A continuation of this thread. I figured it’d be easier to just start a new thread for the new design, as it is completely different, as the space I have available is a little different than what I had originally thought. NOTE the “south wall” and the “west wall” aren’t actually walls, the room comtinues in those directions, but I am unable to expand those ways any further.
my Givens and Druthers: Givens:
The benchwork - I’m only able to use the L shape
DC Only (At the moment)
Druthers:
The Roundhouse/TT, I’ve always wanted one, so I’m adding it.
“Style” switching, i guess
Era: pre transition to the beginning of the transition (1935 to 1945 or so)
make this DCC ready
the new design:
what do you guys think? what can I add/modify to make it “work better”? And as for DCC - it’ll be added at some point… but I need the pink plains first [;)], not to mention the fact its just a bit out of my price range until Christmas.
The grey box in the middle is where I’m going to put a shelf for my DC throttle/DCC command station and the other control buttons and stuff.
A very interesting layout. A definite change from your previous ones. However, I have found some areas of concern which you should address.
Firstly, I am not sure if you really need all those cross-overs in your yard. Given the proximity of the ladders (at both ends), the cross-overs seem to be needlessly redundant (and an unnecessary expense). I’d eliminate them entirely.
Second, you may not have realised this; but the way your track is laid limits you to trains of a maximum length of 12" (in H0, that might be a locomotive and a very short box car). The blue track (lower right corner) leading to your industrial spurs only has that much room between the turnout linking it to the mainline and the edge of the layout. On the same note the turnout linking your mainline to your yard is located close to the bottom edge of your layout so that you can only fit trains of 18-20" (which would be too long to access your industrial spurs as they don’t clear the points of the turnout leading to the spurs). You’ll need to move these turnouts further up to gain the necessary track length to run longer trains.
Thirdly, the siding in the top right corner is very far from the edge of your layout (as much as 36") which you’ll find very difficult to reach, particularly once you have scenery an
I agree. You have not left enough room for the locomotive and at least one car to get past any of your yard switches on the stubs, and the worst is the one at the left extremes of your lowest green track, the longest one. In the righte blue tracks, you haven’t done much better. I would scrag the top bow of green tracks so that you still get a yard, but also a way past the turnout at left.
I am happy to see that you have alternate entrances/exits to the TT. The topmost looks to be kinked, not curved, so you may have to be wary of that one.
I am not a big fan of switching puzzles, which seems to be what you have attempted in your lower trackage, in blue. However, we are talking taste, so that is immaterial. I would, though, figure out a way to get the loco and at least two cars past the southernmost turnout.
I’m not too much a fan of (large) switching puzzles either, although, I do like small puzzles, like this one. I always loved trying the puzzles that would be set up at a show when I was younger.
I was able to get the “tail” behind the points of the switch to about 18", so that should get me 2 40’ cars and a switcher (i think).
If I understand right,your layout bench will be only two feet deep,so reach isn’t an issue here.Also,if you did mention what scale you’re going with,I missed it.So I’ll assume that your are modelling N scale.
Now keep in mind that this is only my opinion.I’m no yard expert but still,I’ll tell you what I’d do with this space.
First,I’d move the turntable closest to the front edge and farthest left possible,turning the roundhouse at an angle backed to the far corner.This way,the RH will only look better facing you and moving the TT to the left will give you more leeway for your yard.
Then I’d go with a single curved yard instead of two,using the deeper part of you bench for it.One can’t assemble cars in curves but it would still give you some lead track in the middle to work with when switching in the straights.It would also allow the turnouts to be moved further away from the edges of the layout,giving you a little more much needed lead track at the ends.
One can’t park cars over a turnout so try to reduce their number to a minimum to keep your yard as free flowing as possible.From your plan,I understand that you could use over fourteen linear feet for your yard,although curved,so with decent lead tracks there should be sufficient space left for an interesting yard in N scale,and probably in HO too.
The problem with turntable/roundhouse setups is that they eat up a lot of landscape in no time but since you don’t have any other turnaround possibilities,you need the turntable.However,if you’re not planning to use the roundhouse as shelter for your locos,you could simulate it and regain that much space.
My scale is HO. I don’t quite understand what you mean about moving the TT. Do you mean putting it in the “west” corner close to that table’s edge, so the roundhouse tracks will be to the “north” as opposed to the “west” of the TT?
The roundhouse will (eventually) serve as a home for my locos, as I aquire them, although maybe I could cut it down a bit by using the walthers 90’ one instead of the 98’ Heljan that I put in for planning purposes.
Also, I just realized that I will need minimally a single slip in place of the crossover I have on the yard track closest to the edge in order to keep it the way I have it. although I wouldn’t mind cutting out that section of track and just using a #4 in its place. In my mind the 3 track ladder to the east of the yard will serve (from the north) to allow locos to escape to the TT, caboose storage, and either the switcher’s “home” or somewhere I can put problem cars for the 0-5-0 to take care of…
if I’m thinking of the same place you are, that’d make for a really odd loop of track… then again i may be looking in the wrong area…
I’m kind of lost as to where you are looking to put the wye…I kind of like that uppermost runaround, as it allows (in my mind) me to not have to worry as much about car placement on the track adjacent to it - ie I can be moving a caboose on that track (heading to the rear of a just built westbound lets say) while I am bringing the westbound’s loco into the yard…
My fault. I meant a wye turnout. Sorry about that. A two-way turnout.
So, you currently have that lower TT track joining the upper yard track halfway down its length. It will be essentially inaccessible if switcher Dan parks four cars along that stretch…right?..especially if he leaves them astride the turnout. So, if you slide that turnout left, to the next curve, what I called the shoulder, and turn the turnout into a two-way, or what we call a “Wye” sometimes, your trains can go through it along the yard, or they can leave it the other route to approach the TT.
I understood the wye turnout part - my original design had one going off the “main” lead to the TT to the main line (though, with the revisions, the curve got really tight, roughly 19" or so). However, i was looking at the LEFT shoulder of the upper track, not the right - as you had intended me to.
While a string of cars would foul the TO as i have it laid out right now, there would not be any cars on that track - otherwise said engineer would get a talking to. The intended purpose of that track is only so that a switcher (or any engine) can more easily run around to either of the sides of the ladder… the yard (in my mind) has 4 tracks for use in manuvering cars (the closest to the edge and the three directly above it), and then there is the runaround track. I think I’m going to have to toy with it to see how I like it best…
I’m not quite sure about what you mean about north and west,etc,so I’ll use the upper and left version in relation to the drawing I see on this post.I feel that should do for the purpose.
Since you are modelling in HO,optimizing your space is even more crucial in my mind.However,I don’t mean to impose my ideas in any manner so I simply suggest what I would do if the project was mine.
First,I’d move the turntable the closest possible to the lower left corner that would allow positioning the roundhouse at an angle,backed against the upper left corner.This way the RH would have a better scenic interest by facing you and moving the TT towards left would give you more linear space to work with from left to right.It is usual to have TT access tracks facing the RH but not mandatory.Access tracks could be at somewhat 45 degrees to the RH and look OK.
Then I would use the upper and furthermost half of the right to build an L shaped yard because this is where you have the most landscape available allowing for the widest curves you can build and also the longest leeways between turnouts and at the same time have more lead tracks at the ends.
Doing this would allow decent space for a few special purpose tracks like TT access,maintenance tracks,etc in the inner part of the layout.Since there is no reach issue,occasional derailments in the yard shouldn’t cause any real problem.However,the main drawback I can see is not being practical to install big buildings between your operation station and the yard should there be any 0-5-0 interventions.
I understand that I’m suggesting a complete redesign but feel that it is better at the planning stage.It may not fill your expectations at all,if so don’t even consider it.It’s just an idea…for what it’s worthed…
as for north/west/etc - North is the top of the pic, South is the bottom and east/west are the right and left, respectively.
If I’m understanding your suggestions correctly:
Move the TT to the edge of the table, and rotate where the RH tracks are, so that I can look into the RH
(essentially) flip the yard over, so that the longest track against the wall, and then rework the curves
leave the mainline and the industrial trackage alone for the most part (save to tweak the TO locations)
I’ll have to look into those suggestions - they minimally would add some visual interest to the TT/RH area not to mention that it would help me line up the TT to the rest of the trackage. I’ll see what I can come up with later this evening.
Following my usual color conventions (forgot to add them to the pic itself… oops):
Dk. Blue - Main Line/Industrial Spur
Teal - Changed stuff (from the preceeding plan(s))
Dk. Green - Yard/Interchange
Jacktal - is this what you were talking about?
Unless I totally messed something up and resized the layout - I have even more stuff crammed into the same space. I was even able to cram a 2-stall engine house in there for use as a backshop… or maybe for those new-fangled diesels that I’ve heard tell of [;)]
On that note - what problems have I caused myself now?
Well from just looking over your plan you dont have a Yard lead to use to switch back more than 1 boxcar plus loco. What I think you need to do is ask what you are going to use the layout for once its built and able to operate. It looks like you wanna do switching and interchange yard of some sort.
Im gonna draw a plan quickly for your area to give you an idea or 2.
The lead is the curved portion going towards the right… If the measurements that I’m getting for the pieces are right, i have just over 44" of trackage there. While it may not be the longest amount, I figure I can get at least a 4-6 car train in there (including loco), maybe a little longer if i use a shorter loco.
I know the track going to all points west is a bit short, but I hope to be able to add removable trackage after it, mainly for staging a train or something - so that should give me a little breating room.
Thanks for the plan(s) that you’re going to draw though - those’ll probably be more helpful than “take this part here and go this to it” - less to get confused/interpereted wrong [:)]
OK then…so it seems that you don’t like the single curved yard idea much and it’s all fine with me.But yet I believe that your design still could be improved somewhat.I like your latest design better indeed but let’s see what else could help,in my opinion that is.
First,have you considered building a small extension to the south-west portion of your bench?What I mean is having a slight half-round section that woul allow your TT to protude let’s say a third or half passed the bench limit.Having no access track in that section means that only a few inches would be necessary to do it and it would have a great effect on the rest of the layout as you could put the RH right in front of you or at an angle to the corner.I haven’t measured anything but it is possible that you could even extend your yard lead behind the RH,wich would help operations greatly.
Now,the yard,meaning the green tracks.I like the right end with parking tracks but I’d flip it over right to left so that these tracks stop right next to your RH.Backing locos (or else) to the RH wall would add to the scenic interest of the RH,in my mind.Then the “now” west end would become the east end and this end requires a major change.Flipped over integrally,the ladder would be oriented north-east wich tapers your yard plan,giving you extremely short tracks to work with not counting their limited access to the other yard tracks.I would orient the east end ladder to the south-east,so that it would blend with your curve leading to your industrial sector.This would give you a much more potent lead track to work with to start,and this track would have access to every single track of the yard.This would also clear the north-east corner to wich you could extend a track from the industrial area and have some action there.The drawback is that your actual longest yard track would lose some length.In fact you’d get yard tracks of equal lengths,both ladders being parallel.
So, you were thinking something more along these lines?
or like this?
I might be able to extend that foot in the lower picture, but I would have to ask my parents. (they’re OK with the standard “L” shape though) - so that one hinges on them OKing the extension, although I think i like the upper pic a little better.
As for the curved yard, i couldn’t figure out a “nice” way to do it. Perhaps you could show me what you had in mind (even if it’s only drawn-in lines, like from Paint or something)
