Rex,
I did a Youtube search for "railroad yard operations", and the results looked to be very informative. From time to time, Trains Magazine has interesting articles on the subject as well.
Please share with us the products of your work.
Wilton.
I've built 6 of the 14 switch beds so far. This yard is going to be BIG. I've arbitarily selected #5 switches and that makes them 2' long. Putting the "Ladder?" together makes it more than 8' high. The smallest run-around is 6' long. I did pick up some 2" window bolts for use as throw operators. I'm still looking for something on yard operations. Any operations experience is welcome.
Thanks,
Rex
You nailed it! Thanks a million. I just finished rereading the article and now I'm all fired up to start planning some operations. This is going to be great fun.
Could it be the "Children operating a railroad" in the April 2014 (31/2) issue starting on page 42?
Okay so I said I was not a railroad guy so maybe I should share some of my background.
I'm retired now, age 70, and have a garden railroad at our summer home in the high country in AZ. This is the third major layout we've done in the past 40 years in this hobby. The first was in Idaho. The second was in the Phoenix, AZ area. This one is in the front yard in Pinetop, AZ (7K ft) with about 1,000 feet of track. It boasts a logging/milling operation complete with forest, a mining operation, farming, and a town. For extras it has a troll garden, a baseball field, a lego area, and an industrial area. It was started in 2005 in the tall pines on a corner lot. We run in the summer time and build in the winter back here in the desert. We get lots of visitors of all ages. We're battery powered with AirWire RC so the visitor kids can and do run the trains. Our buildings started with Garden Texture kits and have progressed to mostly scratch builds influenced by Garden Texture architecture.
I remember reading a GR article that had kids running various operations planned by the modeler. I don't remember if it had yard operations or not and of course I can't remember when it was written either.
Any help would be appreciated,
Rex:
You may want to check out the 15 part series on YouTube by Mark Found. It is rather basic, but covers a fair amount of issues and he's kind of entertaining.
It does not cover yard operations but it might be of help if this is your first attempt at garden railroading.
Ok this year's project is a yard. I've got a 25' by 40' space to put it in. I've read the 10 commandments of model railroad yard design for the indoor HO guys. They make sense and I can scale them up for large scale but my problem is I don't know how a yard is suppose to operate. I'm a retired Army officer and have never worked on a full-scale railroad although I've ridden on many passenger trains. Is there a set of videos for beginners that will lead me through the working of a "classification" operation?
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