Distinguishing parallel tracks

The Stacy St. Yard complex on the Burrlington Northern ended up being a sea of parallel tracks. This is partly because it began in a different house as a seven-track staging yard, and then I converted it to a working yard. For many years there were seven parallel tracks of unpainted flex track, and it was difficult to tell which tracks were main tracks and which had other uses. Different colors of ballast would be an obvious solution, but it takes time to do. A few months ago we did ballast the two main tracks in a light grey to make it clear that those were the main tracks. But the rest of the tracks still looked the same. Recently, we decided to paint the rails different colors to represent their usage, and to paint the ground between them to create several "zones". The photo below shows the result. At the top is the "house track", painted a rusty color. Next is the "mud track", which was used for temporary storage of cars set out by passing trains, colored a muddy color. The next two are the ballasted main tracks with a dark grey rail color. The rest of the tracks are in the yard, painted "rail brown", but the first three are arrival/departure tracks, so we put grey paint on the ground between them, and then for the classification tracks we painted earth and weeds. It will be nice to get these tracks ballasted, but for now this rail and ground paint is already a big improvement.

Hopefully this will give crews a better instant visual cue as to which tracks are which.

We also put labels on the tracks, but of course they only work when cars aren't covering them up.

These last two pictures also show the complexity of the yard layout, hence the need for cues to distinguish track purposes. In the photo below, to the right of the main classification ladder in Stacy St. is the "Waterfront Yard", which was used for supporting the MILW car barge operation, and we also use it for handling runs to Harbor Island and West Seattle.

Burlington as an ideal LDE

You've probably heard the term "LDE", referring to "Layout Design Element", and the idea that a layout is simply a string of LDE's in a row so trains can run between them and stop at each one to do work or meet other trains. My layout is certainly like that, and every time I turn around I'm adding another LDE and another level of operational complexity, and I can't seem to stop. One advantage to this is that each additional LDE can absorb a certain number of freight cars, so I can keep increasing my fleet without gumming up the operation too much, or learning the discipline to "thin the herd."

But I am also heard to say, "If I'd known how much fun Burlington would be to operate, I don't know if I would have bothered with the rest of the layout that came before it." This post elaborates on that idea.

Burlington is a small town just north of Mt. Vernon, between Everett and Bellingham, that has a five-track interchange with branch lines to the east (Concrete Branch) and west (Anacortes Branch). A switch crew was stationed there "the Concrete Local", and the Anacortes Branch was served by the "Annie local" which came north from Everett for the trip west. The Anacortes Branch served the Port of Anacortes, two major refineries, at least one grain elevator, and, in recent years, a major sawmill. The Concrete Branch brought logs out of the mountains, silica, and the output of a major cement plant in Concrete. In later years it also served a locomotive restoration company that worked on, among other things, overhauling the engines from the White Pass and Yukon. Do I have your attention yet?

Here is a picture of the schematic map of the area on my layout, from the SPINS booklet, including the names of real and fictitious industries that we serve there. It generally takes four to six real hours for the Concrete Local to get all the work done there, which to my mind is long enough for it to be considered a complete layout in its own right. It certainly is a respectable LDE!

I don't have the space to extend the Anacortes or Concrete branch any distance, so in essence they function as staging tracks. All you would need would be a staging yard to the north and one to the south, and this could be a very satisfying first class railroad switching layout! (In my case there are another five or so towns with yards to the south of here, so one of the problems is that it takes too long for the Burlington-bound traffic to actually show up, but that's another story for another time.) Here's a photo of the modeled yard, seen from the north end:

This photo shows the center of the yard, with the mainline ballasted in grey, and the Anacortes Branch off on the right side near the aisle:

And finally, this shot during an op session, with the Concrete Branch tracks in the foreground and NW Olivine on the upper left (note the crude stand-in blue backdrop - it'll do for now!):

Just a note on NW Olivine - this industry mined very fine sand from the Skagit River, for use in, among other things, locomotive sand towers. This is one of those rare instances where it is ok to bill a sand car from Concrete directly to one of the engine terminals on the layout, an "intra-layout" move!

But the main point is, as an LDE, Burlington yard and vicinity is worth taking a look at, and fun to operate!