Simple Layout Idea IV
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Andrew's Trains 
Love this narrow option. How would you place industries and operate?
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Hey Mark;
So – the layout was designed with a fiddle yard in mind. That connects to the layout on the left. The “main line” is the lowest track. There are two industries (buildings) and these are on the far left (top) and far right (top) spur against the backdrop (they are the grey boxes). The other buildings in the middle of the backdrop are not rail served and are there to add interest to the background. With the off spot spur (siding) on the lower right, these three spurs (sidings) make up the inglenook portion of the layout.
At the beginning of the session there will be cars located at each of the industries that are ready to be picked up. There may be some that need to remain, I can only suggest car cards as an operating system for the layout. You don’t need to go the whole car cards and waybill system, simply a four box system for setouts, holds, pickups and offspots for each industry. Offspot cards simply tell you that the car is in the offspot siding (bottom right).
You can handle the offspots in one of two ways:
A) Cars in offspot are prioritised for setout at the next operating session (this is the simple version), or
B) Cars in offspot are prioritised for setout at a specific spot (this is the complex version) and you cannot set them out at the industry until the car in that spot is picked up.
You work each industry using the card boxes (setout/holds/pickup/offspot) according to the delivery schedule you set up. That is also known as your industry plan. How many cars does your industry get per day, to which spots. And what commodities does each spot handle. That is a whole topic on its own. What you want as an industry depends on the types of cars you have, or want to run.
My only suggestion is to google model railroad industry plan and car cards if you are not familiar with the terms.
How you use the three locations is up to you. I would suggest that you use the offspot as a place to place cars that you are moving off spot to allow you to switch the other industry spurs.
This is a short version written in between work shifts. I hope it helps. If you need more information let me know. Happy to help, but it will be a few days until I have time to answer.
Andrew
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