I have created a new layout of which the main, sidings and yards are in. Layout occupies an area of about 20’ x 32’ and is a double deck around the walls style. There is a center island also. My main objective is to use CTC over ABS with suitable passing sidings. Train length will be about 14’ with the sidings @ 16’. Between the sidings is single track main for the most part at least 16’. There are multiple places with 32’ between and one section at almost 45’. From the above, you now know that ‘running trains’ as realisticly as possible is the target. There will be provisions for switching in the local towns and some branch action to get to those towns not on the main. The branch stuff is not in yet as I am waiting to get the main in and see how the area(s) feel.
I don’t have an era or specific time, so assume from pre 1970 to now for that. Principal railroad is GN, with running rights and possible interchage of NP, CPRail, UP and some others. I want to run double-stack, grainers and revenue freight. Passenger ops to the terminal, along with some through stuff that can be queued. There will be milk stops at the various towns as I create them.
Track is code 100 as I have some of the older stuff and want to use it. Switches are #6 or better, minumim radius is 24", and 2% grade maximum.
I know that there is work to be done: turntable isn’t quite right yet … yard leads also. I am also working at making sure the reaching and people space is OkieDokie to keep things easier.
Have a look: http://www.soundrail.com → choose Projects, then Mimeya. There are pix of the plan and if you click in one, it will come up bigger and you should be able to scroll around a bit. For you XtrkCad users, you can download the plan and view it a
I would say that is not a specific time. In fact that is a rather strange mixture of things. The BN merger was March 2, 1970 at which time both the GN and NP ceased to exist. Double stacks didn’t become common until after 1984. Passenger service went to Amtrak in 1974. I am certain there are exceptions but for the most part milk stops ceased to exist in the late 1950s (about the same as steam power).
As for the layout I see it as a dispatcher oriented. For an engineer to follow and stay with their train will require jinking from one side to the other especially with all the figure 8 type curves on each curve.
Whether it is pleasing for railfan type operation I think will depend on the scenery. Once again all the loopovers might diminish the potential realistic effect that these nice long runs between sidings provide.
If you are planning on adding industries at all the sidings there might be some space competition in the isles for operators switching the towns on the upper and lower layers on the north side of the layout.
I would have to agree with Texas Zephyr about that middle area, I am not a fan of it. Also with the main jumping from one side of the peninsula to the other it causes you to have to race around the layout to follow your train. Your operators will get sick of it fast.
Also what is the area in the bottom of the plan that has nothing in it for a 9 x 13 space? Is this something you cannot build into or do you have the whole space to work with?
With the yard, is that staging only or are you looking to use that as an actual yard to make and break local trains?
If you are using it as a yard to make and break trains you will need some type of staging to be able to "running trains as realistically as possible ".
I would re-examine the 24" min radius, if you want to run passenger and long freight I would not go below a 30" min radius on the main.
How important is continous running to you?
I have an idea I want to sketch up tonight and you can let me know what you think.
Yes, the yard will be for breaking up and assembling trains. I have staging setup for the Scene-ix and it can serially store 24 trains ( 12 pointed up, 12 pointed down ). I know that the turntable area needs work but I am waiting until that portion gets benchwork, then I will attempt to fit it all in. One of the issues that I see is the ablility to ‘reach in’ under the upper layer and I want to get that portion in also before determining what goes where. The switching leads for the yard are not 16 feet and I need to figure out how to incorporate that, else I will only be able to pull 1/2 cut of cars from the yard at a time. Headaches, headaches for the Yardmaster.
I know that other operators will have to skip back and forth and I assume that they will probably end up standing at the end of the island for main line runs. Keep in mind that I am in Libby, MT and may only have 1 or 2 folks wanting to play. Switching operations will require the operator to be near their train so navigating the isleways shouldn’t be a problem. Note that I haven’t included any industries or towns ( other than the siding station names ) and am waiting for the main to get located so that i can get a ‘feel’ of what I want to put where and how it will look.
Yes, I am looking at increasing the minimum radius to get a better ‘look’ when running passenger equipment, but as you all know there are trade-offs. My train length is pretty much set at 14 feet and the sidings are at 16 feet minimum, so the smaller radii should be adequate. I may be able to get a bigger radius in some places without to much trouble, but others are ‘cast-in-stone’ as they say.
That empty space has a stairway and I need about 4 feet from the stairs to the layout edge for moving stuff. I may be able to fudge that a little but that will depend on what the locations ( Bairwood yard and the passenger terminal ) will sprawl to and what sort
This Scene-ix idea gives me the feeling of impending doom.
Something to keep in mind is that a train that leaves staging needs a place to go. So if I get your plan right if the train leave the “up” track and run through the entire layout it will get to the bottom of the up track and have nowhere to go. That is unless the 11 other trains on that track move up.
Since it sounds like passenger ops is important to you I would not look to compromise to a radius 24" so quickly. There are a number of newer passenger cars out there that out of the box need to be greater than 24", you can get it down work on a 24" radius curve but that involves hacking out the underbody details around the trucks. I am seeing this on my 20th Century Limited set, and I am not willing to hack them apart to get it to work on my 24" radius curves.
If this railroad is imaginary do whatever you want operationally, you want SD70MAC pulling 40’ boxcars with roof walks and big boys pulling intermodal, go right ahead. It is your railroad, do whatever you want to do!
Ok, here is a plan to think about, min radius is 30" and turnouts are all #6s, all siding lengths and distance between sidings are noted on the drawings.
First off the lower level:
I will start in the upper right hand corner, the track along the wall is on a 10" shelf, this can hold staging for the passenger trains. As you move left of the corner there is a large passenger terminal, three of the four tracks run into the staging for passenger, the fourth track is loop track for continuous run.
The lower staging yard contains 3 double ended tracks and 8 stub ended tracks, lengths are listed. coming around the peninsula the yard lead parallels the main, the yard lead is 23’ long. In the blob I have placed the roundhouse and engine service area. As we come out of the curve start the siding and the yard. The yard as shown is a double ended yard but i think the last 4 tracks are a little short so it might be better to make the yard with 2 A/D tracks and 4 stub ended tracks. As you come around the curve at the end you hit the switch for the passenger terminal and some switching finishes this siding.
The rest of the peninsula is single track, at the base of the peninsula is another town that has a few industries. After this town it goes back to single track and shortly goes to a double track helix. As I am typing this I am thinking that this helix should only be single track to help with extending the run between towns, if you want to keep it a double track helix you can.
Upper Level:
The upper level starts with a town and has a town at the end of each of the peninsulas, this is opposite o
Wow, what an interesting plan! Although I can’t use it, somebody else may see it and get them to thinking.
As you were saying, you didn’t know where the stairs were. Stairs come down from bottom left to bottom right and land about 5 feet from the right wall. The other room’s doorway is entered by going under the head of the stairs. I need at least 8 feet from the bottom wall to navigate the 180 degree turn to get into the additional room carrying stuff.
Here are some issues as I see them:
To ‘fit’ this plan, an additional 4 to 5 feet would have to be shortened from the penisula’s which would scrunch the distance from the single main to siding turnouts, and shorten the parallel staging quite a bit. Sure you could change the yard ladder to compress it but would only gain a couple of feet. The yard is not long enough to hold my train lengths and there are no ‘arrival tracks’. The main through the yard fouls the switch lead(s) which means the whole works would stop while getting a movement into it. Well, that might be a good thing.
The main line run is about 1/2 of its orginal. With this helix placement, crews would have to wait for their trains to navigate it ( 6 loops @ about 2.1% - 94ft ). Where my scene-ix is located, it would be considered a ‘crew change’ area and operators would put the train into serial storage, get another and proceed in the opposite direction, or if continous running, could meander back to the other side while waiting for the train to show.
We do agree on making the main line wiggley although my plan does not show it as I was waiting for benchwork to get a ‘feel’ of the areas before moving it around.
I know my center penisula is an issue as operators probably won’t follow their trains, but there is nothing there but mountain scenery so watching from a-far shouldn’t be an issue. I have operated at a club where you had to skip two penisula’s
