Layouts and layout building

hello,

 i'm Marc and i'm living in Belgium, Antwerp and i'm in fore a mini layout contest in october 2010. my idea is to build a American railroad on 2 meter x 0.45 meter. where aloud 0.9 m². my problem was to find a way to make a railroad with a purpose, to handle freight cars. the contours of the staging yard must be included in the 0.9 m² so i'm planning to make 4 car floats with 2 tracks each. this way i can ship freight cars and stil use the 0.9 m².  

There are a lot of switch backs in the designs. I think you can simplify things without losing anything.

The one thing I don't like is havivg to make a switchback inside your factory.

marctje:

hello,

 i'm Marc and i'm living in Belgium, Antwerp and i'm in fore a mini layout contest in october 2010. my idea is to build a American railroad on 2 meter x 0.45 meter. where aloud 0.9 m². my problem was to find a way to make a railroad with a purpose, to handle freight cars. the contours of the staging yard must be included in the 0.9 m² so i'm planning to make 4 car floats with 2 tracks each. this way i can ship freight cars and stil use the 0.9 m².  

http://s682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/foorfreak/ here you can find the 2 plans i made. please give me some comments (good ore bad)

 

ps: forgive my bad english i usely speak dutch

 Hi Marc -- 

 Adding cassette staging to what looks a lot like a tymesaver layout doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, but it might work for you and your design goals (which you have not stated)

 What is your design goal - what are you trying to accomplish?

 Smile,
 Stein

steinjr:

For a six foot layout, I think I would rather have built something like Scot Osterweil's NYC Highland Terminal RR layout: http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html

And from the "credit where credit is due" perspective, I think it's always worth noting that Osterweil's design is a fairly direct copy of Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare. It's a shame that the web pages on the Highland Terminal do not acknowledge the layout's heritage.

cuyama:

steinjr:

For a six foot layout, I think I would rather have built something like Scot Osterweil's NYC Highland Terminal RR layout: http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html

And from the "credit where credit is due" perspective, I think it's always worth noting that Osterweil's design is a fairly direct copy of Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare. It's a shame that the web pages on the Highland Terminal do not acknowledge the layout's heritage.

 Bottom of the page linked to above

"Editor's Note: The Highland Terminal plan was one of the first small layouts ever posted on the then-new Internet, in 1994. It's a classic shelf switcher in the same mold as Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare, and it has been admired and imitated for more than 11 years.  We thank Scot Osterweil for allowing us to give this venerable design a new home on the Web at this site dedicated to small layouts with high operating potential.  Carl Arendt, August 2005."

 Osterweil's plan clearly is similar to Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare, but I like Osterweil's version better - in my opinion, axing that rearmost siding with the switchback, and twisting the runaround like Osterweil did improved the plan.

Smile,
Stein

You're right, Stein, I was primarily referring to the original pages where the layout is published ... I should have been clearer.

cuyama:

You're right, Stein, I was primarily referring to the original pages where the layout is published.

 Then you would have been right. No attribution there, as far as I recall.

 Btw - I totally agree with you about giving attributions where appropriate, and I try as best I can to give correct attribution both for information and track plan ideas I use when I write something myself - like when I e.g. refer to plans you have made or things you have written.

 Smile,
 Stein

 Btw - for easier comparison - here is Marc's layout plans:

 "Duluth Urban industries 1":

 "Duluth Urban Industries 2":

 The part I like the least is the length of the tail track on the right hand side (inside the factory) - it looks to be so short that you can only take one car at a time up to or down from the factories/warehouses along the rear end of the layout.

 I would have tried to be able to move at least cuts of 2 and 2 cars, and tried hard to avoid having to use the track in front of one industry as a switchback to reach another industry.

  Couldn't help it - had to make a sketch to see what could be done in 18" x 6 feet. Here is one possible solution to this issue:

 both tail tracks (upper left hand corner and right end below carfloat) hold two cars + loco, runaround hold two cars, there is one holding track in the lower right hand corner (to hold inbound or outbound cars while you are swapping outbounds for inbounds), and each industry can be switched without touching cars in front of other industries:

 Smile,
 Stein

Stein

Thank you for youre remarks and for youre proposel for a different layout. I think that's what a forum is fore: to help eachother. I'm gone try to make a new plan and gone deal with youre remarks.

regards

Marc