close to the edge and took a tumble) , and now it serves as an on-site storage track.
     
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  13. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    Below is a rough drawing of the trackage around the ConAgra flour mill. DGNO brings in loaded grain hoppers, pulls out empties. The mill uses a switcher to swap out cars for loading. In real life BNSF handles the loaded Airslide hoppers full of flour, but in this drawing I included that track for the millwrights to switch out for pickup by DGNO. You could have one crew handling car interchanges, while another crew does the switching.
     

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  14. Spooked

    Spooked TrainBoard Member

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    Interesting. I was playing around in AnyRail and came up with this:


    The railroad would be the Palouse River and Coulee City shortline railroad, which collects grain cars from several smaller grain farmers and drops them off at a BNSF interchange. Picks up some empties there, and re-distributes them at the grain elevators on the way back.
     
  15. thx712517

    thx712517 TrainBoard Member

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    A track plan and photos of my layout. It's not a pure Inglenook at this point. First off it has been reduced, which means 3-2-2 instead of 5-3-3 car length sidings. I also added a little length to each spur so the locomotive could straighten out a bit before coupling up.
     

    Attached Files:

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  16. urodoji

    urodoji TrainBoard Member

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  17. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    I think your Temp Plan in Post 14 could be easily adapted to use both reefers and hoppers, if you added a second spur to run parallel to the spur serving the grain elevator, and curved the existing track that runs parallel to the bottom track to curve parallel to the other 2 spurs. This would let you keep the grain elevator where it is, and put a few small buildings and a false front building along the right end of the module for a 2nd industry that receives reefers. By aiming the spurs toward the corner, you would still be able to reach couplers for cars on all three tracks without any buildings getting in the way (and eliminating the S-curve and spacer would allow you to gain an inch or two on the second and third spurs). You would have a short track for loading/unloading reefers, a 2nd for cleaning(?) and/or icing, a third track to serve the grain elevator, and the fourth track to serve as the main track from which new cars would "come in" and switched cars would "go out".

    With this variation on Temp Plan above, if you want to stick with the traditional 5-3-3, you may need to stretch a little beyond a 12 x 48 inch module, but a 3-2-2 should fit nicely.
     
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  18. GP40X

    GP40X TrainBoard Member

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    Here's mine. The Inglenook Grain CO-OP. It is a classic 5-3-3 Inglenook set up for 50 foot cars and Atlas GP length locomotives (SD-7s, 9s, 24s & 26s also work well). Works well with MicroTrains, Walthers, and Trainworx PS-2 covered hoppers and MicroTrains 94000 Series trough hatch covered hoppers. I also plan on picking up some of the new MT Airslides to try out soon. You can use any 50' car with this track plan. I had originally planed on using 50' per diem box cars but changed to covered hoppers. When using for operations with car cards or switch lists, the plan has a 3 car capacity Grain Spur and a 3 car capacity Team Track along with a 5 car storage track.

    Inglenook Quint Set Feeder Map.jpg

    Track plan with power drop locations.

    Inglenook_test.jpg

    Testing to make sure everything was working properly before starting scenery construction using MT PS2 covered hoppers (pardon the background mess). I use poker chips with the reporting marks written on them for the Tiddlywinks to make the switch list.

    Inglenook Grain Co-op.JPG

    Here is the module set with some place holder buildings at The Worlds Greatest Hobby On Tour Show where it was part of the Worlds Largest T-Trak layout February 23 & 24, 2016.

    I did a modification to the Type C Kato bumper for the 5 car track to get a little more length needed to clear the uncoupling magnet. Hayes Wheel Stops seem to work well.

    Hayes_wheelstops.jpg

    Another good site for Inglenook information is the Model Railways Shunting Puzzle Website.

    http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/index.html
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2016
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  19. txronharris

    txronharris TrainBoard Member

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    Just curious. Why do you not have turnouts connecting to the mainline? Would seem you could add operations and a run around with four well placed turnouts. If that something to do with "TTrack"?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  20. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    Ron,
    I'm not a T-Trak person, but I'd guess the lack of connection to the far mainline (bottom main) and lack of run-around on Bill's plan are deliberate: the two modules would have a self-contained Inglenook puzzle for home use, but, at train-meets or modular get-togethers, they would fit together with other compatible modules (built on the same standards) to provide an industry next to a double main. Probably, right to leftbound trains would drop off cars at the industry(s) on the "5 car storage track" and a dedicated (in-plant) industrial switcher would work the puzzle within the industry(s).

    Bill,
    You may have already considered (and discarded) this variation because it doesn't fit in well with the priorities and preferences of the T-Trak group you are involved with, but for what it's worth...
    For operators seeking both the puzzle switching option and a more efficient (non-puzzle) switching option, is there enough room on the right module to add a right hand turnout from the 2nd main to the end of the 5 car storage track? (In your plan, I think the frog of such a new turnout would probably be under the bridge and the throw bar to the right of the bridge.) Ideally, the end of the (permanently mounted) right hand turnout would be located before the seam with the next module to the right, instead of spanning the seam to connect to track on the next module.

    When working the 2 modules at home as a puzzle, the added turnout would not have any effect on how the puzzle is worked. .
    At a train meet, when the 2 modules are incorporated into a giant loop with rightbound and leftbound mains, an industrial switcher could still work the puzzle after a train on the right to leftbound main sets out up to 5 cars on the storage track and then proceeds to orbit on the giant loop. In this case, too, the new turnout would not affect complexity/difficulty of the puzzle.
    If, instead of a dedicated industrial switcher, a roadswitcher on the right to leftbound main was assigned to efficiently switch cars on the 2 industry spurs (and none on the storage track), the added turnout would not significantly improve efficiency, and the task (switching 2 industries through trailing point turnouts) would not be complex enough to be considered a puzzle.
    If cars are already spotted on the 5 car track (as a third industry track instead of as an empty storage track), then a right to leftbound roadswitcher assigned to switch the industry(s), would have a more complex task; however, because the operator would be able to use the main in either direction from the industry(s), the job (switching up to 11 cars into and out of 3 trailing point industry tracks) might be harder, but not necessarily a super-challenging puzzle. Because the industry is served by a turnout with trailing points, the added turnout would not significantly impact the switching difficulty.

    However, the added turnout might significantly affect operations of left to rightbound trains. When combined with another module to the right that has a right hand crossover between the 2 mainlines, the added turnout will allow left to rightbound trains to pick up and drop off cars on the storage track for the industrial switcher to spot in the industry(s). Depending on how many cars occupy the 11 possible spots (a function of how many cars the roadswitcher drops off), the in-plant industrial job could be a relatively easy (5 cars or less) or difficult puzzle.

    If, instead of a dedicated industrial switcher or the leftbound roadswitcher, a left to rightbound roadswitcher has the dispatcher's permission to use the other main to switch 5 cars into and 5 cars out of the 2 industries and the 5 car storage track is empty, the rightbound roadswitcher can use the new added turnout to make a run-around move, switch out cars to and from the 2 industry tracks, and make another run-around move before going back to the rightbound main job. This job takes some planning ahead, so could probably be considered a puzzle for less experienced operators and a medium difficulty job for experienced operators. (If inbound cars have been previously blocked by industry, then I think it will take 20 moves, but I could be wrong). (If there are 6 cars to spot and 6 to pick up in the 2 industry(s), there will need to be a lot more moves than if there are 5 or less...and the job would probably be considered a puzzle by all operators.)
    If the 5 car track is a third industry track (meaning there are 11 spots=up to 11 cars in and 11 cars out), then, the left to rightbound roadswitcher would definitely have a time-consuming puzzle job, which would tie up both mains for a very long time...requiring, I think, more than 3 times as many moves as 5 cars in 2 industries, but someone may be able to find a more efficient series of moves to solve the puzzle than I could.
     

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