Hey everyone. I bought Andy Sperandeo's book on freight yards, and its been invaluable. I'm just hung up on what should go on my layout. The main section I'm building now is a 4x8 with an ascending S-curve from end to end, as if to make a figure-8 across the entire surface. One of the 'nook's of the S is going to be a small yard area with one specific industry and a team track.
The main line comes across the front edge of the layout from the right side, and I have a passing siding originating from a cross-over, with the opposite end going to an engine house/service area. The passing siding is supposed to be the track that the yard branches off from.
My operating scheme is basically running empties up the branch line S curve to a mine, bringing the loads back down, and assembling for pick-up by the main-line engines to be taken Elsewhere. I'm also thinking of having it function as sort of a bridge route for other freight traffic, with trains coming in that have a few cars of needed materials for the town to be spotted, with the rest to be assembled and sent on their way to their destinations Elsewhere along with the empties that get picked up.
What I basically thought of doing was having a LH turnout branching from the passing siding, with a RH turnout next where the diverging route served as the departure track. The straight route of that turnout would be followed by another RH turnout leading to a freight house. The two tracks would also have a platform between them, so they could both serve as unloading tracks/team tracks if necessary. That 2nd RH turnout would be connected to a LH turnout with the diverging route going to Campbells furniture manufacturing kit and the straight route going to either a 2-3 car team track or simply having the straight route of the 2nd turnout going to the industry.
Something like this:
Spur lengths are not to scale; its just the generalized arrangement. I'll be running trains no longer than 8 cars, as I don't have enough room to park them anywhere but the passing siding in their entirety.
This is the space I have to work with:
As you can see, I've already got some of the turnouts laid out. Only the cross over and curved turnouts are in their definite places; the LH turnout on the left hand side thats connected to the cross over will be moved back to get maximum spur length.
The cross-overs are #6; I want to use 8's but thats just too much room. The turnout leading off the layout on the right side past the curved turnout will be going to Section II of the layout. I thought about using a #6 for the beginning of the yard ladder, but I don't know if #4 would be better; i'll be shoving cars so I think i'll have to need a #6. I've done some preliminary placement with a #8 ladder-starting turnout to further facilitate shoving of cars, but I'm stuck on what to use after that, as having a #8 ladder in that space won't really give me anything other than 1-car-length spurs, lol.
any input or ideas is greatly welcomed. thanks everyone
If you do it the way you show in your drawing and on your layout, it looks like you have room for maybe two cars per yard track.
What era you modeling? Could you get away with #4 turnouts placed a little further toward the center of the layout?
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I haven't figured out what you are doing with your yard. You seem to be using it as a yard AND a team track. I think you might want to simplify your plans for what you are doing at the "yard". You may be doing so much that you won't be able to do want.
Pick a couple critical activities and make sure those are covered. So if you want room to hold 10 cars in the "yard", set aside 2 tracks and reserve them JUST for that.
You also don't really need #8 switches if you are using 18" radius main lines.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
To paraphrase or restate the above posts, the ratio of real estate taken up by the turnouts and their fouling points is high compared to the amount of usable actual yard car storage and sorting space that you create. In fact it might be that some of those tracks hold one car but not quite two (test it out in other words).
I think a truly useful yard needs more real estate than it can be given when you try to cram it inside the oval or circle or figure 8 or whatever. A four foot long board just one foot wide (a standard piece of shelving from a home supply store in other words) along that wall might be the better option -- four or more good long yard tracks. It could be made fold down or detachable if space is a problem.
Dave Nelson
yeah thanks everyone. I've been rearranging everything this afternoon, and I found that moving the crossover further away from the curved turnout gave me some more options.
the track plan isn't to scale... thats just a general diagram of the track arrangement, and the photo is a little misleading. I can fit whole lengths of flextrack inside the semi-circle; which can hold roughtly 5 cars comfortably.
What I want is 2 industries: one online customer, and a team track (each being made to hold 2 cars max); a freight house to store goods from through freights to then be shipped by locals east and west (on a spur to hold about 5 cars); an engine service area (length of 2 engines), an arrival/departure track for empties and loads to and from the mine, and a classification track to allow other freight trains to be made up while another already-assembled train is waiting to depart.
does that sound like a good operating plan?
Yes but from your pictures you don't have enough room for all of that unless you are changing over to N scale.
DeadheadGreg wrote:i know my space is limited... i've been spending a lot of time test-fitting components to see how things would look. I keep meaning to take pictures of a couple arrangements that I liked. I'm able to fit a lot more into that space than what you would think just by looking at the pictures, but I keep having to stop while I'm ahead and tell myself that prototypes didn't make bowls of spaghetti. Just because you can fit 12 turnouts into an area doesn't mean that you have to.
You might want to down-load the Atlas RTS software program. (It's free) It doesn't take a long time to learn it, and it will show you what fits without having to reconfigure your track all the time. That is what I decided to do, and it has helped me with my layout design.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.