Operations Question

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

DC operator here.

I have mostly completed my first layout and have wired in most of the blocks. A couple spurs remain to put cork and track down.

Started my first lone-wolf car/card operating session the other day to see how things run and see how successful my choice of blocking went. For the most part good - I had to make a couple changes in blocking and fixed some wiring mistakes.

One thing however that became very apparent is my staging issue. I have two interchanges (one west bound and one east bound) The East bound isn’t functional yet so I have been running trains originating from the west bound interchange. The interchange isn’t very long.

The issue I am having is when I get 4 trains on the layout during a session and want to start sending them “off stage” I run into a bottle neck with my very short interchange.

I’m curious how you session operators out there work with limited space for “off stage” yards and interchanges. At this point I have what seems like an inelegant solution - a table by the interchange where I can physically lift stock to and from the interchange. But maybe that is all one can do with limited space…

Any commments on your car / card system would be welcome too.

I haven’t seen many posts addressing this topic since I have started reading this forum.

Much appreciated,

charles

2

I use a car ferry for mine with interchangable car floats

3

A track plan would help.

4

Not necessarily a full track plan, but some sort of graphic would help. I am having a hard time visualizing what the question is.

-Kevin

5

Thanks for your reponse. Here is my track plan:

Thanks for taking a look. My apologies but I can’t seem to be able to have the pic post directly on the post.

6

Making the track plan visible to all, click for a larger view:

Honestly, I would not change anything on the interchange tracks. They both look easily accessable, and the cars on them can be swapped out between operating sessions.

Ease of access and ease of use are important to me.

I am sure others might have some different suggestions.

-Kevin

7

Just my two cents worth. On the east interchange, it looks like there is enough room to put the interchange switch at the block labeled “I” at the top; which would give enough room for a longer track, maybe even another switch. On the west interchange, if you have room, I would try to put a siding on the green track, with a switch at the block “D” and another curved switch on the west bound interchange track.

On the negative side, that would be a lot of track, visually, in a scene. But it might give you more operational capacity. And it is your railroad, do what you want, especially if it meets your needs.