Alright …took yalls advice and used rts to design this …
Lower left is fiddle stageing/yard
lower center 3 spur engine facility
upper right mine
upper center factoriie
lower center aggerite facility and chemical loading
the other spurs are open realestate
PICK IT APPART
HO scale
1 inch = 1 foot
22r min
#6 turnouts
Code 83 rail
C13 - nothing to pick apart, partner. That’s a fine looking track plan you have there. It flows across the benchwork, just be carefull with that 3 track mine setup; not sure you have enough space for the switch machines to mount.
Are you trying to recreate any particular line, or are you freelancing with a certain feel?
I don’t see any room for buildings or indusries. you have lots of track but what does it do? I’m no expert, just a beginner myself, but after reading the answers to the posts hear and some of the books that are easily available on layout design (especially for the beginner)I’ve found after a hundred or so drawings that I really don’t want to lay all that track and it really won’t fit in the space I have and look somewhat realistic. I like the buildings and scenery, too. - Jim
Fifedog…switch machines? will be using manual ground throes fot turnout control. And as for the last question Total freelance with a Appalaichian reigon feel as thats where Im from. West Virginia. C&O all the way up to CSX.
J.W.
I’m with JB.
You say you are modeling the Appalachian region, but I can’t see any room for mountains, let alone industries. Lots of track though. Makes me think you designed it backwards. What do I mean?
Road name determines possible locations.
Locations determine Industries and scenery.
Industries are limited by available models and scratch-bashing skills.
Available models determine track needs, auxiliary buildings, access roads, etc.
Track needs determine track location.
You put the track first, and the other stuff might not work–it’s almost guaranteed.
I tend to be with SM and JB.
You have a Beautiful track plan that flows and looks like it actually belongs. But… you just dont have room for ANYthing. That Walthers Mine is BIG. So is the mountains, trees and rivers. Do you have any way to get into the center without ducking under?
Do you have any additional room to “Fatten” up the table space as to get more room for scenery, structures etc.
Sometimes the structure will decide where the track goes. My A&P Cold Storage has one long dock on one side and a truck dock the other. Where that structure fits without blocking anything is where the siding is going to go.
I think your staging on the lower left is a attempt to track to the max the availible room. The shortest at the top can be your engine track and remove the next two down. The last three can be a reasonable yard/staging area.
One other item. Some of those tracks will have your trains rubbing the walls or falling off the edges. You might have to drop it from 22 down to 20 if you dont have any more room for your space.
If you absolutely MUST run big power, you might build a single loop UNDER the benchwork to give your big steam a chance to stretch it’s legs and run once in a while. Or have it set up on a sectional track loop with a very large radius on the floor if it is not carpet or otherwise dirty.
To me this railroad suits small engines very well as long you keep car lengths under 50 foot (40’ is ideal) Kind of hard to do when you have a big CSX engine set leading 60-90 foot cars.
Guys. I have enough room to add about a foot all the wway around. So that would put the shelf at 3 ft wide all the way around. The duck under cannot be unavoided.
J.W.
Try a new plan with the foot added all the way around and try for 24" radius and use number 4’s where you know that big engines will not run.
Don’t go more than 30".
Yes the duck under can be avoided. You can build a liftout, or gate, or just loop the track back with two blobs. There are plenty of options that don’t involve crawing. Someday, you might want to show the layout ro someone that doesn’t want to crawl–family, friends, lover, etc.
ok…redesigning the layout to be 30in wide. Tried the loops in blobs and that leaves no room inbetween the blobs. It will have the duckunder BUT the base hight of the benchwork shelves will be 50 inches high so i can accomadate a work bench under one end of the layout. So the office chair which is on cassters can roll under it with a seated person it it without any problemns. Going to redesign the whole thing with 24r curves and #6 for all turnouts. The whole #6 is a given not a druther.
J.W.
Number 6’s huh? Ye sound like me. All of it or forget the whole thing. The recent Issue of MR has dimensions of switches, how long they are, wide etc…
Watch out, some number 6’s are monsters. I think the Katos are like really over a foot.
ALright got room for scenery and industrys… Got some skill in kitbashing to make industries fit. Bashed my NRM walthers kit to a 2 track loading facility and a slack loader. Any hoo… pick this one apart…learning curve has inproved on the rts 7. Man it was high to begin with
J.W.
still looks like quite a bit of track. on the bottom left i would put a bit less track and maybe a big industry and a town next to it. that is just my [2c] but it is totally up to you. best wishes to your layout!
Next time you post turn-off the labels first. It will make the trackwork easier to see. What is your operating plan? How do the products move?
Just looking at track work, you have a switchback at 12 o’clock and the closest run-around is on the other side of the layout. The good thing about your first layout was that you have run-arounds near each of the major stitching areas. This one they are noticeably lacking.
The main thing with this design is that I don’t get a sense of operations. I’m still thinking it is track for track’s sake and not how do I use track to create operational purpose.
At a one foot grid, assuming around the walls, the lower left is almost completely unworkable, unless you either have a 6’ reach, can levitate, or are Peter Parker.
Bikerdad has a real good point about the ability to reach back into the yard on the lower left. If you put the layout height at 50 inches here, it will make it doubly difficult. Gonna have to invest in one of those grabber devices. But, I still think it works, especially if your tall. I would need a step stool to do switching in the yard.
Scenery tip - how about putting a mirror against the wall at the end of your yard to “extend” your layout beyond the viewable space. You could place a hiway overpass on top of the mirror (say 5 inches above the trackwork). Kinda thinking like Grafton/Brunswick/Keyser…
ChessieFan,
You can improve on this if you have ideas of what businesses/industries/towns are going where. As they say, name them on the layout.
Once you know what those businesses and industries are, or at least have an idea, look in the Christmas catalogue ( Walthers ) in print or on-line and scope out the size those structures take. Put those on the layout plan.
This will no doubt change up some of the track work.
Regards,
The lower left will be on the wall onyl at its longest point. The top part of the yard is isle way for the whole garage. So i gotta reach only 3feet .
JW
Even though I agree with some of the other comments, (Such as SpaceMouse) about the lack of “scenery”, and maybe too much track… I personally like it. I know when I designed my layout, I knew that I ran the risk of getting bored with it real fast when it came to operations. I had seen enough and opersted on enough layouts to realise the with some of them, once you ran it a few times, it would always be the same. I tried hard to work lots of options and possilibites in mine.
To me, there is a fine line between “realistic prototype” and its “my railroad”. I packed in more track, double main, one too many run around tracks, a few too many switches and a slew of other things that would not be in the real world. But, it allows me lots of options to run my operations and I can change things up as I see fit. And nope, I havent gotten bored yet.
I suppose my point is that I belive there is a sliding scale between the 2 points and it is up to you decide what works best for you.
Yeah, I got a duck under too… But I view like women… Cant live with them, cant live with out them. Or something like that. [:)]
KO Here it is again. Took time to place buildings and dimentions. The Grey lines are tunnel portals, The black are roads green for scenery and blue? WATER!
24r min. with 22 easements .
Code 83 rail.
Going for a bit of switching along with a bit of railfanning. Let loose the dogs of war for this one.
J.W.