I am designing the freight yard section of my future layout. I am just looking for any tips or suggestions from more experienced people before I complete this section. I am not modeling after a particular railway either. My next section will be my passenger station followed by scenery. I just got back into the hobby so much of this is still alien to me. So far it is about 12x3ft.
Are you planning to try to "operate" the yard, or simply use it as staging? Assuming your mainline continues on, all work in this design begins and ends at a single point on the main. All the tracks can only be entered in one direction. You should consider having at least some dual entry tracks, and the ability to have some engine run around.
I definitely would like to operate it. How does this one look? I have to play around with a couple of tracks to get them to line up still. I would like to have the main line be double track all the way around the layout. A third single line will run higher up in some mountains in a later section.
Is your layout going to be around the walls? I have a L-shaped layout using Unitrack. I decided on a curved yard in the corner so I could enter/leave in both directions and have a little more length than a straight yard. John
Thanks for uploading the plan, I am working on a few ideas. If you haven't found this website yet, it has a few good yard design tips. http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html One Note --> Always remember that this is your layout. If you like how something looks and it works for your trains, DO IT. Questions What era are you modeling? Steam, Diesel, both? What size cars are you running? Bigger than 40ft or 40ft and smaller? Here are a few Quick suggestions for things I have found so Far. I am also working on your track plan. Since I only have a trial version of Anyrail, I rebuilt your plan in SCARM; I can also do it in Xtrackcad if you want the final plan. In your yard, I found #6 switches connected to r215(8.5) curve piece. This creates a wicked S-curve. Also this places the parallel tracks really close together. It could be hard to get the "Hand of God" in there to fix or remove cars. From personal experience, the lowest curve piece I would use would be a r249. Personally, I would use these sparingly and not connect more than one 15deg section together. I use a Kato #6 turnout and a r249 curve piece to make a easy single to Kato Double track connection(33mm track spacing), but some locos/cars(w/body couplers) may derail or bind in the sharp s-curve. I haven't had any issues with it using my modern locos and 50ft or larger cars. I also do not have any body couplers or really short couplers. I found r216 curve pieces in a few other places. Like I previous stated, I would remove these. For mainline curve track, I would recommend using r282 or larger. Longer cars will look unrealistic in the curves when using r282 or r315 curve track; 40ft and 50ft cars usually look fine. The long cars tend to hang way outside the track. I like using r348 curve track and higher. I do have a few single 15deg r249 track pieces, but each piece is either connected to a larger curve track or a straight piece. I also have a hidden loop under a mountain that uses r282 and r315 curve pieces. Since the loop is in a tunnel, I cannot see the cars and don't care how it looks. If you use a Kato #4 turnout, you need to add the special straight piece on either track after the frog. Hope this Helps some.
Yes, I plan on making an L or C shape track against walls once I move. The rest of my layout fully depends on how much space I will have. I have just enough room to make a rail yard where I live now. I plan on building this section modular so I can "plug" it into the other sections when I have room to design them. I probably will temporarily close the loop on this plan to make it a bit more functional. I like your corner railyard design though! I would do something like that but the round house is going to be my focal point of the yard. warnerj01 Those are all questions that I havent thought of. The era would be both steam and diesel and I will be running cars 40ft and over. I am definitely glad I asked because I have no idea how my trains would look on the specific kato turns. I definitely appreciate the help!
