Modeling Unit Train Loading Facilities

[basementcalling]

Any thoughts on how to model modern loading facilities for unit grain trains or other commodities?

Here's a video on one new spot on the Washington & Idaho, a short line that interchanges with BNSF in Marshall, WA.

It's too new to be visible on Bing Maps imagery, but two similar locations are on the UP Washy sub here.

http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9cnBucWp5NTJyc3QwJmx2bD0xNyZkaXI9MjcwJnN0eT1iJnRtPSU3QiUyMldlbGNvbWVQYW5lbFRhc2slMjQlMjQwJTIyJTNBbnVsbCU3RA==

Another for reefers is here.

http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9cnBucWp5NTJyc3QwJmx2bD0xNyZkaXI9MjcwJnN0eT1iJnRtPSU3QiUyMldlbGNvbWVQYW5lbFRhc2slMjQlMjQwJTIyJTNBbnVsbCU3RA==

These loop facilities are often interesting industries to model, but the scope of the loop trackage needed would overwhelm all but the largest scenes on a layout. Any thoughts on selective compression to keep the loop design functional, but make it fit on a layout?

[rsn48]

Just don't do the loop, we have much larger facilities here in Vancouver, Cascadia is the one I'm thinking of.  The trains are just brought through on straight rail, well, actually they curve a bit but they aren't a loop.

This link was a tad slow loading for me, but you'll see a map of what I'm talking about.
http://wikimapia.org/1725345/Cascadia-Terminal

[nkalanaga]

I don't know if it's Bing's site or my browser (Firefox) but all Bing gives me for either link is their generic beginning page, with a map of the US.

[John]

I don't know if it's Bing's site or my browser (Firefox) but all Bing gives me for either link is their generic beginning page, with a map of the US.

same for me

[Denver Road Doug]

Here's one from my neck of the woods...
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chillicothe,+TX+79225/@34.2626128,-99.518236,1233m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x87ab49b1ec5da867:0x685ba35a60a985bb

This one has ultimate flexibility in that it can receive a train from either direction and return it to either direction.   But like Rick said, you could either do a straight track, or with the covered loadout in your video it could go into a backdrop and then either loop it behind the scenes, or have hidden stub end tracks to hold the entire train.   One idea there is to have an identical train waiting with an identical "loaded" train waiting to pull out as soon as the original cleared the switch.   This would give the impression of it looping and coming back through without needing a lot of real estate.  It would require some rolling stock though.   

I've also seen them as loops...not reverse loops but full circles...that would either send the train continuing in its existing direction or require a runaround move or DPU setup.  And of course the wye in the photo above isn't really necessary.

In some scenarios with my dream layout planning I would model the above setup.   There is also a power plant nearby so I was thinking of maybe doing a backdrop feed for both and having a loop underneath somewhere that could serve both.  (perhaps not at the same time but even that wouldn't be impossible.)