# The Michigan & Elsewhere (dismantled)



## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

I wish I had photos of this layout, but a sketch will have to suffice.

I only whipped this sketch up thinking that it may be beneficial to some?

Specs first:
HO scale
Layout dimensions were 9.5ft wide by 8ft long (top to bottom). Fit into a spare bedroom.
Radius min: 22”
Turnout min: #5
Inverted U shape with roughly 4 ft wide aisle in the middle. Right hand side was 18” wide. Left hand side was 30”.










For starters; I called the layout the Michigan & Elsewhere so that I could run just about any road name.

Many turnouts were wired to a stationary decoder: every industry track except the one labeled #5, the two yard storage tracks, track #7, and the “bottom” run around were manual due to 8 TO maximum for the decoder.

Quick run down of industries with notes of interest:
1 was a refinery represented only by two storage tanks and a loading platform.
2 was a building flat against the wall labeled Kramerica (from Seinfeld). I didn’t model someone pushing a big red oil-filled ball out the window, but I thought about it, 
3 was a implied sand facility hidden from view behind a hill (green representation). I modeled the facility top, similar to the top of a gran elevator, but did it in approximately N scale. It looked about a half mile beyond the hill.
4 was 2 inches lower, where the Country Corner sat. That track was a real roller coaster. Both that spur and mainline crossed a creek.
5 was an abandoned, partially removed storage track. Maximum capacity was one 86’ hi-cube. Beyond that length was just ties with rails removed. 
6 Automotive plant which could fit two 86’ hi-cubes and multiple gondolas.
7 locomotive single stall shed with adjacent sand hopper raised as a tower over the track.

The yard turnout switch stands were illuminated with stands from Tomar Industries.

“Fresh” trains were hand-loaded in the lower right with a chosen lead loco. That loco, after pulling cars in to the run around, would escape & park on the extra abandoned track. The awaiting switcher, in the lower left, would break down the cars & do the fun stuff. 
The problem was that mainline locomotive had to head back “off layout” in reverse pulling an outbound train. Pushing 86’ hi-cubes thru 22” radius, even at slow speed was a coin toss. Plus when that loco reached the dead end in the lower right, the train’s tail end was still on the curve in the upper right. Would’ve been great for 40-50ft cars though.

Uncoupling was done via under track magnets. All industry sidings sloped downhill about 1/8th inch. So they’d never roll out, uphill, onto the mainline. In some cases, such as the sand facility #3 & the country corner #4, cars would roller coaster down steeper grade and hit the bumpers with a jolt. I was okay with that cartoony aspect though, it was kinda fun!

The lower left, between yard and mainline, had a yard tower, parking lot, and grade crossing to a street near the wall to the left. The triangle real-estate between the yard & track #7 had old semi trailers surrounded by weeds, and there was a natural gas well there too. Which is an easy little thing to do for odd/small areas. You see them quite often, but never on a layout.

Where I really messed up was having the run around track lower than the mainline, the yard lower than the run around, and the yard lead off the run around. All good ideas by themselves, but combined I had serious derailment problems in the ladder because turnouts were angled on two axis; which is baaaad. The rest of it worked great though, considering I insisted on long modern cars, and programming routes was fun in a way. Or impressive to others. Took some interaction out of the layout for me however. I like it (programmed DCC routing) for staging but not for industries.


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