I have finally come up with a layout plan I am fairly comfortable with. Though I have drawn this as a lower level, budget will prevent, more than likely, and upper level built in the near future. The upper level would add more operational capabilities that one would get with more main line.
For now, this current plan will forcus on the Pere Marquette Railroad’s Almont Sub. Almont is a small rural community in South East Michigan. The topography is flat, but to the west between Almont and Holly Michigan, glacial morains, and till have made many hills which require helper service on my freelanced Almont Sub. THe PM did build a branch line to Almont from Port Huron, MI. This was abandoned in 1941. I keep the line alive as if it was completed to East Lansing, MI.
The yard would be the base for the helper service through the hills and grades near 2% on the line. Both steam and diesel eras would be modeled and I would not include the C&O taking over in my history of this line. I have built and painted several diesel locos to reflect modeling in the 1980s. Two locals would also use Almont Yard. The Port Huron to ALmont local and the almont to Holly local. The yard switcher could also switch East Almont yard and Almont.
Min raduis is 30" with no smaller frogs than # 6s on the mains. DCC, staging, etc. Most grades are under 1.8%
GTW has trackage rights via Leonard Crossing (upper level) to Port Huron. helix down at 34" rad. 1.5% grade. Some tracks may be changed before I finalize a plan, but this is the rough final.
If you plan on switching the yards, I don’t see an easy way to do so without fouling the main. In other words, it looks as if the mainline is the switching leads. Otherwise, looks pretty good at an extended glance.
What does the hidden track on the left of the room do? Just stop?
There is a separate switching lead on the roundhouse end. Not on the upper left end. That would be nice to add and increase flexibility but as long as the one on the lower right end is there its not required.
With the one massive yard on the right side I think you have more then enough room to sort cars and store trains. Your yards actually dominate the track space you have, and it seems as if there’s nothing between the East Yard and the Almont yard if you run counter clockwise (assuming that it’s a double-slip and not a diamond where the two tracks meet on the left side).
For the amount of yard space it seems that you have, there’s very little to switch or do other then sort cars.
Also, related to the yard lead issue, your lead isn’t anywhere near as long as it needs to be if you want to avoid fouling the main. Ideally you don’t want to pull full tracks from a yard, but if you need to pull one track to get to the car at the opposite end and then pull another track to get a car halfway down, you’ll end up on the main.
With the amount of space you have, having a “normal” (using the term loosely here…) yard ladder with the turnouts built off the straight edge isn’t a bad idea. This will allow you to go from track-to-track only throwing a minimal number of switches. To us guys that work the ground, yard design can either make our day easy or kill us with all the extra effort involved.
I like the concept. Having lived in and roamed around north Oakland county, I think you’ve picked a nice scenic area to run your trains through.
I’d also like to know where that hidden track is going. Since it’s leaving Almont’s east yard, I assume it’s heading to an east staging area representing Port Huron. So that means the helix up is to points west like Holly and Lansing, and you’ll have more switching action up there. Do you have any plans for what the upper tracks will look like?
I think the lead for Almont yard is the track nearest the turntable - to my eyeball it looks long enough to pull a cut out. East yard doesn’t have an obvious lead, though.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. There is a yard drill track and the lengths do allow a single cut to be pulled. I do think that I need to rework some of the track around the roundhouse. The main line is the closest line to the isle. I know the diverging route makes it look like this in the plan, but since I uploaded that file several months ago I have changed a few things.
The apparent crossing above the east yard is just that, but elevated. I am going to try and disguise the crossing so it does not look like one line crossing over another. I may take some plans from few other designs.
QUESTION… Does anyone use sepreate power districts in yards. I already have used the seperate power districts on my previous layout. I felt I had too little for the size (19 x 24). I was thinking of yard lead, main, yard tracks and engine service area (turntable will have a dcc reverser) all on a seperate dcc power. We all foul a switch or derail a car that shuts things down.
