I need some help designing my yard. I have all the mainline track down and have located where the switches that lead to the yard will be but have yet to come up with a good yard design. I'd like to include loco maintenance facilities (engine house, fuel & sand station). At the left or "west" end of the layout in the pics below I was planning on blending in a little industrial and then blend to town/residential, etc. The outline in red is to be a passenger train station. The spur that feeds that will be a points trailing switch (train will back into that spur). On the top or "north" end you can see the two switches that will lead into the first siding of the yard. The whole yellow area is where I have available for yard/loco maint, etc. I will be using Atlas Code 55 #5 switches for everything in the yard, etc as they are readily available. The squares on the bench are 12" x 12" I'm open to new ideas as long as they don't require me to tear up anything that is existing as I like the current layout. Thanks!! Tom [ 11. August 2004, 23:00: Message edited by: Tommithy ]
Did I post this in the wrong forum or something? Or did I say something wrong? Nobody has any suggestions?
Hey, Your layout looks a whole lot like mine.Less main lins,but close.The biggest problem your going to have is reaching the back of the layout.I know.You've got a lot of room for scenery.Happy RRing!
Yeah, it's a little far back but I have a stepladder that makes it really easy to reach everything. The problem I have is yard design. I know what basics I want but that's as far as I can get. I don't know how to layout the trackage for good flow in the space that I have. I'm hoping that some people here can offer their assistance in figuring that part out. Tom
Tom: Welcome to the forum!! Make a ladder yard for your railroad. This type of yard conserves space. Looks like you have more room for a yard on the right side. One suggestion I will make about your photo's. Down size them because they are too large. A ladder is great, but the reach across the middle of your layout presents problems. How are you going to scenick that area? Have fun....
Tom, If you would downsize your pics you may ge better responces. I can only see 1/4 of it at a time. Very annoying. Good luck and keep trying there's a lot of smart folks out hear.
The middle of the L will be a mixture of small businesses near the passenger station and then as it leads off to the right towards where all the spare cork is sitting will be residential/town and finally blending into some type of to be determined industrial area, hence the spur going out that way. With the stepladder I have I can reach the back of the table without leaning on it easily. So scenicking is not a problem. I've made the pictures smaller so I hope that helps. Thanks!!
Tom, It seems like there are a couple of challenges in the lcoation you have chosen for the yard. The first is access. When you are actually working in the yard, most of the access will be needed in the yard ladder itself. So you will be reaching in to uncouple cars, etc. For this reason, most people put the yard ladder toward the front of the layout, not the back. I'm also a little puzzled by the way you have the two turnouts set up to lead into the yard. That will make a very short siding and I'm not seeing at first glance how you are planning to create the yard ladder. One thing to consider with the Atlas C55 #5s is that they can be trimmed at the points end (the single track end) a bit to make them fit in tight spaces easier. This can be important if you are trying to lay out the yard ladder on a curve, for example. If you are just laying it out in the typical parallelogram, the trimming does not help much. You're probably anxious to get things going, but I would strongly suggest that you pick up John Armstrong's book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" (Kalmbach). The chapter on yard design would help a lot. Regards, Byron
Well, I agree that it's not an optimal setup for a yard, but given your requirements, here's my stab at it. The only change I would require is that you move the leftmost turnout back to facilitate a two track double-ended arrival/departure yard. An adjacent 3 or 4 track classification/storage yard and an additional track for access to the engine facility, and you have the basics down. Truthfully I don't like the access to the engine terminal, but my quick and dirty sketch didn't reveal a better idea, so maybe somebody else can jump in. I just wanted to give a general overview of how I'd lay out the yard, and fundamentally you want at least one arrival/departure track, as many classification/storage tracks as feasible, a yard ladder with a runaround track, and preferrably a yard lead that doesn't foul the main.
Wow, that's a huge help Doug. Thanks! I know I'm breaking the norm by putting the yard in back of the layout but with the mainline layout it just works to my liking better. Below is a copy of the layout I created in 3rd Planit. I've got most of the yard done. Is 1.5" centerline to centerline to little for track spacing in a yard? The sand/fuel/engine repair shed isn't drawn in yet. What kind of spacing do I need for the sand/fuel area? I'm guessing that it depends on what model I use for that area however I have been unable to find any sand/fuel stations on the net to look at and get sizing on. So far what do you think?
