Griffith Club - Steel Mill & Yard

All I can say is......WOW!

Peter

To: Stanta FeJim

What a "EYE" opener WOW ! It's going to be something when it's completed.

Please don't forget the Signals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck. John 

Thanks for posting pictures of that excellent work!  Let's make it three WOW's!

Wow! pretty much does it for me, too.

I'll add one more WOW.

Very, very impressive, Jim. Wish it was closer.

Nice !!   Steel mills have always been so cluttered and complicated.

I currently live in Mississippi, but I am from Merrillville. I sure wished I still lived up there!!! Nice layout. Next time I am up there, I will be sure to come visit!!!

Wow, also.  That is some yard.

.....

Dennis

JIm

One heck of a yard. would love to see more of the main layout. do you have a diagram and where are you located.

Would love to compare notes with my clubs layout here on Long Island

Steve

Unbelievable.

I had to add a "like" to this thread, because (1) it's awesome, and also (1), because my eldest son is named Griffith.  Bob S.

I can't come up with anything better than WOW!

Jim - Excellent pictures!  Last Saturday I was very impressed with how much your club has added since my last visit.  I hope this encourages more to come see your layout.

Art

I would love to see your layout if possible.  Any details on making a visit?

Yes.  And since you are in Cedar Lake, you live closer to the club layout than most of our members, myself included.  We are in Griffith, about a 25 minute drive for you.

Our Open house dates for the near future are:

June 6th, 7th and 20th.

CLOSED for the month of July for major clean-up and building maintence.

August 1st, 2nd, 15th & 16th.

We are open from 10:00 - 5:00.  ALL Open House dates are FREE to the public.

We have several dates in September to correspond with the town of Griffith's Railroad Days.  Those dates will be posted later.

We are located in  The Franklin Center

                          201 N. Griffith Blvd.

                          Griffith, Indiana 46319

Enter At Door "G" on the north side of the building.  There is plenty of free parking in the north lot.

Thanks, I am marking my calendar. 

If by diagram you mean track plan.  No I do not have one.  The layout is basically a 36' x 60' rectangle.  There are 3 main lines with radii of 120", 128" and 138".  there are about 10 spurs serving various industries.

The only thing I have a track plan for is the yard.  I designed it using rr-track.  ALL the switches are ROSS.  We used four and a half cases of Gargraves flex track for the yard.  In total that is about 730 feet of track. 

We will add signaling on the main line cross-overs when the cross-overs are installed on the mains.  The signals are on back-order.  Now if somebody can point me to some DZ1008A relays, that will get done sooner.

Great job. I'll add another Wow!

Seeing the steel mill reminded me of a job interview I went on back in the early '80s at United States Steel's Clairton Coke Works, south of Pittsburgh. Though I didn't take the position there, I'll always remember touring the enormous facility, with its batteries of coke ovens, fired up 24/7, and train tracks full of hoppers throughout. You really had to be careful not to either trip or get hit by a train. Quite an experience.

Happy training and God bless America.

Chris

I've been to Jim's club and WOW doesn't do it justice!!

The steel mill is a must see and the size and scope of this model has to be seen to be believed.

The main layout is as Jim describes but with much more going on in the scenery and buildings department. All that and free admittance... what else could you ask for??

Hey Jim you had mentioned something about 2 El Capitan's running at the same time.....

FANTASTIC!!! I'm planning on a D-Day visit. That rail yard is unbelievable! Who wouldn't want that on their own layout? I'd never have to take a train or car off the tracks again!

Having an entire passenger consist queued up with a couple of locos all on one line behind a switch ready for the main line...now that's a dream come true.

That is exactly why we wanted l-o-n-g storage tracks in our yard.  I will be able to store the complete 12-car GGD El Capitan (260 inches) with either A-B-B-B-A Atlas F7's on the point (65 inches) or A-B-B-A MTH Alco's (70 inches).  And still have 6 feet of track to spare. 

As for the freight train that you can store on 408 inches of track.  That depends if you are storing ore cars or auto racks.  If the average freight car is a 12" long, you get 34 cars. Some of the legs are 37-38 feet.

This yard is going to make our operations a whole lot easier and increase the "FUN" factor by five.

See you on D-Day.

Other popular passenger trains that we have in our club include:

1. California Zephyr

2. Empire Builder

3. City of Los Angeles

4. Daylight

5. Amtrak