comments on my track plan

[Anonymous]

I have put up a website for my Unamed & Freelanced R.R. with my track plan. I welcome your comments and suggestions on the plan. I am working in HO in a 10 x 9 area. The concepts for the railroad are on the website.

http://angeltowns2.com/members/javious/index.html

Thanks
Jay

[dehusman]

Just a design note, all of your spurs point in the same direction. A clockwise train will have no work to do and a counter-clockwise train will have all the work.
Have you looked at putting the yard inside the loop on the left hand side? You might actually gain some room for more yard, then use the middle for a textile mill or other industry. If you put a siding on the back side of the loop, you could use that as an "interchange track" with a larger RR, plus be able to run two trains around the loop in opposite directions.
The choice of a 4-6-0 is a good one for a 30's era RR, since they were the jack of all trades on many lines. Remember to ship poles for TVA or REA projects, or carry cement (in boxcars) for various TVA, flood control and navigation projects.

Dave H.

[IRONROOSTER]

For the small shortline type of operation you describe, this looks pretty good. The only thing I would worry about is the turnout on the right side. Be careful it doesn't get too far from the edge of the layout for maintenance.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

The turnout on the right side is going to be moved to the other side of the loop, it could also be reversed. I planned on operating in a point to point system with the yard/town area representing both points. As far as the yard is concerned, I know it is small/limited but I wanted to use the loop areas to have more scenery than track ( a big challenge in such a small area).

New ideas, head shaken (not stirred) ...

Thanks
Jay

[dehusman]

A variation on the approach you mentioned is the "links" concept (as in golf links), where multiple fairways use the same green. If you had two towns but arranged the turntable between them, they could both share the turntable, but otherwise be separate towns. For example if you had town A in the left hand loop and Town B along the top wall between the mains with the turntable in the upper left hand corner, a train could leave town A, go past the "B" switch around the loop and then past the "A" switch and into town B. Town B only needs to have a runaround or siding long enough to hold the train.
another approach would be to put a siding along the wall and have two trains, one in each direction there. The main town would be the interchange with the major road. Each train would run from the far end of your RR, meet in the middle, turn and run back to their own end. When they get back to the siding on the back, the east end train becomes the west end train and vice versa.

Dave H.

[leighant]

That yard looks awfully short. Two or three freight cars per spur? One suggestion-- passing sigings and runaround tracks seem "naturally" to fit on a straight section of track but it doesn't have to be that way. If you have a passing siding that started somewhere in the middle of your straight section of track and went around one of the end curves, you could run yard tracks the length of the inside of one of the end lobes.

Is there an interchange with a large railroad, or a staging track that represents "the rest of the world" somewhere in your scheme?

[Anonymous]

First, with the yard, I would remove the spur on the right hand side, and replace that turnout with a right-hand turnout as the entry into the yard. Then the yard ladder will be moved over some nine inches, and make the yard longer. Does that make sense? It would also make the entry into the yard much less "kinked", and make switching moves in the yard much less prone to derailmenents.

Then, you mention that you are planning on "hiding" the track against the wall as it passes the yard. If you are planning on doing that, how about moving the yard to the track back against the wall? Have the tracks drop in elevation on leaving the yard, go into a tunnel, pass under the yard, come out of the tunnel, and go back up to the other end of the yard. That way, you'll have even longer space for the yard, and the track in the foreground is lower than the track in the rear, which makes everything easier to see, and makes it easier to reach over.

If what I said isn't too clear, let me know, and I'll sketch up what I'm talking about.

---jps

[Anonymous]

I've done a little tweaking to the plan to lenthen the yard tracks, move a turnout closer to the aisle and added an interchange track. I am considering jps's idea of lowering the inside track area and moving the yard to the rear and overhead.

As far as the yard capacity goes, I am modeling early 1930's 36' and 40' cars. My 36' MDC double sheathed boxcars are 5" plus the couplers, so the yard as first designed would hold eleven 36' cars. Even so I like the new look on this version.

The new plan is up on the website, which is the worst I have ever created, sorry.
Jay

[Anonymous]

it looks good.

You can place the engine facilities above the drill track to the right and use the extra room for a industry or extra yard track.

The spurs point in one direction It will be difficult with out a passing siding on a long section of straight track to do the work in the opposite direction. I think you can lower the far left wall track down below the yard and have it climb out to the far right. This may avoid the feeling of "Did that train just leave here?

Nice little plan.

Lee

[Anonymous]

I've been busy on version 6 of my little plan, this time making it bi-level, thanks jps. I've moved the yard and extended it, changed the interchange track to behind the yard, made industry sidings branch off in different directions, used #6 turnouts for the passing siding and lowered the elevation on part of the layout to take the track under the yard. The biggest problem I see now is the entrance to the layout area is getting quite narrow, 2' or less. I'd rather suck it in a bit than crawl under under though.

Let me know what you think,
Thanks for all the good input as ver5 was twice as good as my original,
Link is in sig or use http://angeltowns2.com/members/javious/track3.html
to go directly to this plan

Jay

[Anonymous]

It doesn't look like your aisle is getting too narrow, but I might be missing something.

Does your choice of track line have curved turnouts? That might give you a little longer passing siding, and a little smoother flow. Another option for the yard ladder would be to have a lefthand turnout at the last section of curve before the passing siding (does that make sense?). It would move the yard ladder over some 18". The yard would be longer, but the space for the turntable and roundhouse would be significantly decreased, so that depends on what you want.

As far as the spurs facing the same way, maybe you can take the one spur that's on the left peninsula (close to the tunnel entrance), and move it so that it connects to the track on the wall (close to where the "B" is). That way, you'll also avoid having the train moving back and forth inside of the tunnel when switching that spur. I do have a situation like that in my layout, and it works so far, but if I could have avoided it, I would have.

Anyway, just some more thoughts to get the ideas flowing.

---jps

[Anonymous]

The yard still looks a little clumsy to me. You need to add a drill track so you won't be using the main to work the yard. It looks like you are using Atlas Right Track software. I may sketch up something to show you what I am recommending. Where (or how) do I send it to you?

Ed

[Anonymous]

Ed,

I did make that with RTS. The yard is clumsy, but not as bad as the previous version. This yard about doubles my car capacity. I am not really worried about fouling the main since I am using a single locomotive. Here are some basics:

era: early 1930's
location: southern United States (cotton country)
scale: HO
motive power: Spectrum Baldwin 4-6-0
average train length: 6 cars + caboose
rolling stock: mostly 36', a few 40' with a 25' caboose
room size: 10' x 9'

Due to the smallish room I am using, the "town" (yard area) has to represent 2 towns and the ends of the line. Operations will be point to point with continous running available as well. An interchange track is provided along the north wall.

Jay
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Jay,

I would suggest an around the room plan. Set the bench work height fairly high and it won,t be so bad at the duck under...or install a removeable section to cross the door. This gets you out of having to use two big blobs just to turn trains back to whence they came. You are using most of the square footage on your turnback loops. Around the room would also increase your minimum radius, always a plus. You would also have more room for industries and your yard without having to resort to grades. In your current plan, at 2% grade you barely get 4" at the crossunder at the yard . . . . pretty tight.

Just my two cents,

Guy

[Anonymous]

Thanks Guy,
I was wondering about the grade % and how much clearance I would be able to attain under the yard and still be able to pull the train up the other side. The problem with a around the walls type plan is how you enter the room. It is a portion of my basement with very low ceilings, the stairs come down then a left turn where I have entrance on the plan. The bottom of the rafters are about 6'1" above the floor so a duckunder is out. Putting benchwork high enough for the duck under would put it too close to the ceiling. A lift out section might be a possibility. The reason I chose this area was it is newer construction with better floors and walls than the 75 + year old rest of the basement. Also because I have never done much more than tack track down with rudimentary scenery so I wanted to keep it possible but not overwhelming and more than a 4x8. A lift out section would end up on a corner and it looks to me to be more difficult to keep allignment with curved track on that section. Perhaps I could cut the corner a bit have track running at a 45 degree angle to the corner and use that to lift out.

The other part of the basement has the same low ceilings but an uneven floor and much more typical basement stuff to contend with. Much more room prep and increased difficulty in benchwork construction prompted me to use the smaller area.

I will try out an around the walls plan tonight to see what I can come up with, advice on lift out sections will be needed for this idea to work.

Thanks,
Jay

[Anonymous]

I tried some around the wall plan ideas and wasn't happy with them. I am now thinking of moving to the larger side of the basement and using a 4 x 16 with scenic divider to give myself a long mainline run, plenty of space for the yard and sidings, enough scenery to please me and plenty of aisle space. Has anyone built something like this? Any thoughts on this idea are appreciated.

Jay

[Anonymous]

Javious,

I am having problems with Windows ME and my computer crashes every time I try to use the flex track tool from the button at the top of the window. If you are going to a different space, I won't bother trying to work around that.

My only problem with a 4 x 16 is that you have to have such tight radii at each end. There are one or two interesting switch-back plans in 101 Model Railroads You Can Build. Since you are looking at an early time period you may want to consider a switch-back plan but that would not be appropriate for passenger operations. You could put a combine on a train and take the workers to work and bring them home, but that's about it.

Good Luck - Ed