For my next post, I thought it might be interesting to review an interesting switching route Downtown.

First, here’s an overall diagram of what the route includes. Please refer to the diagram when needed.

One thing I forgot to include in the key was that the thin pencil lines are switching tracks, and the bold ink lines are the Main Line. This is a quick diagram I sketched up.

These are the two switching engines that I always find in area A. They are always in town, somewhere in this area. Full cars are always deposited into area A and C, where they sit until another train takes them away. Empty cars are always put into area B, where they also wait to be taken away. This switching consist moves these cars to the two locations.

See empty cars from area B:

The day I went to take these pictures, there were a large number of empty cars, leading me to believe pickup was going to be the day after or the next. I had seen a few flatcars early in the week, then a gondola or two, and at the end, there were a ton (More like a few hundred tons) of hoppers waiting.

As I said, bigger trains take away the empty cars, and haul them to other cities to be filled again.

A cool (and kind of strange) thing I also discovered was a caboose, residing in area C. It was run down, and had large blocks behind its wheels to keep it from rolling. If I had to guess, I would say that one of the drivers (or the driver) of the consist resides here sometimes. (If not all the time)

I thought this might be interesting, and if you like operation, it would be a great addition to a layout, because there is only one track for the mainline. I personally have not included it, because of a lack of city space on my layout, but I would love to see this on another layout.

Thanks for reading!

Lukas