New Industrial Complex with Lots of Rail

[Blazeman]

Be sure to look at the video link as well. Not the gritty Lance Mindheim-type layout and operation, but would be an interesting complex to model either as the theme of the layout or to incorporate aspects of it into designs.

http://railworksatwork.com/

[C855B]

3/4 of a loop? That puzzles me since they're so close and obviously have the real estate for it. Most modern operations involving any amount of mass loading/unloading these days are all about "through" car handling. There's actual switching involved to make this work.

[Joetrain59]

STEEL ties??
 Never heard of those before.
 Joe D

[nkalanaga]

Steel ties are common in some areas of the world, including on Swiss rack lines, and in the tropics, where wood rots, and the termites even eat concrete.

[C855B]

Apparently the Germans also experimented with steel ties proximate to WW II. One advantage I keep reading is they are supposed to do a better job of load distribution and require less ballast and subroadbed prep, especially the 'Y'-shaped versions.

[coldriver]

We had some steel ties which were installed by BN in the early 90's in situations where gauge was critical such as the 5% grade line to the Boeing 747/767 plant and the very curvy Kettle Falls line north of Spokane.  We also had some of them for switch ties on our switching lead in Everett, WA.  They performed very poorly in that application as they were prone to lateral movement which drove them down into the mud.  Eventually they were replaced with traditional wood switch ties. 

[C855B]

That doesn't surprise me at all. There's more to sleepers than vertical loading alone. That's why I couched my comment in "what I keep reading" since most of it sounded more like a sales pitch for what boils down to justifications for engineering shortcuts and the supposed savings they engender. Steel ties have been tried on and off for nearly a century and have never managed to get much traction, but it seems like every generation's job to ignore history and thump the idea as "innovative".