New Space and New Track Plan

marty w.

Member
Hi All,

After seeing all the problems caused by uncontrolled enviroment conditions, the CEO of our family has finally allocated the room and funds to build a new layout. The layout will be in a 25'x33' room that has the proper heat/air and humidity controls. The overall size of the layout will be 22'6"x23' with the remainding going for a work area. The min raduis is 28", however the 28" is located in 2 area's only, all others will be 30". All turnouts will be #6.

The attached has been scanned from a print. I don't do trackplans on a computer so I cleaned it up the best I could with Paint. The yard and industrial swicthing areas are not designed as of yet. I like to design these areas after I have the benchwork up. The plan allows for point to point operation, with the 2 staging yards as the points. There is also a connection between the staging yards to allow for continuous running.

All the trains will go through a scene just once except in one peninsula. That peninsula will have a 2.5% grade and if I what to use helpers up that grade, I thought the operators would need to see the whole area.

I'm not too happy with the upper staging yard yet. The lower staging yard is longer and so they are not equal. Still working on that.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks,
Marty
 

Attachments

  • track3j001.gif
    track3j001.gif
    36.3 KB · Views: 407

interurban

Active Member
Hi Marty, just hada gander at the "new layout" It looks great to me, Have you any help in building this or is a one man venture??

I like the size of the room ( very envious):D :D :D :D :D :D

Don`t see any over head though:( :( :(
 

babydot94513

Member in training
Very aggresive design but I like what you have done.

Question - on the "lower" staging yard, I assume that you will have equal access from either side of the layout? I could not tell from the dimensions of the room vs the layout but if you do not have enough room on both sides, reaching across the backdrop may pose a problem.

Keep us posted on the progress.
 

chapmon

New Member
MAINLINE ON PENINSULA

Looking at your peninsula (one w/helper pocket), you may will have crews walking from one side back to the other if you use walkaround. If you use a reverse curve, and keep the flow from right to left, it will correct that problem.

Overall, the plan looks alright, but I need to study it longer.

Mike:) :)
 

marty w.

Member
Chris - Just me!

Jeff - Yes there is access from all sides.

Mike - Good point. I never thought of that. That would cause a problem. I'll work on that.

Thanks guy's. If you see anything else, let me know. Alot easier to change now. Once everything is set, I plan on drawing the plan to full size on the floor. I have some very heavy white paper on a roll that is 2' wide.

Marty
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Marty, Nice plan. The first thing I noticed was the peninsula Mike mentioned. The other thing was your concern about the staging yard. Doesn't take much of a grade to bring that staging right down the long wall and connect to the other. If you had say 6 tracks you could use 3 eastbound and 3 westbound, they are long enough to store two or more trains.
 

Attachments

  • plan1.jpg
    plan1.jpg
    68.4 KB · Views: 367
I agree with Gary, and think his solution to your staging would be excellent. His long staging tracks are along the wall, however, so why not just add them to the staging along the bottom, and have all the staging at the same place --- 6 or 8 tracks wide --- with only the long hidden "bypass" along the wall.

If all the staging tracks were double-ended, it would save a lot of reverse running when setting things up for an operating session.

With all the staging together, these tracks would also be much handier to use as a fiddle yard, perhaps with extra car storage above or below the staging tracks.

Overall, particularly with a fix on the peninsula like Chapman pointed out, I think you have an great plan here.

BillS
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I meant to mention, but didn't, that the throat for the staging area I drew would be up front directly under the mainline trackage above. The 4 to 6 tracks in staging would run right along the front edge of the benchwork for easy access.

Gary
 
One other thing you might consider, Marty.....

The drawing shows 3 versions of the approach to your lower staging yard. (This is drawn with #5 turnouts, but it would work with #6s too. Please excuse the ink blobs --- I got sloppy.)
#1 is more or less what you have.
#2 & #3 show how you can get more yard length in the same space, but even more important, IMHO, is that these plans eliminate 2 S curves from the approach to each storage track. Nice thing, particularly if you'll be backing trains into the yard.
If I used #3, I'd have the bottom most track be the through track, as it only leads through 1 turnout.
 

Attachments

  • staging yard.jpg
    staging yard.jpg
    13 KB · Views: 355

marty w.

Member
Thanks Gary and Bill.
Great idea's.
Gary - I really liked your idea on making one large staging yard.
I moved the backdrop back where it was, this opened up more space (see Area "A") for the yard or more switching. The track to the new staging yard can be hidden with a highway overpass or between two buildings. I would use all 5-6 tracks for staging and it would be approx. 22" long. Long enough for two trains per track. Bill - I can use your ladder design #3 only flipped.
Thanks guy's. I'll redo plan with changes and post.
 
Top