Here's a drawing of the current edition of my layout design. It's got some obvious problems, such as the need to trim off a bit so the door will open and close, but just a little.... I'm also thinking about shifting the top section of track up a bit to seperate the tracks a bit and not have them parallel so much, give it a bit of a curve to more follow the wall and jog for the closet. Maybe this should help you to visualize how it's designed so far. Each square is 1 foot, and it's HO scale. The numbers shown are the elevation above "base", which is the elevation of the local loop and the switchyard. Mainline curves are 28" with a 56" curve easement. The local curves are 26" with no easement. The inner loop is a local train, and the double outer loop is a continuous running main-line "through the mountains". Off of the main line is a double siding at the elevation of 1", the upper one to serve a passenger station, and then a second one that passes behind the passenger station nestled "under" the mountain with a series of tunnels where the train can peek out every few feet to maintain access. There's also a siding on the top of the mountain (at the bottom of the drawing) for passing long trains at an elevation of 8". Been thinking about possibly adding a siding off of the local track in the industrial area (would make sense), but haven't though too much how the industrial area would be designed yet. Comments? Suggestions? The room is being sheetrocked this week and next. Plan on painting in 2 or 3 weeks. Mark in Utah
Mark, Congratulations on the new train room. If you're absoutley set on having three loops of track, there's probably not a lot of different things to do here. Personally, I'd look at breaking up the loops so that there aren't quite so many places where there are many tracks paralleling one another. The long stretch of stacked tracks along the bottom of the drawing with some in a tunnel seems like a maintenance concern in terms of access. Did you ever look at a dogbone style set-up with two "blobs" that would free you up from the duckunder-into-the-doughnut routine? You might not be able to have as many trains "orbiting" simultaneously, but you might find it solves a lot of reach and other access issues. Unless your preference is for lots of orbiting ... that's fine of course, but some folks I know have become bored with it rather soon. Regards, Byron
Mark, You also need to reconsider the stub ended yard on the inner loop. I would consider putting through yards between the station and second loop maybe. I like the idea of two loops that dogbone as it would be more interesting.
Here is the illustration my layout. I just came up with it on paper and then as I built it i added on here and there and this is the finished product. The only one thing I should have done was made this a double track layout, but its not that bad of a mistake. One the lower left side of the plan where there are four circles with X's in them is where my silos were going to go but the truck distribution center is now. The bottom where there is a bridge that is my access into this layout. The inside is where you will see the water heater, chimney, and the furnace. I left room for repairs if need be it and also for me to navigate through it. on the bottom left corner is where the Hoffa Cement is and the fire dept, and cafe are on the bottom right hand side of the access bridge. I also cut out a corner on the inside upper left hand so I could get past the furnace that way so I could navigate fully in a circle inside. I had to move a post on the inside also for easy moving around. Let me know what you think of this plan. It has two reversing loops in it also so my train can travel any way very smoothly. It was a simple dogbonde design that went to the extreme. I like the layout though.
The two outer loops are actully one loop. The numbers next to the track are the elevation in inches above the switching yard. The main line does one loop around the room while climbing in elevation, peaking out behind the passenger station. As such it's impossible to connect the passenger siding to the bottom loop, as it's close to 6" different in elevation at that point. The long siding behind the passenger station peaks in and out of tunnels along its length so as to maintain access to the track, but a the same time allow some ridges in the mountain to come down. Originally I tried to make the layout a "blob" style layout, but it turned into two blobs with not much else wrapped around the operator. One blog had to have a lift out section in the middle (a lake) to maintain track access. The room simply isn't wide enough to accomodate a blob in HO scale. It was also designed as a 2 level spaghetti bowl with track storage under it (for a third level), with close to 200 FEET of main line track! This design is an attempt to greatly simplify the design and allow room for some decent scenery. Mark in Utah
