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You tell us, You’re the one with the time behind the wheel. What are the pros and cons?
gone
My opinion…
Too much track.
The multiple ovals within the main oval do less than nothing for me, and serve no purpose that I can see. I don’t know what’s minline, yard, etc. No yard lead. You’ve got space for great things there. Step back, and think about what you want. Givens and druthers. And visions.
That’s my opinion.
EDIT:
Already built. Which I could have read, or looked at the picture. Duh! Learn from it. See if you can figure out what works, and what doesn’t. Get John Armstrong’s ‘Track Planning for Realistic Operation’, see how the ideas in there work to create a railroad taht does work.
Compared to a 4 by 8 loop I thought it was ok…but seems it was stupid.
I don’t like that! You put time and effort into, it was something you imagined. Why stupid? Did you learn from it? I know you learned tracklating, and you made nice control panel. Nope, stupid you can’t get away with!
Geez…and I’ve got all those leftover locos and decoders, and plaster and trees and grass, and lots and lots of stuff. But too much track going in circles…
Time to move on. Think I’ll go deer hunting.
A railroad that does work…well, that would be one that I could get to in the evenings and weekends when the rest of the family won’t miss me…and one that I could spend a few bucks on and not deprive the family of essentials, and one that has fairly smooth mainline and turnouts, and layer on “Track Planning for Realistic Operation”? The only realistic operation around here is am I too sleepy at midnight to try to run a loco.
CK
Good hunting. Don’t fret too much about the leftovers (of track, not deer). You can reuse all those locos and track and decoders, and most of the trees. Plaster and grass aren’t too expensive.
What was this layout like, anyway? Maybe it could be improved with a little work.
Ok I’ll repost with a few photos
Well here are a few snap shots. Perhaps Vail didn’t read that I was expanding a layout built in a former residence as a “flat on the carpet-slide under the bed” experiment. I wanted to incorporate 2 of the three layout board modules I had created. All the inner loops are thus the former perimeter loops of the orignal layout.
Connection would be via one turnout formerly to the “south yard” now to a new yard. The old south yard would be connected via a turnout off another new yard that runs under a Warren Truss bridge. The lower loop of the new outer oval mainline is a rise and fall on a 4 degree slope.
The new layout pieces also had to be modular, and I could not build it at table height as I had to put it in a nice, but low main floor storage space I have refurbished for the purpose. Thus there are many board margins that I had to contend with…and place the entire layout on 2 and a half dozen 2 inch casters. That way I could manouver them into place when wired and I can also stand, sit, and lean on the 1" medite boards with no flexing…there are 6 to 8 casters under every board.
I can access the layout from two ends at least.
But it is true, no doubt, that it doesn’t resemble a realistic “working” railroad.
The center section (old table) looks sort of like the CNJ Bronx terminal (check out this page for a picture of the terminal). Tim Warris (of fast tracks) is making a model of this terminal, and I think he also has a thread or two on his progress on the forums here.
I think you could rework the “south” yards where one stub-ends into the other, and have all 5 tracks about the same length as the longest track at the bottom. Assuming I’m understanding your previous posts, and you can pull the layout out from the wall I think a few viewblocks would really help this out, positioned in such a way so that you can only see one of the yards at a time, making for 5 or 6 different scenes (you might have to play with this though…)
here’s a quick rework I did in about 5 minutes. I think it helps take away some of the “business” of the layout.
the blue lines are the reworked track and the red lines are potential viewblocks you could add to help make the layout look bigger, of course this assumes you can move it away from the wall.
Looks better. Now, maybe add at a crossover/escape track between the two longest tracks in the blue yard at the bottom (as an engine escape track):
That way you wont have to back your entire train out from these yards, or manually move your engine from one end of the train to the opposite end of the train to go back.
Smile,
Stein
[#oops] I knew something looked a little off after I posted the drawing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Thanks for catching that Stein [:)].
As you can see Cisck Kid, your layout isn’t a lost cause. I think Mr. B or Spacemouse went through something to the effect of 50 (major) revisions of his layout before laying the first bit of track. I don’t remember how many reveisons were put here for critique, but some of these threads go on for ages as the plan goes from a little rough around the edges to final touchups and polishing before being drawn out on the tabletop.