"Geeky" in Denver, I'm not sure what you are suggesting I do. I changed the yard a little - see the attached version. IS that what you had in mind? Could you let me know if it's not? Thanks
What he means is extending the runaround in the rural area to tie into the yard and create a seperate yard lead. While under normal "mainline" conditions I would agree, I envision this as a small branchline where there isn't a yard switcher regularly working. The local jobs switch out the yard (if necessary) and there isn't a need for a seperate lead as the traffic levels don't warrant it. Additionally, your yard has a center-throat making the lead only accessible to one side of the yard. I also agree the relocation of the yard is a good move. Makes the 0-5-0 interchange a much more plausible thing. The yard would theoretically extend beyond the layout and off to interchange. These comments are about plan #10 - whatever changes you made to the yard in 11 aren't necessary. Now your yard design just plain looks odd to me. I think part of the reason is your center-throat style which is a little unorthodox to look at but is more of a visual thing than a real problem. Your runaround (arrival/departure track) should be the longest track in the yard (and it appears it is). Your escape only needs to be long enough to handle your longest engine. It appears you left over a foot of room where you probably only need 6" - don't forget you only need to get over the points of the switch, not off the whole piece of track. Also, because you have the runaround in the middle, I suggest you make it a crossover and run it off the layout which helps create the "suggestion" of a larger yard. You are also wasting a lot of space on the enginehouse side of the yard. Some simple track rearrangements will give you additional storage space. I have attached an example because it is hard to articulate - it is not to scale just meant as a visual reference. And the yard office would be near the caboose track. Make sure you leave enough room for a 2-3 cabeese and about 2 engine lengths on the caboose track so the engine can then reverse into the house. Lastly, because you relocated the yard it may no longer need to be as long as you have it. How about taking 6" off it (one car length) and adding it between the yard and the rural area? If you take my suggestion for the enginehouse trackage, you'll have 6 storage tracks, an arrival/departure track, and a runaround (you could call them both arrival/departure tracks if you wanted). It appears your shortest track is 3.5 ft right now - about 7 car lengths, and your longest storage track is 10 car lengts (5 ft). I estimate you can currently store about 50 cars averaging 6" (remember 40' is 5.5", 50' is 6.9") across your 6 storage tracks - not including your arrival/departure tracks. So if you took 6" off each track, you are cutting 1 car length per track, or 6 cars of total storage.
Corey, I revised the yard according to your suggestion - at least I think I did. Take a look and let me know what you think. All the best,
I should have been clear you didn't necessarily have to change the yard throat from plan #10. That's a preference for you to decide on. The only change to #10 I would have made was make the runaround a crossover on the middle tracks, shorten the excess tail on the bottom of the runaround (perhaps by shortening the yard a little) and reconfigure the right side ladder like the plan I showed. With the latest your runaround is on your shortest yard tracks (left side). It needs to be on your longest (right side). You otherwise understood what I was talking about with the enginehouse correctly. As for how the yard ladder sits that's a preference for you to decide. Either plan is viable with the changes I suggest above so I recommend you do both and look at them side-by-side. Some people would prefer the latest plan because the yard tracks aren't parallel to the front of the layout.
Gotcha. I will move the runaround to the right side. I do prefer the yard situated the way it is now. You've been very helpful and I appreciate your expertise. Happy Holidays,
sabatrain: Looks like you've been getting some good suggestions here, but one little thing jumped out at me on the first plan and it's still there. The top right (industrial/port) section, just behind the yellow tree (there was a red one there too once), you've got a long siding for a bunch of industries (left); but it's got a very short switching lead (right). I'd check that engine + at least one car can fit on the track to the right of the yellow tree; otherwise you're going to be very frustrated when first you try to run a train through there. I've given up and made a drawing which should help explain what I mean, with the "switching lead" labeled and in Red. If you can't fit at least engine + one car on that track, you're not going to be able to use that lovely industry spur. I think there was a comment on scenic separation that may have some merit; it improves the "illusion" of space if you can't (or don't look for) one scene while staring at another. The corner with the river deals to that nicely; but between the rural and the yard is nothing - the space I've marked with a little spiral. Putting something here to "stop" the viewer seeing both at once may improve the "illusion". I put stop in quotes, because it doesn't have to be a literal block (wall), it could be a highway overpass, a mountain, a river, or just about anything to break the continuity of the scene. A mountain would just look tacky / cliche, so we need to find something else One thought:could you make a small protrusion into the room as I've drawn? It would only have to be cosmetic / scenic; not structural. What I'm trying to do is have a physical protrusion to artistically "force" viewers to stand where I "want" and thus look at only one of the rural section or the yard, and thus hopefully not notice that they're only inches apart Otherwise; a freeway / elevated highway? Might not be appropriate for the era of 40' boxes though. A competing railroad? sunken or raised above or below grade; not actually a Usable track, just something on the diagonal to explain an "interchange" track in the area / provide my scenic block. A retaining wall? have the rural section at "ground level" where it is, and then have the yard "raised" above the surrounding area (all the empty space like where my spiral is) with some suitable excuse about why that would be done.. Just my ideas kicked out there - at the end of the day it's your railroad, and it promises to be fairly good
Version 15 and counting OK, here is version 15. I extended the switching lead by the yellow tree. By the way, that front row of structures on the top leg represents a downtown area, not industries. The lead is for the warehouse behind the town buildings. So the lead should be long enough now just to switch the warehouse. I will make sure I can get an SW and a 50' car in and out. I also moved the runaround to the yard track on the right, on the lower leg. I added some trees to create a visual change between the "rural" area and the yard - I will make a little elevation (not a hokey mountain) and cover it with trees and vegetation there. Since the lower leg is 17 feet you can't really see "all" of it while standing and switching one area or the other. I plan on using a walkaround throttle and ground throws for the switches so I will be standing close to the RR and not farther back. I have started accumulating cars for the RR, 40' and 50' with roofwalks in all cases, and I bought a beautiful MWRR RS232 as my first engine with DCC capability. The builder is coming in early January to finish that part of the basement. RR construction will begin in late February, while everything is frozen outside! (Chicago suburbs.) This has been a fun exchange with my new pals at the Trainboard. I hope others were able to benefit from my learning experience.
