Reasonable Staging?

[Pitchwife]

I have been working on a staging platform that gives me the greatest flexability. The whole thing will be out of sight so I'm not really concerned with it looking anything like a prototypical yard.

As you can see in the picture there are four entrance/exit points that feed two opposing mainlines. What I am shooting for is to be able to send any train into and out of any of the four exits and also have storage for unused rolling stock.

I am extreemly limited in the width as the room is only 8' wide but it is 32' long (used to be a house trailer) so I tried to take compensate the lack of width with length. Thus the unconventional setup of the turntable.

Does this look like a workable plan or am I headed for a disaster?

 

[belg]

operation

Hey Clark I don't know enough about this to help you but I'm wondering how do you see what your doing under the table?Camera mirrors or do you just bend down and look underneath?I think the camper idea is great I saw your posts of the thing when you started.Do you have any new ones?

 

[Russ Bellinis]

If you are wanting to stage entire trains, I think the turntable wastes space. You can't put more than one locomotive on the turntable at a time. Eliminate the turntable and you can probably add at least three more straight staging tracks.

 

[Pitchwife]

Actually Russ, I am only sacrificing two lines. I had originally designed them in, but thought it would be worth it to have the flexability to have different engines on different trains. The two long staging tracks at the bottom as well as the two reversing loops and the long runups on each of the exits should be enough to put completed trains while I assemble another one.

You hit the nail on the head Belg, I am going to use two X10 wireless cameras that will be mounted on remote control swivels to keep track of what is going on in the underworld. Another camera I picked up is a really small wireless one that runs on a 9v battery that will fit in a rail car. I'm hoping to be able to really get a feel of the road.

I'm not sure which posts you are refering to about the camper idea. Seems like I come up with new ideas all the time, so much so that people tell me that I'm redesigning it so often that it'll never get built. I fully intend to prove them wrong.

 

[shamus]

Hi Clark,
Having looked at your plan for some time, I might suggest that you move the Turntable to below where you are going to put the helix, that way, you could have a number of spurs off it to house loco's

Shamus

 

[Pitchwife]

Is this what you were talking about Shamus? It wouldn't hold as many engines but it is a lot more streamlined.

 

[shamus]

Hi Clark, I was thinking more on these lines
Shamus

 

[Pitchwife]

The problem with that is that I am putting a 12 to 15 inch deep canyon where it is indicated on the photo. This is one of the major attractions that I have in my plan from the very beginning. The only reason that I was able to squeeze the track that is there through was by bringing the waterfall out to make room, and bringing it out any more would spoil the effect that I am going for. I think that putting the turntable on the other end is going to be the best way to go. Thanks for the insiration of putting it there.