Terminal Yard Expansion

Greetings All,

The much anticipated long delayed building of the Terminal Yard expansion bench work is finally in the books. Let's take a look at where the project stands right now;

The bench work has been extended around the room and a center peninsula has been added.

The left side expansion is a tad over 12' long. The paper towels are to wipe away the tears when I realize that some grandiose plans for the expansion will not work as intended 

The wye is in and looks like it will work out nicely. This extends off track#9. Flexi Van / T.O.F.C. / C.O.F.C. tracks are on the right of the U Boats. The F.V./ T.O.F.C / C.O.F.C portion of the yard will be two tracks. One stub ended and one thru track with a switch to track #9 for the engine to escape. This will allow me to pull my 85' Athearn BB T.O.F.C. flats into position. Their swivel mounted couplers are not very reliable for shove moves.

The U Boats are in the original Terminal Yard on track #9. Looking behind them we can see track 9 curving to the expansion on a 22" radius curve. We can also see track #8 to the right curving to the expansion with a #4 switch with 22'' radius on the inside and 24'' radius on the outside. I'd like to place a weigh in motion set of scales for tracks 8 and 9 right where the U Boats are parked. The scale house etc would sit between the two tracks. 

Engine tracks to the left working out good. Caboose track in center not so much. Initial testing required too many moves to get the caboose to this track from an inbound train. The track to the far right connects to the wye and works perfectly for shoving a caboose in and pulling one out to tack on the rear of a departing train. The open space is for a building that will be for unloading M&E cars and servicing passenger cars. A Stores portion may be included for parts etc for the diesel fleet. 

Taking another look at this picture I'm planning to put fuel tanks into the middle of the wye. Some PVC pipe caps should work fine and the overhead crane will clear them easily.

That's it for now. I'll post follow up photos as the work progresses.

Thanks for reading!!