I am starting a new layout. My plan is to have several staging tracks under a raised portion of the layout and a double mainline also “under ground”. Does anyone know a minimum practical height above the rail for this type of yard to be able to deal with re-railing and perhaps placing of cars. I am hoping to keep the grade at 2% and general room size is 18’ by 22’. Layout will also be planned for continuous running loop.
I figure I can use some plexiglas as a bumper so cars don’t fall on the floor, and intend to have access to get up underneath the layout. Any other advice on the plan? I do not have it draw out on paper?
Depending on how far you may find yourself reaching, say all the way to the fourth track deep, you would want your entire arm with bent elbow to get safely over the parked trains closest to you. Practically, I would not be happy with anything less than about 8" if I had to reach over three parallel tracks with 2.75" centers. That separation between centers is for reaching over any car or locomotive to safely grasp it without knocking over the cars on the next track.
For easy of view, though, and improved safety, you should probably be working hard towards a full foot of height separation between the nether surface of your main layout level and the tops of the parked items in staging.
Take a couple pieces of wood, clamp them at the height apart that you think looks good, lay a couple pieces of track in there and try to rail cars on the back piece with cars on all the tracks.
Adjust as required until you are satisfied you can do it.
I have hidden staging on the drawing board. I’m seriously thinking of making the section above a lift-up, hinged like an old school desk. This would let me get away with very little spacing, while having a staging yard where trains could easily be made up.
Just to offer some counterpoint. My hidden staging is 6" bellow the upper level. The staging is four tracks deep. The driver for low clearance was to minimize the amount of track used to make the grade below upper and lower levels.
The cost of this ‘minimal’ clearance is the effort to install PERFECT trackwork. After the track was done I ran trains for many months to tune and test all track and turnouts. Only when I was absolutely positive that every loco and car I owned would travel the track with zero issues did I begin to bury the lower level with upper level landform.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I don’t think hinging will work due to the basic design of the layout and there will be a good amount of landscaping over the staging area. I’m leaning now toward a minimum of 10"-12" above the staging floor. I like the idea of minimal clearance and “clean track” but I found on my last layout that even though I had excellent track work, the errant piece of landscape or twig or person gets onto the track at the most inhospitible times and it is usually discovered inside a non-accessible area.
Thanks for the reminder. We’ve got company coming over the weekend, and I need to get out the CMX machine and clean my subway tracks. I can heartily recommend the CMX for anyone who needs to clean track in hard-to-reach places like tunnels.
My own tunnels, which are operating tracks, not staging, are mostly accessible through liftoffs. The trackwork, by any reasonable definition, is “perfect.” I haven’t had a derailment in 5 years or so, except those caused by operator error like mis-aligned turnouts. Murphy loves hidden tracks. Just loves them.
I too share your concerns about errant bits of flotsam falling onto the hidden tracks.
What I did to protect those hidden tracks is create poly tunnel over the track so overhead landscaping activity will not drip dust or liquid onto the tracks below. I used the same materials and techniques used in Canada to install the vapour barrier on the outside walls of a house: thick construction grade poly, technical tape, staples.
The tracks were clean when I installed the poly tunnel, and several months of running trains over the same track has proven that I can keep them clean with a CMX together with a Centerline cleaner. I am confident I will be able to maintain the hidden track long term with the same methods.
If there is a catastrophic failure I will be able to pull the poly back and rescue the stranded loco or car from underneath the layout.
Maybe the last thing to note is that my layout is in a fully finished climate controlled room - no basement dust, no concrete dust, etc.