Post your switching layout images

The straight side is attached to existing layout.  Photo shows a work in progress.

I copied this from an old business park serving a coal yard, lumber yard and a pubic delivery track in which  I played as a child.   Back then we could throw the switches and pretend to be moving cars around.  Would  probably wind up in "Juvie" attempting that today!

Another area is one of my towns.

Again, another.

I haven't built it yet but I designed this small switching pike to fit on a 38" door I took out of the house.

Should have seen the look on the CEO's face when I told her why I was saving the door.....

Industries would probably be a lumber yard, warehouse, and team track. Maybe a grain silo or coal dump.

My industrial area feeds off my main layout. Cars arrive and depart in 10-12 car trains. Here a train is awaiting departure on the arrival/departure track.

After arriving, cars are sorted into two separate industrial switching jobs and set up for delivery to east and west areas separated by a river. The following is the schematic and overview of the West side.

Here’s the east side schematic and overview.

It takes me about an hour to receive the arrival train, set out the departure train, sort and block the two industrial jobs, do the pickup and delivery for both jobs which puts me in a position to restart the process the next time I go downstairs!

Jim Z, that looks like a fun operation. What are the dimensions?

It’s about 40 linear feet with a 90 degree bend between the arrival/departure tracks and the west side. The maximum depth is 32” which makes it easy to reach for uncoupling.

Even though I substituted Western NY businesses for breweries, the operational concept is based off a Model Railroader project layout called the ‘Beer Line’ published a number of years ago.

The Plywood Empire Route is an around-the-walls Pike in an 11'8" X 12'8" room:

It is a simple loop with two industrial areas.

The East End industrial zone:

This is a quasi-Inglenooks track-plan. There is a car spot for the Grain Elevator, the Tipple, the Scrapyard (which has an operating Lionel PW 282 Electromagnetic Gantry Crane to which I added transverse movement) and a tank car spot where petrochemicals are offloaded into a tank truck (this was a typical prototype operation when we were living in Somerset, Pa). The Gain Elevator has off-spot space for two cars. The Tipple has space for one additional car and the Scrapyard siding has room for four additional cars. Pick-ups and set-outs have to be done in the correct way or one finds oneself stuck with no room to maneuver.

The West End "Paint Factory":

The siding has spots for four cars (a tank car of PVA, a tank car of Resin, a boxcar to load with paint and a spot for a covered hopper of Titanium Dioxide pigment) and storage for two more cars. Drilling cars into the necessary order can get intense. Bottom center is the main coming into town from Interchange and to it's left is the East End Branch.

Bringing the train into town, performing the necessary set-outs and pick-ups, and returning to Interchange takes from ½ to 1 hour of realtime.  A set of switching lists determine the makeup of each train leaving Interchange for Town. It is a fun switching pike.

This is the end of the island module I put in. I thought I wanted a brewery with multiple track sidings for different unloading and loading. I also want to do push pull switching on one of the tracks. After a bit of thinking I may, at times , change out the area making it a bunch of small industries in that area. Around the corner I do have a few more sidings for switching to other buildings. Pics..............Paul 2

Shown below are a few photos of the industrial section of my layout.  This area consists of two separate sidings situated within a reversing loop.  This area accommodates several industrial functions to include the Culvert Loader and Culvert Unloader, Operating Diesel Fueling Station, Operating Icing Station, Operating Lumber Mill, Operating Barrell Loader, two Magnetic Gantry Cranes, Operating Oil Derrick and Oil Refinery and of course the ever present Automatic Gate man.  There are a few static functions as well.  This industrial area allows for a great deal of switching and interesting action.

OkHiker, that’s an impressive and jammed packed operation. What are the specific dimensions of the area and of your layout in general?

 Thank you 

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

OkHiker, that’s an impressive and jammed packed operation. What are the specific dimensions of the area and of your layout in general?

 Thank you 

@Jay Francis,

                      Thanks for the compliment.  Overall dimensions for my layout are 8X20 while the industrial area is approximately 8X8.  

The tracks visible and those that extend left from turnouts become the arrival/departure, lead tracks and yard where trains are made for switching to businesses or made for yards and businesses in imaginary distant towns.