Does anyone know of a free site that has freight yard track plans with quantities and amounts of turnouts/track that you would need to replicate the track plan? I’m trying to model a freight yard in a 3x4 foot space and would rather beg, borrow and steal some valid track plans than try to come up with one on my own and find out that my trains all derail. 
Thanks,
Mike
3x4…Please tell me it’s N/Z scale!
A useable freight yard it hard enough in HO 4’x8’!.
What is the purpose of this yard? Is it a stand alone complete layout, or merely a smaller section from which a main will pass through?
If it’s a stand alone, I recommend a time saver based switching layout. It’s not really a yard per say, but should keep you busy with switching operations for hours.
Mike,
There’s a couple of websites you should read if you are planning to build a freight yard:
http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html
http://ldsig.org/wiki/index.php/Yards--freight_and_passenger
These websites won’t give you a “canned” shopping list of turnouts and track to buy, but you could easily figure it out by studying the yard layout you want to build. Track length depends primarily on how many cars you want to have on them. If you need a specific bill of materials, I’d recommend going to the Atlas website and downloading their Right Track software (RTS), then you can design your own yard using their sectional track. The link to the RTS is:
http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm
As DigitalGriffin alluded to, though, you will have a very difficult time modeling a freight yard in 3x4, even if you are using N scale. Yards are interesting to model, but they can quickly eat up a lot of linear real estate. As an alternative, check out the industrial switching type small layouts on this website:
http://andrews-trains.fotopic.net/
Good luck!
It’s not free but Track Planning for Realistic Operation by John Armstrong is the book you want.
Enjoy
Paul
Mike, try either a Google search or Ask.com. I found a book in the library called North AmericanFreight Yards and the show now only photos but plans and how the yards worked and in some cases capacities.
Hope this helps some-Bob
You need space long enough to handle a train. You need a design that allows the switcher to work this train without being interrupted by anything else happening on the railroad. And you need just enough body tracks to handle your normal traffic sorted by destination.
3 by 4 feet does not a yard make. Think bigger. Maybe 3 feet by 12 feet or larger.
OK, maybe I shouldn’t have said a “yard”. I’m talking more like a small short-line railroad yard for a switching-style layout. Case in point, Highland Terminal at http://www.carendt.us/articles/highland/index.html is something like what I’m talking about. Obviously, you can’t have a classification-style yard in 3x4 feet.
Mike
If you use the Atlas Right Track layout design software (download free from the Atlas web site); you can draw you own plan. One of the features of this software package is it will print an itemized list of track materials needed to construct the layout you designed.
JIM
Small industry support yards/switching layouts:
http://andrews-trains.fotopic.net/c374578.html
Smile,
Stein
The idea in general is to guesstimate and figure out your quantities per destination, whether they be towns or industries. Using that information you deduce the number and size of classification tracks you’ll need.
Ideally you’ll also have arrival/departure tracks as well as a track to build a train upon. A switching lead is a plus as well.
You may want to read the boot “Freight Terminals & Trains” by John A. Droege. ISBN 0-9647050-2-8. It is the best information source on that topic available. I do recommend it very much!
You mean something like this?
Here is a tiny 3x4 foot H0 yard which can be operated with a short switcher (I used a GE 70-tonner in my simulation) to classify maybe 5-6 40’ cars or so:
Would work enough that you could pull in a short train with engine at front and caboose at back, classify a handful of cars (you could also have a couple of cars stashed on the two lowermost classification tracks when the train arrives) and depart again with engine at front (but backing up - no room to turn the engine in 3x4 feet), four-five cars and caboose at back.
A simulated arrival situation:
Short train arriving with four cars and a caboose arriving behind a GE 70-tonner engine:
Leaving two cars before the first turnout, pulling three cars into runaround track:
Running around first three cars to get last two:
Temporarily stashes last two cars on a small spur:
Runs around three cars on arrival track and starts sorting cars.
Hope this was of some help, anyways. Track is flextrack, turnouts ar
Mike,Being a big fan of short lines let me say the majority of their yards is small.The ones I have visited over the years was from a passing track to as high as 5 or 6 tracks.
My suggestion for your size layout would be 2 tracks,3 tracks if you what to use the main line like most one horse short lines.
Timesaver time again?
One of MR’s track plan books has a cool city-like track plan just dense with switching possibilities.
Do pour over track plans for ideas, with any track plan software idea out possibilites.
or use some paper and sketch out a few things.
Atlas has some switching layouts in their track planning books such as HO layout 10019 if these count as freight yards. This HO layout fits into a corner of an avarage size bedroom if built similar to the plan in the Atlas book or could be part of a larger HO layout if you have a basement. The minimum size of this HO layout is 6’ X 11’. Atlas also has the track quantities required for the layouts in their track planning books.
You might want to take a look at the Layout Depot; down-loadable track plans for various planning tools.