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Posted in Layout Designs by Rob Chant. (Last activity on Friday, November 05, 2021 at 12:06:40 ADT.)

N SCALE: Lapeer Industrial RR (Lapeer, MI)

A member of the Micro/Small Model RR Layouts Facebook group requested an N-scale track plan for the Lapeer Industrial RR located in Lapeer, Michigan to fit his 6-foot long space. Since I was already familiar with the prototype, I knew it wasn't going to be much of a challenge fitting in into that footprint. I had played around with a HO-scale track plan when I was first introduced to the line back in 2019, and I actually used one of the 1st draft designs which was much easier to fit using N-scale.

The 1½-mile long short line is a very interesting piece of prototypical railroading. The line only has 3 turnouts, and services these three online customers: Lapeer Grain (hopper cars), Lapeer Industries (tank cars), Delta Faucet (hopper cars). Lapeer Industries and Delta Faucet are serviced directly from the mainline, so it can be a switching challenge if there is a tank car blocking the mainline to Delta Faucet.

The resulting track plan fits in an 18x72-inch space, and includes a representation of the CN mainline; the interchange with CN (this is a fiddle track that holds 3 car at a time); the runaround track; the grain silos for Lapeer Grain; the structures for Lapeer Industries and Delta Faucet located right on the mainline; and I also included a few streets that cross the tracks. That leaves a lot of room to represent the support structures surrounding the railroad, which I just represented with a thick forest of birch trees.