GENERIC PROTOTYPE MODELING

Modern industrial railroading, up close and personal.  The size and mass of O scale allows one to capture this perspective on a layout, transporting operators into the scene.  The location is eastern Pennsylvania, but could be anywhere in the country. 

 
My NCIR has no specific geographical location, other than being in the eastern US.   This may seem like heresy when compared to popular layout design thinking, but I wanted prototypical operations and scenery without the limitation of one specific location.  My wife and I travel extensively and visit many interesting areas across the US and Canada.  My layout may be set in Pennsylvania for now.  Later, I may think of the NCIR being located on the Delmarva Peninsula.  A few years later the railroad may be in Virginia or in upstate New York.  

Industrial switching layouts (ISL's) are great for this type of "generic-prototype” modeling.  Modern industrial park architecture is often similar from one city to the next (those large shoebox designs are good for some things).  My scenery, while based on an actual industrial branch near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is generic enough to pass for many locations in the eastern US.  My second-hand locomotives are representative of those found on small switching operations today.  Since I stage inbound cars on the layout, there is no need to own locomotives for the connecting railroad.  As for the name New Castle Industrial Railroad: the Industrial Railroad part was easy enough; I happen to like the ring of New Castle and it is a name found on many state maps. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The NCIR operates a short segment of industrial trackage spun off by a Class I railroad.  The line is one of many owned and managed by parent company Pioneer.   

Crews are dispatched to operate the NCIR on an as-needed basis, usually several times per week.  Operations can take anywhere from one to several hours. 

 

Pioneer will shuffle locomotives between divisions due to mechanical issues or changes in traffic levels.  Alco RS11 no. 318 (former Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern) is current power on the NCIR.  RS3m no. 102 (a former Conrail Altoona rebuild) seems to draw the NCIR assignment whenever the 318 is down for repairs. 

 

I should mention that there is a prototype New Castle Industrial Railroad, which operates north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The 1/48 scale NCIR, however, is a figment of my imagination blending ideas from several prototype operations. 

TRACK DRAWING

The drawing below illustrates my trackplan and industry location.  This no-frills illustration doesn't include scenic elements and finalized building footprints, which are currently being tested.    

Overall layout size is 25' x 10' with a minimum curve radius of 45".  All switches are #8's except the switch into Dal-Tile, which is a #6.

I'm using Atlas O sectional track to design and test the layout.  Final track will be handlaid to P48 standards using Right-O-Way Code 125 steel rail and wood ties.

For orientation, New Castle Junction is on the right.  Interchange takes place here between NCIR and its Class I connection (actual NCIR ownership ends at the Ann Street underpass).  The switch where my industrial lead diverges from the Class I is theoretically located a short distance east of Ann Street (off layout).


The New Castle Industrial Track once crossed the New Castle Secondary at grade near Ann Street and continued east to the Osram Sylvania glass plant.  The glass plant shut down and the crossing was partially removed just before the sale to NCIR.  A gravel lot at the end of this truncated track serves as a transload for Premier Chemical.  Premier transfers magnesium oxide powder from covered hoppers  to trucks.  Occasionally, NCIR will spot a tank car of liquid product here.  The remaining segment this track is used to store loaded cars off spot.    

West of the interchange is Packaging Corporation of America's large corrugating mill; the reason that this trackage exists today.  PCA receives boxcars of linerboard and covered hoppers of starch.   The mill also ships out scrap cardboard, which is recycled by the production mills located in the south and midwest.

From PCA the industrial track meanders west, curving through a wooded marsh, then entering the Commerce Street district.  Here, Dal-Tile Incorporated (DTI) receives inbound tank cars of kaolin slurry.  Track is out of service beginning a couple hundred yards west of the Commerce Street crossing.  NCIR's locomotive is kept at the current end of track west of Commerce Street, next to McMinn Asphalt's large storage yard.      

Hometaping in Self-Management

Dear friends, staunch supporters, occasional readers and disinterested sympathizers,

We are proud to announce the release of Hometaping in Self-Management LP, the first in a series of retrospective Ex Yu Electronica compilation LPs that seek to highlight some of the most interesting happenings in the 1980s independent DIY experimental music scene of former Yugoslavia.

As a regionally-focused testimony of 1980s non-academic experimental music practices, Hometaping in Self-Management is the first document of its kind in Eastern-Europe and as such it seeks to expand the known frontiers of the hometaping spectrum. There are elements of fundamentalism to the logic behind this compilation: if the phenomenon of Yugoslav tape experimentalism was globally perceived as a marginal, bordering on nonexistent within the 80s cassette culture – then this compilation treats it as a microcosm on its own right; if Mario Marzidovšek was generally regarded as an obscure person in the global network – then he is nothing short of a superstar on Hometaping in Self-Management ; if Sumanuti Jebači are considered a mere footnote on the Yugoslav hometaping scene – they are a key nexus on the hometaping scene of Croatian Banovina and so on.

Hometaping in Self-Management presents 14 different projects from five republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (with the exception of Montenegro) with 14 tracks spanning from 1981 to 1989. The LP comes in an edition of 300 copies, with a four pages full colour booklet and abundance of information about each individual project, a small introduction into hometaping in SFRY and a general project introduction by its initiator (Dušan Hedl). The LP is realized in cooperation of Subkulturni Azil (Maribor, Slovenia) NGO for culture and art publishing and A Hogon’s Industrial Guide (Belgrade, Serbia) research platform with the support of Ministry of Culture of Slovenia.

The first of three promotional events planned for Hometaping in Self-Management LP will take place in ŠKUC, Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 10.01.2010. at 13h and you are all invited to come. The details on two other promotions in Zagreb and Belgrade, as well as information on distribution of the LP will come soon.

All the best in 2011,
A Hogon's Industrial Guide

SCENIC INSPIRATION

My New Castle Industrial Railroad is set in a generic location.  However, using ideas from prototype locations helps me immensely when planning layout scenery.  Although I pull mini-scenes and details from many different geographical locations, there is no substitute for using an actual area to achieve the overall layout atmosphere that I'm after.

My scenic inspiration is a Norfolk Southern industrial branch located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The "North Side" industrial lead is located just east of NS' Dillerville Yard.  The branch diverges from Amtrak's electrified Harrisburg - Philadelphia mainline at Cork Interlocking, crosses Manheim Pike, then meanders northwest to serve several industries...including Packaging Corporation of America and RR Donnelly.

Google Maps View:


View Larger Map

Bing Map



The photo below (taken in 2006) looks west from the SR 72 bridge.  The North Side is the track at far right, curving behind the Lancaster Malleable Castings plant toward Manheim Pike.   The huge facility at left is the Armstrong Flooring plant.  That's NS local H23 and its actually backing east out of Dillerville yard.  The train will reverse through Cork Interlocking, then cross over to the westbound main.  The local will travel a short distance west, then shift the Alumax plant before making a run up the Lititz Secondary.   Sadly, all the industrial buildings in this photo are gone today!

This Google Street View below looks south from Manheim Pike.  You can see that Lancaster Malleable Castings is gone and the North Side runs through the remaining debris field.  Catenary in the background is Amtrak's Keystone main.
     

View Larger Map

Of course on my New Castle Industrial, the Ann Street overpass takes the place of Manheim Pike.

Across the street, McMinn Asphalt batch plant makes an interesting scene.  I am modeling McMinn's equipment storage yard on the layout. 

 
View Larger Map

The North Side continues across Dillerville Road and on to RR Donnelly, at Steel Way.  On my NCIR, the end of operable track at Commerce Street will mimic this view:


View Larger Map

My NCIR is an independent operator that purchased industrial trackage cast-off by a Class I railroad.  Interestingly, this scenario almost played out on the North Side before the Conrail. split.  Apparently the sale fell victim to associated moratorium on line sales prior to the takeover by NS/CSXT. 

So, the prototype North Side serves my scenic purposes pretty well.  The area will offer plenty of  ideas to copy from!

FIRST OP SESSION -- October 31, 2010

This week I completed benchwork construction, built a temporary model of the Anne Street overpass at New Castle Jct., and conducted my first real operating session.  Because it's such a milestone for me, I chose to photograph the session as I went along.  Pardon the lack of scenery, amorphous buildings and large red track pins:-)

It's a cold November morning as we head to the New Castle Industrial Park.  We get a glimpse of the railroad as we cross the Anne Street Bridge.  CSX dropped seven cars on the industrial lead overnight.  Looks like PCA has a full compliment of boxcars at the warehouse/dock and there are a couple cars on the storage track... 

We arrive at the north end of the industrial park, off Commerce Street, where RS-11 no. 318 is kept tied down.  Our engineer arrived a few minutes before we did and 318 is already alive and idling in the morning sun.  He performs his walk around inspection and we go inside the office to retrieve our paperwork...

We find our switchlist in the fax machine:

ISS New Castle   7 November 2009

CSXT Inbound
TR 405543 Pulpboard
TR 405418 Pulpboard
RBOX 303309 Pulpboard     *Spot Warehouse*
NAHX 99628 Mg02     *Spot Premier*
EEC 3150 Pulpboard     *Spot Warehouse*
GTW 306636 Pulpboard    
WC 21084 Pulpboard     *Spot Dock*

New Castle Holding
RBOX 33604 Pulpboard     *Spot Warehouse*
CSXT 136007  Pulpboard

PCA Dock
CN 405690 Empty    *Pull*
CNA 419309 Empty     *Pull*

PCA Warehouse

CNA 419341 Empty     *Pull*
CSXT 136026 Empty    *Respot Dock*
CSXT 141068 Empty     *Pull*

We go over the switchlist on the way down to New Castle Jct, thinking about the moves we need to make.  Here we are at PCA.  Stopping to unlock switches and remove derails at the plant...  

Then we tie onto our inbounds, charge air and inspect the cars...

 

Inspection and brake test complete, we pull north a few carlengths and prepare for our first move...spotting the Premier hopper.  We make our cut on the main...

Then we go into the holding track, grab the two boxcars and bring them out on the main...  

With the holding track now clear, we can tie back onto the hopper and spot it at the far end of the holding track, near the underpass...

It takes another 30 minutes or so to build our inbound loads into spot order and deal the others into the holding track...

Now we run light into the plant spur to grab the outbounds... 

CSXT 136026 is an empty, which PCA requested to be respotted at the dock for scrap cardboard loading.  To do this, we tie a handbrake on the CN car and leave it on the PCA spur...

This allows us to kick out our CSXT car, coupling it to our inbound loads on the main...

Then we go back and grab our empty CN...

Spotting the inbounds.  With all the fork trucks and personnel at the dock and warehouse, we try to make one pull out and one shove back in.  Much safer than shifting cars on the plant spur...

Two cars spotted at the dock: a loaded WC hi-cube and the empty CSXT...

Setting off the outbounds.  Viewed from Anne Street... 
 

Time to warm up in the cab and complete our wheel report as we run light back to the end of track at Commerce Street...

THE REAL DEAL

A SMS Rail crew prepares to drill inbound cars at the Pureland Industrial Park in Swedesboro, NJ.  Photo by Carl Perelman courtesy of railpictures.net.

Below is a video I shot in 2009, showing an SMS Rail crew switching within the Pureland Industrial Park in Swedesboro NJ.  

Trackage at this end of the industrial park is very simple, nearly identical to the New Castle Industrial Park plan.  There is a mainline/interchange track, a siding used to store cars, and a warehouse spur (in this case the Home Depot Lumber Distribution Center).

A Conrail Shared Assets local shoved inbound cars onto the interchange track from the east.  The video opens with the SMS crew rolling up to the interchange from the west to classify and spot the cars.  The video follows the crew as they drill the cars via switchlist using the mainline and siding. 

As you watch the video, you'll notice a few interesting things:

• Watching a savvy crew shift railcars can be fascinating.  Note how the conductor and brakeman work efficiently as a team.  One is making cuts and hitches, the other tends the main switch.  Later, the brakeman rides a few carlengths, then drops off  so that he is in a position to make a cut after the conductor makes the hitch.  Using similar practice, even small layouts like the NCIR can provide three people (engineer/conductor/brakeman) with an hour or more of fun. 

• Notice how the crew begins by making the "big pull", then effectively builds two trains by dealing cars into the siding and  interchange track.  This method is much quicker than "cherry picking" individual cars, yet the shifting still takes some time.  And sorting the interchange was only half the day's work.  The crew still needed to pull the Home Depot spur, sort out empties vs. cars to be respotted, then shove the new loads and respots back into the warehouse.

So without further adieu:

SMS Baldwin 9069 from Jack Hill on Vimeo.

My goal is for the O Scale NCIR to give operators and viewers the same perspective as seen in the video.  The track is near eye level, resulting in a view like that of a conductor on the ground.  My main track and siding are on a convex curve, so I have to "walk the train" to find car numbers and make cuts.  The size of 1/48 scale locomotives and rolling stock nicely captures the mass and inertia of the real thing...i.e. sometimes I really do need to put slack on the pin to uncouple!

Until next time...