layout concepts help.

[Anonymous]

i want to build a layout along one wall, kind of a shelf layout, in N scale, so i was thinking of one main line, and a yard somewhere along the way, with various other turnounts and spurs,

my dimensions are going to be something like 8ft by 1.5ft, or at the most, 2ft out.

my question was what kind of track layout can i do on this, ive seen some and alot of the operation looks like it would be switching in a yard, but on my layout using 8ft of wall space, i think there would be room for a main line section, with maybe a destination spur, and some nice scenery. is this logical? this will be my first layout ive built, so i dont know that much about track layout and design.

[dragonriversteel]

Hello Greg,

Go to atlas.com for free track laying software . Its not hard to use and fairly easy to get the hang of . I don't know if their software is set up for N scale ,so yaz might want to look over their web-site .

Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}

[leighant]

(deleting first copy of accidently dubpliczted post, leaving better second copy)

[leighant]

I don't think there will be much room for mainline in terms of outside/beyond the yard. Of course, mainline usally passes the yard. If the body of your yard is 3-4 feet long, that is, your arrival-departure and classification tracks, don't forget you need a place to pull those tracks into-- either use the mainline as a lead or have a separate lead alongside the mainline.

You wrote of "destination" spur and I wonder what that means. Might mean an industry spur served in connection with the yard.
I know of some small yards used to be in Houston that were not the main big local railroad yard but a specilized yard. MKT had Eureka as its main yard but there was a "City Yard" near the downtown area. Cars destined for the downtown area would be pulled off trains at Eureka, then a transfer run would haul them to the small yard for servicing downtown industry spots and interchanges. This would be a good excuse for a small yard with a limited numer of short tracks.
You might have a one-track staging behind an industry. A transfer run "coming from the big local yard" could be set up there, run to your small yard, cars switched to industries etc, and a transfer run go back to staging.

Let me try to describe a possible layout in words. One end of layout has the small yard itself, three or four tracks deep, with mainline running behind them, and possibly even one industry spur on the other side of the mainline, right up against the back of the layout, serving an industry that is a flat cutout or picture.
The other end of the layout would have the hidden staging track at the back behind building fronts. The mainline would run more or less on the front of the layout and off the mainline would run industry spurs serving the front of the buildings. If you could squeeze it, an INTERCHANGE track on the very front of that side of the layout might provide additional traffic. Somewhere in there, you need something that serves as a runaround track, so you can have yard track, industry spurs etc going both to the right and left.

Let's look at operations:
Transfer run comes from staging, brings cars to yard. Cars switched in yard to go to various nearby industry tracks and to the interchange. A few cars go direct from interchange to nearby industry and vice versa. Most interchange cars that arrive in YOUR railroad go off on a transfer run back to staging to be cut into a mainline long distance train.

Where the layout is not a "shelf only" layout but an around the room shelf, you could use the same main theme but have it punctuated by through trains that just go past-- from staging to the scene and back to staging. That could be interesting even with no modeled "big" or "main" yard, just staging plus the small special purpose yard used only by local transfers and switching.

[Anonymous]

Greg I model in N scale, and I use the Atlas Right Track Software with excellent results.  You have a very limited space so you might consider a fold up (hinged in the middle) type of portable layout that could be placed in a closet when out of use.  A removable piece giving the impression of a yard or a distant mainline might also be an option.

[pcarrell]

You've gotten some excellent advice so far!  Let me see if I can offer something to go with it.

You have an idea of what you want, and that's a good place to start, but it'll need a little more focus.  As already stated, yards take up a lot of room.  Thats not something you're blessed with.  You might be able get that yard but limit it to something more in keeping with your size constraints by modeling a large industry.  This way you get a small yard and a connection to the outside world in a more compact package.  The physical plant or industry would be large, and the focus of the layout, but you could later incorporate it into a larger plan and you'd already have a major player up and running on the new layout in no time. 

Industries you might concider would be a small seaport, a paper factory, a steel mill, an animal feed factory (like Purina), an auto parts manufacturer (like say, tires), or somethng along those lines.  Stay away from industries that cover a lot of ground like a fireworks factory, a refinery, or a munitions dump.  You don't have the room to make them look right.

The right track software from Atlas works pretty well and it's pretty easy to learn.  You just have to use it some and you'll get the hang of it.  It has N scale track (both code 80 & 55), but only the Atlas brand.  Here's a link; http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm .  Some people prefer Xtrkcad.  It is more powerful and offers all kinds of brands of track, but it also takes a bit more to learn it.  Do the tutorial and then play with it and you'll do OK.  Here's a link to it; http://www.sillub.com/ .  Both of these are free programs.

Design software is only one step though.  You need a clue as to what you're doing with the software if you want a successful design.  Read through some of the stuff on this site ( http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/BFSpages/LDSIGprimer/TOC.html ), especially the stuff on yard design, and you'll have a good idea of what things should look like to operate correctly.

And always remember, ask questions!  The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask!