Equipment is 0-4-0 camelback for switching and a 2-6-0 camelback for continuous running of a three car passenger consist for children and wives interest.
My dilema is that the design as shown has a 6 or 8 foot extension attached to the 4 by 8 main area. The space for this layout is my garage in the villages in florida.
After adding a golf cart to garage realize have less space for RR.
What suggestions for carfloat reduction to only one and placement to shrink the extension to a manageable 4 feet? Or incorporation in main portion of layout? thanks, albert
As you can see, it´s missing something at the end. I searched for your Username (aoandml) to find the pic. Maybe you had to be logged on to see your link?
Before addressing the car float issue a few things to consider:
I suggest purchasing a drawing template that will allow you to draw the turnouts to correct size. It’s all too easy to cheat when drawing freehand only to find that actual track components won’t fit. Before doing anything redraw the plan with scale turnouts. I fear you may find things a bit tight after doing so.
It’s not clear to me whether the the 4x8 is tight against the wall. Is it? If so, I think you’ll have some reach in access problems. If not you’re probably o.k.
It is an interesting idea and theme so I encourage you to continue thrashing it out.
Addressing the car float issue, in my experience (lots of railfanning around New York Harbor in the 1950s) there was always a yard immediately adjacent to the car float apron, with capacity at least twice that of a standard car float. This was necessary since:
There had to be track space for the cars coming off the float.
There had to be additional track space for cars awaiting loading - which couldn’t take place until the float was completely unloaded.
In addition, there was often a designated track for the storage of the idlers (often nothing more than bare frames) needed to keep the locomotive off the apron. The apron could take the weight of a locomotive, but was not framed to handle the longitudinal stress of starting and stopping.
In my personal modeling practice, where the ‘car float’ is, in fact, a single track cassette, it has proved to be a good thing that the cassette dock is a fifth track off a back-in staging yard. That way I can move a train from the cassette to the layout, or vice-versa, without interfering with any other aspect of layout operation.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with cassettes, but no car floats)
I’m also planning a car float terminal for my layout. A single float should be sufficient. If you want to give the impression of a bigger terminal, consider using a photo backdrop.
Consider how you will switch cars on and off the car float. When the float “arrives” at the dock, it will be loaded with cars. Presumably, when it’s ready to “depart,” it will be loaded with a completely different set of cars. So, you need to be able to pull the arriving cars, put them somewhere, and then load the departing cars. Simplistically, you can pull one string of cars, store them, load that track with outgoing cars, and then repeat for the other track. (Your picture shows a 2-track float. The Walthers float in HO scale is 3 tracks, but you may not be building that model.) If you “do the math,” you need storage space for all the cars on the float, plus one additional empty track for switching, or some equivalent mix of sidings. I think you’re a little short on siding space for one car float, let alone trying to do two of them simultaneously.
One thing to look at in the float switching is how far back from the floats you’ll have to pull the cars. It appears that you’ll need to back all the way on to the 4x8 oval, which would be “fouling the main” as it would block the “through trains” on that part of the layout. If you don’t plan to run trains on the loop while switching the float, then it doesn’t matter, but I find I like to have 1 or 2 trains running around while I’m doing switching.
I agree on doing the next draft of your track plan more “formally.” The Atlas RTS program and XTrakCad are both free design programs for this purpose, and they will make it much easier to lay out track and turnouts with real dimensions so that the plan will fit when it’s translated from paper to nickel-silver.
Overall, I think you’ll have a lot of fun both building and operating this.
As Paulus Jas suggested, layout height could be a factor. Have seen mention of a number of garage layouts high enough to go over the hood of a car. May have to take the car out to walk around the layout. A golf cart, unless you have a non-removeable roof, should be able to park under a layout without too much problem. Remember “ideal” viewing height is chest level, though comfortable to work on is a little lower, thus more often used.
