Industry for Passing Sidings

Ironhead

New Member
I have a fairly tight N scale layout and I'm curious to know what kind of industries are able to be placed on a passing siding, rather than on a spur of it's own. I have room for only 2 spurs in the center, but my passing siding is fairly long and can support the placement of at least one structure. I need another customer for my railroad. DW has posted a nice stock yard which might work well, but I'm curious about what else is possible, even if it stretches the prototypical boundry a bit.
 

Torpedo

Member
Sugar beet loading, if the era and locale are right. SP used to load beets on their nearby double track main when I was kid. If the SP can tie up one side of a main, I don't see what would be so unprototypical about using a passing track for a couple of hours.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
It also depends on how busy the line is: sometimes a passing siding is no longer needed as such, or the pace of things is such that there's time to wait while a car is loaded or unloaded.
I just grab one of Ian Wilson's books about CNR branchlines in southern and central Ontario. If you're not familiar with these books, the photos and writing follow a train (actually a composite of many trains, as the photos are from a wide variety of photographers, and most were taken at different times) along each line, and there's usually a trackplan for each small town. Flipping open Steam Over Palmerston, on page 43 there's a trackplan for Wingham, circa 1955. In addition to the mainline, there are 4 separate sidings (single-ended): two of them serve a foundry, one is for some coal bins, and the fourth is elevated for loading grain into trucks. . Situated on the mainline is the passenger station and a water spout. There is a passing siding running alongside of the main, opposite the station and water spout, and located there, from west to east, are an oil dealer, sheds of some unspecified type, a grist mill, more sheds, and a coal bin. Another track, also double-ended and a bit longer than the passing siding, runs behind the station, and located along it are: a lumber yard, a freight house, coal shed, teamtrack loading ramp, stockpens, and another two oil dealers.
Obviously, the possibilities are almost endless.:thumb:

Wayne
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
What Wayne said... although it does depend on location and era. CN has some fantasically long passing sidings in and around the Rockies (Alberta/BC) that are exclusively for passing/stopping. They do not support any industry,a s they are in the middle of nowhere, and are needed for their primary function.

However, in "days gone by" when the railway was king, the RR would almost force industries to locate to their lands, or they would either be cut off, or face a huge bill to get the railway to build a dedicated siding to them. You see this reflected in small towns where there is/was a "wrong side of the tracks" where all the industry lined up. It was more of a double-ended siding than a passing track, but could be used as such if the need arose.

My passing/double ended siding will have a grain elevator (regular, if seasonal use), and a pickle "factory" (again, regular, but seasonal use). Both are industries that need regular switching, so won't really interfere with the passing/run around function since their cars will have to be lifted/spotted by almost every job through town anyway.

Andrew
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
You could also put in an open sided loading dock to make it a team track with trains loading on one side and trucks on the other side of the dock.
 
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