HO Scale Trackplan

[darkcurves]

A very rough plan. My main concern is to know if it is realistic? Our aim is reduce the amount of turnouts being used to cut cost. That's why we decided to use the turntable.

Smallest Mainline Radius : 24"
Largest Mainline Radius : 26"
Industries : 2 (Cement and Intermodal terminal)
Stations : 2
Minimum length of loop : 9ft (one loco and ten 50ft wagons)

Thanks for looking! ops:

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I doubt if the turn table will work the way you want it to. It is too short to hold more than a long locomotive or perhaps a small locomotive and a short freight car. I think trying to empty or fill any of those long tracks one car at a time will get very tedious in a very short time. I doubt if you would have room for anything larger than a 50 foot freight car even if you use a GE 44 Tonner as a locomotive.

 

[darkcurves]

Oh, the tracks which are connected to the turntable only are for storing locos. No freight wagon will be allowed in that area.

 

[darkcurves]

Hmmm, but true also. If one particular engine which is needed but stored all the way at the back, will be tedious to remove using the turntable. I guess that has to be scraped.

 

[Squidbait]

How big is your space? It looks like you've drawn the plan free-hand. Have you tried a scale drawing?

Get a free track-planning package like XtrkCad or Right Track and see how it works.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Darkcurves, you haven't really eliminated very many turnouts with the turn table either. If the right side of the yard is for freight wagons, you should put in a couple of turnouts near the end of 2 of the spurs to allow for a locomotive pulling a train in to escape.

Eliminating the turntable also allows for longer spurs and room for the locomotive escape on the end. With only 3 tracks to the locomotive shed, you only need 2-4 turnouts for that operation.

Are you planning to use dcc? If you use standard dc power, remember to make numerous locomotive length blocks in the engine terminal to allow you to park a locomotive and shut off it's track. I remember a few years ago trying to operate on a friend's layout where he was using dc and had about 30 locomotives parked in an engine facility. We spent a couple of hours trying to get the layout to work before he realized that the reason we kept getting tripped breakers in his throttles was because all of the engine terminal blocks were turned on and none of his power packs could handle the power demands of 30 locomotives at one time!

 

[Triplex]

I'm not sure what's the intermodal terminal here.

Not that it shows up on this freehand plan, but with 24" as the inner track, 26.25", not 26", is recommended for the second track.

How large is the layout? Doesn't look like there's much room to get around the end of the peninsula