I have a horse shoe shape to the section of my layout that will have the main town on it (layout will be occupying whole basement). This town/small city, is the mecca of the layout. I have always wanted to have a spur that runs down the main drag to the industry in the town while the double track main runs around the town. The town is to be elevated above the main, and the main runs along a natural or man made stone wall with the city above it.
The problem is, I want to have a locomotive facility with my transfer table and 2 Walther’s modern loco shops, one on each side of my transfer table, and a smalll yard all located at one end of the city.
I am not sure how to transition the difference in elevation between the main line and the city. Do I have the yard and shops at the same elevation as the city and lower the main? Or do I have the shops and yard lowered too and some how bring the city streets down to the shops/yard? WHICH would mean having to have a grade of some sort to get up to the spur (and how would I go about that?).
Lets see some pics of what you guys have done.
I want to see loco shops and towns/cities that have elevation over a main line etc etc.
This isn’t exactly what you’re asking for, but it’s got some of the elements.
Here, I’ve got the city street at the “base” level of the layout. The trolley is heading down into the subway tunnel system, via a descending track. The track goes down a narrow cut bounded by stone retaining walls. Since this trackage only needs to accomodate the short subway trains, the grade can be a steep 5% without causing any problems. Just a bit before the track enters the tunnel, the road crosses over it on a shortened Rix bridge:
Having the tracks either elevated or sunk into the ground is a good way around the problems of grade crossings, and many cities/railroads in the Northeast have adopted this configuration. The sunken trackage also helps reduce noise, and it’s less visible than an elevated structure.
When I started building my railroad, incidentally, this was one of the key scenic elements I had in mind. It is loosely modelled after Boston’s Green Line light rail system as it comes up to the surface just after the Kenmore Square station.
My turntable and roundhouse are also slightly depressed relative to the main line, although not as deep as the subways. I personally like changing elevations, but the problems of creating realistic grades on a small layout led me to keep the entire main line at one level. Instead, I dropped the turntable an inch or so to get a change in height. Once again, that particular spur only needs to accomodate locomotives, so I don’t have to worry too much about the steep grades I had to use to make the transition.
I would put the shops and yard on the same level as the double track main and then just run a the spur up into the city on a grade. Having city streets on a grade isn’t a problem, that happens all the time. Its way easier to put a street on a grade than a track.
Not a bad idea. I could start the spur and run it up a grade behind the shops then run it down main street and around back down to the main on the other end. A decendig driveway could be used to access the shops from main street.
(In my own defense, I didn’t think about “please” when I first posted because, basically I was asking people to show off, and most people are usually more than willing to do so)
