Sir Madog Leafing thru some old track plans, I found the one you see below. It was designed for a 9´ by 11´ room, but I guess it could be adapted to fit your requirements.
Leafing thru some old track plans, I found the one you see below. It was designed for a 9´ by 11´ room, but I guess it could be adapted to fit your requirements.
Minimum radius is 22", with the main lines having more than 24", so it should not be a problem to run a 85` scale feet long passenger car on this layout, IMHO.
Here is the one I threw together after expanding to 9x12. Obviously still needs some work. The little "lower" industrial area is not "modern". Still probably some grade issues especially on the left side, but is easily fixable. Hidden area could be made much bigger. Industrial areas easily changed to meet what industries you would want to include. In Oklahoma I figured in addition to the grain elevator a gravel/sand company would be common as would a lumber yard or automobile unloading area.
There are some intentional design elements here I should point out. Yard is small is an industrial staging yard. The lead is the inside "main". The track at the left end is a former caboose track now used for RIP.
The layout is actually three loops. The third loop is the hidden area and a passing track for the outer "main". Notice that to get from staging to the yard one must first circle the outside loop. Likewise coming from the yard one must cross over to and circle the outside loop once before a train can arrive at staging.
There are three separate industrial areas in addition to the national guard station. This makes a reason for the small yard. Take a train from staging. Take it to the yard. Break the cars into separate trains on the tracks for each of the industrial areas. Take returning cars from the yard. Make the train continue on to the other end staging. Using the local loco work each of the "trains" to the industries. Bring the cars back from each industrial area and classify them as to which end of staging they are headed. The local train would have to stay out of the way of other through freights or Amtrak. Should keep one busy for a few hours. Of course one could just throw on three trains and watch them orbit too.
But it was just to give some ideas....
That's a very interesting layout! The fact you managed to fit not only two, but three continuous runs into it, is amazing. I like the staging area alot. I need to find some pics of tracks heading down to staging, as I have very little idea how to do a second level staging area.
I really like the yard, espicially it's functionallity. It looks like it takes care of my and the railroad's needs. Did you keep the grain silo and the outer loop track seperated from the yard so that you have to transfer over to the inner loop before you can drop anything off in the yard to propagate more of a sense of distance travelled? Just trying to understand the design so I can mayhaps not suck so much at it. :)
The "lower" industrial area is at a lower level than the yard above it? Is that how you're seeing it? So the grade raises on the bottom side, maintains around the right and then the top, then comes back down when you exit the yard on the lefthand side? How many industries could be fit inside the industrial area? 3 or 4 at the outer limits of car storage?
Yeah, we've got tons of cement and gravel industry here, there's one in my town. So I can definitly model that with interest.
It's a very interesting design, and it puts alot of things in perspective for me! Thanks!
BNSF1979Did you keep the grain silo and the outer loop track seperated from the yard so that you have to transfer over to the inner loop before you can drop anything off in the yard to propagate more of a sense of distance travelled?
The "lower" industrial area is at a lower level than the yard above it? Is that how you're seeing it?
So the grade raises on the bottom side, maintains around the right and then the top, then comes back down when you exit the yard on the lefthand side?
How many industries could be fit inside the industrial area? 3 or 4 at the outer limits of car storage?
Wow, neat, I actually could see all that from your design. I'm not all that worried about being very prototypical, even in regards to having being set in Oklahoma.
It looks like things are progressing well. In terms of designing a layout, it seems sometimes we as modelers can get involved in certain aspects of design, only to carry us away from our original ideas and druthers. Something struck me when I read this exchange.
BNSF1979: Did you keep the grain silo and the outer loop track seperated from the yard so that you have to transfer over to the inner loop before you can drop anything off in the yard to propagate more of a sense of distance travelled?
Yes. And to get cars to the grain elevator they have to come from staging to the yard and then be assigned to a local to go back to the grain elevator. Once again adding operational interest and distance.
Were prototypical operations the reason you wanted to have multiple mainlines? I thought originally, it had to do with your daughter running a throttle while you switch cars. My observation about the above exchange is, that while you'll technically be gathering distance on two separate mainlines, your eye may not really distinguish a difference when the train runs through the same scene twice on tracks that are three inches apart.
In my opinion, distance is created on model railroads when a train runs through a scene only once. Unfortunately, a basement sized layout works best for this. For those of us with less space, a certain amount of imagination must be used, in which case, running multiple laps on a single mainline accomplishes much the same thing as running though the same scene multiple times on different tracks.
On the other hand,if you want your daughter to be able to run a train while you run another, not concerned about coordinating operations to avoid collisions, that's a reason to have multiple mainlines on a smaller layout. Perhaps as you receive feedback and go through this process, your ideas and druthers change as well. Sometimes we have to step back and reevaluate what we are really looking to accomplish.
- Douglas
buy rr maazines and find a small layout that you like and copy it then expand. it's what me and my dad did. it woked out great so maybe you should try it
I'm thinking it's about time you take a stab at a new design. We can help so you feel like you are going down another wrong path. Take the ideas you like and put them together the best you can. We'll help you tweak them.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Alrighty, I'm gonna give it a shot. I've got Xtrackcad loaded, will try that first, and if that doesn't work, back to pencil and paper! Thanks for the help.
BNSF1979 Alrighty, I'm gonna give it a shot. I've got Xtrackcad loaded, will try that first, and if that doesn't work, back to pencil and paper! Thanks for the help.