I have designed myself a layout based on Cherry Tree, PA. However i need help figuring out staging as well as just making sure everything will run well. All straight turnouts are 5 and 4.5 curved are 8. I'm the roundhouse is unknown as i have to research if it was still there in 1965, also the small narrow straight between the two double tracks is a scale track.
Below is a gathering of what I consider the best layout design advice. The principles apply to any layout design. I like to take things away from the drawing board for the first week or two in order to compose a better understanding of what the goals and requirements of the layout are to be. Instead of laying out track for now, take a week or two and simply create 2 lists, one for Wants, the other for Needs. It might sound pointless at first, but I assure you a good 90% of people who heed this advice end up with a layout 1,000 times better than those who dont. So what are these lists? Quite simply, the Need list should include anything and everything you NEED your layout to incorporate. This could be absolute needs, such as the code 80 track, or preferential needs, like an extreme desire to include a roundhouse/turntable. It could be switching scenarios, specific scenic accents, era, region, buildings, equipment to operate, anything you can think of. The Want list is similar to the Need list, except that the items on the Want list are more fluid. It should include anything you'd enjoy on the layout, but would not be heart broken if there is no possible way to incorporate the item. Again, consider all aspects you can think off. Once you have two sizable lists complete, then you can look at your allotted layout space with a better perspective. Instead of designing elements in an unguided manor, the Wants/Needs lists will act as a set of guidelines for the design. You can simply start at the top of the Needs list and check the items off as they go into the design. You'll quickly see how things merge together to form a more unified and realistic result simply by trying to connect the items on these two lists. Take a day or two, or 7 and consider every possible aspect of your layout. If you absolutely love it, put it on the Needs, if it would be cool but not necessary, put it on the Wants. If you then come back and post those two lists, the many experienced track planners on TrainBoard will be more than happy to offer design help. Also, a lot of times when designing specific areas, such as Cherry Tree, PA, the common impulse is to try and get every track from the real road into the layout. However, if you first compose the want and need list, you can use that to your advantage by selectively compressing and trimming down the prototype. Think of it like summarizing a story. You dont put every detail into the summary, otherwise its not a summary. You include only the relavant key points, as listed in your wants/needs check list. Sure Location X may have 5 yard tracks, but if your layout is only so big, maybe just including 3 yard tracks in the plan is the best option because one, 5 tracks will eat up valuable real estate for other scenes, and two, maybe just those 3 tracks are plenty of yard space given the rest of the layouts proportions. I hope this helps. Good luck, and keep us posted!
Or longer. Number 1 rule of "ideation".....NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR FIRST IDEA! In fact set your list down for a week or so then come back to it. It will give you a fresh perspective and sometime make you go "what was I thinking?" Once you start building your layout and you've gotten to the stage where benchwork is in place and track laid it becomes very expensive to make changes. Take your time NOW to define and refine your track plan and layout goals. Making realizations later is not fun. -G-
I probably should have told you guys that this is probably my 17th plan for this space. I have been designing layouts for it for years, and I am concerned i may never actuallly get to build one. Anyway... Needs Strict adherence to the prototype (i have ruled out many possible locations because of lack of information) Switching possibilities Staging At least 7 car long trains Method of reversing trains (without lifting of track) Ability to start running in 6-12 months Yard Ability to hold impromptu operating sessions Wants Decent mainline run continous loop Semi hidden staging phased construction interchange/tipple one train running at a time One loop helix (maximum) no duckunders/gates (not too important) ability to use existing benchwork doesn't block non-railroad oriented travel. If it is possible to compress i would much rather model clearfield yard The interchange between the C&I and NYC at Manver is also a possibility Note: both alternatives feature nearby industries, unlike cherry tree.
Your list of needs and wants is off to a very good start. Sometimes, layout planners will call their list of needs and wants their layout Givens and Druthers. Givens are the "fixed" needs that you absolutely must include in your dream layout. Some of the Givens for your layout include your scale (S), era (1965), and location (Cherry Tree, PA). Givens will include things like the physical dimensions of the room; but, if the layout is in a room shared with other household members, givens may include non-layout related conditions such as always leaving access to a washer/dryer or ensuring wide pass-through aisles for non-layout related traffic. Druthers are all the elements or conditions you would like to include on your layout, if possible, but they have a lower priority than givens... so you would rather have them ( 'druther have them) if you can, but you could tolerate not having them, if you had to. Druthers you've already mentioned could include avoiding duck-unders/gates, but could also include modeling as much of Clearfield Yard or the Pine Flats/Manver Interchange as possible. You've also mentioned using staging for operations, modeling some industries, running 7-car trains, and matching prototype as much as possible. All these can be included in your Druthers (although it is likely some will have considerably higher priority than others, maybe even coming close to being a Given). When planning a layout, you will be determining Givens and Druthers throughout all aspects of the layout design process. Is there a chance you could post a plan (with dimensions) showing some of the Givens and Druthers for the trainroom, itself? Trainroom Givens might include location of all walls, doors (and which way they open), windows/light switches/heating-cooling vents/electric panels/closets (and their doors)/etc. that can't be blocked by layout benchwork or backdrops, location of any existing benchwork you don't want to move, and non-layout related traffic areas/space/furniture/appliances that are non-negotiable (cannot be moved, violated, intruded upon, blocked). For your Trainroom Druthers, you've already indicated we should try to avoid duck-unders/gates (although this might be of lower importance). Other trainroom druthers might include: ideal versus acceptable aisle widths for non-layout traffic, ideal versus acceptable layout aisle widths; benchwork depth (which will probably interact with aisle width), and preferred footprint of benchwork within the trainroom (around the room-donut, island, only along one or two walls, or extending into the room with peninsulas). You've mentioned Cherry Tree, Clearfield, and Manver. How are the 3 sites related to each other? (i.e., Is Clearfield Yard located in Cherry Tree, PA and the Pine Flats/Manver Interchange on one of the branchlines out of Clearfield Yard?)
There are many points that ned to be hit so i'll use multiple posts to do so. Cherry tree is a yard/town at the end of the CT&D (a joint PRR/NYC railroad). All NYC bound cars a forwarded to the NYC at clearfield (a complete assumption). Manver is the interchange betwen the C&I (40% owned by NYC), and nearby is Posum Glory, which was home of a coal tipple. Clearfield yard was the hub of NYC operations in the surrounding counties. Other that connected to it were the B&O (the west end of the yard is where the B&O's (C&M branch ends) and PRR. It was also home to a to a refractory plant and a brick yard and freight station.
5% seems very steep to me... Pulling power varies considerably between locos, regardless of Bullfrog Snot, so you may want to set up some test grades to check your personal locos' pulling power on such a steep grade. I saw a significant increase in how many cars could be pulled up a +3.5% helix by a single loco when I made sure all my cars met NMRA recommended standards for weight. (I had over-weighted too many of them.) Resistance around curves affects how many cars can be pulled by a loco (or locos). Tighter curves offer greater resistance than wider radius curves. Tighter curves on a grade will adversely affect train length even more. If your train is longer than the curve, longer trains will experience more resistance on the same curve than shorter trains. Your track plan shows one track above the other. For ease of construction, and for easier maintenance and re-railing access, you may want to shift the tracks so one track passes quickly under the other instead of remaining obstructed by the upper track. If you make aisle access along the right side of the plan to gain access to the bottom of the plan, you could shift the lower track to the outside of the upper track. Another option would be to position the aisle so the Manver Interchange was along the right wall, and the lower track from Cherry Tree yard on the left of your plan passes under the track from the Y's Manver arm, and along the left side of the repositioned aisle. Essentially, you would have an oval with the Y and Cherry Tree yard along the left side of the oval (where they already are, in your plan), the Y branching to Manver would cut across the oval to the right to run from the lower right corner of the plan up along the right hand wall. The right side of the oval would pass from the lower left of Cherry Tree yard, across the bottom of the plan (where it is already positioned in your plan), and would curve to pass along the left side of the new aisle, and then curve to pass to the left along the top of the plan to eventually join the Y again on the left side of the oval. For point to point operations, you could put tracks along the right side of the oval to represent Clearfield, and then run between Clearfield, Cherry Tree yard, and Manver. Judicious use of viewblocking hills, trees and buildings between Cherry Tree yard and Clearfield, would separate the 2 sides of the oval and the re-positioned aisle would separate Clearfield from Manver. For continuous running, you could orbit the oval. If the Y is closer to Clearfield than it is to Cherry Tree yard, you could just switch the names in my description above.
