We may be making too big a deal here of what are esssentially labels. Since most of our layouts are constrained by size, the main thing that’s needed with the function of an A/D track is simply a track with easy access to the main that is either long enough in itself or is adjacent to tracks where one or more cuts from them can be added before departure or, similarly, to do the reverse.
The narrowgauge rarely had any fancy facilities, but we know they used certain tracks to build and tear down trains as most were too long to fit in the yard proper. My Durango is similarly limited with a yard with just 5 tracks (plus a short storage stub). The two longest ones are usually used for A/D, in part because there’s a crossover midway along. a 6th track in front of the station can serve as a through track in a pinch, but don’t dare park any freight on it. There’s also a siding at Carbon Junction where I can park cuts or whole trains until ready to go.
Most longer trains are doubled out. Arrival can vary, depending on what’ in the train, but whatever is done, get it broken down and out of the way ASAP.
Thus my yard tracks can serve any purpose and often do. It’s just that the longest ones are naturally favored for A/D purposes.
Thanks David. Would love to, but can’t seem to wrap my head around how to do this? Anyone have a bulletproof (idiotproof) compound ladder trackplan they can point me to?
Initially myself plus kids (aged 9 and 7) but would love to design something than can grow as my knowledge of operations gets more advanced.
This is a compound ladder. It’s small but I’m limited by space. I can fit 2 or 3 more cars in the yard using the compound ladder than if i used a “conventional” type ladder. My 9 year old nephew figured it out within a few minutes. Bulletproof/idiotproof? Not sure.
I’ll agree with what Rob and some others have posted. For a yard that size, you don’t need a dedicated Arrival/Departure subyard, only some double-ended tracks to allow trains to arrive and depart. Keeping these tracks as part of the rest of the yard allows operators to “swing” tracks from one purpose to another during a session, which can be handy in the model environment.
But since we don’t know what the rest of your layout looks like or how the yard will be used, it’s really not possible to say for sure what your yard should look like beyond that.
In my experience operating at layouts of various sizes, a dedicated A/D subyard seems to become helpful at around 10-12 yard tracks total, but again, it depends very much on how the yard will be used, the traffic flows and patterns of the overall layout, etc.
If you are interested in the yard capacity (as the title of the thread suggests), again, a lot depends on how you will use the yard. If you want to actively classify cars, build and terminate trains, etc., then it is best if you plan to only fill the yard to about 50% of its total capacity. If you are instead planning to just store full trains there, then the yard is more like staging and you can use more of the capacity.
I like it! Thanks Dave. It is neater and I like the fact that the thru track has less turnouts. I am using peco #6s any idea of what you used in the software?
I don’t think I would bother with a classification yard in only 12 feet.Each body track reduces in lenght by 2 feet (#6 switches) so tracks get short quickly.
I constructed my yard on a curve which is not ideal but that is what I had to work with. Each body track is the same length which is excellent. I don’t have an A/D track as such as trains can enter and leave any body track. However one track is arranged so that it can access the main without fouling the yard lead so that is sort of an A/D track.
