Hi everyone. After much deliberation and planning, I finally completed my track plan (much to the thanks of my good friend, an expert track planner). It may not look very interesting operationally, mostly because I have yet to add more industries, but for now the layout will be most of the time a place to run and store trains. Although, I have to have industries. I mean, MODEL RAILROAD, not a loop of track. Besides, operations are very important to me (mostly because they’re fun!). Well gentlemen, I’d like your opinions here. Cretique ([?]) away!
is this an island layout or are any of the sides against a wall ?
you know duckunders to get to an access hole get really old after a short while , right ?
there don’t seem to be any crossovers from one side of your double track main to the other , so only trains going in one direction can switch the industries on the left and left-middle areas . also i can’t see how trains would get from the loop at the bottom-middle to the yard , or for that matter , from anywhere on the outer loop of the double track main to the yard . i’m guessing (hoping?) you just forgot to draw the crossover and the next sound i hear will be you slapping your forehead and saying DOH ! [:)]
also looks like there will be very little room to add industries to the outside loop , will make running on that track kind of dull
the double track main will make it easy to run one train in a continous loop while you do switching with another . that’s always fun
Yes the layout is against the wall. Probably should’ve mentioned that. I also have yet to add in the crossovers and probably will just put them in when I’m actually laying the track.
My idea for the outter main would be that it would handle through or high priority trains. The inner main would handle locals and similar jobs to switch the industries. If needed, a train from the outter main could cross into the inner main to switch, that’s also how it would get in the yard.
Where do you plan to operate from? Popping up and down through holes is going to become annoying pretty fast.
My thought would be to place the spurs that seem paralell to what looks like a road all the way to the left. That means you can have a nice big open inner operating pit.
Does anyone else think there is more track on the drawing than will fit in the space?
I was thinking of eliminating the lower right spur (the 6" wide one not the 2’ wide part. and leaving that area open for operating. Then you only have to duck during construction and when you have a derailment or something.
The main operating area will be the large hole in the middle. That is where the throttles and stools will go. The hole to the left has to be there so I can acess a shelf along that wall.
I think it would be prudent to draw that out with track planning software. It looks to me that what you have drawn won’t fit and better to find that out before you buy and build.
Definitely too much track in the yard to fit in the space assigned to it. Likewise, the turnouts therein are too closely spaced to be practical (commercial turnouts will take up more space than is being allowed for. Regarding the radii on the turning Y, turnouts necessary to accompli***his are probably not obtainable commercially and would have to be hand laid.
I agree that there is too much track in the yard. Without laying it out, I would think that as drawn, the yard would take up double the real estate alloted.
All of the access holes would get annoying pretty quickly as well I would think.
In your footer, you mention you’re modelling Grand Rapids. Is this an attempt at a particular prototype area in GR or is the layout plan purely freelanced?
I agree with the others that the multiple duckunders will be a pain very quickly. I would stick to something around the walls.
I agree with the others that the turnouts seem too crowded for reality. I would also try drawing this layout with a CAD program or at least use templates. If the room is clear of stuff, you could but a few turnouts, photocopy them, and use those to layout your layout full scale on the floor of your room.
It all fits, we’ve layed it out on the floor. I think I’m going to eliminate the first storage track and wrap some of the yard around the curve. The current yard tracks that aren’t stub ends are only about 3 feet long, hardly long enough to store cars. Also I’m going to extend the siding on the left length wise and add a large industry spur above the left acess hole.
ericboone, I’m attempting to replicate GR, but have freelanced a lot of stuff.
WHY do you think that. We used a trackplanning template and scaled it exactly. I know I’m contradicting myself, but I really don’t think I have too much track.
What is the reason for the large loop around what appears to be an opening…if I read it properly?
Also, it seems to me that your yard at right might fit better and longer in the large space on the left, inside that large half-oval. Bend the tracks that come off that lower centre curve toward the right, and you don’t have to lose it for ops and variety.
selector, thanks for the suggestions. I would like to have the yard in the long space on the left, but i need that hole to be there so I can acess a shelf where my dad keeps his model cars.
The large loop is simply there to add another way for continuous run. it was origonally going to just connect to main along the lower left corner, but I decided it woud be better to make it connect farther up, pretty much making another loop. That is the the reason why the track along the bottom dead ends before it meets the main, it would mean having another wye and another challenging bit of wiring.
