I'm really looking forward to being able to actually run trains in the foreseeable future!
Some guys like to turn on the trains and watch them run a loop. That's fun too, but what gets me going with is the feeling of being the engineer - the fun of driving the little locomotives from stop to stop.
Part of the goal in Cornelia was thus to cram in as many elements as possible of a working rail yard so that I could then have the fun of running the little Aristocraft 0-4-0 switcher through the process of sorting cars, making up trains and breaking down incoming trains according to the operations.
With a piece of track stolen from the other end of the line I was able to complete the caboose track, which showed how close I am to having a proper yard in place:
The three freight cars at the far left are on the departure track, where outgoing trains are assembled. There is enough capacity in this track to make outgoing trains of 6-8 cars.
The adjacent track with the bobber caboose is the caboose track - a convenient place to add or drop a caboose at either end of the run.
The passenger train is parked on the southern terminus of the TFRR's mainline - the arrival track.
The future location of the run-around track is noted with those 1x2's running adjacent to the arrival track.
And at the right rear you see a reefer car parked on the interchange track with the Southern Railway, which represents the TFRR's connection to the wider world. From the standpoint of operating the railroad, that interchange is a magical source of incoming loads of freight, coal, fuel, empty cars and anything else not produced on the line of the TFRR. The interchange is an equally magical point of departure for anything produced or grown on the TFRR line that may not otherwise have a logical destination in the neighboring towns.
In the next, longer view you can see the 0-4-0 on the yard lead in the forward right corner. The yard lead is the bit of track necessary for a locomotive to have enough room to pull far enough forward that it and a couple of cars can clear the switches that, in our case, lead to either the run-around track or the interchange track.
The yard lead turned out to be deep enough that it might be possible to model the very tip of it as a single-car capacity freight dock and warehouse. There were several warehouses located around all sides of this wye there in Cornelia, so it would be historically sound. Always tempting to be able to add another source/destination for traffic on the line!
Looking through the door you can see the ladder yard, the other element typical to any rail yard. The ladder yard is a place to sort and store cars while waiting to be connected to the next train heading the right direction.
Ours will be consolidated with the last common yard feature - engine servicing - as the ends of the two tracks to the farthest left will feature a model of the TFRR's two stall engine house. Out of view at the far right are the single car sidings with operations potential as fuel track and a "Repair in Place" (RIP) maintenance track.
If you embiggen the photo by clicking on it you can see the effort to suggest the street crossing at E. Chattahoochee Street/Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has made a little progress! After the basic shapes were cut out of an old scrap of tongue and groove siding, I cut grooves in them with a razor saw to suggest the long timbers in an old-timey wood plank road crossing. I used an Exacto knife to whittle out joints between the timbers, also taking out some corners and breaking up the too-straight grooves made by the razor saw. Finally, I tapped a nail punch with a hammer into the wood at the ends of my "planks". After I darkened the grooves up with a pencil the whole effect is relatively convincing from the requisite 10 feet.
Here's a picturesque inside view of the ladder yard and the yard lead. Note that in the gap between the oak tree and the reddish roof is dogwood exploding with beautiful white blossoms.
All aboard!
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