Well...if one spends the time designing layouts, one can come up with several different ones and create the problem of "Which one do I choose?"
I have been in this for a while now.
big problem is that I havent cleaned out the room yet so I cant even start on this if I wanted to.
The issue is that the 4x8 that grew into a 4.5'x9' needs to come down, the son is bored with it and we need the room to store the wood pellets.
So, out with that layout and in comes the notion that we can start anew, do things different, dont do the same mistakes as before and create something that hopefully will keep interest. but at the same time be not so overwhelming that no one can use it.
So I did several designs, doing this, doing that. I had one, I thought it was good, but the problem is that its got a leg that is 14' long. it might fit, but it might not too.
So, I came up with this one....
So, let me know what might be a huge problem area, I know there are "S" turns in there over on the left side, the "Country" side, but the light blue sections are 22" radi. I could do flex track to keep the "S" a bit more easy. plus its no more of an "S" curve than the #4 turnouts that face eachother and I have done that before with no issues.
oh, the bottom left is going to be a swing section so we can walk into the doughnut. The red is the table top outline.
Kevin
I get kind of lost in the lower right, it looks like tracks cross over each other, or are those switches?
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
the lower right is a bit jumbled. that grey cross is just that a cross, not a double slip. all the red turnouts are peco medium lefts, all the yellow ones are peco medium rights, the pink left is an atlas snap left.
the inner loop is freight the outter is passenger service. so with that happening, I needed a way to get the freight line which will run counter clockwise a way in to the siding that services the factories. the grey crossing seemed to get it into there quickly. most of the other turnouts in there i put in so I could get a passenger train with cars off the storage track that runs along next to the roundhouse out of there and then to the outter loop up to the station up around 43" down and 100" to the right. the passenger direction is clockwise, this is the request of the son, two trains running same time in opposite directions.
Kevin,
You could ease the S curve issue by placing the station on the opposite side of the tracks. That would push those double tracks back and allow a much better alignment of the curve.
Don Z.
Research; it's not just for geeks.
oh, yeah, I could do that good point.
Done, I replaced the original posted plan, so now it looks like there never was a problem....and I was able to keep the station on the outside passenger track, best of both worlds...
kevin
You seem to have packed most of everything into the right hand side of the design.
Moving your roundhouse to the left hand side would allow you to have gentiler sweeping curves through the right hand side, as well as giving you some extra "storage" and "switching" space on the left.
I still say you should go "modular" that way you can mix & match and change the design whenever you feel.
I just got off a 10 hour trick, gimme a little bit and I'll post a design.
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This is my two cents worth: I would leave the turntable and engine facility co-located with the yard and industrial area as one would expect to find them in real life. I would pull the edge of the bench back, though, where your two outdoor radials seem to come right up to it. Not good.
Secondly, I agree that your upper left quadrant is under developed. It could stand to have a facing point spur, moving around the mains counter-clockwise, and run up into that space a short distance. John Armstrong urged us to mix up the orientations of spotting tracks so that we couldn't always approach them engine leading. Just keep access and reach in mind.,
Finally, if it were up to me, I'd have at least one crossover out there in the vast expanses. You have a nice double track system (wish I had), but no way for an engine to cross over for some reason.
-Crandell
What is the purpose of the 2nd crossover in the lower center (the yellow set)? I see no need for it as the one right below it (with the yellow turnout and grey double slip) serves an identical purpose.
Ok, thats not bad....I will have to take that and see what I can come up with.
The overall design needs to have the counrty scene in it, that is why the left side was so "under developed" the left side gave me a city scene and I would be able to have a trolly set up allong the main street and it is reachable for the kids, 8yrs old and 6yrs old.
There wernt any cross overs built in the double main line other than in the yard in order to keep the layout simpler. My son has requested that we have the ablility to have two trains running in opposite directions and can be left alone with no collissions.
After posting this and getting the comments, I think I should back track a bit and list out the objectives that are requested by my family members for the next layout.
1. as mentioned double main line so two trains can run opposite directions without collisions if set right.
2. the small vermont type village town(the left side of design) that will have a center green, one station, a christmas tree farm and a farm off in the distance
3. two passenger stations, creating the ability to have passenger service to and from two different towns.
4 two freight stations creating the ability to have freight service with a real reason to exist.
5. the round house
6. storage for a tourist passenger service. There will be two passenger service engines on the layout. Nicholas' Amtrak with standard passenger cars, and a tourist passenger service pulled by my wife's K4 and old tyme passenger cars.
7. the covered bridge, this is a 9" span bridge that I built from the last layout. its is a must.
8 Main street with a trolly on the city side. this means that the main street can not exceed 2' reach as the trollys will be pushed by hands (Kids)
9. all turnouts will be manual throws, so they must all be within the 2' reach as well.
10. Time period of fall, what year, doesnt matter thus nicholas has his Amtrak phase V 103's and we can still run the steam as a tourist engine.
11. swing section so we can enter the center without ducking. thus the bottom left with no bechwork drawn.
12. scale is HO
13. DCC
Ok, thats all the requirements, some come from the wife, the kids, and then I get to throw in a little too.
So that is why the left side was so simple compared to the right, I needed to keep some simplicity so my daughter can run engines too and also to keep the simple type of life style that small town Vermonters have even in these days, one can find a town as simple as the one modeled here. I wanted to try to give some kind of sence of distance, but with the space I have, its hard to do.
the grey is not a double slip, its a 12 degree cross.
I dont have a double slip and they are pretty pricey as well.
I need ways to get the passenger engines and cars from the round house to the outside line and running in a clock wise direction, and I also need a way to get the freight engines running counter clock wise to get from the inside line to that industry service siding. I also would like a run around in the yard for the freight engine to manipulate cars.
I am open to suggestions on how to simplify that whole area and still meet these needs. I currently have 5 peco medium rights and 4 peco medium lefts. I will need more if I stick with this design. I do not have the 12 degree crossing yet either.
I suppose if i got the double slip I would be able to save from not buying the two right handers that are there, so that would make the price of the double slip not so bad, plus that still gives me a run a round although it uses the passenger line to do so, but looking at the whole thing, the passenger line is disrupted anyhow, and I am not going to be a stickler on weather that is realistic or not.
I guess that can be a double slip.
Fellow Verdes Montes Inhabitant,
Consider having the majority of your railroad facilities as I presented them. You still have plenty of room for your country scene, as well as the your town-scape and industries as well. My design isn't very compressed, and if set up with actual track pieces would fall into place rather well.
With the right hand side you have the opportunity to model a typical small town Vermont scene with a shortline running through it. A farm right next to the tracks like in Brandon and Lecester is completely prototypical.
I do see your point, I do like you design and I am working on doing your design with the atlas RTS
Well....looks like this plan is scrapped, the plan for the basement is changed again. I will now have the back wall of a 15'x14' room. So I have a second layout design that is an "L" shape that is 9'x14' doesnt that just figure?
here is the purposed 9'x14':
Looks much better than the first version! Much better separation of the scenes.
Slowly building a layout since 2007!
Well ............... you have a lot of hidden track including some that is too remote to reach even if the scenery covering it is removable. And, your spurs are all served by the station track, producing operational conflicts; also, you have very little yard space. Your operational opportunities are limited.
There is a lot of hidden track, I agree. I did this layout with heavy influence from a layout in the MRR mag, back when they were allowing free access for everyone to all the layout designs they have in their library. The design is the Hevonkuusi_Ry. Their design has just as much hidden track. as I look at it, their design also has the passenger track as the 2nd line next to the station forcing people to step over a freight spur. I showed this to my son and he asked about the hidden track, this design isnt a set in stone, the lines can come and go in and out of scenery that can hide the train. its just hidden to create the sense of trains actually going off to an other town.
The passenger line will be the outside line, and the spur that services the indusdries is freight actually, the passenger line will be the next line through the yard. passengers walking from the station will have to step over the freight spur. just as they will have to do over on the small town end of the layout. This is what people do at claremont, NH; so i didnt see an issue doing it in the layout.
Looking at the yard, I think its actually larger than the yard in the other design I was considering.
The only thing this layout creates, is the possibility of head on collissions if we are not paying attention, the other design had a double line around the whole layout, this one has a single line part. its not long, but we will not be able to just set two trains going in opposite directions, set the switches and then just be hands off. if we do, they will collide on that single line area. nicholas and I are ok with this, it will keep us thinking.
This layout is pretty big though, thats my major concern. big means expensive and long time to build. since the room hasnt even been emptied out yet lends me to believe that it will be a long time before its built. This creates nervousness in me that it may never get finished, and I dont really like that feeling.