playing around with builing a yard that someday will go in my workshop. I started with a 3 way turnout and then dow to the regular switches from there. What spacing between the tracks do you guys use? My current setup seems too close as i can not see car numbers. Again inam just playing around for now. I had some leftover pink foam from an attic job. All track is being held down by pins So it is easily changed.
i currently have the center of the y as the inbound track that will have an engine escape at the end. It is long enough for rs-11 and 9 50’ box cars. On either side of the inbound are two storage tracks for outbound and for locals. There is also one track for 4 cabboses on one side.
Mike, The answer to your spacing question depends on the purpose of the yard. For my visible on layout yards, I space yard tracks at 1-3/4”. Seeing individual car numbers on the tracks is not a concern. That’s because prototype yard crews don’t normally “cherry pick” individual cars out of the yard to make up a train. Instead, a cut of cars is pulled and sorted as necessary to the appropriate departure or storage tracks. For my staging/fiddle yards, I space the tracks at 2-1/2”. This wider spacing not only allows me to see the car numbers, but also get my fingers between the tracks to both remove and spot cars without knocking cars off adjacent tracks. Tom
My yard on the lower level is used for staging trains and set at 1 3/4". I keep the engines visible for each train so an operator can see the engine # when calling it up on their NCE system. My upper level freight yard has the ladder tracks on 2" centers so the yardmaster can see cars and the numbers if need be…
I use 2 inches between tracks–measured center of track to center of neighboring track–in the yard and sidings. This gives enough space to get between cars without derailments or disrupting scenery. I don’t have a double mainline but also would use the same spacing convention.
I don’t let the turnouts totally determine my track spacing in my yard, I did some test fitting but designed in based on John Armstrong recommended minimum 2-inch track centers in yards with a smidgeon more and drew out my track centers and laid accordingly.
Test fitting:
Much track put in, but still have caboose, engine tracks etc. left to lay.
Good info guys. Thank you. Mwhen i get home from my 8 day rotation on the road i am going to measure what i currently have. For right now i dont think i am going to have a staging yard per say. The ideas floating around in my head is a circle loop around the main part of layout room but can bu used as point to point. As the thought goes:
on one side of my workshop i have about 4 ft to my workbench area. I am thinking of building benchwork to a height where i can throw down a piece of 2" foam on top of the bench to connect to the 4’ area extending it to as far as that particular workbench length( approx 6’ long). This would be the distant yard where freight comes to the local yard on the other side of the workshop. This is also removable so the workbench can still be used. The other side of workshop will be the freight yard, engine yard and possible small industry area to be sceniced. Now you might say how do you connect all this to the world outside the workshop. Still working on that plausibility but so far it would be a removable section that would go in the door area (sort of likean x iguess) that would connect both sidesof the workshop to the outside world. At the crossing point maybe a bridge over the other rail. And at the outside world it would be a series of turnouts that either go to the yards or continue along the circular route.
So the idea is that a train would leave the right side of the workshop( looking at the door to the outside world) and go out the door to the left and circle around the room back to the door where it would enter the workshop and go to the left side (still looking out the door). This saves me cutting holes in one wall as i have no option to cut a hole in the other wall due to a pocket door to the workshop.
I think spacing for yard tracks needs to pay attention to visibility of car numbers and reporting marks if you have an operating layout (and aging eyesight!).
I have adopted a 2" spacing for my entire layout, main and yard. I have a double track main line and I wanted the spacing on my curves to remain the same (for one thing not all the places I have curves were also curves on my prototype). Using the cheapest swap-meet flex track (old Atlas brass rail on the fibre ties - and man is that stuff the very devil to bend) I tried various radius curves for clearance using my longest passenger cars and settled on John Armstrong’s fall-back 2" spacing, with curves of 38" and 40" radius at one corner, and 40" and 42" radius at two other corners. Anything tighter than 38" at 2" spacing looked hazardous to me.
Since I also have curves on one of my two large yards, I decided to stick with 2" everywhere.
John Armstongs book is a must read. He does recommend track centers larger than 2-inches for curves - I only use 2-inch centers on straight track in the yard - actually 2 1/16th centers. On my curves I prefer at least 2 1/4 inch centers and if you are down to 24 or less 2 1/2 inch center spacings is a good idea to avoid long cars side swiping.
On railroad of LION, him spaces tracks according to what looks good. Him frequentls cuts turnouts down to size to get tracks closer together, others further apart.
Here is picture of Coney Island station ala LION.
The table is only wide enough for these six tracks, least wise if it is also to host the platforms. Almost no space between adjacen tracks, but you would have to have some very articulated arms to reach a derailment in this station given that it is a fully roofed station.
Bottom LION you design what you kneed and what looks good. You need 6 tracks put them sloser together, you nwant more space settle for four tracks.
Agreed on Armstrong’s book but I find that reading it after Jeff Wilson’s intro is more helpful than vice versa.
While I don’t have a double mainline, I also have 2" center-of-track to center-of-track in the yard. I measure that with a ruler. That’s enough space to adjust cars without disrupting adjoining tracks.
I just purchased an out of print copy of Linn Westcott’s HO Primer; Model Railroading For All (9th printing 1976).
This was the first book my parents gave me when I began modeling. I bought it for sentimental reasons but soon discovered, that with some things in HO scale modeling, nothing had changed (or changed very little).
On page 20 there is a chart for track spacing on curves:
15- to 18-inch radius 3-inches 18- to 24- " " 2-1/2-inches 24- to 30- " " 2-1/4-inches 30-inches and up 2-inches
I realize that these guidelines are meant for curves to avoid sideswiping cars on adjacent tracks and not yard spacing.
However when building ladder yards these guidelines might be helpful.
If you use car cards, keep them in order for each track and you won’t need to read reporting marks - even while fiddling waybills in staging.
My staging tracks are 45mm center to center (slightly over 1.75 inches for the metrically challenged) while I go to 50mm spacing on visible tangent track. I fiddle with easement offsets to assure adequate clearance where the tracks aren’t straight. The three meters or so of visible double track main is on two different, widely-spaced alignments, simulating single track that was double-tracked later. That carries on into the netherworld, where there are staging and thoroughfare tracks between the nominal main tracks.
My track plan is, to understate, extremely unconventional. But then, so am I…
Soo Line’s Ashland Yard was built on 13 foot track centers, so my model of it was built on 13 foot track centers… about 1 3/4 " in HO.
Not being able to see car numbers was not an issue. For one thing the yard crew is confined to the yard throat. Real yards work just fine without being able to see car numbers on the body tracks.
John Armstrong suggested at least 3 different spacings: 13ft, 14ft 6in, and 16ft 4in (or 1 13/16, 2 and 2 1/4 in respectively. The 2 1/4 was to accomodate the irreducible size of 1:1 scale fingers. As others have said, it depends how you intend using the yard.
I use my knuckles for a guide. Gotta be able to pick up a car, and perhaps even replace it, althought that could be done elsewhere.
Read the Numbers?If the numbers were all that important to you, you should already know what order the cars are in.
On railroad of LION, numbers of subway cars are just aft of the motorman’s side window. The tower writes this number down as the train passes the tower, just the number of the lead car. Obvioulsy when the train departs the terminal the other end of the train will be leading and so the tower records that number upn departure.
The modelboard displays where the trains are, but not the numbes of the trains. If the dispatcher keeds to know what a particular train is, he will have to call on the radion and ask him. “Northbound Local at 34 Street, please Identify”, “Roger control, this is Ferry 352, lead car 7253 at 34 Street North on the Local”.
I model in N scale, so let me talk in terms of scale feet. I think about 12 feet is fairlly prototypical in straight yard tracks. In N scale I use 1.25" on mainline tracks and sidings which is about 15 scale feet. In yards, however, I need to accomodate sight and fingers so I go with 1.5" which is 20 scale feet and still looks good. Translating back to HO, 2" is about 15 scale feet and 20 scale feet is 2.75".
Having done my fair share of yard switching I favor 1 1/2" centers since you don’t have much room between cars.
As far as reading car numbers that shouldn’t be a issue since you should pull all the cars on a given track and start classifying them into trains and shove the unneeded cars into another track for terminal dwell time since these cars may not have a CC/WB…
Cherry picking switching works at outlaying yards where a customer cars is stored until needed. They usually want first in /first out and those cars could be buried several cars deep.
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