Well here it is, give me any advice you would like. Don’t be affraid to say anything, I am a big boy and I can handle it.[;)]. Also if you have a question before you give advice I will be happy to answer them to help describe why something is the way it is, or the purpose it may serve in my mind anyway.
Thanks in advance for any and all help that you all will give me. Remember be honest I can take it.
Yeah, still haven’t figured out how to post an image correctly. This was only my second try at it, and I failed this time too.
Well after many experiments I didn’t like they way any of the ideas worked out with the reverse loops. All it seemed to do was take up a lot of space and clutter the area up. The yard at the bottom of the plan at the lower right is a “hiden” staging yard, while the yard at the upper right is an interchange yard between UP and BNSF. The area of the orange square will be a lift out bridge because of the door enterance to the room.
Yes my wife knows about the wholes in the walls. She is fine with it, but put up a fight about tearing the walls out completely. They are not load baring.
The radius at the corners is 22" and I will take care of the deminsions as well.
Thanks for the info and your interest Jerry
I am a big believer in keeping as much track near the front edge of the benchwork as possible. Two reasons. One, it is easier to access to troubleshoot or to rerail cars which inevitably are going to derail. Second and even more important to me, putting the trains up front makes them the star of the show rather than running through the background scenery. In this regard, I think the modular railroaders have the right idea.
Questions and comments…
Are you trying to model something specific or is this just a freelance type track plan with railfan and switching ops in mind?
It looks like you’ve set yourself up with some access problems but it may just be the way I’m seeing the plan… In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than having to crawl under a table to retrieve a train from the other side of the layout… It may all depend however on what you intend to put out front so again, it may just be the way I’m seeing the plan.
Before I go much further, I’d like to read a little more about what your goal is with this plan, what you intend to run, how you intend to run it, etc…
Jeff
rolleiman- let me answer you questions the best that I can. I am guessing that you might be referring to the area in the lower right where the yard is. There will be a liftout bridge connecting the layout to the area at the far right. That yard is a hiden staging yard.
The layout is very loosely based on a branchline that runs from Albia, IA to Des Moines, IA. It is a BNSF line and at Des Moines there is an interchange with UP. I have now seen this area. In Albia the branchline connect to the BNSF Mainline that runs through Iowa. For the most part the layout will be using modern equipment, and it will mostly be freight. I do however have plans to have passenger service. In many ways I want to operate the layout much the same way that it might have been operated in the 40’s and 50’s, with passenger traffic from the outlying towns to the big town which would be Des Moines. The area that the far right is the Passenger terminal in Des Moines.
The hiden staging represents the mainline (rest of the world) as well as the siding in the upper right being the interchange with the UP. There will be several industries on the layout, as well as a Engine maintenance area that actually exists in Albia. Locomotive are rebuilt there by some company (don’t know much about it just yet, just know it is there).
I wanted continuous running that is why the Passenger Terminal is also connected to the area near the hidden staging. I have tried to have most of the bench work be only about 2 feet, but I made some exceptions in a few areas.
I hope that is enough info for you to better understand what I am wanting and trying to do.
IF this were my space to build in, the mainline out front of the southeastern yard would be set back at least two feet from the edge, the far easternmost track would wye with the northernmost spur of the southeast corner yard, and I’d have full control of the system from a comfortable chair facing south at that yard.
From that chair, all my modeling tools and paintbrushes, stereo and tv controls, and a mini-fridge would be within arm’s reach. Trains need fixed, I drive them right up to the workbench, fix them, and drive them back to work. Net access from there would be nice too. Soundproof door optional.
C’mon Favrefan. It is just 4 x 8 plywood layout grown up. It is just running trains around in circles with no way to reverse their direction. Here is a previous post I made to the same question: Why not think outside the box? If two heads are better than one, then two levels are better than one. I always plan for hidden multitrack reverse loop staging areas FIRST, under the table with up and down ramps connecting to the main line. By doing that, I can call up any train I want, any time I want, and get rid of it when I want. Try it, you’ll like it. It is basically a single or double “dogbone” with the return loops out of the way. That helps provide the space you will need for sidings to switch. Without that ability you are just “playing with toy trains” running them round and round. Gets boring FAST! You can do that by heading the upper and lower right curves down under the table. Now you can operate like the real railroads do -point to point.
My first thought is, where are provisions for continuous run? In your general ops scheme, you may very well not need them, but they weill come in handy at occasions where you just want to sit back or you are presenting.
(Edit) Ah, there is continuous run. I thought the darker black at the top was a large bridge. Though that raises the question, might that be an interesting feature to add, with a hidden connector?
I see that you have 2 three thrack yards. What if you connected the 2? Might be an interesting effect and a large staging yard.
My main question is why do you have only one mainline in a 24’X10’ layout. That’s a lot of real estate to only be able to run one train at a time.
running modern freight equipment and passenger cars on 22" curves might be a problem visually (i think they’d actually make it around the curves , just wouldn’t look great doing it) , i’d consider backdating the layout to the 40’s or 50’s for slightly shorter equipment . i don’t have as much space as you so i’m going back all the way to the 1900’s
you could do the reversing loops in the 4x4 area in the bottom right corner by stacking them one on top of the other and the rest of the layout would be a big nolix connecting them . with the space you have the grade wouldn’t be very steep . 1 loop would represent Albia , the other Des Moines . they could both have a small amount of staging . that way you get staging and continous run (could use a tortoise and hare to automate the turnouts entering the loops)
Sorry, been busy all day. I will think about the suggestions tomorrow while I am on the road in the morning and do some experiments tomorrow afternoon see if anything pops for me.
I would like to have a reversing loop at both ends, but didn’t like the amount of space they were taking up. Also putting one at a different level was an idea, but I didn’t like the idea of needing to put the entrance to them so far down the main. I would like to avoid any grades above 2% if I can.
Thanks for the thoughts so far.