OHB -- Brooklyn Basin

The Brooklyn Basin area along Oakland's Inner Harbor once boasted a significant amount and variety of industry. Included are a massive flour factory and sprawling glass plant, an aggregate (cement, gravel, etc.) facility, a number of warehouses, and even a rail-served pier warehouse. Even after a few rounds of gentrification, a handful of these facilities remain among the condos. By turning back the clock and engaging in some proto-freelance thinking, I decided to extend my Oakland Harbor Belt layout concept into this area, which was served by the Southern Pacific in the past (UP now for the remaining industries).

The imagineered proto-freelance Location

The map above shows how the OHB (in blue) coexists with the SP. Some industries, like the huge Flour Mill and 9th Avenue Terminal, are jointly served at different shifts or in different seasons. I resurrected a few industries that were gone by my 1955 era and invented a couple of others. One omission on the map is that the SP also connects to Oakland at the upper left. This is the connection I ultimately used in my design; the Fruitvale Yard connection is a dummy. The OHB connection is via the real-life bridge over the Inner Harbor to Alameda, to my freelanced Fernside Yard.

When the garage OHB layout was delayed by impending remodeling, I decided to focus for now on building the Brooklyn Basin District as a shelf layout in our spare bedroom home office. The curve of the walls somewhat suggests the curve of the proto-freelanced location, and the relatively narrow shelves leave almost everything within easy reach. A few small changes have been made in the design from the conceptual map above.

Shelf layout combines two railroads

The OHB comes on scene from one or more staging tracks in the closet, crossing the room entrance on a lift-out representation of the real-life lift bridge (SP/UP in reality, OHB here). The OHB then enters a small yard along Fruitvale Avenue. Because the main OHB yard is so close, this might be a bit more yard than a real-life OHB would support, but I like yards. One track is designated as local interchange between the OHB and SP. There are tracks on both sides of Fruitvale Ave. as in real life, but in my version, the OHB gets to switch the DelMonte warehouses that were actually SP customers (these will be fascia flats). On the far side, the SP serves the massive glass factory. This is also the location for the SP's primary runaround track.

Both railroads run down Glasscock Street in front of the window, crossing via a pair of turnouts rather than the more typical diamond crossing. Next up is the massive Con Agra flour mill. At one time, ships laden with grain pulled up to a wharf alongside, but now grain is delivered and flour shipped via rail. Both the OHB and SP have access to the plant, and this will allow some variation in switching the two sides of the plant by shifts and seasons.

Next the two railroads cross again, the SP serving the curved warehouses that are actually in the area. The OHB industries include a wharf track (primarily aggregate to be loaded onto barges for bay landfill construction projects) and a small team track facility. Both railroads serve the 9th Avenue pier terminal, modeled here about 35-45% of actual size. Included is the unusual, but prototypical, approach track over a trestle pier. Again, seasonality, shifts, and other variations should keep the operations fresh. From here, the SP ducks into staging, representing the primary connection to the Oakland yard, while this is end of line for the OHB.

As of December, 2008, wall standards have been purchased and are soon to go up to provide support for simple Brooklyn Basin shelf benchwork. I hope to update these pages soon with some under-construction photos.