I have updated the track plan for the Taylor Branch Division. The current track plan is TaylorBranch3. I am working on the fourth track plan to include more in street trackage and will remove some industries and relocate. Mainly the changes will only occur in the area "south" of the paper mill. I also may move the far right lead to the paper mill (wood chip unloading spur) a little to the right. Allot of this will be in street trackage. Please take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.geocities.com/pebcak2000 Thanks all
Matt, Here's my input. Keep in mind this is only my opinion and may not be right for your wants. 1) Thats a LOT of track. Would eliminating some of the track and one or two of the smaller industries allow you to model the others better? Wouild you want to even if it did? 2) I like the track layout for the intermodal yard. Is there room for the non-rail part of the yard; trucks, chassis, containers, etc. 3) The benchwork is 6 feet accross. What about derailments and such on the tracks in the middle. Thats a long reach, especially over scenery, trains, and track. Trust me , they will happen. Just some things to consider. Overall, I like it. Double track main for running the trains and LOTS of switching and rolling stock capacity. Keep us posted! Scot
Sure looks like a busy railroad Matt. Track 3 shows good planning with lots of industry to keep you going. Thats a long way to reach into the middle of the layout. Not bad when you are just laying track but once your industries are in place and you have placed your scenery stuff, how will you be able to stretch 36 inches into the middle for maintenance and any other work you want to do there? I limit my depth to 24 inches and even that is a bit much at times. Anyone else with any thoughts?
They all look to be the ultimate switching layout Matt. My preference is # 3 as it seems to be the one with the most promise, and I can imagine having a lot of fun on it. Ensure that you can get access to the layout from all directions and that nothing is out of arms reach or you will be in a world of grief if you ever have to clean up a derailment (and chances are that you will!), or if you need to do some work in the middle of the layout (even more likely!) I look forward to seeing what you finally come up with. Happy Modelling! Cheers! Terry
Matt Looked at Taylor Branch 3 on the website A very ambitious layout, indeed. Also you need to be aware that there are at least two electrical "reverse loops" in the layout now. The wye at the bottom is one, and the loop surrounding the intermodal yard is the other. Not that reverse loops are bad, but they do require special wiring and control during layout operation. Easy access to the center of the layout needs to be considered, as recommended above. Whichever way you go, remember there are only 3 rules 1. It is your layout 2. Model railroading is fun 3. When in doubt, refer to rules 1 and 2. eNjoy DB
Matt, I would have to agree with what the others have said. It is going to be a long reach over buildings and scenery to get to those derailments. Another thing to consider is how many turnouts you have. Those are going to add up real fast. And then you are going to have to wire them if you want to use remote switches. Industries can look just as good with one spur as with many, plus that leave more room for scenic and detail items. You might consider removing some of the extra spurs. But as always, it's your railroad, do what you want and enjoy it! Geof
Thanks for all the feedback guys. After some experimenting based on your feedback, I can see what you all mean about trying to stretch 36" across the layout without destroying any buildings to clean the track, clear derailments, etc. So started working on trackplan 4, I trashed that and went straight to 5. Here is what I am thinking now, I have expanded the length of the layout to 80" long by 72.5" wide. I am thinking of dividing the layout down the middle with a backdrop. One side will a large consist yard and loco service area. This side will be the dense urban side and will include a few industries accessable by rail, and then an elevated area with city buildings. The backdrop will depict a large city center. The other side will be far less dense but will contain more industries such as the paper mill, cement factory, grain elevator. I am in the process of trial and error with the planning right now. I will let you all know what I come up with. Thanks for all the feeback.
Matt, Sounds like your making goos progress. The idea of the backdrop sounds good. Your creating two distinct scenes which increases the variety you can model. Keep us posted. And post the track plan when you get it finished! Scot
Well it's spring for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere and it looks like you have the juices flowing Matt. I know it is hard to make changes when you think you are on the right track but Trainboard is a great place to get ideas and improvements. Track 5 sounds very interesting. The more experience you get, the better your railroad will be. I only wish Trainboard had been around when I designed my track plan
Matt, Everyone posted the suggestions I was going to offer, (not that that's ever stopped me!). I would stick with round figures if possable, like 72" by 96", which is 6' by 8'. That way your benchwork will be easier to figure out when it comes time to buy lumber or foam. I know you have seen the layout plan that HemiAdda2d has posted, (see page 2 on this forum), I would really look that plan over. Don't copy the track plan, but he has some pretty good ideas as far as benchwork goes, in particular his backdrop. Also making it movable isn't a bad idea either. Always explore alternatives! planning is cheap!! 2slim
With hatch, or without a hatch? That is the question! Here's my thought, why not have access hatches built into the layout? You can have your scenery on the hatch and when you need to do maintainance just go under and drop the hatch and get it from there. That's what I'm planning on doing with my future 7 /12 X 10 1/2 ft. layout.
Track Plan 5.0 had been created. I still need to add some structures to the river side of the layout. These include the downtown area of the small town, some houses, a couple of oil pumps (to the north?) and some oil storage tanks near the refinery. Also need to fill up the three remaining corners of the layout. 5.0 does not have all the switching as 3.0 but as pointed out above, there was no way for me to reach the center of 3.0 Please take a look and let me know what you all think. http://www.geocities.com/pebcak2000 Thanks again everyone. [ 19 April 2001: Message edited by: mtaylor ]
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mtaylor: I have updated the track plan for the Taylor Branch Division. The current track plan is TaylorBranch3. I am working on the fourth track plan to include more in street trackage and will remove some industries and relocate. Mainly the changes will only occur in the area "south" of the paper mill. I also may move the far right lead to the paper mill (wood chip unloading spur) a little to the right. Allot of this will be in street trackage. Please take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.geocities.com/pebcak2000 Thanks all<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Track plans look great. Nice size layout. Great jobb, great site... Travis
Matt, I like this one MUCH better! not to crazy about the bridge over the intermodal, but if you have clearance go for it. This plan is less of a "Spagetti bowl". You can see where the trains are supposed to run and this makes their purpose more noticable. I also think the scenic divider works well for you. This gives you two distict flavors on the same layout. GREAT work! Scot
This one is much better Matt, Lots of car and loco storage, a good runaround mainline and enough switching to make it interesting. Build it, have fun and post some pictures of your progress. Happy Modelling! Cheers! Terry
Marc, your 5th trackplan is a considerable improvement over the others, but I still feel you need to change a few things. My best suggestion is to first pick up one of John Armstrong's layout books, they are a godsend. Having turnouts placed so far from you are bound to become a problem, let alone if they need to be manually switched expect a destroyed yard in no time (Personal experience, trust me!). Although a bridge over a yard looks good and also adds something interesting, I would readjust the yard so that you would have the bridge going over almost nil turnouts. Your current one is considerably "blocking" 3 turnouts. You must remember that all points of the railroad have to be easily accesible, not just for maybe adding scenery, but for cleaning rails, derailed cars, or repairs on turnouts. I see you are really interested in a "street" railroad or at least with some city in it, so I suggest looking at TraiN'ternet's website to give you some ideas. Its at http://perso.club-internet.fr/simonet/Home_us.htm Scroll down the page until you see the Free Heaven Harbor Terminal RR. Its unbelivable. Hope I get to help you some. Mike Antkowiak
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by atirns: Marc, your 5th trackplan is a considerable improvement over the others, but I still feel you need to change a few things. My best suggestion is to first pick up one of John Armstrong's layout books, they are a godsend. Having turnouts placed so far from you are bound to become a problem, let alone if they need to be manually switched expect a destroyed yard in no time (Personal experience, trust me!). Although a bridge over a yard looks good and also adds something interesting, I would readjust the yard so that you would have the bridge going over almost nil turnouts. Your current one is considerably "blocking" 3 turnouts. You must remember that all points of the railroad have to be easily accesible, not just for maybe adding scenery, but for cleaning rails, derailed cars, or repairs on turnouts. I see you are really interested in a "street" railroad or at least with some city in it, so I suggest looking at TraiN'ternet's website to give you some ideas. Its at http://perso.club-internet.fr/simonet/Home_us.htm Scroll down the page until you see the Free Heaven Harbor Terminal RR. Its unbelivable. Hope I get to help you some. Mike Antkowiak<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Michelle........... oh I mean Marc.....no no wait....I know, it's Mike Sorry, I could not resist....you always call me Marc. I would like to address some of the potential problems you proposed with Track 5. Turnout Distance from operator (me ) All turnouts are planned to be remote (lots of wiring, but I like electronics and such things). In terms of throwing the switches, distance should not be an issue. Derailments and track cleaning could be an issue on the city side. Granted I am planning on using an army of track cleaning cars, manual cleaning will be needed I'm sure. To solve this issue, I am toying with the idea of making the Iron & steel factory removable as well as the grain elevator to allow access when manual intervention is required. I do not feel access on the river side will be much of a problem...not comfortable but not imposible. Like I said, I will be relying on track cleaning cars heavily. Bridges. I have planned to make the bridges removable to allow access to the track for when manual care is needed. Limitations- My biggest limitation is space. I am building this in a small basement share with shelving, the washer & dryer etc. The benchwork itself is being desinged so that it is movable. Basicly it will be a massive sturdy bench with locking wheels. More on that later. This space is not my ideal plan. But I wanted the dense city scene and the industries included. I could move the track on the river side but I would have to give up the paper mill or one of the other industries. I think Track 5 is very close to my "final" plan. Mike, thanks again for your observations. I really appreciate everyone's help with my planning. Given the above "changes and explainatations" what else does everyone think. Any additional red flags to look for? Thanks again everyone Marc.....I mean Matt
LOL! Whoops, sorry Matt! Now how did I ever think you were Marc...hmm, it has got to be those plastic cement fumes...Im really sorry about that. I really want to help you out, so could you answer these questions: Are you going for an operating layout as well as a scenicly pleasing one? Do you prefer more switching then mainline running (thats the feeling I get from your trackplan)? Is the layout plan shown the greatest amount of space that you can use? And what are the dimensions of the planned layout? Im just trying to get a feel for what you going for and then it would help me, help you alot easier. Arent I helpful? Dont answer that question! Marc...er...Mike Antkowiak [ 19 April 2001: Message edited by: atirns ]
I haven't read all of the details, but if you can access the layout from all sides I would suggest a couple things for your consideration. 1. Consider reversing the paper mill, and have your switches can give accesss from the inside track on the right (the track that the flood loader is on). This would also place those switches entering the paper mill closer to the edge of the layout. 2. The activity near the station would be reduced, so a separate spur could be placed into the feed mill (possibly facing the other direction for the one going to the oil facilty--adding switching interest) and this would also free the main line for your passenger trains to pass without having to move cars spotted at the feed mill. I hope this makes sense.
