Are the commuters single-ended or double-ended? How long are they?
I have subways. Basically, they are 3 inches below the level of the rest of the layout, but there are two steep inclines between levels. The 4-car subway trains (Proto) have no trouble with the grade, even though it's 5 or 6 percent. Only one car is powered.
If you're running short, reversible commuters (like RDCs or their modern-era equivalent) you can easily put some tracks below the layout with a relatively short ramp.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Out here in the San Bernardino station our local Metro Link units sit over night in a small portion of the BNSF yard. They have a few tracks for storage that run off the main line just inside the east side of the yard. I have done the same on my layout, but have not yet pruchased any passenger (AMTRAK or Metrolink) trains as I am concentrating on freight (which seems to be never ending for me). So we have the same idea, but it might be harder to replicate on a smaller layout. Do you have any type of freight yard or passenger station on you layout yet?
Eric KreszlHello Everyone, I'm new here to the forum. I have a 5X11 HO Scale layout. I operate my out as if its a commuter railroad and run long distance through freights as well. I would like to build a small yard for the passenger trains to layover at night and when I run the freight trains. Can anyone give me suggestions on a track plan that can fit my needs with in the space I have to work with? Eric
I might be dense, but as I understand you, you already have a 5x 11 foot layout, and just want to add a place to park a singe passenger train or possibly a couple of passenger trains?
Why would you need a whole new track plan to add a single siding or a couple of spurs to your layout?
What does your track plan look like now?
Stein
My commuter trains are either DMU (diesel railcars, but not built by Budd) or EMU (heavy rail 'look like subway cars, but aren't.') Both types run as bidirectional sets that lay over on stub sidings (the EMU next to a platform, the DMU on a spare yard track.) For trains that run 'push-pull,' one layover stub per train is all you need.
OTOH, if you run from a visible station to hidden staging, it is handy to have dedicated stubs in the Netherworld where the trains can wait while they're supposed to be on their way to (or back from) the other end of the railroad.
On my 16 x 20 layout, those commuter trains have to share track space with through passenger limited expresses, passenger 'mail and express' locals pulled by locomotives, through priority freights, through drag freights, local freights, unit coal trains... The prototype I am (approximately) following operated over 100 trains to or through my modeled engine change point on a slow day - and that doesn't include the trains on the short line that originates those loaded coal units. On a US prototype rail route, such traffic density would border on the incredible. In 1964 Japan, that was typical for a secondary main in sparsely-populated country.
(A current travelogue describes the 2010 version as, "Lightly traveled, approximating one express and two local trains per hour in each direction," Tell that to Amtrak...)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)