If you go on Google Books and search for an author named "John Albert Droege", he wrote several books on prototype terminal design back in the 1920's and 1930's. You can download them and read at your leisure. They are not light reading but can give some ideas on how things worked for a prototype perspective. And they are free. Or you can go on Amazon and buy a reprint. Free is better.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dave vI have no yard or passenger service plan. I do have enough turnouts (code 80 atlas, manual) and ME code 55 flex. Here are some photos of the proposed site. Any and all ideas are truly welcome!
Dealing with passengers is a less modeled scenario than freight car classification. There have been some pretty good articles about it in Model Railroader through the past decade. If that is what you are wanting I can look up the issues with the articles.
Go to train shows and look at the display layouts. Visit club open houses. Check out local train shops. Seeing real layouts close up, with your own eyes and not through a camera, will give you a good idea of the kind of things that you'd like to have on your own layout.
At the same time, there are a lot of nice layouts pictured every month in Model Railroader and other train magazines. If you don't have them, check your public library. Mine has a subscription, so I can go there any time and read it for free. (I've got my own subscription, but before I did, that's what I'd do.)
And, you can go downtown and walk into a real railroad station for free, or you can use Google to look at satellite photos of rail yards.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Well I can tell you from a beginner's stand point, and tell you what I did. Many thoughts raced through my mind back then. Many will tell you to go out and buy a book, and I did but in short, get an idea of what you want. IN order for you to do that, you've got to see it!~ I'll make a few suggestions.
For me, I had to see it. Sure draw it on on paper or some computer, but you really do have to see it. If you already have the track, lay them out. See how much space you do or don't have. If you have turn outs, (switches) lay them out too.
If you have buildings, lay them out on the proposed area. If you already have a complete line Engine / passenger trains lay them out too. But in short, when you lay all this out, a seven car passenger train will take up about 5 feet of space.
Aside from the new station, the old station can still be present, now some magazine newstand / store.
Then the thought of Double mains crosses your mind. And what exactly are we looking at?
Well End Game here, when you get done with all that. You'll end up with a diagram that looks like this.
(one small mistake, but few will notice)
And the only way I can tell you too try to get any information out of this is to think of what you want out of your Passenger train / Station.
Arrrival / Departure .. can the passenger train disconnect and pick up added freight or passenger cars?
The Yard Lead and the Yard. Many more things to consider. Over-night freight, Maint. Buildings?
One other side note. I think picking passenger trains is a great pick. Its one of the first my wife and I wanted. A busy station.. we chose many lines. Why stick to just one line?
Also, some build a specific type of station.. for certain part of the country. My wife and I chose more of a universal station look, anywhere in the nation station.~
I sure some of vets here can give better answers. But for me, I had to see it .. and it was cheaper. It gave me more insight as to what was needed.. especially how much space is needed. About 5 feet.. for a 7 car passenger train for N-scale.
Enjoy the few pics, I'll follow up with other pics. Most importantly .. Have Fun~
TC Keith
I have no yard or passenger service plan. I do have enough turnouts (code 80 atlas, manual) and ME code 55 flex. Here are some photos of the proposed site. Any and all ideas are truly welcome! Layout is Nscale. Sorry no photos, can't upload from my picture library, don't know how to use windows 8 or even a computer.