Just click on the hyper link for larger view
Ok so here’s the plan green obviously marks the bench work I’m thinking of moving the bench work out to 34" on the West side wall and the North side wall to gain abit more area for scenery.
The entrance to room has no door or actually has a bar style swinging door.
The big return loop on left side is 24" and staging area is in next room over the staging area loop is 22" on the lower and 20" outer on the top of staging loop .
There’s also room in the furnace room for more staging if its needed . Bench work right now is 3 feet High which allows for a deep reach easily as far back as 36".
Not figured out yet…
I still have to figure where to put the gorge river waterfall will go it will probably be close to the sawmill so the sawmill will have access to water for log pond.
I need to place a small hilly town the town will have a railroad station at very top of elevated town so the track will need to be elevated to 3" and perhaps lower than 3" as I don’t intend to have the rail crossing any RR tracks so the clearance won’t be needed.I’m thinking perhaps the top North East corner for the town as the track thats goes thru the corner could travel right past the train station ontop of the hill ( could be a prob although with grade going back down to staging )
So any comments and suggesteions for these things we haven’t figured out yet is much welcomed as well as suggestions on the trackage .
The first thing that catches my eye is all the track in the second room. The second thing is that the doorway appears to be blocked to much. I’d put the return loop in the main room along with a yard track or two somewhere out in the open. Clear the doorway by maintaining a 3 foot walkway. For the out of room staging I would simplify the track work as much as possible.
First in the south of the track plan the return loop puts the track really close to the edge of the benchwork. Not good incase of a derailment. I would say give at least 2 inches from edge of the benchrowk to the track center if not a little more.
Second there is alot of room in the northern part of the layout to have a very nice and functional freight yard. I know you have the 2 yards in the reversing loop to the east but those are stub end yards and can be a pain for switching but great for some staging.
P.S. If you could E-mail me the source files I could try playing with a yard in the north for you. It looks like a fun challenge. southmassey@cox.net if you are interested.
I looked at your plan and would second the comments made already. It’s a good plan that could be a little better. The thing that I noticed is the passing sidings. You’ve got a real nice one in the NNE of the layout but most of your switching takes place in the E & SE. There you only have a very short siding. This could make switching a problem and would probably tie up the main. Is there a way to lengthen that short siding to better accomodate a full train without blocking access to the industries off of that siding?
I could but I really like the idea of the staging area being in the seperate room its more the staging we’re stuck on right now I don’t like all the holes going thru the wall I’d like to get it down to 2 portals going into staging yard room [:)]
ok how much room do you have in the furnace room for bench work.
also lookint at the pic how much room do you have in the second room? if you give me some demetions I might beable to help out a little bit. as for a double ended yard that might be your best bet… I have an Idea right now but its kind of hard to say what it is in words so if you want Email me the file and I can change some stuff around and show you
I still think you should legthen the passing siding that’s just ahead of the train in this pic. It’s going to be tough switching all of those industries and not block the main.
I do appeciate your comments this track plan is basicly just a rough sketch so when it goes down on the bench siding will be lengthened where need be and actually more bridges will be put in where ever I can ( I love bridges) and rails that are too close to the rear will be brought forward like the one on the north wall . What I’d really like to do is figure a way to have a double ended staging yard whether its in the room next door or under the table thats where I reallllllllllly need some help [:)]
Then why not take those two stub ended yards inside the loop on the right (east) that are for staging and connect them to the track at the very top of the plan? You could add a cutoff from that top track to get to the loop. You could put the cutoff on the modeled portion at the top, say, midway across.
Hey Philip sounds like your onto something there is there any chance you click on my plan expand it to the larger version right click to save as and could you please edit it and repost it I would very much appreciate seeing what your thinking [:)]
Well I thought its about time I post what I’ve come up with for the plan . The scenery with the water is not a definate yet where it shows there may be more industries in that area rather than the rivers . The hidden staging is below the bench work it will be dropped to 12" below with a good grade.
As you can see I’m utililizing the best of both world …scenery area and industrial switching. ]Web Page Name[/url]
Hey sorry I have not gotten back at you with my modifications. THings here have been busy. I like your mods it all looks good. what is your grade? I could not get below the benchwork and give you some reaching room with a no-lix (best grade I could get was 4.5%) I last was working on it trying to get a helix in the north east corner. (the area you have in green). Want me to keep trying?
Well the bench work is just about completed to go down below 12" its probablt going to be 4% grade but all my trains except for when I get a couple steams will run with 2 units so the 4% won’t be a prob . I’m not definate on not having a helix yet as well so if you think you can enhance it Mike sure go for it [:)]
]Web Page Name[/url]