29 – Mystery Industries

The Mystery Industries plan is a 7½x72in layout based on the use of a Trackmobile within an industrial park or factory complex. The plan contains a large factory with two spurs leading inside (A), several silos (B), a tank car unloading track (C), and an interchange (D), which could be extended with an optional cassette. (Note: with a 2x18in cassette the layout is still under 4 square feet.)

Since a major advantage of a real Trackmobile is the ability to drive off tracks, I included a way to try to simulate that operation. There is a hidden turntable under the far left silo, however two tracks are offset to either side. At 2 inches, the tracks are just large enough to hold a Trackmobile which has a wheelbase of 1-9/16in. When turned, the turntable simulates the trackmobile driving around the end of the silos. The turntable allows an extremely tight 2.5in radius curve and provides the plan with a reverse loop and runaround in a small space. This means that it isn’t absolutely necessary to add a front coupler, although operations would be simpler with one.

The layout could be operated in several ways, including a 3-2-2 inglenook with 40′ or smaller cars by removing the cassette and blue flagging the silo track and rear factory spur. This would leave an interchange which could hold 3 cars and the front factory spur and tank car track each holding two.

(NOTE: This layout does not require any alterations to the Trackmobile, which can be used directly from the box.)