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QUOTE: Originally posted by whitman500
This is all true. Thats another way to do it, and it works too. I wasn’t trying to demonstrate the best yard arrangements possible. I only wanted to show something that had all the basics so that I could label them and show their relationships to one another. This would by far not be the best yard to build, but it would work.
CSX, I’m not doing anything tonight, I’ll draw up a quick sketch for your yard.
I agree whitman500. I think having industries that can only be switched from 1 direction add operating interest.
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QUOTE: Originally posted by pcarrell
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QUOTE: Originally posted by whitman500
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Originally posted by dingoix
Pcarrell’s schematic is basically what you need. But I would recommend making the yard tracks into stubs and lengthening them so that you can make up full-size trains in them that can then be moved into the arrival/departure track. Also add a crossover to the right of the ladder between the main and the arrival/de
ModelTrainman, I don’t have train player but you can save it if you want to.
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I’ll wait to see what your updated plan looks like until I make one (gonna work on my plan now). I would recommend an engine house such as the new Walthers 3-stall diesel house (if they’ve got it in N)
CSXFan, nice layout! Hey, I live pretty close to you in nearby Grand Rapids. You ever railfan CSX at the Padnos Transportation Center?
By the way, what program did you use for your layout planning? I’m just redesigning my layout and could use something like that for my trackplan.
Johnaton, I use Atlas RTS, which you can download for free at www.atlasrr.com not the best, but good enough since I’m not a layout designer. (doing one for myself and thats it)
Hey Jonathan, I’ve visited your railimages gallery, those are some nice pics! To tell you the truth I’ve never even heard of the Padons Transportation Center, I don’t get out much [:D]. I usually railfan on the CSX or NS line through Allegan county.
I used the Cadrail 8 demo for my track plan. I highly recommend it. Its free and works great!
CSXFan, I ran your plan,and I
agree with the others, I thinkthere should be a small double-ended staging yard at the top, that diverges from the mainline. Just my thoughts though…
Guys, you can do what you want to, but please explain to me how not being able to switch in both direction adds operational challenges. It’s not like you have 30 industries and can afford to loose opportunities. You can still set up trains in your yard to run from both directions. You have 3 other simple spurs all pointed the same way.
But you’re telling me that you’d rather take your most interesting switching area and limit it by half.
Fine. Your layout is good to go.
Hey, thanks for checking out my pics! Well, the Padnos Transportation Center is actually the Holland Amtrak station. I typically railfan CSX in Wyoming yard in GR and the surrounding area.
Thanks for telling me the program you used! Now where can I get it?
The point I was trying to make was the following:
In my mind, a yard in the center of a layout has three purposes:
To switch cars between express freights (trains that go from staging to the yard and back to staging) and local freights (trains that go from the yard to industries and back).
To switch cars between local freights going in opposite directions (Eastbound versus Westbound).
To switch cars between express freights going in opposite directions.
Having every spur on the layout accessible by both the Westbound and the Eastbound local essentially removes the purpose of #2 because 1 local freight can do everything.
In N scale, this is actually a fairly big layout so that having 2 local freights seems to me to be quite desirable and I would prefer the operational complexity of having to plan out how to move cars from trailing point spurs to facing point ones using 2 locals rather than 1.
To use an extreme example, lets assume that you want to move a car from 1 to 2. If both spurs were serviceable from both directions, either you would pick up a car from 1 and directly move it to 2, a short and uninteresting process. Or you could add a lap around the track in between, a long, uninteresting process.
In contrast, as it is currently set up, a counterclockwise local picks up the car from 1 (it is a trailing
Whitman,
I understand the principle. However, you have staging from both directions so there is plenty of action in the yard. But outside the yard you have 3 simple spurs to the left and the most interesting switching are off to the right. The trhee to the left are basically the same mauever. The one to the left has more operational variety. If you were going to switching to give your yard more to do, limit the switching to the left, not the interesting stuff to the right.
Here is a link to the Cadrail 8 demo, http://sandia.stores.yahoo.net/cadrail7demo.html
It takes a while to got familiar with the tools but once you figure it out its pretty easy.
I have been to the Holland Amtrak station, I didn’t know it was called anything else.
The track planning will have to go on hold for the weekend, I’ll post the changes Monday when I get back from a trip.
CSXfan, could you check your PM please?
Take it from someone whose first layout did not have staging and add staging, as a lot of others have observed. Even at the cost of an industry or two, staging is logarithmic in its utility.
I gave up on this layout plan after I found the Jan. and Feb. 2000 issues of MR. I tweaked the Appalachian Central project layout to fit what I wanted. Here’s the current version.
Looks like fun to operate!