Evening all. I’ve been playing with designs for a new layout and figured I’d ask for some input. This is all N scale. I think I’ve got the basic design down, just need to add some sidings and such for industry. Here it is:
The space is 114" on the right side, 157" on the bottom, but I can’t use the whole rectangle because of other furniture in the room. The yard in the lower left is intended to be platforms for a passenger station, and the curve leading off of it will go to a two-track fueling facility and a roundhouse (wasn’t a turntable object in 3rd PlanIt I could find). Within the smaller oval at the bottom will be an urban setting, and I’ll include some in-town factories and warehouses that will get sidings.
A note on elevations since I couldn’t figure how to get it to display elevations. Most of the layout will be at 38", but the outside two tracks along the bottom will drop to 36 and pass under the city. In this design I was thinking of setups here in Washington and in other places where some tracks drop under the station. Those tracks rise up 3/4" of an inch on the left, then stay level until hitting the bridge, where it rises back up and hits 38" just before the first switch on the right.
I’d appreciate any thoughts you all may have.
Thanks.
The one thing that catches my attention is that you have no way of turning your train around. You do if you start off going clockwise, but once going counter clockwise, your stuck. Unless you want to only run one direction, or have trains dedicated to one way, you may wnt to look closer at this.
Actually, now that I look at it again, if you are on the outer track going clockwise, there is no way to get into the inner tracks without backing it in. You really may want to rethink your train access to the inner tracks.
Glenn
Humm, yeah, I was thinking in mostly a clockwise sort of way. So, I’ve added two pieces to fix that. A loop to handle counter-clockwise flips, and a transition from outside to inside for clockwise trains. Both of these additions are on the right. Too spaghetti? Should I rip out the whole center track and junk it?
It depends on your design goals. I got the impression when I first looked at it that you wanted three trains orbiting simultaniously. With out the center track I don’t believe you could do that.
It depends on your design goals. I got the impression when I first looked at it that you wanted three trains orbiting simultaniously. With out the center track I don’t believe you could do that.
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I’d like to do everything. [:D]
Yeah, the ability to have a train or two orbiting is something I want, for the ‘just watching’ factor. Here’s an updated plan with sidings in what seem logical places. The one on the far left will get a small passenger station, while the others will get industries. The two ‘urban’ sidings will be warehouses or plants, the ones on the peninsula something a bit more rural. I’m considering coal mines.
with the track exactly following the benchwork edges and the 90 degree turns in each corner it looks too regular , kind of like a train set that had extra straight tracks stuck in to make it bigger , but nothing to make it more interesting . i’m also a little concerned about having your main yard up against the wall and having to reach over that center track to get to it , although your layout height (38" ?) reduces the difficulty a bit
For some basic rules on yard design you might peek at http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html
You mention the yard for passenger sidings. Will you be running any freight ?
Really helpful site, Tom, thanks, and thanks for the comments of others as well. I’ve done two new designs, one as a point to point, one as a loop but with much the same design. Here’s the P-T-P:
Station and urban modeling on the left. Yard, more or less cribbed from the site Tom mentioned. The two siding tracks between them are for engine maintenance - fueling or a shed, either way. The green square in the bottom is a car shop - maybe that should be flipped and put between the yard body and the engine tracks. The purple square on the right is a power plant model I already have. Those three tracks on the right are the in/out for the yard - staging, although I think I’ll landscape it.
The circuit design is here:
Many of the elements are similar. The main on the outside drops down three inches and loops under the cityscape. The reversing loop is a bit of a mess, but it’s the best I was able to come up with. Original ideas would only reverse one way on one track. Might be possible to add some industries on the right side just past the yard, but haven’t worked out that trackage yet.
Thanks again for all your help, folks.
One further idea…
Take out the reversing loop, add in a turntable in the yard. A northbound can come in, get broken up, engine rotated and turned into a southbound going the other direction.
I played around with a track that would run under the layout from left to right, but the grades were seeper than I’d like and it had to rise on curves, which from everything I’ve read is less than desireable.
maybe you should approach the layout differently? Instead of having a layout against the walls why not make a 6’ by 9’ layout? This would be pretty big in N-scale and if you do a folded dogbone you could still have a very long double track mainline with grades, bridges, sidings and room for a small freight yard. Let me look around some good ideas.
What program did you use to make your design?
Humm. Been playing with that a little bit now. It’s an interesting idea, one that hadn’t really occured. Looking at the space I have, a 5’x10’ seems to work the best, since all sides need to be accessable. I’m using 3rd PlanIt for the designing. The Atlas stuff was okay but too limited and I like being able to pop into three dimentions and look at grades and the like. My existing layout is essentially all loops, very little space to stage or build trains. I’ve toyed with the idea of adding an extension or two to that somehow, so maybe that’s the thing to pursue.
The thoughts are definately appreciate. Thanks.
Hi distantantennas,
You answered me on my topic about DCC for N-18 layout. Since you built the same layout and used DCC with it, I would like to ask you few questions . You do not have your Email in your profile. So it there a way that we can comunicate, I realy need your help.
Thanks.
Mo:-)
i really like the loop design myself and I think with loops you get mor fun out of the track.