NKP Freight House in Canton, OH (HO scale)

[TimMoran]

The modular part of my layout is based on the Canton, OH freight house.

[TimMoran]

[TimMoran]

[TimMoran]

Operations on the Freight House are relatively simple. Load the "House" with 32 - 4o ft boxcars first. (I'm trying to determine if there was a "pattern" for placement of cars for the LCL business done here.) After the "House" is loaded and "blue flagged", then the rest of the customers would be serviced. Team tracks will allow for a wide variety of customers. ( I have the list of team track customers served by the railroad.) There is a produce warehouse that receives 2-4 reefer loads per day from the PRR around 4 PM. Smaller customers ( traffic wise ) were a NaBisCo warehouse, moving & storage warehouse, a foundry that produces clay molding machinery (think brick works), and a safe manufacturer.

Canton yard, which was adjacent to the spur, received cars via transfer from a larger yard (Gambrinus - 3 miles away) or direct inbound interchange with the PRR. As far as I have found to date, no mainline trains stopped in Canton to drop or pick up cars. This makes the modeling "easier" since I can run transfers (called "Pullers") to and from staging to Canton yard as needed.

I hope adding this picture helps put all this text into context -

[Steve H AC&Y]

Nice job Tim. The Wheeling was an interesting line loaded with quirks. Another one of my favorites within the NKP family and an important interchange partner with the AC&Y. I was not aware of segment you are modeling. Looking forward to seeing more.

[TimMoran]

Thanks Steve for your comment! I happened to find a different picture of the area in the lobby of a customer in that area. I was "smitten" by the details and knew it was what I should model. There are 3 class 1 railroads in this picture. Pennsy, Baltimore and Ohio, and the Nickel Plate Road. You can see a low resolution picture below:

[TimMoran]

Good morning all,

This drawing shows how the Freight House spur fits into the "rest of the layout". The green grid squares are 5 ft x 5 ft.

Transfers feed Canton yard from the staging at the top of the plan. The industries between staging and the yard get serviced by either of the Freight House jobs ( AM and PM ). The yard switcher builds cuts for the various industries on the Freight House spur and the "House" job delivers and pulls accordingly.

The trackage that extends down from the interchange is controlled by the B&O. There were 2 loads of cars interchanged with the NKP on a daily basis plus an occasional service to the on line scrap dealer at Luntz.

Thanks for looking. Please share your thoughts and comments!

Tim Moran

[Paul S.]

That looks like a well-designed, proto-based layout to me. Everything is at restricted speeds, Tim?

[TimMoran]

Paul - Yes, everything on the spur is restricted speed. When it's attached to the home layout part, the top speed is only yard speed.

[Tim R]

Tim, I like that. Just the freight house would make a nice, compact switching layout in limited space. Adding it to the rest enhances it nicely.

[Randy]

Nice job capturing the essence of the prototype track arrangement. Very cool module.

Randy

[TimMoran]

Thank you to Tim R. and Randy! It is good to hear that this layout's concept make sense to others.

Tim Moran

[Bobby (RIP)]

It all looks very nice!

[TimMoran]

Thank you, Bobby! Merry Christmas!

[TimMoran]

Since most ( all?) of my structures for this railroad are distinctive, I needed to try my hand at scratchbuilding. Cardstock and photo-realistic textures were an easy way for me to see if I could make something that would pass as "real". Near the interchange with the NKP and Baltimore and Ohio was a small lumber sales office called Tombaugh Lumber. All I had to work with was a Sanborn map diagram:



And an aerial view:



With fear and trembling, I started to cobble together a replica. This is what I came up with:




It doesn't win any prizes, however, it did bolster my confidence enough to continue trying more buildings. For now, this is workable place holder on the permanent part of my layout.

Thanks for looking!

Tim Moran

[craigtownsend]

Do you know anything about the history of that building? It has such a unique roofline and structure.

[TimMoran]

Craig - When I looked at the Sanborn maps of the site, a pattern of "add-ons" was noticeable and not too unusual for the time period. When I showed the pictures to a friend that railfanned in the area in the 70's, he said he remembered the building and my model "looked a lot like it".
Not bad for only having a overhead aerial shot and Sanborn maps, IMHO.

[craigtownsend]

Not bad at all. And I thought I had a hard time using tax assessor drawings plus a ton of photos.

[Michael Whiteman]

I'm sure that I am not the only one that can not see Tim's last two pictures. There is a 1/8 th inch square icon of a picture in the upper left corner in an otherwise empty space. All the previous pictures show up perfectly. Maybe these two came from a different source?

[TimMoran]

Michael,

Please look again and see if there are now 3 images showing in the post above?

Thanks for your interest!

Tim Moran

[Allen]

Please look again and see if there are now 3 images showing in the post above?

Like Michael, I wasn't able to see any of them before, now I'm seeing the second of three?

[Michael Whiteman]

Now I can see the aerial view in the #2 location. Little icons still at the first and last.