What to do, what to do.

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Pitchwife

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Apr 23, 2001
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I hope that this is the appropriate area for this thread. If it isn't, slap my wrist and tell me where to go. :D

I have a pleasant dilemma and I'm hoping that someone out there will be able to help me out. Due to some altered planning I came into possession of a piece of real estate and I'm not sure what to do with it. As you can see in the attached drawing it is fairly large, the grid is a 12" scale. The sidings are just some ideas I've been kicking around.

OK, now for the particulars. The scale is HO. The setting is rural mountainous somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and the era is relatively recent but as the area was established in the mid to late 1800's pretty much of anything will fit from one turn-of-the-century to the next. The property is accessible only by rail or helipad (one nice piece of animation that I thought of was a helicopter setting there with it's blades slowly spinning, either having just landed or warming up for take off). It is serviced by a dual mainline, with the orange being primarily westbound and the green eastbound. I'd like to stay away from the lumber industry or mining as there are so many fine examples of both out there already. A couple of the thoughts I had were either an operating oil pump and some storage tanks or a stone quarry. I like the quarry idea best but I'm not sure just what to do or how to do it (equipment, layout, etc.). I did some research but didn't come up with much. If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate hearing them.

Thanks
Clark
 

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Hi Clark,
The plan looks, and will work easy, for a stone quarry. I have added one track & turnout to your plan with a quarry and narrow gauge line going to it.

Hope this idea helps.
Shamus
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Thanks Shamus for the input. What I still need to know is what type of equipment would be needed, cranes etc. Also what the quarry itself would look like. If you or anyone else has or knows of photos that I could reference it would be a great deal of help to me.

Clark
 
Hi Mark

Thanks for the site. They had some good photos that I can reference. I tried going the search engine route but after the first couple hundred or so I only came up with one or two sites that had photos that even remotely were what I was looking for. Mostly they offered pictures of the pretty rocks that came out of the quarry instead of the quarry itself. I think that if I go that route it will probably be either granite or marble. Still these photos will help me visualize the final effect. I will keep looking though.
Thanks
Clark
 
OK, here is what I came up with for my quarry site. I started to use Shamus's idea for an HOn3 track in the pit but then I thought that since the only access to the site is by rail, business wise it would make more sense economically to keep everything at the same scale. I know that some of the curves are tight, but I am hoping that since everything will be at slow speed and usually not more than one or two cars I will get away with it. :eek: Any comments or critiques will be welcomed.

Clark
 

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Clark,

That looks good, but lokking at all those curves at the right hand end, you've got a width of 6 tracks at one point. The inner most curve, with a radius of probably less than 12". Perhaps, as a test, try a piece of flextrack on a board, with a 12" radius, and put some of your stock on it, and see what happens.
12" is, ummm... tight... to say the least. :eek:
 
I know that the inner curves are tight but I am hoping to get away with it. The very inner curve (in orange) is strictly to get the switch engine to the engine house. The farther out the track is, the more cars will be handled, though in most cases no more than two or three at any one time, except for the two mainline tracks.
I never did find any pictures of a working quarry so I pretty much played it by ear. :confused: I figured that there had to be three tracks, an incoming one, an outgoing one and one for the loading crane. They all had to fit in the space available. If it turns out that it won't work I'll have to figure out something else to put in there. :(
 
You can still have a quarry there and only have one track. We have a ballast quarry that we shove a cut of empty hoppers into and they load it with a front end loader. They have a road along the whole track. They get the ballast from a pile that comes from a conveyor belt from the grading area which is brought in by another front end loader. We get 20 or so ballast hoppers loaded at a time there. So, maybe all isn't lost. :)

Greg Elems
 
Hey Woodie, I tried your suggestion of laying out a piece of flex track in a curve with a 12" radius. I put a 40' box car on it (the closest thing I have to the switch engine I had planned on using) and it seemed to work fine. I will, however, try it again with the actual engine once I get it out of storage.

I wouldn't want to put a string of cars on it or anything very long. Just for fun I put a 90' car carrier (the longest thing that I have) on it and it was almost comical the way it hung over the track. :D :D

I think that as long as I stick with a small switcher and shorter gondolas I will be alright. If anyone has any better ideas though, I would be very happy to consider them. I have gotten so many good ideas from everyone here that I would still be spinning my wheels and not have near the features that are in the works. Thanks everyone!
 
Clark,
Yep. A single car will work fine on a tight radius, provided there is enough "turn" in the bogies. However, try two cars coupled together, especially ones with body mounted couplers. Note the overhang in the middle of the car (on the "inside" of the curve, and the overhang of the ends of the car on the "outside" of the curve. Now place another piece of track next to your 12" radius, and make sure cars passing on the other track dont crash into each other because of the "overhangs". dual bogie locos also have much less "turn" in the bogies than cars of course, so be careful there too.
 
You're right about the clearances Woodie, however that shouldn't be a problem since the only thing that will be running on that track will be the switch engine. If you look at the diagram the only place that track goes to is the engine house. That's why I think that I can get away with it. I will definately check the clearance on the OUTSIDE to make sure that there isn't a conflict with cars sitting on the next track.
 
MDC make some nice ore cars that are only about a scale 30' long. I think they would work well on any curve that a Sw could handle. If you are going to model a quarry that cuts out stone blocks, then I would kitbash some shorty flats from shake the box 40 footers. Marble or Granite is a heavy load, so you don't want to us long flats to haul it anyway. I think Model Railroad Craftsman did a series on a marble quarry operation, in Michigan if I remember correctly, about 10 years ago. I don't know if MRC has articals archived on computer and available for purchase like MR, but you might contact them to see if the back issues or articals are available.
 
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