My current schematic is a loop-to-loop mainline with 3 track staging in each loop. The mainline runs around the walls of a large rectangular basement and to save space, I stacked the loops. The result is the lower loop is difficult to access if there is a problem and also can't be used to fiddle with the consists as I could if the staging yard were more accessible.
One of my MR bibles over the years has been John Armstrong's Creative Layout Design. I have the 1978 edition. I remembered he proposed a staging yard in which trains after they go around the loop would then back around it and into a ladder with as many tracks as space permits. It is shown on page 66 of my edition of the book. My current staging yard looks very much like the example on top and I was thinking of redoing my lower loop similar to what John Armstrong proposed. I could slightly modify his proposed design so that the backing move would be downgrade which it seems to me would make for a more reliable move. The staging yard would then be underneath the mainline tracks leading to it.
My concern is that I run fairly long trains, some more than 10 feet in HO scale. I would have to back these trains through a turnout before they got to the downgrade portion. Has anybody tried building such a yard and could long trains be backed into the staging tracks reliably.
John-NYBWMy concern is that I run fairly long trains, some more than 10 feet in HO scale. I would have to back these trains through a turnout before they got to the downgrade portion. Has anybody tried building such a yard and could long trains be backed into the staging tracks reliably.
At the museum we regularly back long trains through complex trackage. The ore train is probably the "worse case scenario". It is composed of those short ore buggy type cars and it is 80 of them. To do this on a regular basis with it an all the other trains, the trackwork has to be good, the cars have to be in good working order and "in spec". In spec includes body mounted couplers at the right height that "spring" properly, trucks turning and tilting properly, wheels in gauge and spinning freely, AND the proper weight. Trying to back a feather weight train is asking for trouble.
Do all these things and you should not have an issue backing a 10 foot (17? car) train into a stub end yard track.
I am getting ready to build my next layout and will have a dead end staging yard on a wye, so trains will be backed in and backed out on a regular basis.
I have no concerns with my plan. I will be running trains in the 20' range, 35-45 cars.
Here is the plan:
Note the wye to right side of the plan leading into the yard into the upper right corner.
On numerous layouts I have backed trains of 40-50 cars without any problems.
I am fussy about wheel, truck, coupler, weight and track standards......
Sheldon
That's not too unlike what I am considering to replace my staging yard. I'll just be backing around a loop rather than a wye. I too am fussy about wheels, couplers and car weight. When I started laying track 20 years ago, I wasn't quite as fussy as I should have been and had to redo a few troubled spots. If I redo the staging yard I will be extra careful when laying the track. I also plan to have the staging yard on a slight down grade which should put gravity to use when backing the train. Is that something you would consider? The other thing I am considering is redoing the lower loop by using what would essentially be a wide one turn helix to get great separation between the upper and lower loop. Either approach is going to require disassembly of both loops and a complete reengineering of the bench work. Maybe it will be a summer project when I don't do a lot of train running anyway.
Yes, I am familiar with the staging yard plan from Armstrong you refered to and knew it was similar to what I am doing.
I will load trains facing out prior to opps sessions and just let returning trains pull in to simulate them "leaving" the stage.
Then they will be backed out, pulled around the wye, and backed in to restage them for the next session.
In my case I'm not much of a fiddle yard guy. I have no need or plan to restage trains during an opps session. Those kinds of changes will be made by pulling the train to main freight yard and working on it there if necessary.
But my operational scheme puts all my rolling stock on the layout and minimizes five finger handling of rolling stock.
I had not planned on doing much fiddling either but I've discovered that while building my basement empire I accumulated more freight cars than my staging years and main classification yard can handle so at least at one of my staging yards, I can use the five fingered switcher to swap cars off and on the layout. I had no idea I was accumulating so many cars. I thought I had built my staging yards with enough capacity but it's not even close. I have one dummy interchange track where I can fiddle cars as well but that only holds about five cars. If I go with the John Armstrong option, I'll be able to add capacity to one of the storage yards but still not enough to hold the entire roster at once. I still have a fairly large box of unbuilt freight car kits, I'm guessing about two dozen, so I'll be doing lots of fiddling in the future.