The Vail and Southwestern unveiled - Fire away!!

[Anonymous]

Here is the background:
The Vail is Vail, AZ, so this is a railroad located in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson. This is an N-scale layout in a corner of the garage. The theme is in the direction of the SP line through Southern Arizona, in the transition era. That said, I think there may be a time machine and space macchine involved, as almost anything from anywhere at any time could show up. The three main workers on the project are myself and my soon to be 17 and 18 year old sons, who have expressed considerable interest, and have put their money where their mouth is in purchasing some equipment in anticipation of the construction. They also built a 4x6 layout and installed the original Prodigy DCC system with almost no help, so I think I have assistance. (BTW, the prodigy will be replaced, and may go on to run a small HO layout for my two younger sons.) Anyway, the curves are no less that 16.5", and generally more, so we hope to run almost anything with reasonable sucess.

A quick tour:
There are wall to the bottom and left. The top and right are clear, but not devoted to railroad exclusively. The main yard is on the lower level, left side. At the rear of the yard is a fairly substantial paaenger station. Above the yard is the engine servicing area, with turntable. Leaving the yard towards the top you follow a loop around the pennisula, gradually climbing to the front tracks on the upper level. The staging area behind those tracks will be blocked from view froom the inside, but open on the outside. The upper level continues around the layout to the 4 turn helix (a hair over 2%) back to the lower level, and on around to the yard. Diverging from the main both above and below the yard are reversing tracks that climb up under the staging and join near the ends of the upper level main. I think I need to add just a bit to allow those to look like interchange tracks, although the original idea was that they look like industry tracks disappearing behind buildings, and I may still go that way.

Now to post the pics:

Level 1:
[img.nr]http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/jlbaz/level1.jpg[/img.nr]
Level 2:
[img.nr]http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/jlbaz/level2.jpg[/img.nr]
Any and all suggestions are welcome....

Edited messing with the image tags...

This isn't how I really want this to look...I am trying to figure out how to have the little picture when you load the thread, and click to get the bigger one with the Close up in the corner. I am feeling less than bright.....

[Anonymous]

OK, I can post a picture, but why do I not get the bigger version when I click it? It is really hard to see like this!

[Anonymous]

Well, it's better like that, but still not right. I'd like to get the larger version, but not by linking to the page like that. This works for now, though...

[eng22]

This is not the reply you are looking for, however, I will say this, your plan is stunning, breathtaking and just plain amazing in its scope. Typically, these types of posts generate a good number of responses in short order. I wonder why some of the trackplanners have not weighed in, I'm sure they will. I wish I could offer some technical tips and advice, its just not my area of expertise, fact is I really do not have an area of expertise. Here are my observations:

I love the CAD software, it looks great.
I like that it has a GREAT balance of mainline running and switching
It does not look like a bowl of spagetti
The features make sense, facing point spurs, trailing point spurs, run arounds to make them work
Huge passing sidings to accomadate long trains
Two giant yards, WOW!

Good luck with it, from my novice perspective I would love to run trains on a layout such as this.

[SpaceMouse]

I like that the layout seems well thought out. Good job.

I found myself wishing for runarounds in four places. 1) I wanted a runaround closer to the industrial spurs in the track that is clostest to the top of the drawing above the roundhouse. I know you have one further back, but ... ON the same spur at the X in the penisula, I would had rather had the runaround before the forward facing track than after and have to back-up to make a drop.

At the bottom of the yard is a spur by itself. To drop off a car coming from the yard you would have to have two of the yard tracks clear to make a runaround.

At about 8 o'clock on the main drawing there are two X crossing/ industrial spurs. With out a couple runarounds here you'll never be able to drop cars in this area.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chip, that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I must admit, I hadn't finished looking at the run-arounds, so I am happy you did!

[NZRMac]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

I found myself wishing for runarounds in four places. 1) I wanted a runaround closer to the industrial spurs in the track that is clostest to the top of the drawing above the roundhouse. I know you have one further back, but ... ON the same spur at the X in the penisula, I would had rather had the runaround before the forward facing track than after and have to back-up to make a drop.

At the bottom of the yard is a spur by itself. To drop off a car coming from the yard you would have to have two of the yard tracks clear to make a runaround.

At about 8 o'clock on the main drawing there are two X crossing/ industrial spurs. With out a couple runarounds here you'll never be able to drop cars in this area.

I think those spurs above the roundhouse are actually main line going to the next level?

I really like your track plan, I think Chip is right about the other runarounds they make operation much more fun.

Ken.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Craig, I missed your comments earlier. Maybe all the reading did some good.
Ken, You are right the two upper most lines are the mainline and the line in to staging.
Chip, I think I see what you mean on the penninsula, I'll try to move the spur to within the passing siding, if there is room.
As far as the spurs on the left side, the one in between the mains (where they are spread pretty far apart) was meant to immitate a spur off of the main in Vail. It is used mostly for MOW stuff. I hope to do a little vignette of Vail (known as the town between the tracks) although I think all that's there is a church and a feed store in that corner. I'm thinking of trying to scratchbuild our house and but it in the neighborhood, although it's really four miles or so (but we can hear the trains!) As far as the other spur I was figuring on using the passing track to run around, in real life it's dual track main separated by several hundred yards. I'll look at it again, though.

Thanks for all your comments!

[TBat55]

I'd take another look at steam engine servicing. There are 2 tracks to the turntable so I assume at least one has the ash pit, sand, coal, and what's needed most, water. That's a lot for that space. And if you plan a coaling tower, you might want a separate track to unload coal hoppers. Maybe some of this is on the other tracks (adjacent looks like a 2-stall engine shed maybe for diesels). I also suggest don't have all yard tracks end exactly together. I doubt they'd cut a rail just for aesthetics. Besides, the 2 tracks closest to the aisle could easily be a little longer.

[Cox 47]

I like your track p;an How many cars will the yards hold? I wish I had that much room. Keep us updated on your progress. Cox 47