Picton, NZ Ferry Terminal

[chaz]

I friend of mine is taking a vacation in New Zealand and booked passage from Wellington (on the South tip of the North Island) to Picton (on the North tip of the South Island) on the Interislander Ferry.  He told me the ferry is a combined passenger and rail ferry.  Always looking for a prototype to model, I decided that Wellington was too large, but Picton had possibilities.  Picton is the Northern terminus of the Christchurch to Picton rail line.

Not knowing anything about New Zealand rail except for a Google Image of Picton and this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=y6dKDwgTAZg&feature=endscreen showing cars being loaded on a ferry in Wellington...I reduced Picton to it's essence.

The Yardmasters first responsibility is to service the ferry in a timely fashion.  In addition, the Yardmaster builds outgoing (Southbound) freight trains, breaks down incoming (Northbound) freight trains.  His last responsibility is to move cars loaded with logs to the Log Track.

The key to sanity is doing things in the proper order.  I scaled everything so there is just enough room, however, mistakes make for a lot of extra cars...and problems.

The operating cycle begins here.

Before any trains or the ferry arrives, the Yardmaster builds a Southbound train with every car in Picton that is not bound for Wellington.  The Southbound engineer waits at B until the mainline clears.

The passenger train arrives from Christchurch, followed by the Northbound freight and the ferry.  The Northbound engineer drops his train at A and takes the engine to the service area.  Since the mainline is now clear, the Southbound freight leaves Picton.

The Yardmaster moves all the cars from the Ferry to the yard, runs around the Northbound freight and pushes cars bound for Wellington onto the ferry.  All other cars get pushed onto the Shunt Head and will be dealt with after the ferry is serviced.

After the ferry is serviced, the Yardmaster works the cars on the Shunt Head.  All loaded log cars are moved to the Log Track.  Cars not bound for Wellington are moved to the yard.  Cars bound for Wellington are left on the Shunt Head.  They wait here until the next ferry arrives and will be the first cars on the ferry.

And ends here.

The odd thing is this shunting layout does not require a dedicated run around track.

I used N scale KATO Unitrack.  The grid is 1 meter square.  The log yard is no longer serviced by rail...however, I fixed that.  Logs are exported by ship, but since there is no rail involved, I just show the hull of the log freighter.

Although, this layout works as is, it needs help.  For example, there is a reversed curve across two turnouts. 

Chaz