Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[steinjr]

Well, I have finally had time to work a little on the layout again. Once I started laying tracks for the barge terminal, I ran into the question on whether I should cram in more tracks, or whether I should keep things not so crowded down there.

I have enough room for a small freight terminal yard of four tracks, with a switchback track along the dockside for a railroad crane. Like this:



But that is probably pushing it pretty hard - there wouldn't be room for anything but tracks. I guess part of the problem is that I am trying to cram in three different industries down there - the dock (with a RR crane for lifting stuff from barge to rail and the other way around), a warehouse, a tank car loading/unloading track.

Must remember "less is more", eh ?

Some prototype pictures of the area I am basing the scene on:
Overview barge terminal: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=81148
Closeup 1: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=102086
Closeup 2: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=81513
Closeup 3: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=81486
Aerial view: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=150170

Crane lifting stuff between barges and cars (or the other way around):
Unloading coke from barges: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=77010
Loading coal into gondolas: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=170270
Loading shipping containers onto barges: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=163371
Unloading tractors from flatcars: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=198404
Loading pipes onto barges: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=170241

Interesting loads:
Oil Barge on flatcar: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=30843

Interesting barges:
"Boxcar barge": http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=18504
Oil barge at terminal: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=152742
Oil barge on river: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...eid=151380
Coal barge: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=77011
Coal barge: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresour...geid=97361

Smile,
Stein