Howdy all, I am at the age ofn 33 finally building a layout & have opted for N scale, set on the railway I watched growing up in Marion, North Carolina, the Southern Railway.
I have a medium sized yard, and am using Peco code 80 track
I DO have limited space (L shaped plan, basically a switching plan surrounded by parrallel main lines
My questions
Can I get away with small #4 turnouts in the yard, or am I asking for trouble? Is #6 the safest?
Do you reccomend roadbed in yards? Some seem to forego Roadbed.
What is optimal uncoupler placement? How many? 1 on each spur? Or 1 at the yard head?
Depends on your engines. I run very small steam and I can do #4s no problem. Don’t try it with a Big Boy.
Some do some don’t. Sound is an issue as is track height. Some people will lay out a sheet of cork for the entire yard.
I’ve not placed uncouplers on my yard yet–haven’t gotten that far. Most drawings I’ve seen place one delayed uncoupler at the top of the yard track and you pu***he car into place.
John Armstrong suggested electro magnetic uncouplers on each end of through tracks (sidings) and permanent magnets the the beginning of each spur.
Disclaimer: I plan to build my yard that way but I have not gotten there yet. I want to get all of the main lines done first.
I have put rare earth magent pairs at the beginnings of several industiral spurs and four main line sidings and they seem to work fine there. This is in HO. N might behave differently.
I agree with Tom on using the cork sheets for yard roadbed. You can purchase them at Lowes, HomeDepot, Meneards or your local lumber company. The cork sheets give you a lower profile for yard tacks.
As for yard turnouts I would suggest you go with #6 turnouts (switches) as a minimum unles you are going to operate only 40’ or 50’ cars. Your #4 turnouts may also cause problems if your locomotive is pushing long cuts of cars through the turnout. Yes you will have a much longer yard ladder with #6 turnouts, but more reliable opeeration in the long run.
I do not use uncoupling ramps in my layout. The yard crew used a had heald uncoupler. I model in HO scale and I am not sure if this is practical in Nscale due to the smaller size.
As tempting as it is for the #4’s please don’t, you may never run the yard as the pushing of cars into the spurs will cause some derailment. The #4’s are ok for short cuts but more than a few cars per cut will be a real bummer to watch.
I am debating where to put the uncoupler too. I would like to have only one at the yard lead but what if I want only one ot two cars off a cut of cars in the sidding? I would have to pull them all out do the delay thing and pu***hem back, this could be a long movement the yard cannot aford. The yard dictates the pace of an ops session so the more time saved in the yard the more enjoyable for everyone. I think I just talked myself into magnets on each lead.
Sheet cork or none at all, if you don’t run fast over the yard track then there would not be a sound problem. I like to use the cork because I can do things below the tracks for scenery.
It’s too bad that nobody offers preassembled #5 switches. I’ve found that to be very satisfactory for crossovers, yard leads and even double slip switches. #4 switches, especially in yard ladders, can lead to s-curve problems with more modern cars.
There is a solution which allows the use of longer turnouts, yet shortens the total length of the ladder (and thereby lengthens the yard tracks) for yards with six or more parallel tracks. Use a compound ladder, which ends up with a ladder angle equivalent to #3 when built with #6 turnouts. It is also possible to incorporate a slight curve beyond the points, ending up with a #4 ladder angle when done with #6 turnouts. Both compound and extra-curve designs will require some creative trimming of commercial turnouts, and both pretty much preclude use of above-the-table switch machines.
I am building an L-shaped N-scale switching layout also.
I’m using Peco #6 switches (what they call medium) and have had no trouble backing a C30-7 and 50-foot cars through the ladder and onto the spurs. My old Concor 80-foot autoracks cannot handle being pushed through the #6s, but I’ll probably sell them as I have no use for them with this layout. I’d like to use #8s (what they call long) because they really are a thing of beauty, but they’d chew up too much of my available space.
I’m using Woodland Scenics foam roadbed sheets for the yard as I think the WS product is a bit quieter than cork.
I use a Rix pick to uncouple, so I’m not installing magnets.
