I am looking to make a stub end yard coming off the right side of my main line. Anyone want to share pictures of their yards to help give me visual help? If you can post pics without rolling stock covering the points.
Thanks!
This is more of a scenery picture than a trackplan picture. I made the mistake of laying all my yard tracks on roadbed, which would not be prototypical, so I had to fill the intervening spaces to bring the ground level back up even with the ties.
This is an earlier shot from a high angle. The tracks are not yet extended the full length of the yard. The yard lead is the crossover track with the gray MOW train on it. There are two turnouts coming towards you off of that, and each of them has a 3-way turnout, for a total of 6 yard tracks. The 3-ways save space and give me longer tracks. Another turnout off the other side of the lead, in the far back corner, allows me to pull cars without fouling the main.
Here’s one of the turnouts. This is an old picture, showing the original brass Shinoharas I tried to salvage from my teenage layout. I eventually replaced them with Pecos.
I have a 6 track stub ended yard. All the switches are Peco (code 83) #6’s. As you can see, the switches were laid out as a compound ladder.
Hi Motley, My seven track stub end yard Is not as finished as yours is. I used double-slip switches and compound ladders, with two long drill tracks to allow access to all 7 tracks, without having the switcher to leave the yard. I used a overpass loop for the mainline with the stub ended yard. 
On my 7 track pass through yard, I used compound ladders and a double-slip switch with one electrical input. I don’t think that this type of double-slip turnout is still made. Bob Hahn 
I have a very small and modest yard, but here it is.
Here is my four track stub yard. There are two A/D tracks and the main on the right side. The A/D Tracks are pulled off the main using curved switches. The yard gets to four tracks pretty quick by using a compound ladder. I didn’t use double slips or triple switches as they didn’t fit the rustic look I was seeking.
Guy
Motley,
That is impressive!![bow]
It looks great and functional. How do you plan to uncouple cars? Magnets or something else??[wow]
As you can see my yard is underconstruction and while a lot is still a figment of my imagination.
The turnouts have switch machines (Peco) under the turnouts.
I’ll be using under the track magnets as well as between the rail KD delayed uncouplers
The yard will have an engine servicing area. With A One Stall Engine House
I want to display an older steamer with Overton passenger cars as well as some transition era diesels.
Entering The Yard From The Main and Testing The Track
Stub Ended Yard
Long Way To Go But The Journey Is What Makes It Fun
Happy Railroading
Bob
Thanks! I appreciate that. It took a lot of playing around with the flex track and switches, to come up with a design that didn’t take up a lot of real estate.
I still need to finish building and installing the diesel house, and transfer table. And finish up the surrounding scenery. The yard ballast is complete, using real dirt mixed with fine ballast.
When I operate the yard, I use bamboo scewers for uncloupling.
Some club pics
finished yard
some unfinished
Temp staging (used 7 years to be removed soon)
hi
just some yards:
Paul
Yes, but there’s something very believable about your yard.
John
It’s a small yard but still offers plenty of opportunity for operations on a smaller layout. I like the way it came out. The one thing I would like to change is the switch from the classification tracks to the A/D. It should be on the lead to the siding for better performance and a little more room
ratled
It is most kind of you, John, and thank you!
Crandell
Still under construction, but it will be a full, double ended yard, 10 class tracks, a RIP track, two A/D tracks, and a full engine terminal…
Last night I built the dispatcher’s desk and the yard office…
Lee
Is there such thing as a pinwheel compound ladder? I haven’t seen anything like one but it would be kinda cool.
Not really. The definition of a pinwheel ladder is that each successive turnout springs from only the curved side of the preceding straight turnout. In a compound ladder, succeeding turnouts come from both the curved and straight legs of each preceding turnout.
It’s not necessarily a useful arrangement versus more typical prototype ladders, but it is theoretically possible to build a compound ladder from curved turnouts:
I guess it would be possible to have a split ladder made up of two side-by-side pinwheel ladders, but I doubt it will be very useful and is likely not found often (if at all) on the prototype.
This is not a “real” yard but an open staging yard, and it is about all I have built on my layout so far. It is just in front of the painted background. I need to get the back part of the layout running before I add stuff inside of it, working into the middle of the room. This is the ladder/ throat of Demara Yard… 5 tracks deep.
This is further on the body of Demara Yard. Most of the background is drawn in Photoshop, or manipulated from photos. Imperial Sugar import terminal at right was a real feature in prototypn on which my scene is based. Drawn in Photoshop from a 2 inch square photo in a book and a hand-copied sketch from a historical photo in a museum. The big ore unloading crane visible over the tops of the shed buildings is a cutout of a Walthers ad. Sorry, Walthers, I didn’t have room for the actual model…
This is the far end of Demara Yard. I had been looking for something to buy in the only hobby shop in the area. They are friendly but I am just too particular for them I guess. But they had some bumpers and this yard has a spot where the bumpers are NECESSARY.
What I have is a 4 track ‘wide’ spot on the mainline for a small town yard. Not a big terminal or division point, but a couple of englines ‘live’ here and work the local industries and the branch line, Road freight pickup/setout as they pass through town. There is a wye and a turntable/2 track roundhouse just out of sight. The #1 track will hold two engines/15 cars/caboose:
Jim
Not a very good picture here. The freight yard is double ended, 6 tracks, with it’s own long switching lead, so trains can be switched without fouling the mainlines. The passenger yard is four tracks, with it’s own lead to the main. Not much landscaping done yet.
