Layout help needed.

[tywest]

 I am looking for some help with a design for my layout. The picture illustrates what i have to work with so far. It is 16' x 2, with 4' x 4' added on the left and 4' x 2' added on the right.

I want to get this section up and running before adding on.

I also included what the whole room will look like when its done.  (open to change) the section along the right side of the room has completed l-grider framing up.

This will be in HO scale. 

I had interest in doing a North West US theme. Deisel era. I plan on mixed stock but am intersted in the future doing some type of logging or mining theme along with it. Railroad of interest Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific and Milwaukee Road railroads.

I am not all that concerened if it is prototypical or not i just want it to look good. 

 Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[selector]

In your lower diagram, you have what appears to be a possible extension of your bench beyond the far loop of the main.  Is that so?  If so, it would serve as a stub-yard or staging.  Could be quite important before too many weeks have passed after you are up and running to have a place to stage or park unused trains.

Also, as you have depicted your main pinched loop, you are okay with having the two tracks so close to each other?  I would separate them with something, and definitely make the one closest to the edge of the bench curves or sinuous...anything to break up the tangent, of which there tend to be comparatively few in railroading.   Unless we are talking prairies, you have rolling terrain where the tracks will have to wind in order to maintain a close-to-contour grade.

I ask the question about two parallel tracks because it will have an impact on the overall appeal of the layout, but it will also constrain you to how you place industries if you intend to pay any lip service to prototypical operations.  In other words, as you have it drawn now, where will you stick 'em?  And while you are at it, have you developed a vision for how the layout will appear when it is essentially playable?  Where will any high ground, water courses, bridges, roads, built-up areas be?  Any wooded areas?  Will your roads cross the tracks?  Where? 

What industries are we talking about?  Based on your choices, will they be in a given type of setting, topography, orientation on the layout?  How many cars would likely to be switched in and out of that industry daily, maybe every three or four days?  Will there be a run-around track for an engine that has to pull in the loads instead of shoving them in?  With no way to turn trains on your current layout (a single loop), you will have to run them all in one direction.  Will all industries be a shove-in and cut?  If so, they'll all be accessed by a turnout facing one way or the other.

And so on...  My purpose in responding this way is to nudge you into realizing that it will be some hard pondering, reading, and decision-making about nailing down a solid plan that will keep you having fun for many months or years....after it is all built.

[BlueHillsCPR]

It looks like you are fairly CAD proficient.  Why not download XTrkCad for free, go through the tutorials in the help menu and see what kind of plan you can come up with?  When you are happy export an image from XTrkCad and put it up here for critique.

[tywest]

Thanks for the info. I just put that track on the bottom diagram to kind of get an idea how the program works. I do not necessarly want a track configuration like that in the real setup. I use RailModeller on my MacBook.

I guess i am haveing some trouble finding layouts for the "around room" type of theme i am trying to acomplish. I atempted to design my own because after all it all about using your imagination right? Im trying not to freelance too much here i would like to have some realism. It all comes down to experience i think and that is what im lacking at this stage in the game. I just can not decide what to have where. Staging, industrial, business, houses, etc.

[tywest]

After further review i will be headed back to the drawing board. I will post more questions once i get some of those questions answered.

[cuyama]

It all comes down to experience i think and that is what im lacking at this stage in the game. I just can not decide what to have where. Staging, industrial, business, houses, etc.

If you have not done so already, spend some time reading John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation. It will pay off much more than many hours tweaking CAD, IMHO.

[CSXDixieLine]

I am looking for some help with a design for my layout. The picture illustrates what i have to work with so far. It is 16' x 2, with 4' x 4' added on the left and 4' x 2' added on the right.

You are certainly off to a good start. If you are a subscriber to Model Railroader (or any other Kalmbach magazine such as Trains), you can browse the track plan database on this website. I have spent a lot of time on there and can report there are numerous layouts represented with similar configurations to what you have shown in your drawings. Jamie

EDIT: Here is the link to the online MR track plan database:

http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=tp&id=93

 

[gandydancer19]

What I do for layout design (have done so far) is define my area and benchwork first. Next I decide on a theme. (Mainline running, with a branch line(?) or other special interests.) Then I put in a mainline. I am fond of twice around the room types divided by scenery and grades.

Since I have gotten into operations, I also have a staging area of some sort, whether it is a lay-over for entire trains, or a yard that simulates an interchange yard. One track in staging is a through track for continuous running.  If I put cars on it, the layout becomes point to point for operations.

Next I try and determine how many small towns I can have, and possibility one city with a yard and loco facilities, without them crowding one another. Usually small yards and facilities unless I have the room for larger ones.

Then I go looking at plans for modular railroads. I look for ones that would make good towns or cities because their track plans are usually fairly compact, and most of the way they will be switched is already determined with a good track plan themselves.

Because I freelance, I don't worry about town and city names etc., but if you want to model a specific prototype, you can name the towns as the railroad you are modeling would, and build or plan you scenery to suite the area you want to model. Also, some of the industries that may be recognizable in a town you choose to name from a real one may have to be built or otherwise implied to achieve the "feeling" of the real town.

When building starts, I try and get all of the benchwork built first. Then plan where the towns will go and install the mainline to get some trains running. Then I work on one of the yards so I can store stuff when not running. Then I plug along on the other track work and scenery design and continue from there.

Hope this helps.

[Texas Zepher]

I am not all that concerened if it is prototypical or not i just want it to look good.

You mean the scenery looking good or the overall impression of the layout?  I can think of several places the NP, GN, and Milwalkee had nearly parallel tracks, crossing tracks, and shared tracks.  Working the Union Pacific in limits that - a lot.  That gets more into the SP&S territory rather than GN.  A freelanced railroad that has a lot of thought put into it is not prototypical but can look very good.  A half-hearted attempt at modeling a prototype can look really bad.

It still sounds like the wants (logging, mining in addtion to all these big class 1s) are much bigger than the available space.  Your space would make a pretty good stand alone logging layout.   

[tywest]

Thanks for the info. I have been looking a lot into the "end-game" option for layouts. What is a "reverse bend?" I have been reading how a "blob" is undesirable in layouts due to the space it takes up. Im just trying to sort through the new language im trying to learn here.