Northeast Container Mockup

I'm trying to get the No-Name Industrial Park to the point where I could invite some friends over to operate and not have to explain too much, or excuse too much.  I'm not worried about the lack of scenery at this point, I'm more interested in things that affect operation.  One major remaining problem is couplers - the three versions of the Atlas O couplers and Kadees mean you need to use one of thee different uncoupling pick strategies depending on what is coupled to what.  Converting everything to Kadees has to happen soon.  I didn't feel like working on couplers this weekend, so I decided to mock up Northeast Container.  I think leaving the building up to the imagination is a bit much when there are two separate spotting locations, one inside and one outside.

I spent some time with a couple long rulers and a square to figure out exactly what the footprint of the building ought to be.  I tried to scale off some photos to pick a reasonable height for the buildings.  And I choose a relatively wide loading dock - 14 scale feet.  To make it easier to get the building to sit flat I had to trim back the edge of the roadbed left over from the torn up second track.  I didn't rip it all out - the loading dock can sit on what's left without a problem.

The finished mockup

I made the mockup from a leftover piece of 1/4 plywood.  There are some corner blocks at the joints, which are glued and nailed together with brads.  The warehouse and main building are screwed together in place, so they can be easily separated to carry around.  The loading dock is a piece of 1/4 ply supported by some 3/4 stock made into a U channel to provide a wide flat bottom so the front overhanging a dip in the ballast between the siding and the roadbed from the torn up track doesn't matter.  The building is large - about 11 feet overall.  The building the track goes into is 64" long, and 6.5" high at the front tapering up to 7.5" at the peak.  The building with the loading dock is 72" long and 5.5" high.  The loading dock itself is 30" long. 

A view over the top of the N scale layout

The warehouse has an enclosed dock for unloading cardboard out of the weather.  With it all in place I think I might have made the building a little too short - I may try propping it up on blocks to see what it's like a bit taller.  Part of the purpose of making a mockup, I guess.

The warehouse

The outside dock is where scrap cardboard bundles are loaded into boxcars for recycling.  I've been waiting to have somewhere useful to put that forklift!

The dock

The overview shows the storage track with 2 boxcars sitting on it to the left, the interchange track going around the curve at the end, and the Northeast Container building to the right.  Cars that don't fit in the warehouse get stashed on the storage track.  Most of the empties from the warehouse just go back to the interchange, but some make a stop at the dock to get loaded with scrap.

Overview

 

I'm reasonably happy with the mockup.  If I still feel that way in a week, I'll probably paint it and find something to use for a roof.  If not, well, I have more scrap plywood.