Yard size

[gregc]

my understanding of yards is that there is a track for each train leaving the yard and any storage is only for overnight because a car came in after the train was scheduled to leave.

a train come in from some destination (i.e. staging).  cars from that train are sorted onto the track for their destination, a local or train to some other distant destination (i.e. staging).   

empties (MT) are returned to their origination (at least owning RR).   Not sure what happens to excess MTs

Staging may represent several distant destinations.   Yard tracks may be for trains to more than one distant destination represented by staging.  Cars may come in on trains from staging and be sorted onto tracks for trains going back into staging. 

Tony Koester's layout demonstrates the concept.   He has yards at each end of his layout but also staging just beyond each yard representing distant destinations.

since trains typically have a limited size (to fit into sidings along a route) it's possible that if there are too many cars for a train, they need to remain in the yard over night for the next train to that destination.   Therefore a yard track may need to be longer than a train.    However it is possible to store those extra cars on some other yard track that doesn't need as much capacity such as for the local train.

[richhotrain]

On my old layout, my freight yard was 19 feet long. But, the yard was double ended, and that takes up a lot of room which I wasn't prepared to commit to on the new layout. So, on the new layout, I went with a stub end yard which saved me 6 feet of space without giving up any storage capacity.

Rich

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Not to disagree with anyone, but in my mind yard size relates to the expected length of mainline trains, not the length of swiching locals or siding length.

First you need an operational concept and a practical train length for your layout based on your room size. That will tell you how long a yard should be.

Real railroads use yards as origin and terminal points for mainline trains as well as staging points for local switching.

Personally I am not a fan of model operational schemes were every train is effectively a local, leaving the yard to do switching along the mainline.

Major industrial areas have few sidings on the mainlines, rather they have belt line and other secondary trackage to serve industries and mainlines that run between major yards in different cities. That is how my layout is designed.

Virtually none of my industries are along the mainline, there are tracks leading from the yard directly to the industrial areas that do not interfere with the mainline.

Mainline trains travel around the mainline, to and from various off scene staging, with most terminaling or originating in the visable yard. Seperate locals then move cars to/from the industries on the belt line, never going out on the mainline except for one or two industries or for specific moves that are required.  

I have no idea how you are planning shape your layout, but it seems to me that in the space you have 20-25 car mainline trains could work, which, depending on your era, would require a yard between 12' and 15' long.

Trains longer than that would likely overwhelm your space.

I have about three times your space and I am designing my layout for 35 to 40 car trains and will make my yard about 20' long having 8 tracks for my 1954 era equipment.

There will only be the one visable modeled yard, but there will be plenty of off scene staging of trains. The off scene staging will store about 30 trains.

Sheldon 

[hon30critter]

mrrdad

How much space does your yard take up on your layout? Does it function how you'd like from an operations standpont?

Hi Ed,

Something to consider with regard to yard size:

Having a big yard is wonderful from an esthetic point of view. You can make up big trains! I love watching long trains run!

However, ask yourself whether or not your layout can actually accommodate long trains from a switching perspective? If you want to switch long unit trains (i.e. all the cars are the same) then it will look better if you can accommodate long(ish) cuts of cars at your destinations. If your spurs can only accommodate two or three cars then having long unit trains is counterproductive. If you are doing mixed freight it isn't as much of an issue.

We have two large yards on our club's layout. Unfortunately, the guy who designed the layout (that would be me!) didn't make the spurs long enough to make the big yards' capacities useful. Dumb mistake. If I were doing the design over today I would make the yards shorter and the spurs longer.

You said that you want to have seven yard tracks. You can still build longer trains in a shorter yard just by using two tracks. The space that the shorter yard doesn't take up can be used for industries which will give you more destinations to deliver cars to.

Cheers!!

Dave

[doctorwayne]

I opted for my yards to be simple staging areas, and consider them ancilliary to the modelled portion of the layout...

I could switch them in the manner of a ordinary yard, but it's not an area of great interest to me, as all of the towns on the layout require switching of their industries as most of the trains work through.  Only a few trains pass through without doing some work in each town.

Having the yards as staging allowed me to stack four of them, as shown, with a fifth one in another room, leaving more room for running trains.

All of them are around 12' long, big enough for the relatively short trains I'd usually run, due to the many curves and heavy grades with which most trains have to contend.

Wayne

[mrrdad]

Hello all,

To start on with, I model in HO scale.

While trying to design a track plan that fits within my available space (16x40), I'm having a hard time laying out the freight yard. I know it will be 7 tracks wide, but the length is what is getting me. I know yards take up a lot of real estate.

How much space does your yard take up on your layout? Does it function how you'd like from an operations standpont?

 

Ed