Page 96 - 39. MRH13-05-May2013

Track
Plan for
a One
Turnout
Layout
hook up a power pack or DCC
system, lay down 3x5 cards for
the car spots, and start operat-
ing. The cost at this point would
be minimal.
Once up and running you could
then go back and embark on
a full-blown, all-out detail
assault, picking projects as the
mood strikes you. The beauty
of a layout such as this is that
it lends itself to a very focused
effort without feeling over-
whelmed by the pressure of
Things are probably tricky most days, in that when an inbound
train of loads arrives, some of the cars are empty and need to
be pulled, and some are still being unloaded. This means spot-
ted cars that haven't been unloaded yet will need to be pulled
and re-spotted.
I would imagine if they run out of space for incoming loads that
they are temporarily placed 'off spot' on the sorting track until
room clears up. Although I doubt it would be necessary, if you
want more diversity you could always backdate and activate
some of the abandoned track.
How to build it
If it were me I would approach construction this way: The first
weekend, paint the drywall behind the layout sky blue and get
the shelf brackets up. The next weekend, mount the hollow
core doors and glue 1” thick extruded foam on top of them.
After that, tack down some temporary Atlas code 83 track,
A One Turnout Layout - 2
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MRH-May 2013