I know there was an article on this subject sometime in the past, but I'm obviously not using the right search terms in my 75 year collection DVDs. It involved capacity of all industry tracks, yard track and passing tracks. TIA
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
Alan-
I have a vague memory of a similar mention. It may have been in MR or RMC. They came to the conclusion that packing the tracks with too many cars was counter productive to smooth operations. I believe they mentioned somewhere that 25 to 30% of total layout capacity was about right. Any more than that and you are just stumbling over yourself moving too many cars to move the car(s) you want moved. Hope this helps. Others may have their own opinions but this works for me on my layout.
Mark B.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I vaguely remember that. Can't remember if unit trains counted in that total or not. I don't think it did. Guess it depends on how they are run
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
I remember reading that 60% of the car capacity of your yard(s) would be the maximum without clogging up operations.
I would think that about 50% (or less) of the total capacity of yards, industrial sidings, and staging tracks would be about right.
Unit trains wouldn't be a factor, since a true unit train isn't broken up in a yard. The cars are one unit, generally running in some type of continous back-and-forth operation...like a train of coal hoppers being loaded in a balloon track in the Powder River country, then running to a power plant in say Wisconsin where the cars are unloaded via another balloon track (perhaps using a rotary dumper) and then immediately run back west for more coal. No switching involved.
pffff! None of us have the right number. We all have too many. Listen to Youtube by JRWI2000 He has over 1000 freight cars.
Anyone out there want to admit they have too few? Crickets.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy pffff! None of us have the right number. We all have too many. Listen to Youtube by JRWI2000 He has over 1000 freight cars. Anyone out there want to admit they have too few? Crickets.
Well, maybe. I have about 1000 freight cars and will have a place to park all of them on the new layout.
30 staged trains, 20-22 will be freight, average lenght 30-35 cars - that's 770 cars and we have not considered what could/should be in the visable freight yard.
Main Yard - 25' long x 6 tracks x 2 = a capacity of 300 40' cars - I model the 50's.
Assume the yard is between 30% and 50% full = call it 120 cars.
Current sub total = 890 cars.
Three industrial switching areas, one includes a piggy back yard of four tracks 10' long. That will hold 64 50' piggyback flats.
Spread a few more around the other industries, we can at least get in the range of 975 freight cars with no problem.
Then there are the passenger cars:
Call it 10 trains, 8 in the hidden staging and two staged in the four track passenger station, average length 12 cars. 10 x 12 = 120
There is a small coach yard, four 3' tracks, call that 12 more passenger cars.
Oh no!, I have too many passenger cars, there are neatly 160 of them around here!
Locomotives - 30 trains, most 3-4 diesels or 2 steam locos, about 90 powered units required. Parking in the engine terminal will hold about 20-25.
I have about 140, and only plan to buy a few more.........
This still leaves plenty of yard and industrial space for switching, and the whole mainline open.
Sheldon
I only have about 240 pieces of rolling stock and for me that is really too many. My main problem it that I like building and painting equipment. (Engine and caboose currently in the paint shop and plans to paint and decal another boxcar. The boxcar ended up from finding an OOP decal set specific for that car when ordering decal sets for another project.)
Thanks Bear.
Now why couldn't I find that. I did search my own messages but did not go back to 2012.
BigDaddyAnyone out there want to admit they have too few?
Actually I do. I model 1900-1905 so there are few if any RTR models out there of anything other than a 36 ft boxcar. That means all my cars have to be scratchbuilt, kitbashed or made from resin, wood and 3D printed kits. I am about a month away from finishing a new branch which will mean I have spots for another 10 cars, which means I am about 20-25 cars short.
I also need more coal cars and gons for the rest of the layout. I need to make molds and cast about a dozen resin hopper cars, then use the molds I have an cast another 10 gons for steel and stone trade.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I think a lot depends on the size of your layout and the era you model. My layout is in a 20’x20’ room with 2 levels. Lower level has 10 main staging tracks and 8 stub tracks for freight cars. The upper level has a classification yard. I model the modern era.
There’s about 450 freight cars between both levels, including freight cars at industries and sidings. In an operating session, we move about 150 freight cars at any given time. Sessions last about 2 ½ hours. If we ran longer, we could move more freight, but this is just fine for me and my operators.
At one time I had too many freight cars on the layout and took some off. I could probably take off a few more if I chose to. In addition, I have a passenger station that holds passenger cars and some engines. I have an engine terminal which holds (at last count) about 40 engines.
At the end of the day, it’s your railroad, so do what you want. The best thing to do is to have some sessions and see what works and what doesn’t.
Neal
I had too few for a while. When I built SGRR #5 in the spare bedroom I decided to go full freelance, and gave away all my cars with prototype paint. That left me with only about a dozen freight cars for the SGRR and two or three others.
I never had enough freight cars to fully populate that layout.
Now I have over 125 freight cars painted and lettered for ficticious railroads, but no layout at all.
Problems...
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Lets ee if I'm thinking about this right.
My cut of 5 cars for the redi-mix plant requires 30 inches of track. Allow extra for scenic effect, lets say 50 inches. A double consist of GPs occupies about 15 inches, and then when I use the incoming 5 cars as a handle to swap out the 5 empties, 10 cars totaling 60 inches plus two locos totaling 15 inches requires a switch lead of about 75 inches. Plus frog clearance and points.
30 inches for parked cars plus the about 90 inches for switching space equals 120 inches of track, or 25% of track being occupied by the 30 inches of sitting cars. If I could use that same switch lead for another inductry that has 30 inches of cars, total "parked car inches" equals 60 inches of parked cars for the 90 inches of switch lead, or 60 inches of total track length needed to switch out both industries. For two industries, that's 50% of track length being occupied by parked cars.
So there is a big difference in these numbers depending upon how the layout is operated.
I think the article referred in the thread was talking specifically about yards. I assume that most yards are shaped about the same way and use either the main line or a separate drill track for the switch lead. Again, the percentage of track will change depending upon how many classification tracks there are and if there is a separate drill track.
As a rule of thumb, I would say that 30% to 40% of tracks occupied by parked cars seems reasonable. Of course, that doesn't include the mainline run that may not have any parked cars on it at all. So the percentage of track occupied would be lower if you included all of the track on the layout.
Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong, or overthinking it.
- Douglas
When visiting layouts, it is easy to tell how the layout is used by how many freight cars are on the tracks.
If all the yard and industry tracks are full, the owner just uses the layout to watch trains run. If the tracks are 50% or less full, the owner is operating the layout with switching moves and making up trains in the yard.
PennsyLou I would think that about 50% (or less) of the total capacity of yards, industrial sidings, and staging tracks would be about right.
SeeYou190 Now I have over 125 freight cars painted and lettered for ficticious railroads, but no layout at all.
Of course you have a few switching around other people's layouts as well.
The question is: "How many cars is the right number for good operation on a layout?"
The USUAL answer is : "The number of cars you own, reduced by 50%."
Dave Nelson
FRRYKid SeeYou190 Now I have over 125 freight cars painted and lettered for ficticious railroads, but no layout at all. Of course you have a few switching around other people's layouts as well.
Oh yes, over 100 of them as well!
I love the pictures I have of SGRR equipment in interchange service!
-Photograph by Harrison
I really love it when they show up on YouTube.
Currently, after the last operating session my layout stands as follows:
During an average session the locals and industry jobs spot 70-80 cars and pull 70-80 cars. The goal is to have about 110 to 120 cars on spot and then spot/pull that same 70-80 cars pers session for about a 2/3 turnover of the cars on spot. That will most likely increase the yard and staging counts to about 90 in yards and 80 in staging/interchanges.
Well, my layout has parked cars on each industrial spur. Each spur:
That's 206 inches of parked cars. The spurs these cars sit on, plus one 80 inch drill track, plus the 106 inch long yard track, plus the two 80 inch long runaround tracks equals about 760 inches of track.
That's about 27% of the track occupied to be able to operate it. Now, I use #8 turnouts for the switching district so that spreads things out which impacts the usable portion of track less because of the shallower angle. Besides, I like long tracks.
About 27%. That's probably more generous open track compared to most, but that reflects my modeling style too.
Total inches of track...the entire layout...would also include mainline and staging. That skews the numbers if we are talking about the space parked cars take up relative to the entire layout, because mainlines can be long of course.
I was under the impression about not having layout sidngs and yard(s) serve as parking lots. Did I miss something? It makes zero sense for any setup unless you're not focusing on operations. Totally fine with it being your layout.
At least ... Two ... ?
Rust...... It's a good thing !
50% will definitely make switching easier. But I would say that only trial and error will tell you what is the best fit for each siding.
Simon
Thanks Dave,
This is the best answer.
Since posing the question I have taken off about a third of the cars I had on the layout and it makes operations a whole lot better, maybe another 20% could also go on the shelf and I would be even happier with operations. It's just hard deciding which ones I don't want running.
Thanks
dknelson The question is: "How many cars is the right number for good operation on a layout?" The USUAL answer is : "The number of cars you own, reduced by 50%." Dave Nelson
kasskabooseI was under the impression about not having layout sidngs and yard(s) serve as parking lots. Did I miss something?
No just depends on the question. The question was how many cars on the layout. The yards are on the layout and there are cars in the yards. That doesn't mean they are stored or parked, but they are part of the inventory. Almost all the cars in my yards will turn over in a session and the majority of cars in staging will also. The cars that won't leave during a session are for locals that only run every other session.
Alantrains It's just hard deciding which ones I don't want running.
It's just hard deciding which ones I don't want running.
It's not a permanent decision - periodically, maybe twice a year, rotate equipment on and off the layout.
I just measured again, and got basically the same results. On a 26 x 2 foot shelf layout, I have 840 inches of track occupied by 260 inches of cars. That's all track, mainline, sidings, spurs, turnouts, etc.
That's 27%
Staging is in the other room, and of course is much more crowded.
That 27% actually looks pretty spartan. I think there should be more cars.
But, it does give a pretty accurate scenery/trains ratio that you would see if you viewed the prototype with a drone. Scenery dominates. So I'm happy with the spartan look.
Of course, operations isn't a problem with that low percentage of occupancy.