Well I'm using this time to work on the layout. It's a small layout with the basic concept being a switching area at the end of a branch, pretty much like MR's Winston Salem Southbound. But with a little bit of the incoming line to the junction modeled.
So here's the dilemma. My original concept was much like the Southbound with a single removable staging track to provide the outside world for a train to come and go. But I've realized I have enough space for a small junction yard. So the alternate concept is cars have appeared in the junction as if some giant hand brought them down from the sky and the switcher runs down to the junction to pick them up and do it's thing, finally leaving the outbound cars for the overnight run on the mainline to pick up and drop off.
Which concept works better: a: train comes from the outside world (staging) and returns or b: cars are left at the junction overnight for the town's switcher to work?
I'm torn.
jmbjmbWhich concept works better: a: train comes from the outside world (staging) and returns or b: cars are left at the junction overnight for the town's switcher to work?
I plan to use both.
There will be staging tracks for some trains, but the freight cars on the giant carfloat will be moved around by "The Hand Of God" in between operating sessions.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
jmbjmb Which concept works better: a: train comes from the outside world (staging) and returns or b: cars are left at the junction overnight for the town's switcher to work? I'm torn.
Which concept works better: a: train comes from the outside world (staging) and returns or b: cars are left at the junction overnight for the town's switcher to work? I'm torn.
Isn't it helpful to be told "it depends"? Do you expect to operate by yourself or with others? With a few others or many others?
Seems to me that "giant hand from the sky" is going to be involved whether it is just placing the newly delivered cars on the interchange track, or putting them on the staging track to be delivered by an actual model locomotive. If you are looking for things for folks do to, having the "other" railroad deliver cars from staging gives someone something to do, and best of all it can be one of the first things when the session starts because as you might know, it often takes a while after an ops session starts for the first train to be able to run, unless it was all prepped and ready to go anyway (more giant hand from the sky activity).
The downside is that just running a locomotive out, dropping a car, and running back to staging is not exactly compelling. I believe Tony Koester totally automated this on his layout -- a Milwaukee Road locomotive pushes out interchange cars automatically.
Similarly I believe Bill Darnaby has many interchanges on his layout which are "dummy crossings" - no trains, but the interchange tracks are modeled and do their function of supplying cars for the local. He even signals the crossings with electronic timers so that his railroad's trains are "stabbed" and must wait for a train that nobody actually sees. Darn, you just missed the train! But you see the results.
Maybe the real deciding factor is, since the end result is really more or less the same thing: interchanged cars waiting for your "real" crews to do something with, how precious is the space that would be taken up by even a very minimalist staging yard? Could that space be put to more interesting use? And who would really see that brief arrival and depature? Isn't everyone else busy doing their thing in the yard or copying down orders or studying their switch list?
I think I am voting for giant hand from the sky, no real staging.
Dave Nelson
What do you want to model?
1. Are you modeling a station/town on a railroad and there is no engine based there, the train that switches there comes from someplace else, switches the town/station and then continues on or returns to where it originated. The train that switches the town/station is an actual train.
Or....
2. Are you modeling a town/station/shortline that has a switch engine assigned to the location and it stays there and never leaves. The train that switches the town/station may not be a "train", but just and "engine".
In option one you would need a caboose and could use "road power". In option two, you could use a switch engine or road switcher and wouldn't necessarily need a caboose.
In option one there would be no need for any service or RIP tracks. In option two a minimal service track (fuel, sand and water) might be appropriate for a steam engine.
Option one just needs a track as long as your longest train. Option two can have shorter tracks, but more of them.
Option one, you are modeling part of a crew's day. They neither begin nor end their shift on your layout. Option two, you are modeling the entire shift of the crew. They begin and end on the layout.
What do you want?
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Thanks for the inputs guys. To answer a couple of questions, here goes.
a. Pretty much a single person layout. Even if I had two people, it's one train ops. The concept is proto-freelanced, based on a couple of Southern Rwy branches where I grew up. I'd love to model the actual operations of that area which were a lot more trains, but just don't have the room. Basically I have a 2x8 with a 1x8 tail.
b. Visually, what is physically modeled in the "tail" is much like the Bill Darnaby/Tony Koester concept. There's about 18 inches of mainline and a connection.
c. Ah Dave H, you described my question better than I did. Is it a train with engine and caboose coming from somewhere and heading down the branch or is it a switcher stationed in town heading to pick up from the interchange? I bounce back and forth between those two. I've experimented with both.
Operational, one gives me an excuse for a small engine service area, though at a cost of an industry track. The other provides, as in the Darnaby example, the operational interested of having to wait for permission to enter the main upon leaving the branch (electronic timer).
The two prototypes I mentioned are no help because in the era I'm modeling, one used a train coming from somewhere and the other had it's own switcher and interchange tracks.
Follow up. I appreciate the input so I didn't want to just post without letting y'all know where I am. I decided to go with the staging track a'la WSSB because I had the wood and track on had to give it a try. Just took a couple hours. If it doesn't work out, no big time or cost spent. Whereas laying in a visible interchange yard would have required more time, materials, and turnouts (=cost) which would have been a much bigger sunk cost if it didn't work. Easier to drop a single staging track and add the yard later than the other way around.