Here's a layout I'm considering building with my son. It's basically a variation (I traced alot of it) on #39 from "101 Track Plans" book except that I've got 2 feet less in width to deal with and I've raised the inner loop up 3". The track radius curves for each loop should be weill within their radius as I copied those pretty close to the book. The goal is for a simple layout that will be visually interesting and allow for the operation of two trains at once. A friend of mine will be giving us a Digitrax system, controller and a couple of engines but I haven't made any consderations for wiring yet. I've already got all the foam I'd need so as soon as I nail down a good track plan I can start building. Blue- Upper line with 22"-23" curves which will be about 3" above the rest of the layout Red- Lower line with 26" or greater curves at grade level Green- Long incline of about 9 feet which comes to a 2.78 degree grade. Not exactly sure where it would have to emerge from underground on the right yet. This is the only way the blue and red lines connect. Brown- Cliff or aproximate hill line. The sides are high and the valley is in the middle. Dashed lines- aproximate area that tracks are underground/hidden. Scale is: 1 Square = 4 inches Dashed lines Sidings and such in the middle are aproximate, I haven't measured the exact turnouts and such yet. All in all I rather like it. I hope the difference in elevation will create a nice separation between the two towns in the valley and on the plateau. I could even see building up a bit of a ridge to separate the two areas even further. All right, now please bring on your suggestions and criticisms, anything to make this successfull.
Minor Suggestion...the blue track...if you put a switch on the opposite side of the layout and have a long lead to your sidings you have the space to pull and sort and stack cars. You also have the opportunity to have a small industry that requires you to park a car mid curve (heating oil service lets say) that must be moved out of the way to get cars to the sidings at the end of the line. Adds a bit of complexity and interest.
Thanks for that! The opposite side inner loop would make my curves pretty small, maybe down to 18". However, the bridges I'm working with to go over the valley can be assembled double-wide. What if I split off the blue track immediately after the curve (about five blocks left and two blocks down from the upper right corner) to get a longer lead and a cool double-track bridge?
If not too late, I just would like to let you know that you'll have to run trains clockwise only. Because cars need to be backed into those spurs in order to prevent the engine pulling them from being trapped ahead of its cars. If you add a switch on the main curve on our left, connecting the the highest spur here to the main curve you then can stop your train on either the spur OR the main curve between the 2 switches, uncouple engine here and be able to back the engine around the sitting cars and come in from behind them now and shove the cars into the remaining 2 spur tracks. Or do the very same thing to the lowest spur on our right.. M
