I finished designing my yard and this is what it looks like, the red outline is the stationary part of the switching yard, the green is the removable part due to a sump pump. The Purple lines are the tracks. Theres a Caboose area, A RIP track, Intermodal Yard, asnd a place that stores the switchers.
My suggestion would be to add a run around track that parallels the RH ladder. It could run from the approach to the RIP/caboose track and the RH yard lead. You could use it to bring trains into the yard, get your caboose on the other end of the engine and it would make assembling trains alot easier. A long drill track on the LH end would be great also, depending on how you use your yard. Perhaps you are going to to all your switching from the RH side, or mabye fouling the mail on the left is not a problem. Of course it has to fit into available space as well.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
The layout will be against a wall but the wall would be at the bottom of the drawing. Each Squre represents 1 sq ft. using CCT Templet and Paper. for creating this.
As for the round track I have three one does connect to the Caboose and rip track those are the two tracks on the right hand side..
I willa dmit ti some of the lines that should be round I sorta squared off with the ruler last night when I inked it so its harder to tell but In trainz I layed this out and it worked pretty good.
You may not realise this yet but the thing you want most is to be able to get at any derailments and to get at everything for maintenance.
That said... have fun!
thing is, this will be 24" above the main layout.
So, assuming your main layout is a low-slung 36" off the ground, this yard will be 60" or 5 feet above the ground, and 5 feet deep?
Seeing trains at the back end of such a yard will be difficult. Building it will be an engineering challenge, because you will either need legs that reach all the way to the ground (in front of the main layout) in order to hold the layout up, or build struts down from the ceiling to prevent it from falling over, or some sort of extremely strong bracket that can support a five-foot-deep shelf. Reaching them will become an exercise in frustration, and will probably be the cause of several falls off the chair or ladder you'll need to get up that high, and possibly a full-scale collapse onto the layout surface.
I'm trying to fathom why you would make a yard that looks like this, on a shelf five feet deep, five feet off the ground, but somehow I am not able to understand any of it. It's fine on paper--aside from being a very busy and overly complex yard--but it will have a LOT of problems in the real world.
Wait a minute...a lift-out section for access to a sump pump? Five feet off the ground? With another section of layout underneath it?
Something just isn't adding up here.
I will admit its a challenge. I am interested in shorting it up so it is better than it is if anyone has any clue on how to accomplish this please seriously please post it. I just to have a nice yard I dont care how big it is as long as I can have a yard. and its not 5 ft deep its 4 feet deep if theres a way to make it were the yard is either all in back pr more towars the front i2 or 3 feet deep and have a decent sized yard I wouldnt mind that at all but to be honest be better in the back. due to I am using a ro-ro elevator near the yard.
Okay, then.
Suggestion 1: Especially if you are serious when you say that this part of the layout will be five feet off the ground, cut the width of this yard down to 2 feet thick, MAXIMUM, and only 1 foot thick behind the sump pump. This will prevent you from having to build a difficult to build and difficult to maintain 3x3 foot removable sump pump access hole, and also allow you to actually see and reach the track.
Suggestion 2: With your nice long mainline running the whole length of the room (what, 17 feet?) you have enough space for about 12 feet of yard. A foot-wide yard gives you room for four tracks, so you build a double ladder, starting with the mainline running along the back edge TOWARDS THE FRONT. This means all the switches on the ladder tracks will be accessible without having to reach over the yard itself--easier to see how switches are facing, etcetera. You'll have room in unused corners for a RIP track and caboose track.
It will be a lot simpler than what you have posted here. To give you an idea of capacity, my own layout's yard is half of exactly this space--12 inches deep, six inches wide--with a single ladder, four tracks deep, with a RIP track sticking out at the end of the ladder. My yard can hold around 24 40' cars without blocking the mainline. Yours should be able to hold 48 40' cars--or, figure, more like 30 or 40 60'-80' modern cars.
Suggestion 3: For the right-hand side of the area described, you have two feet of depth to work with. The main yard is using the back 12 inches, so put your single-ended intermodal ard in the 12 inches closest to the layout edge. 2 or 3 tracks, running around six or seven feet each, should be room for plenty of intermodal cars.
Bottom line: Look at real yards--they tend to have VERY LONG TRACKS. By making your yard skinnier with longer individual tracks, you maintain a high capacity, use fewer switches (reducing cost, complexity, wiring and derailment problems) and can easily reach the whole area. If you have to get at a sump pump or something often enough to need a lift-out in such a complex area, you're better off not covering it at all.
Something like this:
Speaking of yard design I have reached that point myself. I only have room for a Wye switch off the main line, which breaks down to a 3-way switch and two other legs off the ladder. I believe ladders tracks can be build two different ways. I can’t find any diagrams on the web.
Does anyone have a diagram of the different ladder designs? The yard will be contained between two mountain walls so space is a consideration for the eight tracks.
Thanks Doc
Jetrock, nice plan.
Hiawatha, is it going to be a problem for your yard switcher to occupy the main? If so, you'll need to remember to somehow work in a drill track.
Doc, are you thinking of a regular ladder versus a compound ladder? I don't have any good diagrams; all I remember is that on the compound ladders, you really have to watch out for those S-Curves that appear out of nowehere. :-)
Yoshi
Jetrock, I like your plan the problem is on the right side of the plan I need a 4 foot section available for the train elevator by RO-RO so ther curve cant be that close to the wall it would be further to the middle of the track plan.
A 4' shelf 5' off the ground accessed by a Ro-Ro elevator?
1. Are you doing this for a Phd in awkward engineering with future high maintenance?
2. When you finally get it all working you will be able to see the sides of the locos and cars on the front tracks and a heck of a lot of loco and car roofs. this should make all the effort really worth while...
3. and... if you havene't noticed... a. you appear to be giving yourself this Ro-Ro access at one end only... b. nothing is ever going to be doing anything but creep around... then again - with all those switches - that's probably a good thing.
4. the lift on that Ro-Ro should be interesting... just how much steel are you planning to use?
Er... I think that it's about time to do some hard thinking... and ;ook at Joe Fugate's maintenance thread...
topcopdoc wrote: Speaking of yard design I have reached that point myself. I only have room for a Wye switch off the main line, which breaks down to a 3-way switch and two other legs off the ladder. I believe ladders tracks can be build two different ways. I can’t find any diagrams on the web. Does anyone have a diagram of the different ladder designs? The yard will be contained between two mountain walls so space is a consideration for the eight tracks. Thanks Doc
Byron Henderson has some excellent tips on yard design and some examples.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/id19.html
Craig Bisgeier also has some tips
http://www.housatonicrr.com/
Regards,
Tom
Jetrock,
yu where right it does go all the way around the room but in that 2' section where you have the curve I need to make a straight track cause under the top yard thers a service yard with a turntable, roundhouse, car shop, back shop, allied rail rebuilder, fueling facility and transfer table. So your idea with the containers would be great if it was further back. I am trying to figure out what to do. My dad (the land owner where the layout is built) told me the top section of the yard where the sump pump is wouldnt need to be removable so I think that should make a different when space? (sump pump is detachable near the lower portion of the layout with a backwash baffle) Any ideas? Heres a quick draw of the room and layout shape. not worried about derailments on the rest of the layout due to the track wilb more towards the front and in the back of the main layout the background slide on rails.
Perhaps you should look at the whole yard design issue differently by establishing the requirements for the yard, then worry about the fit.
1. How long is the longest passing siding on the mainland ?
You will rarely want to make up consists in your yard longer than that.
2. How many different trains will you dispatch each way each operating session?
maybe...
- a through freight each way which (in which the yard would take away and add a block of cars but not always break down the train
- a local turn to an industrial area or a dedicated freight source
- perhaps a unit train (anything from coal to oil to produce)
...and so on.
Once you have established the yard's purpose you will know how many tracks for sorting you need for each direction - probably less than you think.
3. For general car handling (and storage) you want to keep the yard at less than 50% full - so you can move cars or blocks around.
And yes you do need the caboose and service tracks, and also the runaround that thers have mention - and a yard lead that is also at least as long as the longest sorting track (so you can pul a complete cut and move it to the departure track w/o fouling the main.
The more practicall asepcts like 24"-30" depth, etc. can come out of that.
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