The Hillside & Eastern [Model] Railroad (H&E) as it currently stands, is a 25" wide switching layout along one side of a 22' wall in my basement. I am attempting to model 1938, an era I chose at random, and got interested in later.

The portion of the H&E modeled is in the heart of the industrial and warehouse district on the west side of Danville, an imaginary city located, for operational purposes, roughly in the area between Danville, Illinois and Danville, Indiana.

It boasts seven on-line industries, a freight house & team track, engine facilities, and a CCC&StL (NYC) interchange. A track leading to the as-yet-unbuilt portion of the layout serves as the connection to a distant CB&Q Interchange.  In real life, the Peoria & Eastern (New York Central System) served this function.

Class T1 locomotives and passenger equipment are restricted from tracks marked in red.  Blue indicates major structures

1. Big Four Interchange.  Two tracks, each with room for five cars. We leave east-bound cars here, and the NYC crew comes just before midnight to pick them up and drop their westbounds.  My operation plan over-simplifies outside traffic as either "eastbound" or "westbound."  An actual railroad in the imagined area would have had several interchanges with north-south lines as well.  Because this interchange ends where it meets the basement wall, there is a long woodscrew partially driven into the table on each side of each track, with a heavy rubber band stretched across at coupler height.  (The rubber bands from broccoli work very well for this.)  Any runaways are gently stopped and returned.
2. Locomotive Facilities.  One track leading to an Atlas turntable that may someday have a roundhouse, and another track that ends just past the coal tower, for delivery of coal & other supplies, plus storage for MOW cars and cabooses.  Two tracks leading to the turntable would have been much better, allowing a second engine to come in before the first engine comes out.  The tracks labeled 2a on the other side of the interchange lead are used for freight car storage and servicing.  By sending certain cars to be cleaned after unloading, I increase the amount of switching and have a pool of empties from which to draw.
3. New Albany Vitriolic, Danville Works.  With several tracks, most with room for several cars, this plant occupies nearly a quarter of the layout. I'm not sure what they make here, but it's used by mining and refining industries, and some of it is pretty big, requiring depressed center or heavy-duty flat cars, sometimes with an idler flat on one or both ends.  The large building with tracks running through it is a slightly kit-bashed Walthers Car Shop, in which said large products are assembled and loaded on cars.  The track which goes around the perimeter of the plant leads to an unmodeled portion of the plant, and can thus theoretically take nearly any kind of car.  N.A.V. has several privately-owned freight cars, including a box car in captive service shuttling between the plant and the L.C.L. facilities, below.
4. Acme Novelties Warehouse & Showroom.  One car capacity.  They handle dimestore and similar small items in large quantities, also candy bars, peanuts, and gum.  They also make occasional carload-lot shipments to points west.
5. AAA Box.  Two car capacity.  They make wooden packing cases. I may change my mind and make this the home of Twentieth Century Concrete Products, as most box factories were located either near sources of wood or close to places that used large quantities of boxes.
6. H & B Katz Paint Co.  Four car capacity (one tank, three box.)  Makes wall and house paint, with a curious emphasis on green.  Sells in carload lots to distributors and large mail-order houses.
7. Freight house & Team Track.  Room for three cars at each.  The freight house is used almost exclusively for daily L.C.L. (Less than Carload Lot) freight service, while the Team Track is the rail connection for several companies in Danville which do not have direct rail connections, most of which are not even located on the layout.
8. A&P Warehouse.  Eight car capacity (four on each track, with bridges between inside and outside cars.)  They receive large quantities of box cars and reefers, with an occasional hopper of coal, for heating.
9. Danville Fuel & Material.  Two tracks, one shared with Pacific Electricord, the other elevated for coal, gravel, and fuel oil deliveries.
10. Pacific Electricord.  Makes small power transformers.  This is or was the name of an actual company; I made the sign out of one of their labels.  This name is another candidate for change.