Storage tracks

 I am a free lancer. These days that is generally scoffed at, but I am a proud free lancer. I sincerely try to make every facet of my layout prototypically plausible. 

-BUT-

Because I’m a free lancer I am not constrained by the prototype. With this in mind whenever I establish an industry on my layout I try to include as much operation as plausible. 

To cut to the chase  every medium sized, or larger, industry on my layout has a storage track adjacent. The idea is the storage track holds MTY cars so there is a buffer of available MTY’s for the particular industry.

On AIR1 at Old Dominion Furniture the storage track held about eight 50’ furniture boxcars*. Then the local would pull and spot cars for loading from the storage track, and set out MTY for loading cars on the storage track. It gave the local an extra move to make. The local would show up with four cars, spot two, re-spot two, and pull two for a total of six cars handled. 

Last week in Southern California I operated a Budweiser Brewery job that had a great deal of work to do with storage tracks. I think it validated my ideas from AIR1.

Once I saw how well this idea was working for me at Old Dominion, I began adding storage tracks all over. One in particular, at Neilson &Sons** Scrap, became an integral part of the switch work there. 

So I am re-examining the track plan, in detail, for AIR2, looking out for switch puzzles, and eliminating those, but also looking for industries where an adjacent storage track can be included. One industry I became intrigued with was an LP gas unloading spur, near the “Town Gas” plant. I own a large number of LP gas tank cars and was thinking that excess loaded LP tank cars could be spotted on a storage track. 

This storage track would play into plans for the “Gas Local” to get instructions to spot for unloading certain types of gas, the contents would be listed on the waybills. This would necessitate the gas local doing some minor classification work in order to spot all the “butane” tank cars for unloading today.

This same idea works for nearly every commodity. I even worked out an extensive, and complicated switch routine for the stock extra, until I found out from Doug Harding that “live” stock is NEVER switched like this; there is too great a chance of injuring the animals.

Point is, nearly every commodity and industry can benefit from the addition of a storage track near by or adjacent to an industry.


*Furniture Boxcars are simply automobile boxcars lettered for “Furniture” loading. Quite some time ago I bought, from a bargain table at the Greeley Depot MRC in Greeley, Co. a shit-pot full of MDC out-side braced wood, wood, 50’ automobile boxcars. About 2/3 had end doors and these I lettered for “Automobile” service, while the rest, with no end doors, I  lettered for “Furniture” service. These turned out to be quite good looking cars and one even made it into RMC in a title photo for an article, by Walt Appel, about freight houses.

** Neilson & Sons: Fred Neilson was my High School Varsity  football coach. Fred insisted I lift weights, and this started eight years of power lifting, pushing iron. He also had six sons, so this industry name seemed only natural. Besides turning me into the mesomorph I became physically, I consider Fred to be one of the greatest, positive, influences on my life.

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