Here it is The Town of Virginia Junction. While the twon is Freelanced the railroad (James River & Western) is more or less a proto-freelanced version of the Buckingham Branch railroad.What are your guys initial thoughts on this?
It looks like a good example of an Industrial Switching Layout (ISL), with allowances for continuous running.
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I take back everything I said in the other thread. Build this layout yourself.
The plan looks flat as South Florida, no grades, so the benchwork is easy. There are no hidden tracks, wyes, or reverse loops, so wiring is easy. You already have a plan.
My new vote is for you to go get a truck load of lumber and start building...
Or... do it "Kevin Style", and build the whole thing out of cardboard first just to see what it will look llke.
Have fun!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Looks just fine to me.
At first, I questioned the crossover just above "2". Then I thought it a good way to get from the "inside" track over to the interchange.
So. Looks just fine to me.
Ed
First off,You're off to a good start. You've got a vision of what you want, without packing everything so full of track that you have limited room for scenery. A few things I noticed right off that you may want to consider before building;Your industries all appear to have really short tracks that service them. Assuming the clearance point is 4" after the switches for #1 and #2, it barely leaves you with 20" - that's two cars, or maybe a loco and a car if you're lucky. Industry #3 has the same issue, with track diverging at a steep angle from the switch, and then straightening out almost immediately. Industries 6 and 7 also suffer from the same issue. The switch between 6 and 7 doesn't provide much use, since the propane tanks are immediately after it and barely have clearance for a single car. To solve some of this, vary the location of the main line's distance from the front of the benchwork. Allow your industries not to be confined by the radius of the curves that make up the donut shape.As much as I hate to say it, I'd consider reducing your radius in places to stay in the 24-28" range, versus the nearly 32" radius you have sketched. Gain what you can, where you can, if you're confined to only a ten by ten area. Something else you may consider - is how do you plan to operate this? Do you want to go "roundy roundy" and watch the trains run, or do you want to have smaller operating sessions that you can start at "A", service your customers, and finish at "B"? If the latter, with a ten by ten area to use, it wouldn't be difficult to hide a "no lix" style track dropping to staging below the layout.
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GraniteRailroader First off,You're off to a good start. You've got a vision of what you want, without packing everything so full of track that you have limited room for scenery. A few things I noticed right off that you may want to consider before building;Your industries all appear to have really short tracks that service them. Assuming the clearance point is 4" after the switches for #1 and #2, it barely leaves you with 20" - that's two cars, or maybe a loco and a car if you're lucky. Industry #3 has the same issue, with track diverging at a steep angle from the switch, and then straightening out almost immediately. Industries 6 and 7 also suffer from the same issue. The switch between 6 and 7 doesn't provide much use, since the propane tanks are immediately after it and barely have clearance for a single car. To solve some of this, vary the location of the main line's distance from the front of the benchwork. Allow your industries not to be confined by the radius of the curves that make up the donut shape.As much as I hate to say it, I'd consider reducing your radius in places to stay in the 24-28" range, versus the nearly 32" radius you have sketched. Gain what you can, where you can, if you're confined to only a ten by ten area. Something else you may consider - is how do you plan to operate this? Do you want to go "roundy roundy" and watch the trains run, or do you want to have smaller operating sessions that you can start at "A", service your customers, and finish at "B"? If the latter, with a ten by ten area to use, it wouldn't be difficult to hide a "no lix" style track dropping to staging below the layout.
What do you mean when you say " Industries #1 and #2". Neither of those are actuall industries. #1 is a Walthers Red Owl and #2 is a station I haven't decided on yet. And yes, it's primarly a "Roundy-round" layout.
My appologies - I assumed the Red Owl was a lineside structure that is rail served. With that being the case, it would have limited the use of the passenger station.