Hi!..it’s me again.Now let’s see…your second drawing pretty much represents what I meant with the exception of two details,and I mean details as you pretty improved the use of the space you have.
First,I wasn’t suggesting to pull the RH out that much but if you’re allowed to do it then go for it as it is even better than what I was thinking of.You even have room for a second track…no harm to this indeed.
Secondly,I would start the right hand curve from the yard ladder diagonal track instead of one of the parallel yard track,wich would allow you to push this diagonal a little further to the right.This would give you a little more length (I’d say nearly a foot) to all your yard tracks and still have a decent curved lead to your industrial area.This would reduce your north-east corner storage tracks somewhat but you’d gain more space around your two bay maintenance building.
On the other hand,the curved yard design would increase your yard’s possibilities somewhat but you’d lose on the industrial area,wich I don’t believe is what you desire,wich makes the second drawing an acceptable trade-off I believe.
As far as your top drawing,I admit that I don’t share your enthousiasm about it.The track plan taper means that a good part of your trackage will be accessible only through a succession of back and forth movements in and out of very short tracks.You may like switching but I think that this design will bore you in no time.My honest opinion…for what it’s worthed.
the bump that I made for the TT was taking an idea that my dad had… and modifying it. He had suggested bumping out each end so that i could make a loop for continuous running. I would’ve liked that, although after I told him that each end would have needed to balloon to nearly 4’ or more he quickly changed his mind on the matter - but he might OK the 1’ bump… if not, its back to the drawing board (again, LOL)
I see what you mean about making the lead go into the diagonal. I’ll have to play with that so I don’t have to change too much in order to implement that. I do believe that it would gain me at least 6" if not more yard trackage. I don’t want to push it too far, otherwise those storage tracks may suffer too much…although, by the looks of it-i can use the right hand storage track ladder as the “new” ladder track for the yard, and gain about 6-8" per yard track, and only cut off about 8-12" of the storage tracks. Though that maychange, as when I see it full size, I may decide to extend the yard tracks further. I mean, except for the cabeese, i will only need about 9" maximum to store a loco (or a car awaiting the 0-5-0)
Edit - I’ve been toying with changing that right ladder, and I can’t seem to get it to fit right. If i make it so it clears the 2-stall engine house, the curve is then only about 12"and if I get the curve to be broader, the tracks cut through the engine house…
As for the two designs - the top one I like better because it requires no convincing of my parents to allow me to bump out the layout. As such, I’m not trying to get my hopes too high, and then have to redesign (again) becauseof that “feature” being unavailable.
With that, I want to use the lower layout drawing as the final trackplan (barring any more suggestions that will improve how it looks/operates), but I would rather assume that my parents would not allow me to expand the benchwork.
Y’know… there’s a lot of #4 TOs in this layout, which at the moment are all Atlas Customline.
From another post somewhere on these forums, I believe that they’re more like 4.5 TOs (12.5 deg diverging route as opposed to what a “true” #4 would be).
Looks like Fasttracks might be the way to go here… i mean 25 TOs at $14.00 apiece is a little over $350 just for TOs. The initial investment for fasttracks (excluding the rail, & wood ties ) is just about $250 or so (maybe a little more)… So i’d be saving a fairly good deal of money there (to be spent elsewhere on the layout). On that same token, maybe handlaying some (or all) of the track would help to cut costs down, while still having reliable trackage… I know flex would be easier though, although I kind of have the feeling “if they could do it, so can I” with regard to all the men who tied this nation (and others) together with the high iron.
On the upside, I guess it means I have a pretty solid plan for the layout [:)]…Though I would still ilke some insight as to fasttracks jigs and handlaying track in geneeral… maybe another thread would help me?
also, for anyone familiar with TO geometry - currently I have Atlas Customline #4’s in the plan (which, as I understand it work out to about 4.5). How much of a change would there be if I was to get a #5 jig ?