I’ve laid all my track for the main portion of my HO scale Granite Gorge and Northern railroad. I’ve added a passenger loop which is located on the outside of the main layout. As well, I added a 3’ by 7’ area which I wanted to incorporate a small city and yard which comes off the passenger mainline. I have about a 1’ by 7’ or so to lay a small yard since the remaining area will be used for city scenery, in fact I wanted the street run from the mainline to the yard. I don’t care much for a productive yard, just want a place to park cars and service a few industries along the way.
Here’s the dilemma. I’ve shopped around for switches (I’m using Atlas Code 83). Seems that there isn’t much choice in terms of switches which is limiting me with more broader turns at the switch. I’ve thumbed through my book; “North American Railyards” for ideas and I’m amazed at the different types of switches out there as well as some pretty interesting ones’ with pretty tight curves. Is there something I’m missing? Even the RTS program by Atlas are limited by the types of switches available. Any suggestions? As well, I can’t find anything in half the books I’ve got in regards to switch yard plans. Boy I wished that Armstrong’s book titled “Track Planning and Realistic Operation” had more ideas as well as definitions to some of the switches in HO scale. Thanks!! [^]
Peco and Shinohara make 3-way turnouts, which are really a left and a right turnout closely spaced on the same frame. For a small yard, these will save you some space and allow more usable track length. Peco also makes some curve-on-curve turnouts, which can solve some tricky yard geometry problems for you. Also, don’t ignore the possibility of Y-shaped turnouts for an interesting option.
The Atlas RTS program uses Atlas turnouts only. Since they only make simple turnouts, the program does not allow you to experiment with some of the less common types.
What kind of choice are you looking for in switches that you aren’t finding that is limiting your design?
Commercial switches come in left, right, wye, #4, #5, #6. If you are doing a yard in 1x7 you aren’t going to want #8’s and will probably be hard pressed fto use # 6’s. So you are down to #4 or #5 switches. Atlas #4 snap track switch fits in an 18" radius curve. If you go much tighter than that you won’t get anything around it.
I’ve tinkered with #4 switches and probably will use these. I was looking for 3-way switches and a few other odd ones I found in the Railyard book. Anyhow, I decided that I may go with a switch plan I found for n-scale that services quite a few industries and convert to HO. Only drawback is that I need to add another 11 feet or so in length to the layout but it’s a great plan.