hope im not being too much of a nuisance posting all over the place almost everyday. its pretty exciting learning from everyone here since im basically a noob. i thought i put my small track layout up for critique and gain more insight from the pros here. its only about 26x41inches. i got some tight turns in here to fit the space. slight kink on the left small peco turnouts up top. the bottom tracks is my lame attempt to get a small yard in so i can switch around stuff. the top tracks that come into the oval will be a for a station as soon as i can figure out how to get around the big manual switch blocking the mainline coming out of a curved turnout . i want to leave a blank area in the middle for some sort of small town you guys can rip it up if you think its lame, but do offer suggestions too =) sorry for the blurry camera phone photo. left my cam at another place...oops.
For a first layout it looks great now you have to wire it all up and add some scenery and you have a great little layout. I like it.
You have to play out operation in your head and see what can be done. It appears that only 1 or 2 cars can enter some portions of the yard and will block some of the turnouts. It is trial and error for the most part because you have to manage both track, turnout, space and power switching all at the same time. Part of the fun is building the rails to support your operations. I would some what mirror the south yard with the north yard, that way you can move freight from north to south. You are doing good. When you set up your turn outs you can operate multiple loco by power switching them. That's if you are running DC. Inobu
yea ive been playing out operations in my head currently. some of my track was used stuff and the previous owner sprayed it over with brown so it doesnt conduct well and i have to clean them. well to run multiple locos ill need DCC...im not even that far yet. so as of today, its a 1 loco operation haha. this stuff is more complicated than i thought!
It looks good for a first layout. You'll learn a lot building and operating it. Don't worry if it's not all you want it to be. Just complete it with buildings and scenery and details. What you learn building this one will make the next layout much better.
It looks like a fun layout to get started with. I say forget calling the bottom yard a yard and instead make it into a sort of industrial district with a few customers to have an area to do some switching. and the top yard could be a station; just put a backdrop down the middle and split the layout. Just a suggestion though, do what you want for the operations/layout that interest you.
You can manage multiple Loco on DC. You just have to set up your layout to power switch. Here is the concept. Red indicates where power is applied A turnout placed on the main line will divert power to the direction it is thrown. If the turnout happens to route to a yard the power is applied or removed based on that switch position. Here is the example. You can move loco 1 to the yard by allowing the turnouts to apply power to the track section you want. Loco 2 will not move unless you route power to it via a turnout. Getting Loco 1 ................+======Loco 1======+ ========+===+===============+============= ........................+========Loco 2================= ..........................+=================== Placing Loco 1 in yard ...............+==================+ =======+====+===============+============ ........................+========Loco 2================= ..........................+========Loco 1======= Loco 3 on main line ........................+==================+ ============+==========Loco 3=====+========== ........................+========Loco 2================= ..........................+========Loco 1======= Loco 3 parked Go get Loco 2 ........................+========Loco 3==========+ ============+=========================+===== ........................+========Loco 2================= ..........................+========Loco 1======= You can really have fun with power switching. Inobu
I do not understand the purpose of what I presume to be a runaround track on the switchback in the middle of the layout. It appears to allow running around only one car. This would let a loco that pushed a car into the track at right to run onto the switchback and leave its car there and get around from it. Because of the length of the track at right, it looks as if a maximum of a switcher and one car can get into the switchback at all. There is a lot of length of track here for what seems usable for spotting only ONE car! There are arguments about using switchbacks at all. I am not against avoiding them completely. But a switchback with a runaround useful for a maximum of one car!?!?!? You have what amounts to a LONG passing siding at the left side of the layout. This can be used for runarounds. It can also be used to allow switching the bottom of the layout using the inner track of the paired tracks as a switching lead, while running another train on the outside curve. Or it can allow “storing” one train on the outside while switching the inside. I would move the left hand switch on the inner siding at the bottom one track-section over to the left so that it comes directly off the curve at the left end of the layout. (And also move the right-hand over one track-section length to the left. This will shorten the passing siding/ runaround on the left side of the layout which seems extremely long for this small a layout. This will more length on the lead for the switchback, so you can get TWO cars into it. I would not have that tiny short runaround. By the way, inobu said “A turnout placed on the main line will divert power to the direction it is thrown.” This only works for power-routing switches, not the more common switches such as the Atlas.
Good catch Ken, Its funny how we look at things from our own perspective. I only run Kato stuff and just rambled on based on what I did not taking that into consideration. Thanks, for the reminder. Inobu
thanks guys for the encouragement and suggestions! i really appreciate it coming from the pros here. i see so many shots of great dioramas here that i can only wish. power switching sounds fun...but i guess i cant do it yes, i want to do that. i have a few leftover switches i was planning to split out the track even more to serve multiple areas. ::in response to ken:: i never saw that i could use basically the inner curve on the left as a runaround! my solution was to do that one car thing as you have said. but now that you have pointed it out...what a relief it is to get rid of that small runaround! (with a MP-15DC switcher, i think i can squeeze 3 cars in there hahaha) my deal with all this is to maximize the amount of track i can have in this small space so i can have a basis to do a comprehensive diorama with yard, town, station, etc. like attempting making $1 go a long way...keep in mind i have no idea how and why train tracks are built the way they are and how they work/operate to serve railcars/businesses, etc still trying to slowly read and get a handle on what you have said ken. so heres what i think you said: since i already have a run around on that inner track going...i can basically rework all this switching in the middle of the oval now...is this better? i have 5 leftover switches (one of them is a wye) that i can use to continue splitting the track. i ran out of straight track for now, used some curved stand-ins for now (especially where the station is upper right).
Now you've moved the switch for the switchback tail track right next to the other switch. That's exactly what I was going to advise; it makes the lead longer.
that's definitely going to be more of a joy to operate. now I guess you can just add switches for the industrial park or w/e you want to call it. One tip I would give is to have multiple industries along one spur. I have four different car spots for three industries on one spur; sometimes only the last industry will need to be switched, but then the entire spur will need to be pulled and respotted.
awesome, im feeling decently confident about this layout now. cant wait to get this track set and fixed! i really need to get those manual track switches out of the way and get them hidden...
looks like it'll be more fun to operate. You'll have to pull the spur that's the lead in for the switchback, but hey, that's how my layout is.
I just noticed, are you using cardboard as a base for your layout? If so, I really think that you should go pick up some 2 inch foam board as a base. It works wonders. lol Also, once you get more and more scenery on there (if your using plaster) the cardboard will be weighed down, and start to bend in the middle.
ditto. that 2-inch foam will make scenery so much easier. lot easier to plant trees etc in, and to make things like drainage ditches you can just sand the foam if you don't mind the mess, or just cut a slot and shape the ditch with a bit of plaster or something.
I was happy to see the little run-around gone, but I see in the latest photo that you've added another track on the left. Nothing wrong with that, especially because I don't know what your vision is for operation, but if it were me I'd stick with two tracks there, to make room for nice industries lined along each track. But what do I know? Maybe you just wanted a RIP or caboose track.
yep i understand that it will bend. i had that happen with another project i did. just reinforced it with 1in thick wooden poles. i want to keep this as flat as possible. foam would be awesome though, i can cut a river and all sorts of happiness in it!!! how large can those foam boards get anyways...never seen them at any hobby shop ive been to. haha i just wanted a little more track to store some random cars. plus i had a wye that i didnt want to waste the $15 and not use it. plus....what industry siding can fit alongside a curved track?
ok its set! so im still using an old bachmann transformer (the black box with red dial thing that came with bachmann kits back when) hooked up via wire to the original bachmann rerailer on the left of the layout. my locomotives stop and go and totally dont move farther away from that rerailer...i assume more terminal joiners are necessary spread around the layout?
