I got my magazine yesterday, and boy was I impressed! I loved the Thuin Branch track plan and plan on building it, But I model a more modern time and use larger cars, so I decided to edit the plan to fit my needs.
This is what I came up with.
Opinions?
Is there anything that needs fixing?
My main concerns are if I can fit buildings 8 & 9 into that space, and if I can fit an Gondola in the Scrap Yard Properly.
I think you have a good start. Obviously it's not to scale, but just pay attention to the left end of the switchback to make sure you can fit a loco and at least one car of the longest type you will use at the scrap yard (65' gondola?). Having an industry at the left end of the switchback (#1) might complicate this.
I'm personally not a fan of the switchback type track arrangement, esp with an industry on both ends. I had a situation like that on my layout and ripped it out and replaced it with two turnouts and a diamond crossing (basically half of a double crossover without the mainline on one side).
Industries #1 and #2 look like they share the same spur, which is a good idea. From a "city planning" perspective, #1 is sort of hemmed in on 3 sides - not sure what the intent of #8 is since it has the same industry name, but I'd recommend using that as your parking lot / truck loading dock.
Is #3 a rail-served industry? If so, a spotted car would basically foul the runaround track.
Another thing to think about is with a layout this size is the bldgs you'll have on the layout. Full size bldgs/industries can eat up a lot of real estate real quick. For that reason, I prefer backdrop flat and front-edge type industries which only require enough space for loading/unloading with most of the industry being imaginary and "off-layout" either in the aisle space or beyond the backdrop.
Just my thoughts. Like I said, I think you're off to a good start. See if you can come up with a few different options and decide which one you like best.
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
1.) My Gondolas are mostly 52'' so I probably could fit a loco in there with 1 gondola.
2.) My concern is mostly with the 72'' Centerbeam that would serve the lumber distributon company on the left
3.) #8 was supposed to be a separate industry that used the team track, but I felt here wasn't room for three industries so I made it an add-on to the Lumberyard
4.) No! #3 is the Walthers Red Owl Grocery Store kit
5.) Yeah most are gonna be backs of commercial buildings.
If your unsure that every thing will fit, Create a 2d paper floorplan of everything with track on top and then you can see how it all looks and fits.
I think that what you have drawn may not fit when rendered to scale. Also, note that modern railcars are much longer and will take more length.
I have not yet received that issue of MR, so I am not sure how their track is arranged. But note that the short switchback with industries on both wings as you have shown -- that would require unrelated industry tracks to be emptied before another industry could be switched -- is virtually unknown on the real railroad. (Although this is common in model track plans and other MR project layouts have included this error before – not every published plan reflects real life practices.). Many operators would find it quite tedious to switch in this way.
It’s unlikely that this sort of arrangement would be found in a modern real-life situation. It’s also unlikely that this would be found serving team tracks and lumber distributors, where a partially-unloaded car cannot be moved due to potential damage to the lading remaining in the car.
The HO scale 5X7 switching layout below was designed for the shorter cars and engines of an earlier era, but may give you a couple of ideas. Note that there is a switchback, but there is no industry on the lead leg. This layout was designed for a relatively small number of cars and a strictly defined space.
Another idea to take note of is the efficient overlap of the various elements: runaround, switch leads, industry tracks. You have a bit of this in your plan, more may be possible.
Best of luck with your layout.
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I'll agree that you might need a bit more space, say a locomotive length, but I'm not sure switchback (and loops and ovals, and all the rest) are as uncommon as we like to think. Trace this long switchback spur with multiple spurs off it at Donaldson Center in Greenville SC.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=34.726354,-82.37206&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&sll=34.726447,-82.370049&sspn=0.003005,0.007328&vpsrc=0&t=h&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=18&ie=UTF8&ll=34.726447,-82.368&spn=0.00425,0.010568&z=17
jmbjmblong switchback spur
Exactly. It's a long spur and not a one-car-plus-locomotive affair. I cannot see any industries which must be emptied so that another may be switched. That's what is unprototypical, as I said. There also appears to be a nearby runaround, but I'm not sure.
Most real railroads are built to facilitate switching, not artificially hinder it. One-car-at-a-time isn't realistic -- and it isn't fun for me to operate personally. But if it is fun for you or for the original poster, puzzle yourselves up to your heart's content.
I can point to many switchback spurs in real life -- often these are to deal with elevation differences. But I have yet to find one where one industry needed to be disturbed so that an unrelated industry could be switched.
Edit: And as I noted, this would be especially rare for the industries that the Original Poster has chosen to be disturbed: a team track and a lumber distributor. Each of which might typically have a longer dwell time for cars and be unloaded manually (unlike a bulk commodity). This would mean that a partially unloaded car would need to have its load re-secured, moved, replaced, etc. Just not likely, in my experience.
JMB what you show is individual spurs going to separate industries that are not blocked by cars from an other one.
I got the impression that the discussion was about more then one customer using the same spur track. Causing cars of one customer to be moved out of the way so as to switch another one farther down the spur.
Off course it may be some other discussion altogether.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
I finally had a few minutes to look at my August MR. The switchback they used does not have an industry on both “wings” as your plan does – it seems the MR switchback is only there to add some puzzle novelty to switching. I guess that’s up to each person as to whether that is “fun” or not.
For your design, the quick-and-dirty sketch below shows how the real railroad might more typically approach your situation. The addition of a diamond crossing (no moving parts) allows each set of industries to be switched independently and would allow your industries 1 and 2 to be larger and more interesting.
Good luck with your layout.
Thank you Cayuma! I hadn't even thought of putting a crossing like that on there,