hidden turnouts

[Anonymous]

I'm getting back into the hobby (after 35 years) and planning a new layout for my family. Many track plans and books (e.g., John Armstrong's "Track Planning for Realistic Operation") seem to use a lot of hidden tracks for storage and staging--and many of these include turnouts in the hidden portion, without obvious provision for access. Is this asking for trouble (derailments, dirty track, etc.)? How often do you have things go wrong where you can't see them? Or is it critical to provide access, perhaps from under the benchwork?

Thanks for your help.

[SpaceMouse]

I have one of my turnouts 3/4 back into a tunnel. It doesn't derail often, but sometimes it does. I do have access from underneath, but the big problem is when I am backing out, I can't tell when I've cleared the points. Sometimes I get so involved with clearing the points that I forget to change directions and end-up backing out the other end of the tunnel. My next layout will have zero covered trunouts.

[rrinker]

Access is ALWAYS important. Murphy says that the place with the most trouble will be in the hardest to reach area. That complex arrangement right up front on the layout? You will NEVER have a problem there, of course.

For example, if you put staging behind the sceniced portion, say hidden by a hill or mountain, you can provide acces sin a couple of ways. One, if you leave the layout away from the wall, you can crawl under and come up 'behind' the hill and get at it that way. Or you can make sections of the hill removable so you can lift them out of the way in case of trouble.

Even onthe small moutain I had on an N scale layout I had years ago, ont he back side away from where people could view the layout, I left a large opening that was big enough for me to reach my hand in in case of trouble in the tunnel. I even stuck a light bulb in there to light up the area so I could see what was going on. Naturally, there was rarely any trouble. But had I closed it all up except for the scale-size tunnel portals - it would have been impossible to retrieve a derailed car.

--Randy

[mike33469]

I just finished laying the track on my new layout which according to the track plan should have lots of hidden track. I just decided not to hide any it will all be out in the open and will all eventually have scenery. You don't have to follow track plans 100%.

[cwclark]

my last layout had three hidden turnouts...NEVER AGAIN!...not only were the derailments a pain to get to..some of the rolling stock that derailed didn't come out until i had to tear the layout down..the last straw was that an Atlas turnout point rail broke and i had to remove the entire mountain to get to it...If you do install hidden turnouts, PLEASE be sure that you have easy access and plenty of elbow room....There is a demonstration of how to build a removable mountain access in the kalmbach publication "Model Railroad Benchwork" ....chuck

[colin_mcleod]

Having experienced difficulty with hidden turnouts, I avoid them where possible. My pervious layout had the staging out in the open and was fully scenic. A change of house and layout room, means my yard has to go below my main station. However, I have designed the benchwork in such a way that unavoidable hidden turnouts, are easily accessible from below the board with 9" verticle clearance for reaching in to the trains.

Although the layout is permanent, I have designed the yard with "portable " type benchwork so that, if necessary. each section with turnouts can be taken out into the room for maintenance. In one location I thought it would have been better from a scenic view if the turnouts were hidden inside the tunnel. However, I built them in the open to avoid hidden turnouts. I'm glad I did, because they look much better than I thought, and to see a long freight negotiating the crossover is a beauty in itself.

[Anonymous]

Think about something: where is a car more likely to derail, on a straight track or a turnout? So, why would you make the problem worse by hiding it? Even if you can somehow fish out the derailed rolling stock, how are you going to get in there and fix the track? If you must hide it, at least try to plan the scenery over it so that there is a large building there -- you can lift off the building and have an access hole to the turnout that way.

[Anonymous]

I have been attmpting to work this one out for some time as I do not want the turnouts impossible to get to yet I dont want the staging out in the open.

I liked the idea of having removable sections, but onother version of this could be a drawer. There was an article in MR on this and I will find it. Also you could put the staging on wheels and have a lock in device like some modelers do with lift bridges.

BAM! Think there is a solution if enough people throw there ideas out there for all of us to pick and choose. Gotta love these forums.