Designing a working yard.

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

What are the good books or downloads for designing a working yard plan.

Thanks

Sheldon

2

Track Planning for Realistic Operations by John Armstrong is one of the best.

http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12148.html

http://www.amazon.com/Track-Planning-Realistic-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890242275

3

If you can understand the guidance in the link, almost anything you build that incorporates the principles will work well for you.

http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html

Crandell

4

Let’s not forget Andy Sperandeo’s book, an excellent discussion of designing and operating freight yards on model railroads.

The Model Railroader’s Guide To Freight Yards

It is a Kalmbach publication.

Rich

5

Unfortunately this excellent book is currently out of print and used copies go through gyrations in value due to resellers using 'bots to game each other. It is currently available as a download for the Nook reader.

I hope that Kalmbach will make this available in print again soon. It’s a very comprehensive resource.

The Track Planning for Realistic Operation book recommended earlier provides a lot of useful yard information (and much more!). A must for anyone designing their own layout.

Byron

6

Some yard stuff:

Freight yards by John Armstrong – An Information Station PDF-download. Pay particular attention to the “product reviews” – All positive.

How To Build Realistic Layouts: Freight Yards – A nice Kalmbach Special Issue.

The Art of Model Railroading – Complimentary PDF-download – Frank Ellision’s 1944 article series of the Delta Lines. If you do nothing else, print the Delta Lines trackplan, and; study (actually marvel) at Frank’s operations, and track design expertise, which was 50+ years ahead of his time.

7

Thanks Crandel, that is a really good article!

Are there any real world track plans out there that incorporate most of these concepts?
I would like to built a yard as suggested in that article on a 52" x 30" N scale extension module and I realize that I will have to cut some corners in order to do so.

Kyle.

8

What do you want the yard to do? A branch line terminus yard is different from an industry support yard is different from a mainline classification yard. Yards with different purposes have different track arrangements. You may not need all of the elements covered in the Craig Bisgeier article Crandell recommended – and they might not fit in the space you have, anyway.

The yard in this N scale layout was designed with prototype principles in mind, so it mirrors some of what is in the article.

Note the combination of some double-ended tracks for flexibility and single-ended tracks to increase usable length in less space. Also how the branch line connection does double-duty as the yard lead. This is a modern-era shortline yard, so the engine service facilities are modest.

This much larger N scale layout has a more complete yard with transition-era engine service, but the same basic principles apply.

The relatively small stub-end terminal yard on the

9

While available for the Nook, it only works on the Nook tablet or color.

One other alternative (for How to Build Realistic Layouts - Freight Yards) is the DVD based Special Issue and Archive Collection Kalmbach is selling, it’s only $100.

As far as Andy’s book (have a copy) the $900 being asked for the print version on Amazon !!! is unbelievable. B&N has a print version listed for $90 or less than a Nook tablet.

If you are serious about freight yard operations and design the other mentioned Kalmbach items are worth acquiring.

Alan

10

$900 for Andy’s book?!?!? Shoot, I’ll sell you mine for $400 and we’ll both be happy [swg]

11

On the same DVD collection, there is a rather large issue Model Trains Select Stories 1954-1962. In this publication there are about 160 pages by Linn Westcott on layout designs a number of which have freight yards. There is also a special article on freight yard design.

12

As I noted earlier, those used book prices fluctuate based on automated 'bots at the resellers bidding each other up. Then eventually a human notices and resets it. It will come back down in a few days or weeks. A few months ago it was around $15 when a friend bought a used copy on amazon.

For most newcomers who have not read Track Planning for Realistic Operation, that alone would give them most of what they need to design a useful yard. And it’s in print.

13

The download hangs up indefiintely for me at 4K bytes short of the complete download.

Crandell

14

That’s some good info there Byron, thanks!
I’ll take another look at the arrangement I need and what I can actually realize in the space I have to work with.

Thanks,
Kyle

15

The PDF-download just worked fine – You might try again – It could have been the Kalmbach server, or a windows firewall program blocking their server.

Also, for what its worth, I recently upgraded “my desktop” computer RAM to 4gigs, and “my hangups” suddenly disappeared (if this helps).

16

Thanks. I couldn’t get it to work, logged out and in, and tried that. No luck. So, I did a syntax search for PDF download hangups and learned that the browser is trying to open it as it finishes and something goes wrong, a plug-in possibly. Anyway, I opened Adobe, went to edit, preferences, internet, and unchecked “open with browser.” Clicked ok, went back into this site and it downloaded completely.

Thanks for the tip, tgindy.

Crandell