I’ve planned this layout several times had a false start in conctruction and have finally drew-up a plan that looks good and seems like there would be operating potential once built. I’ve decided to post the plan here to see if any flaws exist that would result in a potential headache. Here’s the plan.
Please respond with absolutely anything you don’t like. Don’t worry, if I was going to get upset over criticism this post wouldn’t be here. Like everyone here I’m learning too and probably have a lot more to learn than most of you. Thanks, Chad.
Where does the train enter the module? If it’s from the track at the bottom right -past the “gas producers”, then you can’t enter the runround unless you use the middle track that enters the billet mill as a lead. That could be a problem…as far as I can see the runround is virtually unusable as it’s drawn. Am I missing something? Is the loop in fact intended as a runround?
The trains enter from the top left, past the boilerhouse and foundry. The tracks in the ingot stripping yard also continue off the layout. The loop is a runaround, with the far track in the ingot yard as the lead. Here’s a larger version, just for you Spacemouse.
Mark, can I get the name of your ocular surgeon? He must be a winner. [:D] I can’t read a bleedin’ thing on the diagramme, not even when I save and open it in an image programme.
I would like a better resolution, too. But as afar as I can tell, the trio of tracks ending at mid-upper left don’t make much sense to me. Also a couple of those turnouts don’t leave much room for a by-pass/runaround.
Visually, it is a very appealing structure, and should be very nice once you have it finished. I like the idea of a water front close-up.
Edit- Oops, you got the larger version in while I was composing, Chad. Thank-you.
The three tracks that all look like they end on the same line actually continue inside the billet mill. I know the end of the runaround is tight. Only a loco can fit on the track without completely entering the billet mill. The double slip only spoils a switching puzzle if it’s in the right spot. Used correctly it can provide hours of fun operations headaches![;)] I have been trying not to use slip-switches on the plan because they are expensive. I’ve been trying to learn how to handlay but I’m not that good yet. The water near the front of the layout isn’t a waterfront like a harbor scene. The round water area is a clarifier tank or dorr thickener, whatever you call it. The small rectangular water is the settling pool of the treatment plant. The large area across the access road from the treatment plant is a resivoir which flows over a small dam into the drainage canal along the rest of the front of the layout. The canal will eventually flow into the Susquehanna river near the blast furnaces when the layout gets more space. Visual appeal was one of the main things I have been working at while planning this layout. The benchwork and several structures are built so that helped me see the plan in three dimensions as I drew-it. The right side of the layout had me confused until dehusman here on the forums suggested a turnout infront of the billet mill. When built I’m hoping to work in several mirrors to expand the scene. I hope to enter a part of the layout in MR’s Build-a-Scene contest.
It is obviously not part of this scene, but if this layout is going to be part of an operating layout later - is there a couple of storage/arrival/departure tracks somewhere nearby ? You refer to an ingot stripping yard off to the right ? How big is that ?
Half of the ingot stripper yard is in this scene, It is in the top right corner of the plan. It is just two tracks under a crane but the way it is positioned behind the producer house will make it so its small size is less apparent.There will be a slightly angled mirror behind it on the layout. The bottom edge will be hidden by the stripper crane and the tracks will continue off onto a removeable cassette on the right end of the layout. Another cassette will attach to the track leading off the top left corner behind the foundry.
For operations the switcher will pull cuts of cars off the cassetes and move them to the right buildings. Some cars may also be headed to other parts of the mill and would be moved from cassette to cassette. Although not an exact count, there are at least 15 car-spots for the various buildings on the plan. For a train headed left to right eight are trailing point and seven are facing point.
I really like that idea - having one cassette (with a hidden entrance/exit) on each side of the layout, and some “bridge traffic” (on a very local basis) through the modelled part of the industry is an elegant solution.
Not bad. Your industry has what appears to me to be a very prototypical look - I really like the way you have positioned all buildings up against the side and back edges of the layout - so it is easy to visualize that we only see a small part of the buildings and “the rest” of the building continues further left/right/backwards.
I think this one will be a stunner. Hope to see pictures of it in MR or GMR some day!
chadw- I think you have a pretty good plan laid out. If, and only if, you do experience traffic jams, you might consider adding a passing siding on the south side (I’m using the top as north, the bottom as south, etc) starting near the Sexton Ave Overpass (I think, best these eyes can do)and running it east to the street crossing. This would use up some of your industry space, but you could even add a stub end siding into one of the buildings closest to the south edge.
Of course, if you don’t have any jam up’s, let us know. I might just work your plan into the center of my switching layout!
Just for the heck of it, I tried to draw this layout plan (which you post frequently) in XtrakCad.
I used 40’ cars instead of 50’ cars (out of sheer laziness - I didn’t bother to define new cars, just used some I had from a different layout), and I assumed the buildings on the layout were at least 4" deep, and that you have used one short Y, and otherwise short (about #4) turnouts - I used Peco short turnouts.
This is what I got using the information you have given in another thread (room for engine + 3 cars on the two tail ends of the central sidings, room for engine + 2 cars on switchback between switch and first industry at the bottommost siding).
For me, this weights in at about 12 feet long, and about 3 feet (maybe 30") deep. Am I far off here ?
Btw - I suspect that Chad wasn’t really looking for general ideas on switching layouts, work space, runaround etc - he was trying to recreate a specific scene, so he was probably looking for specific advice on this particular layout. In my opinion Chad really succeeded in finding a different way of creating work space for cars - two cassettes (one on each side of the visible part of the layout) to represent both storage tracks and other destinations.
That’s a good idea for the general bag of tricks - allows you to have an 8x2 foot layout set up permanently, but use a two foot cassette (maybe 4 RR car equivalents, if you use 40’ or smaller RR cars) on both sides of the layout during operations. Ie 8x2 footprint when not in use, 12x2 when in use.
Chad, I too think your plan has considerable potential - but may I suggest a slight change? This sketch is as rough as guts, but it shows a re-arrangement of the runround on the left side of the layout which I believe will make it more usable than your current arrangement.
Mark’s plan solved the problems I was having with the first drawing, especially the fact that you were having to run inside the billet mill to make a runaround. Mark has a clean, simple design that does the same as yours.
Stein,I post that layout frequently because it was my favorite ISL to date.[:D][tup]
You figured it out…It was 30" x 12 foot.I used a grab bag of switches.Atlas #4s, A #4 wye and one “snap switch”…Some of the switches was cut to fit.
I use modern cars from 50 footers to 72’ Center Beam Flat cars.However…For my sanity I use cars less then 60 foot.The industries was Walthers Cornerstone full and “half” buildings.
BTW…The layout was fully portable…My plan was to display it at various train shows.
It is a good layout. And it illustrates a lot of good principles - runaround, leave yourself work space, avoid too many switchback moves, leave yourself space to move more than one car at a time, make sidings longer by letting them branch off so they cross over each other, using Y turnouts for quicker separation between two tracks. Mmm - any ones I had forgotten ?
I like it. Just wanted to make a drawing that made it easier to see turnouts etc. You are welcome to just save the drawing on your computer and use it as much (or little) as you like.
Also, I was a litte uncertain which of the many possible lessons from your layout was applicable to the layout discussed in this thread.
Anyways - I like Mark’s suggestion. It makes things more flexible to have a long runaround here.
Mark, I’ll try redrawing the layout to see if the runaround will fit. Brakie, I have looked at lots of switching plans and taken ideas from many. I have seen yours on some other threads and for operations it looks great but it forces industries between tracks limiting their size. That would make a steel mill look unrealistic. On my plan I tried to keep structures near the sides and back of the layout so they could run into the backdrop, implying that they continue. Stein the layout wasn’t really based off of any one specific scene. It’s a mash up of scenes from photos of real places. I really just made up the trackplan as I went along fitting it around structures I have already built.
Here’s the trackplan redrawn with the new runaround.
This plan doesn’t have all of the scenery on it or the foreground section where I can’t lay any track. I don’t like some things about this plan including the uneven flow of track. The old plan’s track flowed into smooth curves. Another problem is the really close clearance between the tracks and the billet mill and the foundry. Operationally, I think this plan is better but asthetically I liked the other.
