I have a 11x11 walkin bench built with 34" wide shelves on four sides leaving a 5’ square in the middle. I plan on running big articulated steam, and have plans for one main track running around the outside with a roundhouse and servicing area. To keep the engines running on as big a radius as I can to keep the look of reality, I’m finding that I may only be able to run in one direction for lack of room! Should I be planning something different to allow the trains to go both directions?
Either a reversing loop or a suitably sized turntable. If you only have room for what amounts to a large oval, single tracked or doubled, you still have to physically turn the engine at the very least. If you don’t want to do that by hand, you need a turntable as a minimum, or a route that causes the engine, or the entire train is better, to reverse itself. That would include a turning wye, by the way.
It´s the nature of trains that they start at one point and end at another one. Going around in circle may not be the best way to simulate this. The best is a point-to-point style layout, but having returning loops at each end will also do.
I have two outer loops on my layout. Since it is a very small layout, If I take the engines out of the two spur servicing facility and consist my train out of my small 4 spur assembly yard, then when my trains get out to the outer {or inner loop} they can only go one way, and if I run two trains, unless I physically put one engine on the track the other way, then both trains will run in the same direction at the same time, each individually controlled by DCC…
I personally have NO PROBLEM with being able to run them in only one direction. I have NO room for a turntable or wye or reverser loop and don’t want the hassle of wiring one of those up.
If I could have a larger layout, I would set it up to run two trains in opposite directions around my two outer loops. But for now, I can only dream of that day!
I would do a double track mainline. That will enable you to run in both directions. A turntable and roundhouse with a few stalls will allow you to swap engines in and out as well as turn them around and can fit inside the mainline loops. The other side of the layout could be a small town.
I too am having this issue with my track plans, my bench work is 8’ X 10’ with an open center 24"wide on two sides and 30" wide on the other two. I am freelancing a tourist railroad and want a minimum 26" radius curves and #6 turnouts, I am looking at a double main and a 60’ turn table. I would like to find a way to turn the entie train around but cant seem to get it to fit into my small space.
I will be watching to see what others are suggesting and see if I can work this into my layout. Sorry I could not be of any help.
There are plenty of real world places where our 1:1 scale prototypes run in only one direction on the track that can be seen from a specific point. This was not unusual in mountainous areas, where the track that runs in the opposite direction (on a more favorable profile for that direction) may be in the next valley over, or on the opposite side of this valley but at an entirely different level.
More recently, with mergers, it has become common to route all the eastbound traffic over (former) Railroad A and all the westbound traffic over (former) railroad B. The former parallel routes of the N&W and VGN are one of the earlier examples. Post-megamerger UP has some one-way pairs that are separated in places by state borders and miles of intervening territory.
The only problem I can see with running only one way around a loop is uneven wheel wear.
(That said, my own loop runs two way where it’s single tracked, and one way on each track where it’s double tracked.)
It’s your layout, what do “You” want from it? What do you want to do with it? Run trains around a loop of track. Make your Railroad do a job? IE, pretend that your running a real RR and have cars to pickup and deliver. On larger layout, some people do both. A scenic part with a industrial park. To get into a magazine you will need a few scenes. Have you ever noticed the movie folks went the frame a shot with their hands? Think of each part of your layout that way. Make view points and every scene can be different without affecting the scene next to it…
With careful planning, you should be able to fit in a turntable (if necessary, lose the roundhouse building). As noted elsewhere, you can now change loco direction and rolling stock, such as a passenger tail car, also. Double-ended staging and/or arrival/departure tracks will help.
I assume you don’t really mean walk-in, but rather a cockpit or doughnut style setup, where the tracks complete encircle the central operator pit, and access to the central pit is by duck under, lift-out, drop-down leaf, swing gate or some such mechanism.
Or possibly a walk-around layout, where you operate the layout from the outside, and have an access hole in the center to deal with various problems.
It is not quite clear to me why your trains have to go in just one direction. If you don’t have room to turn engines (using a turning wye or turntable), and don’t want to run trains with engine backing up while pulling cars, just put one engine on the layout facing clockwise and another engine on the layout facing counter-clockwise.
The engine that is not running the train at the moment waits in a siding or at the engine facility. When you want to turn the train, you uncouple the one engine and take that “to be serviced”, then the other engine takes over the train for the next leg of the journey, which is going around the loop in the opposite direction.
Or, if you want to turn the same engine without grabbing the engine with your hands, use a Peco loco lift type of small cassette - drive engine onto cassette. Pick up cassette, turn around, drive engine back onto layout heading in the opposite direction. You are simulating a turntabl
My main line is a single-track loop. I arranged a pair of passing sidings, each long enough for the typical trains I run, such that they are spaced halfway around the loop from each other. With this arrangement, I can run two trains in opposite directions. I have to throw turnouts and monitor speed carefully, but it can be done and it’s more interesting than just letting two trains run on parallel loops. Besides, it’s an excuse for signals, and who in this hobby doesn’t just love signals?
I also installed two crossover reverse loops. One faces each direction, and they’re controlled by DCC auto-reverse modules. This lets me reverse any train, regardless of what direction it’s heading, without backing.
When you have a double track oval main line, the inner track will have to have sharper curves than the outer train. Nothing you can do about that, it’s geometry working agin ya. Make the outer loop with as broad a curve as will fit, make the inner loop smaller. It’s the best you can do.
For instance. suppose you need 2 1/4 inch track separation. Then if the outer main has a 30 inch radius, the inner main will have a 27 3/4 inch radius. That’s the best you can do. So do it. It may be that you can only run your biggest locomotives on the outer main track. Live with it, you are doing the best you can.
Note. Don’t use my track separation. Go to the NMRA website and download NMRA Standard S-8 for track center to center distances.