I was going to have the main line come into the yard from the staging area, that way the Units get serviced an venture on. I need to figure out if I want to have the main to run thru the scenes twice (gets lift to the second deck) but then I have a problem getting back down to staging. Speaking of another issue, is to find good locations to get the main line into the staging areas. I think I might want to stay away from the lift access with the staging areas as It might be difficult to align all levels of track with the lift out access.
I am using XTrkCad for the drawings and havenât figured our how to populate the elevations.
doing more homework is at order. Your home work. Getting a main in is not looking at bench-work only. I am not sure what comes first. More experienced track-planners do probably both at the very same time. Lance Mindheim designs his benches first as he is stating often; the number of possible footprints often is limited, John Armstrong called it getting âthe main inâ first.
Anyway planning, without thinking about how to climb to the various levels, is way to easy. It may sound rude, though i have the feeling you are not very sure about your druthers.
1)I might be wrong, thought I read about a 30" minimum radius, looked back to your druthers saw 26" written, while responding to me you mentioned 30" again. Not in line with 5 feet wide peninsulaâs.
2)In your druthers you were talking about a 2 men crew, later about 4. This is very important since your big dream will probably need a crew of 10. Do you want to much? Two engineers (your sons?) running mainline traffic, one switcher in the yard and one servicing an industrial area could be kept busy on a single deck.
3)Your ideas about 3 levels or 3 decks have some altitude issues, beside how to get there. You want a helper district on the highest deck, this means a big hill, lets say 12" high. with a 4% grade. The main deck under the high deck is 18" below, while the staging level is 8 inches below your main deck. Assumptions of course, the total is almost 40", so from tabletop to eye-level? Is this still acceptable for the boys?
A train-lift is possible, for the long trains you mentioned i would stay away from doing it by hand. Rather recently questions about it were asked in this forum.
My favourite plan is the first one you posted on here. The double blob plan would make entering staging easy. Even as a single deck layout it would cover all the needs for a small crew. Enlarging one of the blobs so a helix could be inserted is an other way to get to a second
The boys can be taught to work together on a single main line, AND they are going to be growing up and leaving home sometime, so donât design the layout for them if it is your hobby. After that you need to be able to run the way you want to with possibly a couple of model railroad friends as a crew.
My layout is in a 9 X 24 foot space, single main line that goes around the room twice with a second level. An interchange yard at one end acts as the end of east and west runs for point to point operations, and there is a small classification yard and loco facilities at the other end, or in the middle between the interchange yard(s).
I operate with a four man crew. One as Yard Master, one as Mainline Engineer, one as Port Engineer, and the other as the branch line / upper deck Engineer / Operator.
OK⌠I didnt spend a lot of time on it but have thought about it a lot.
Going with a single double main line that goes 1 time around. This gives me the room to add the branch lines.
I also have the helix to get to the second deck placed. I will connect to it via a branch line with helper service. A Separate Branch line will do service to the industrial areas�?
Is staging going to a loop under the helix? If not, you donât have a continuous run if that is what you wanted. I guess you could add a cross-over near the end of the yard from one main to the other.
Staging (holding whole trains before they make their run and after they have made their run) you can have on shelf under the left and/or top side.
How long trains will you be running?
How much need do you have for sorting cars that come in on one train and will be heading out again on another train?
Also - If you look at Paulâs drawing again - he is suggesting that the yard could go in along the upper wall. Where it, if necessary, could be twice as long as it would have been on your long and inaccessible peninsula - where the yard tracks would be (3+ feet away from the closest aisle.
There is nothing that says that yard tracks cannot have curves - you want gentle curves for the areas where you will be coupling cars. but a yard does not need to a totally straight line from end to finish.
I am not sure what the â3-4 lines connecting to the yardâ was supposed to mean, but it sounds to me like what you want is not so much having a freight yard as having an engine terminal or helper base or something like that. A place to display locomotives, to swap locomotives on trains, and add or remove engines from trains.
But no matter if that is your primary goal or not - it is a bad idea to put the turntable and engine house more than 3 feet away from the closest aisle, in the middle of a very wide peninsula.
it might an idea, i am not a native speaker so i face the same problems, to learn the meaning of specific words, and maybe just as important to shy away from words with more then one meaning, like yard or loop.
You do not have 2 loops, you have 2 peninsulaâs. The words yard and loop can mean anything, so it would be better to use words like: engine-terminal, classification yard or just a couple of spurs.
The footprint is the same as the very first you proposed yourself. The difference between my idea and yours is the ability to walk with your trains, without crossing or even seeing the same line again. The use of double sided backdrops is mandatory.
BTW large radii, even the 27" radius have advantages too. Within a 180 degree turn you will have almost 50 inches of space. Take 30" for an aisle and you still have another 18" for a turntable or other goodies.
From what I am reading on this thread, it seems that Southern is referring to the coaling tower tracks as the â3-4 lines connecting to the yardâ. I am guessing that Southern is not looking to design a âyardâ but, rather, an engine servicing facility where he can divert steam engines off the main line, through the coaling tower, onto the turntable, and into the round house.
As far a putting a turntable and round house (or engine house) more than 3 feet away from the closest aisle, in the middle of a very wide peninsula, I fully agree with you. It is a big mistake because locomotives become inaccessible at their weakest point where they are most likely to stall or derail. Please donât ask me how I know that.
We Americans have a bad habit of substituting words for one another too easily. To make matters worse, if we are unfamiliar with railroading terms for the prototype or even for the layout, things can get confusing pretty quick.
In this instance, I agree that the OP has a âpeninsulaâ, not a âloopâ. I would refer to a loop as a section of track that folds back onto itself. As far as the term âyardâ goes, this is simply a matter of confusion regarding the prototype. I think that a lot of us are guilty of referring to any collection of tracks in a confined area as a âyardâ without stopping to think about its purpose.
Well, he has two âlobesâ (rounded projections), on which he has turnback curves.
The turnback curves on the peninsulas does not form loops in the sense that a train can loop around and around using only those tracks, but the curves are certainly shaped like a loop of a coiled rope or garden hose or whatever.
Of course, in the context of track planning, loop could also mean âclosed circuitâ - i.e. a path you follow which takes you back to the same point. In that sense âtwo loopsâ could mean two separate continuous paths around the layout - allowing two trains to run at the same time along separate paths.Or a single path that will go around the layout twice before coming back to the same point.
But be that as it may - how would you fit in an engine terminal with two lobes/peninsulas?
I would think it would be an visual focus and an place where you would have several people congregating to watch - so placing it on one of the lobes make sense, but perhaps along outside of the lobe directly opposite the bottom of the stairs?
The loop is where the track is placed and yes it is on a peninsula. On the peninsula is a Engine Service Facility with track heading to the coaling bunker.
This bunker has 4 tracks for Steamers to reload and an additional 2 tracks to haul off ash and re-supply coal. This will then connect to the yard to connect to the consist and head out. There is also a Diesel Service building that connects to the yard.
The length of the consist, I am hoping to get 20+ cars but that will requite a large yard so I may just use the staging yard to hold this train but will limit its servicing ability.
I still think there is a better way for the bench work to flow, I just need to figure it out.
Well, I like plan number one. Everything seems to be within a reasonable reach now.
I would put a high backdrop divider down the length of the two peninsulas on the right, and maybe think about a divider on the left one. Doing that, the main line would flow nicely around the layout and you could follow your train until it went down to staging.
However, if the peninsula on the left were to be for the engine terminal, then a divider would be out of the question, and the yard could curve to the left also.
The peninsula on the right could also contain a large hill or mountain with a helix to the second level branch line, even with the center divider.
