The Nomad Valley & Skookum Creek R.R.

[Nomad]

Hi all, Here is my new track plan. Any help, advice or critisisim is welcome and needed.The scale is H.O.
I know I only have 2 feet of entrance, but it was either that or a crawl under. The box on the bottom left can not be touched,making the room odd shaped. I left 17" of clearance on the bottom left, I have that on my current layout, and am ok with that. The bottom right is open exept for 15" in the corner, so no reach problem there.
The curves are 20 & 18. The short red lines are team tracks and the long ones are staging. The table top is flat, in that space it's hard to get a decent grade. The dark blue lines are for reference only, That is not what I plan for a table edge. I will be starting construction this week, and hope to get a good camera for X-Mas so I can post pictures later.
I also tried to plan the sidings so all uncoupling will be done by hand. I have no love at all for magnets on my layout. Thanks for taking a look . I am sorry the picture is so small, that's the only way I could get it to upload.
Loren

 

[LongIslandTom]

Make a diagonal cut on the corners and you will have comfortably widened the entranceway by a few number of inches. :thumb:

 

[MasonJar]

Loren...

THe siding in the upper left looks like it might be a bit of a reach. Other than that, I'd agree with Tom's suggestion to cut or curve the edge of the layout at the entrance.

Looks good.

Andrew

PS - Your image is a bitmap (.bmp) which are often very big (file size) for their dimensions. Try converting the original version to a jpeg/jpg instead.

 

[Nomad]

LongIslandTom, Mason Jar, thank's for looking and your advice. If you look at Nazgul's thread(and who hasn't) I plan on recessing the table edges the way he did. The siding on the upper left is a 33" reach. Just enough for me. I hope.
Loren

 

[Nomad]

Mason Jar, I looked again at that left siding, and you are right. With a building in the way, I would have to remove the building to get at a derail or something. Would it be proper make that another team track, or maybe a very small interchange?
Loren

 

[MasonJar]

Why don't you make the building a flat against the wall, and curve the siding slightly more so it can run in front?

You have mentioned (and show) a number of "team tracks" on your plan. Are you favouring these over any sort of dedicated siding/industry? If yes, why? (Honest question, not a criticism.)

Will your staging tracks (down the right side?) be hidden? If so, they can represent "the rest of the world", and you don't necessarily have to have interchange tracks.

One last question - as I look at your turntable, I realize that there is little room for a roundhouse. Are you planning on an engine servicing area for steam or diesel? If yes, more info please!


Andrew

 

[Nomad]

Mason Jar, thank you for your help! I was putting in lots of team tracks for added switching. The areas I have them, I really could not find industry buildings to fit in the small areas. I am open to any ideas to make my layout better.
The long tracks on the right side are actually a run around for the yard. the staging tracks are the longer red ones in the middle section.
As for the turntable, I plan on running a local frieght in one direction, break it up in the yard, and then run another train in the oppisite direction. So, the only reason I have for the turntable is to turn the locomotive.
I know the picture is hard to see, I will try to resize it and post a better one.
Loren

 

[Nomad]

Mason Jar, thank you for the help! I put in team tracks there because of the small areas. I wanted the switching but couldn't find buildings to fit.
The tracks on the right are really runarounds for the yard switcher. I know the picture is hard to see. I will try to resize it and repost.The staging tracks are the longer red ones in the middle section.
As for the turntable, I planned to run trains in both directions, so it's just there to turn the locomotives.
The idea of a flat and curving the track is great! I will definately do that.

 

[LongIslandTom]

Oh, BTW here's what I meant by making the diagonal cuts to make your entrance wider:

 

[Nomad]

Good idea LongIslandTom, thank you. OK, lets see if I can get a bigger picture on here.

 

[MasonJar]

Which program did you draw this with? Is it to scale?

A few more suggestions -

You have left a lot of room between the "outside" tracks and the walls, especially at the top and right sides. Why? You could put in some more staging - at least one more track in each area - as it looks like you have 4" - 6" available. By compression things a little more, you might also fit in a view block so the staging is out of sight.

Why are the "staging" tracks (in red, centre top) in the middle of the layout? i.e. they look like part of a yard. You may also want to consider making them double ended, so trains can be run in either direction.

In the lower right area, you will have a long reach to the corner. I would suggest mirroring things a bit so that the turntable is within reach, just in case some drives into the pit...! I would also make this more of a full-blown servicing area, but I am partial to the care and feeding of steamers...

Rounding off the corners as much as possible around the return loops will help make the operating pit bigger.

You might consider putting all the industries off the "front" mainline, and hiding the back mainline and staging behind a view block. That way the visible track would represent part of a line running from A to B, and eastbound and westbound (or north/south) trains can come out of staging, work the line, and disappear again into staging.

Just some thoughts - your decision. I will try to make a drawing of what I mean, but I use a Mac, and I don't have any Mac compatible track planning software...

Andrew

 

[MasonJar]

Here's a really, really rough sketch done in MS Paint...

The industries all now come off the "front" main, with a new "back" track that completes the continuous run (purple). The staging tracks come off that, behind a view block of some sort (could be buildings, flats, standard backdrop, a "hill" or whatever).

The only area I am not so sure about is the "yard" in the lower right - the entrance and subsequent turn to the yard tracks makes a bit of a nasty "S" bend...

You will probably want to reconfigure some of the industries so there is a mix of trailing and facing points. The other thing that will be needed is a run-around somewhere central to facilitate switching - maybe where the original red staging tracks are (centre top).

Andrew

 

[Nomad]

MASON Jar, thanks for the ideas. The track plan is scale(a square is 12"), drawn with Xtrkcad.
The corner on the bottom right is open. There is a doorway there(double door) and I will remove the doors. That will leave 1' of wall in the very corner. But, I can't go out any further.
I origanillay had the staging tracks at the bottom left side, and was going to hide them behind some flat buildings, but thought they would be to hard to get at.
I wasn't sure if i should put the turntable up there and have the locomotives blocking the yard going in and out of the turntable, but if that works, that's great. I would like to have a nice engine service area if it can be squeezed in.
I really like the rest of your ideas also and will modify the track plan and repost it. And yes, there is 6 to 7" clearance on the top and left sides, I was thinking of using building flats and backdrops along there, soI left plenty of room for them. I have never built a layout like this, so any help is really welcome. Twenty-five years ago I never heard of this kind of stuff, let alone staging and interchanges.Thanks again.
Loren

 

[Nomad]

track plan2

Here is track plan2, changes I made after some great ideas and help from people here at this forum. Thanks MasonJar & longIslandTom. I like this new plan, But feel it could be even better. Any help or advice is always welcome.
The biggest change I made was dropping the left loop down to 18" radius. OUCH. But I only run 40' cars and small locos anyhow. In exchange, I will get better scenery and more interesting switching, so to me it's worth it.
Loren

 

[Chessie6459]

The new plan looks Great.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[MasonJar]

Looks good!

I would add some double ended staging to the track along the wall, and plan for a view block to hide it.

Very nice!

Andrew

 

[Russ Bellinis]

The name of the railroad suggests a shortline. With 40 foot cars, I'm presuming steam era or early transition. If you want staging without building a staging yard, the long siding at the top right corner of the layout could lead off the layout to a staging yard built on a cart. You might even make it a landing and model a tug & barge on water in the cart. You might need to add a three way switch and three tracks leading to the barge. You would then need to rig up a latching mechanism to hold the cart tight to the layout and in alignment with the tracks on the layout. You might need to realign the back mainline a little more toward the front for clearance. When your barge docked, you would brig the train up with cars to load on the barge. You would probably have the engine behind the train. Drop the caboose on one track, drop the cars on another track, and hook up to the caboose directly behind the engine. Then pick up a cut of cars off one track on the barge and pull them back. Hook up to a cut of cars from the train and put them on the barge where the previous cut was removed. Continue the process until the cars are switched out from the barge. The barge then pulls out to take those cars off layout to a mainline road for distribution elsewhere. The train is now loaded with more cars that need to be spotted at industries on the layout.

Finally, have you decided what industries to model on the layout? If so, could you put numbers on the track plan corresponding to numbered industries listed with the track plan. We might be able to help you with design considerations that way. The purpose of sidings is to serve industries. You have the "bones" of a nice layout, some industries will flesh it out and make it live.

 

[Nomad]

Chessie 6459, thanks for the encouragment, that always helps!
Mason Jar, I double ended both staging tracks as you sugested, it works a lot better that way. And believe me, I won't forget the scenery blocks, that is going to look great!
After this I will start shopping to get what I need for the roundhouse and steamer servicing. I hope to make that the hi-lite of my layout, I didn't think I would have room for it. Thanks to you, youv'e made my track plan work. Thanks for all your help.
Loren

Russ, thanks for your post. Your idea of a barge would be great if I had room. unfortunatley, I am building in a 11.5x10 foot room that cannot be altered. I am sorry you could not see that, but I removed the grid lines to upload a bigger picture. As far as industries, I would really appreciate yours, or anybody else's help. I drew the track plan with Xtrkcad, so I can use the buildings in that library. Most of them are not available now, but it will give you a general idea of what I planned. I will repost as soon as I can.
Loren

 

[Nomad]

Russ, here are the numbered buildings you asked for.
About my railroad, your right, I was planing on a branchline type of operation, with carcards & waybills. I quess you could say it's transition period. The president of the railroad(me) doesn't believe in all that new fangeld diesel stuff, unless there's no choice. The shop keeps our steamers running like new, and we only buy diesels if the president likes the way they look. He also likes the old wooden billboard boxcars and reefers, so we keep those repaired to,(in other words, I have a bunch of them.) I quess i'm saying there is no actual time period. Any how, the tables are drawn for a 24" reach, I can go up to 30" to make room for buildings if needed.
Here you go.
1 furniture factory. 2 team track. 3 cold storage, 4 stock yard. 5 lumber yard. 6 scrap yard. 7 freight depot, 8 wharehouse. 9 another team track. 10 frieght terminal. 11 packing company. 12 icing platform. The furniture factory looks like it's off the table, but it would be a flat.
Thanks again for any help.
Loren

 

[Nomad]

ops: OPPS, forgot the picture.