I like your last design. Here's a couple of thoughts: What if you start your yard ladder back to the right in the curve using curved turnouts? That will lengthen your yard tracks somewhat. You might even think about moving the industry on the right side (the funny shaped one with one boxcar) towards the bottom of the layout picture as you have it and starting the yard about where you've got the line for the break in your bechwork. Looking at your drawing, even though it's not ideal from an uncoupling standpoint it would give you the space you need for your yard. you could put a small straight section of track on the diverging portion of the curved turnouts so you could put your uncoupling magnets there. Clear as mud?
After looking around for Layout Ideas, I found Model Railroader's Wild-cat central layout and I realized that It would be much easier to build and would cost much less to build. I would also save alot because there are only a few buildings and only about 13 turnouts After about a few hours of Track-planning, I came up with this. I like this layout because it is allows for running of long trains, while also having some switching. Almost all structures are from kits so that will hopefully make it easier to build. Will I realistically be able to build this without too much frustration, or will I have to make a much simpler layout?
I've seen that plan before, and it looks good. As long as you can reach the rear staging tracks, you should be OK. You may need to use a foots tool, but thst should work. As for the access issue, duck-unders are OK when you're young, but as you age, it gets harder to stoop low enough to get underneath the benchwork. Kinda curious- what else is gonna be in this room besides the layout? Is it possible to stretch the layout a bit? Benchwork-wise, it should be an easy one to build, and a fun one to operate. You could have that local working local customers while through trains roll past.
Justin have you seen the HOG? Here is a link that has some of the track plans http://home.comcast.net/~scottgperry/site/?/page/Heart_of_Georgia_Beginner%27s_Train_Layout/ ratled
Hi Justin, my feeling is there are issues with the Widcat design. You can run pretty long trains, but if you like to take a cut of cars from your long main freight you'll encounter several problems. You'll have some switching to do behind the backdrop and the passing siding on the branch is very short. You have to pull cars first, park them somewhere and then you can drop the new cars. While doing those moves the runaround track has to remain empty because you have facing and trailing spurs. Doing maintenance behind a backdrop is not so easy too; the backdrop can be made removable however. I found the switching possibilities too meager, so I added a second station called Riverside. By flipping the layout the staging tracks can be reached from the "corridor" part of your room. To make them long enough I went around the corner and made that part of the staging area less visible only, by putting it behind a road. With 13 switches your design can't be made much simpler. Building your main with single track reduces the number by two. Or you could consider the HOG by Scott Perry. It also has 13 switches, has a second station, but lacks staging. Or even smaller: BTW the passing siding in Riverside, in my first design, can be used too by the wayfreight to park some cars if needed, while switching Bottoms. The very last design was a version of the HOG, made for a starter with a very tight budget. The HOG is meant by Scott Perry as an alternative for the "sacred" 4x8 sheet and is built from the same quantity of wood. Paul
My plan for staging on my design would be the bottom two tracks would be for trains that are passing through and the top track would be for the switcher and the freight cars. If I need the change cars, I would roll the train out of staging and then would change cars there. I want to have a layout with only a few buildings with no scratch-building required. I would love to have a switching layout but the price of the switches and the frustration that comes from scratch-building leads me away from that option. I don't like the HOG layout because it lacks staging and is too boring scenically. In case anybody was interested, my track-plan has a minimum radius of 24" and uses only no.6 turnouts, I would like to keep these requirement for any layout that I build.
Here is Version 2.0 of my Wild-Cat central Track-plan I made a few changes such as replacing the group of industries in front of the staging with a coal mine. I also replaced the scrap yard with a small town and a small freight house. I replaced the flour mill at the top-right with a small coal loader. My plan is for the layout to be set in the Appalachian mountains during the winter, with long (10-12 car) trains moving at slow speeds. I was wondering If I should replace the bridges at the lift-out section with something else, such as a crossover or just leave it straight.
