Good morning! I have 16 turnouts on a 12x7 HO layout. Is that too many? Half of the turnouts are in a yard. Many of the other turnouts serve industries or are for run-arounds. I know that the “right” answer might be subjective.
I thought to put the Walthers track scales (#933-3199) in the yard. Here is the footprint: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3199. How long are the track scales? I have 19" of space and wasn’t sure if that was enough room.
What are small industries for a yard? I thought to have a warehouse w/ a roll-up door that serves rolling stock. Any other suggestions?
My layout is only 12x5 feet, and I’ve got more turnouts than that, so no, I don’t think it’s too many.
I’ve got a small brewery, a coal loading building, a siding which serves a coal and oil distributer (tanks and hoppers), a stockyard and a small freight depot.
Since I’m modelling the Transition Era, I can still have an icing platform for ice-bunker reefers. This platform would be used to service the cars loading at either the stockyard/packing plant or the brewery. In addition, freights which are just passing through town might have to re-ice their reefers on a warm day. As an operational element on a layout, an icing platform can be a busy place, because it serves both local and through traffic. It’s also a “fast turnaround” facility. Where you might drop a boxcar at a factory and leave it there for a day or two, you would be shuffling reefers in front of the platform almost constantly.
I’m planning an extension to my layout. It’s going to include a car float. This is a fairly big commitment, because it needs a small yard just to service the float traffic, but it’s one which can handle a lot of different cars without having to have a specific industry on your layout to support them.
The major issue with the number of turnouts is maintenance and derailments - both near and long term. The number of turnouts is really a measure of the complexity of a layout, and may be an indicator of how much maintenance will be needed.
IMHO, the goal should be zero derailments - both immediately after construction, and down the road. Nothing kills the fun of operating a layout faster than repeated derailments. IMHO, 16 turnouts is not too many, provided you are willing to take the time to get them spot on when initially laid, and are willing to fix/repair/replace wear and loss of adjustments down the road.
Quality of the turnout itself is one factor. Just like in painting, turnout site preparation is equally important, but is often neglected. Some tips for more reliable turnouts - in addition to checking all points with the NMRA gauge.
Did you sand your roadbed until was truly flat? Cork roadbed will often have ridges at the joints in the area of the turnouts. These ridges must be sanded down so the turnout can lay flat, and stay that way over time.
Are the turnout point hinges and throw bar decently secured to the points? Will this mechanical connection hold up over time? IMHO, twin coil switch machines are a detriment to the long life of a turnout. The “snap action” impact leads to failure of these connections, and tends to push the stock rails out of gauge over long periods of time. Of course, if the life span of your layout is only 2-3 years in operation, never mind. I prefer a slow motion turnout throw, whether manual or powered
If you are using all of the tracks those turnouts lead to, sixteen isn’t too many - it might prove to be too few. (I have more than that in my hidden passenger staging yard!)
Carload sources/destinations directly adjacent to a yard fall into two categories:
Serve the company: Locomotive service commodities (coal or oil, water treatment chemicals, lubricants…), rip track and shop supplies, MW supplies (stacks of ties, rail on racks or timbers, preassembled 39 foot panels of ‘prototype snap track…’)
Serve the public: Freight house, team track (the best - almost anything can be delivered or loaded there!), rail-truck transfer terminal, distributors of everything from canned goods to toys, small manufacturing plants of the one-car-a-week variety, junk yards, recycling centers (don’t laugh - trash and recycled fillintheblank are common carload shipments), grain elevators/feed mills, pickle stations…
The company service requirements are pretty generic, the only regional/era item being locomotive fuel. On the other hand the public service requirements are very much driven by location and era - not many feed mills in Eastern urban centers, very few plastic product manufacturers pre-WWII, pickle stations disappeared about 1960 (and were only common where cukes were a local crop)…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
For a particular region/place and era, check with the local historical society.
Hey Fred and others. After 50 years of MRRing, I learned the two most important items are trains and tracks. Tracks being most important to me. I use 3/4" plywood sub roadbed for its strengh. 1" foam insulation sub roadbed, painted tanish. I pin down a rail to the outside curveture of the track ties, and pursue glueing ties down. I use pianted ties and when the glue dried took a sanding block to the tops of the ties just enough to knock off some of the paint, then I brushed with a very thin grey. Then I spred ballast, took a six inch flexible ruler and scraped the ballast off the tops of the ties, and with an eye dropper glued the ballast. When dry I scraped the tie tops again. I used painted rails and spiked them down. Nice tracks. Time consuming, but anytime spent in the railroad room is good, and excellence takes time.
Switches, (turnouts) are another story. By the way on my last three layouts I’ve had zero derailments, except when I run thru a closed switch.