I like outside the box thinking. I never would have thought of that one.
If the upper track starts dropping as soon as it crosses the canyon, you should be able to get plenty of distance int he loop around Rock Ridge and back again. A curved trestle with a ‘notch’ cut in it for the lower leve line to pass under would look great.
If you could pull 4-6 cars on a 3%, try 2.5%, should be able to to 6-8 cars easily enough, plenty big for a backwoods railroad. Need to pull more, stick on a second loco.
The downside is you will probably have to redo all the track through Rock Ridge to add the grade. The line along the back above Train City could ahev a more gentle grade since there’s a lot more track to work with. I’d start the grade just below the Train City yard, so the main starts to rise up in front of the ladder tracks, and keep goign up at 2% all the way around the loop. The staging section would end up sitting a bit higher than the base level of Train City, no big deal. The passing siding doesn;t have to be level - you could, for variety sake, cut the grade through the passign siding down to 1%. ANd leave it there - it probably will then have enough elevation by the time it crossed over the lower line at Rock Ridge Canyon. Then start a 2-2.5% down grade to Train City, around Rock Ridge. SHould get enough clearance to pass under.
–Randy
I’m pretty sure I’m not getting what you are saying. Here’s how I imagined the crossover. The point was to get more area in Train City.
Yeah I was thinking of putting the crossover on the Train City side of the canyon. That gives the whole distance from the Rock Ridge side of the canyone all the way through Rock Ridge and back to the canyon to drop the elevation.
–Randy
Few more changes.
I got rid of the sofa. I’ll have to find some low comfy chairs.
I took a suggestion and connected the staging to the main line, so now staging can run both directions. This creates a cascade of several other changes. All illusion of a separate staging yard is gone.
It creates a reverse loop. I have an AR-1 sitting around, guess I’ll put it to use.
The reach to the back corner became 36" to the turnout, so I moved the turnout onto the hidden track where I can reach it from the backside. This means I’ll have to have a turtle and LEDs to tell me which way it’s switched.
It also means I have to scenic staging. I widened it by 3" to fit false front buildings. I’ll also either bash or scratch the front portion of a roundhouse. I’ll also have to build a passenger station.
I also need to put some sort of scenic divide between staging and Train City. A backdrop would have to be at at weird angle. But if I can’t fit a hill or cliff or something, a backdrop will have to do.
Any new comments? So far your help has been very productive.
OK, can you push the staging area down to the edge of that 10’ wall? It’s probably not much but it would give a little bit of straight track on that leg of the wye, making it more of a branch to a third town.
How long is that passing siding? With your era and short cars it probably doesn’t need to be that long. 5-6’ should be plenty, and if you just HAVE to occasionally run a double-headed 20 car train, and it just HAS to take the siding so a passenger train can get through - well the you have to learn the saw-by!
–Randy
I’ll give it all I can. There’s a light switch and phone in the way.
About 15 scale nautical miles.
The reason I extended it was to make the turnout reachable. I got really tired of turnouts I couldn’t fix without major destruction on the last layout. The reach here was 36" over craftsman kits.
Are you planning to back trains into the staging area from the main line ?
If a loco pulls a train into the yard how does it get around the train back to the main?
Will a switcher be stationed on the short lead to hook to the caboose and place the train on one of the ladder tracks thus alowing the loco to be free to go to the turntable ?
Or are you planing to put a crossover at the end of the longest track to allow the loco to runaround the train?
That’s fine, moving the turnout through the wall so you can easily get to it. But now you can shorten the other end. Mayeb even make room for a siding going up into the hills and maybe disappearing under the scenery - a source for timber traffic.
I thought the Train City area was fairly low - with the wye, the staging area would be about the same height,that should be under light switch height. Bag the wall-mount phone, put in a cordless.
Of course this is getting more and more to be NOT staging, maybe more tracks on the loop side of the wall? Or just go with pure visible staging, both in that town and Train City since both have yards.
–Randy
You got it. There was a pocket for a switcher that is now connected back to the main. I have to fill that need somehow. The engine would disconnect from the train, turn and come back on the head. If needed it might take a business car for turning to the turntable.
I like seeing the siding.
The wall mount is the cordless. The layout will be somewhere between 48 and 54". I’ll see hoe ti plays out.
That was a concern. My plan all along was not to have a visible connection to the layout to create an illusion.
I had planned on lightly scenicing it–because it is visible. And I made it so I could work it without using the 0-5-0, because I didn’t want to handle the stuff. I can be clumsy.
I could go both directions by backing out of staging. But I rationalized that it is staging if that is what I perceive it to be. In the end, I added the track back to the main because it made things easier. I’m still going to try to rig a view block.
Hi, Chip,
Might I suggest, for your view block, a low hill surmounted by some not-so-low redwoods? You can also have a road cross the legs of the wye on a couple of flimsy bridges (timber kingpost trusses come to mind) to visually ‘break’ the tracks.
Love what you’ve done so far. Can’t wait for pictures.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Chip, I am sorry…I have been adrift. I really like the last version. It came as a radical change to me, though, since I have not been following along. So, if you are still in receive mode, is there any way either the inner or outer arc crossing the gorge at upper right could be hidden? It might look odd having two tracks so close together. If one were substantially lower, as the outer seems it might be (I am terrible at “seeing” these diagrams as you have begun to realize), then fine and dandy, extend its nether world running to include that water course or gorge. The trestle should be single.
I dig it. I like that you are now planning on taking advantage of the stageing area and turned into part of the layout. I think you will have fun haveing more structures, scenery, etc to work with now.
Enjoy.[:D]
What did you draw it in, XTrack or 3rd PlanIt? I have both, just never installed XTrack. Since I’m not going to be doing anything to my layout for a long time, I figured I could try tweaking yours.
–Randy
That’s pretty much what I was planning to do. I hadn’t thought about the bridge.
Hmmmmm. A single trestle. What a concept! Visually the whole layout, in my mind revolves around Red Rock Canyon. It is a series of small waterfalls and steep canyon walls that run from knee high up. But I had not thought of a single trestle. I did everything I could to get the level separated and gained 3". It would radically simplify things if I did not have to change elevations.
So, there are two ways of doing it.
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Create a single bridge where traffic in both directions cross the same bridge. Interesting operationally, but dangerous if I want to run multiple trains rail-fanning.
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Extend the tunnel around under Red Rock Canyon. The problems with that are twofold. I would need a radical drop at that point. The landscape would have to be vertical for about 10-12"–meaning a waterfall larger than I had planned. And if anything every went wrong in that area, it would be difficult to get to. I have a crawl space to get to the existing proposed tunnel, but getting into a tightly landscaped corner might be tough.
I like it though. Saves me a lot of work. I have way too many trestles planned and eliminating the biggest one–I like it.
BTW: Until I lay track, I’m open to suggestion. The better the plan, the better the railroad.
Oh yeah, I like more work. I have a whole basement to transform. I’m trying to keep things simple.
I’m really trying to keep the staging as staging in my mind. As a yard. It will look silly with a string of log cars filling the longest track and sidings off the TT with my son’s 1920’ 2-8-0 Dixie Line and my 3-truck Shay and Heisler. Maybe I can extend the Roundhouse through the wall and park them out of sight.
I used XtraCAD.
I used XtraCAD for about 6 months and really liked it. I bought 3rd Planit a little more than a year ago and fought with it through several layout designs. I used XtraCAD to help someone with a layout and it was so much easier than 3rd Planit, that I haven’t looked back.
Email me your email address and I’ll ship you the file.
As much as you want to keep the staging as “staging,” personally I really like the latest change with the wye–it is starting to feel like the CW’s Willits trackage. This makes it a natural “interchange” point. If you really want a mental compromise you can finish the scenery there last. Visible staging deserves at least a token scenery treatment (a little flocking and a backdrop) and it will make sense to visitors who aren’t MRR buffs: otherwise they’ll always go “oh, I see you haven’t finished this part yet!”