Is my yard design terrible?

[Hunter12396]

I've always found large complex yards to be really interesting, so I wanted a good portion of my layout to be dedicated to a big yard. I didn't want it to just be plain, but I couldn't find any way of artificially complicating it without just ruining it; So I settled on a plain design and figured I'd work out the details when it was time to lay the track. 

As a late edition to the track plan I added a second main line that will run around the edge of the room, the problem is that I have no way to connect it directly to the other main line without using all of the space I wanted for engine parking. The only option I feel I have is to run it right into the end of the yard, where it will have to share track with the lead. This also necessitated I change the ladder, and in total I'm looking at 300 dollars worth of switches for just the yard, which is a bit scary.

I came here to ask some folks who have more experience with this than I do; is this a terrible idea? Is there is something I could do better?

[cuyama]

Welcome to the forum. Your first several posts are moderated, so it may take a while for them to show up, especially over a weekend. But stick with us and that passes quickly.

In general, it’s hard to tell how well a yard will function without knowing your layout's concept and purpose and the rest of the track plan.

It’s also hard (for me) to tell exactly what you are proposing based on the faint lines on the benchwork. But at first glance, it does not look like it would operate well. It looks like it would require a lot of “sawing” back and forth to access some tracks, which is something that the real railroads, and well-designed models, try to avoid.

John Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation is a great resource for those setting out on layout design. It has some example yard designs that work well in general and are reasonably compact. 

Good luck with your layout.

Byron

[Hunter12396]

I tried to draw the yard layout for you, blue lines are the mains and red are switches. The main lines on the left just go in an oval around the table, the ones that go off the top are going to go out and turn around and come back, but that's a section I'm going to expand later. As for what I want to do with the layout, I'm not really sure how to answer that. I'm going to both let trains run around it "hands off" on the loop, but also sometimes play with it by switching and moving industries.

Now that I drew it out it looks like it may make more sense to just have a connection going right between the two main lines instead of having it go through that wye there, I didn't see that before now.

 

[cuyama]

If the primary mainline will be the blue lines to the left of your diagram, the yard doesn't seem to me to be arranged efficiently. I don’t understand what you are trying to do.

But without knowing what the rest of the layout will look like, I’m just guessing based on layout design best practices.

Others may be able to see your intentions more clearly.

[richhotrain]

Are you trying to design a classification yard or merely a storage yard. How much space are you planning to allocate to the yard? Besides the book that cuyama recommended, you might also try to get your hands on another Kalmbach book titled The Model Railroader's Guide to Freight Yards by Andy Sperando.

Rich

[dehusman]

Not sure what the picture is telling me, it looks more like an interlocking than a yard.  I think you are wasting tons of money on switches that don't really have a useful purpose.

A yard is a verb.  What is this yard supposed to do?  Switching? (very poorly laid out) Staging? (inefficient and expensive).

In the end its your money, but I think you can do something way cheaper that works just as well.

[Hunter12396]

richhotrain

Are you trying to design a classification yard or merely a storage yard

Can't it be both?

I understand that there are better overall designs but I have to work within the space I have and accomodate the tracks I need to.