Friday 9 March 2012

Operations 2: Switching Spots


I'll start with naming the locations on my layout that will require switching.

First is  the interchange track with the South Shore Line (Chicago South Shore & South Bend RR) and the Roarin' Elgin (Chicago Aurora & Elgin RR aka The Great Third Rail). The reason d ĂȘtre for the layout. This spur holds five cars.

From left to right there is Armstrong Hardware (provisional name), a big building that hides the entry to the off stage track, which has three spots for cars.

Dominating the center of the layout is Chestnut Warehousing (provisional name), another big building that has three car spots.

On the right hand side of the layout is the North Shore freight house, come Railway Express Agency, building that can hold four cars.

Finally the adjacent team track, which also has the capacity to hold six cars.

That means if one assume about 50% capacity then the layout will handle ten, or eleven freight cars before it starts to clog up with too much traffic. I'm going to assume that five cars are exchanged daily with the two connecting railroads via the interchange. I'm then going to assume that half of the remaining cars will rotate off after being unloaded, or loaded, which is two freight cars a day coming in, balanced by two leaving each day.

What I don't have a real feel for is how reasonable this level of traffic is for a small interchange yard like this one? Is it too much, about right, or too little? I don't know. Any opinions would be welcomed.

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