Revising the First Draft

I know I’m repeating myself, but in my view any track plan is only the latest draft; it’s never finished. Changes happen, and they should be welcomed. As we talked about last time, I’d already laid and wired the track for the GM plant when I discovered I wasn’t happy with it. I could have sucked it up and tried to live with it, but what would have been the point? I’d have been unhappy and when you’re not happy with the layout, you risk losing interest. Better to make the changes now, when they’re still relatively easy.

So the images at right show the track as it was originally laid (track plan on the left, as-built on the right). As I mentioned, a reasonable facsimile of the prototype, if much shorter.

But I wanted to be able to get three 86′ boxcars inside the building on GM 1, and I decided that GM2 and GM3 should also hold three 60′ boxcars each inside the building.

There would be no physical changes to GM 4, but operationally it would become the track for tank car unloading and plastic pellet delivery. A new track would get cut in between GM 3 and GM 4, which would be for 50′ boxcar unloading, holding three cars, and this would be at an external dock (to give some visual interest).

And the stub track (unlabeled on the plan) that was originally for some sort of unloading (still yet unknown) that was supposed to be “way out in the parking lot”? I decided to save the turnout and just have a concrete unloading area out on the corner somewhere.

So I got to revising, using these guidelines and here’s what I came up with.

(You’ll note I renumbered the tracks, and this is to align with my operating standard that says track numbers always start at the fascia and go up as they move toward the back.)

So GM 3 got lengthened and what is now GM 2 is completely new. The stub track (and associated turnout) is gone, replaced with a spot out in the parking lot labelled GM 6.

The changes are actually pretty minor, but believe it or not, they effectively double the number of cars that can go in and out during each “shift”. Which for ops is a good thing. (I think… so far).

For scenic options, it also threw in some trailer unloading (the white rectangles in the plan).

So I’m pretty happy at the moment. The changes were fairly easy, but provided major upgrades to operating potential and to my overall satisfaction. Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to make changes as needed. It’s only a layout. It’s not made of concrete, and thus, not permanent (Spoiler alert: that probably means I’m not done.)

By the way, here’s the 3D rendering for the new version of the plant.

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