Here is the layout as of today, 16 November. I plan to add a short yard between the two elevated tracks and eventually include some structures. I appreciate all of the advice and tips I've gleaned since I joined TrainBoard. Dave
That's pretty cool Dave. I'm envious seeing what you've built so far. I'm nearing the stage where I'll be laying track and despite having been an N Scaler for 50+ years, it's been 30 years since I laid track and have no experience with Kato Unitrack. I'm a bit unsettled about it all, but the good thing I suppose is that if I mess up, I can disconnect the track sections and try another plan.
Pass the sauce and cheese, please. I post that with some trepidation but you got the beginnings of what is called a spaghetti bowl where the track begins to look like pasta noodles. Adding more trackage in the form of a yard will only enhance that. Its a common mistake we all make in trying to do too much in a given amount of space. I point that out because, unfortunately, we usually come to realize that much later on when removing trackage sometimes involves extensive scenery work. Using Unitrack, as you did, will make the process easier if you so desire to modify the track. However, as always, Model Railroading Rule No. 1 applies and if you are satisfied with it then so be it.
A couple of things I will add is about the areas at the far end where the track curves around close to the pylons. Make sure you have the clearance for longer cars like autoracks or 89' flat cars if you have or plan on running those on your layout. It would bite to have everything set in place then realize you are limited running certain cars or locos on those sections. The other thing is consider extending that inner loop back to the close end of the picture to allow for a less aggressive grade. This will also allow more room for a sweet railyard in the center.
Nice! As you've heard, there are those that like a little track and a lot of scenery, and those that like a little scenery and a lot of track! I fall with you into the latter group. The more (track) the merrier! Thank goodness there's room for both (and everywhere in between) in this hobby! So what you have appears to be a separate outer double-track loop, and an inner single track "up and over, twice around", on a 4x8 foam base. You will have more room for a big yard if you expand the innermost elevated loop towards the camera. But you should try to keep the yard towards one side, to reduce reach distance, assuming the yard is where you will add/remove cars from the layout, and reach to the middle, while doable, gets tiring after a while. Of course, you can always add cars and locos to the layout on an outer track and move them (1:1 style) around the track to the yard. I would suggest you add the Kato Gradual Incline pier set to your piers, to reduce the grades. The gradual incline set comes with plastic brackets to allow positioning the gradual set's piers at the mid-points of the existing viaduct pieces (which does not affect the uphill/downhill grades). However, they also come with S-joiners (IIRC) to attach them at the viaduct piece ends (which will reduce the uphill/downhill grades). But you may need to acquire additional viaduct track pieces to account for the slower climbs before/after you can cross over ground level trackage below. One minor nit I noticed in the photo was the change in grade on the 4-7/8" viaduct piece in the foreground, compared to the two, longer curved viaducts before and after it. The height increments on the piers is not adjustable (easily), but more gradual inclines (with the gradual incline pier set) will reduce the change in grade between track pieces of different lengths. Or you can try to avoid short pieces that are much shorter than adjacent longer pieces in the incline/decline sections of your viaduct trackage. For example, 13.75R curved viaducts are available in both 30 and 45 degree spans. For a 90 degree curve, you replace two 45 degree curves with three (shorter) 30 degree curves. These shorter pieces will be closer to the length of that short ~5" straight piece, and even out the grades between them. I kinda did the same sorta thing you did when I got started in N scale Unitrack a long time ago: I started with a loop set, then I bought an outer (or was it inner?) loop set to expand it. Then I bought a figure 8 set to get the Viaduct pieces (at less $ than purchased individually). Eventually I migrated to "folded dogbone" style track plans, and I've used that style ever since (YMMV). Alas, I've never had room for a 4x8 layout (that may change...) so my footprint of choice has been a 36x80 Hollow Core Door base. Whatever you do, enjoy it! Build and run the style of layout YOU like!
Thanks, Big Jake. I just happen to have a Gradual Incline Pier set. Would you also recommend moving towards the camera the outer loop single track as well as the nearest elevated loop? Dave
If you move the nearest viaduct towards the camera, you're going to have to move the single ground track towards the camera too, since the viaduct does not have enough elevation to cross that ground track on the right. ...Unless you decide to run the viaduct around the near end, between the double track and ground single track (flipping the siding down the right side to the inside of the loop, and the switch leading to the viaduct to the outside.) But, I should ask, what do you want the layout to look like in your "finished state"? If you don't want to think that far ahead just yet, that's fine, and your options for your track plan are more flexible. And that's perfectly fine! Do you want to keep all the viaducts, or eventually create terrain that supports the elevated trackage (i.e. gives a reason for the track to be elevated for the most part, excluding some bridges, etc.)? This is your layout, and either is fine, but coming up with a good (somewhat realistic) terrain plan can be made harder or easier by the track plan. For instance, an elevated track on a long, narrow, straight ridge between two lower-level tracks would not look natural. But move that elevated track either to the inside or outside of both ground level loops, and now you can have it on the sides of a central mountain ridge, or on the sides of a bowl around the layout. Industries will generally be on more level ground (the middle of a bowl, or the edges surrounding a central mountain ridge). Just as simplified example of a track plan fitting a terrain, imagine a figure 8 layout, with a ridge that runs diagonally across the layout. And that ridge has a gap in the middle (where the track crosses under a bridge spanning the gap, maybe alongside a river that once cut through the ridge). Now, if that ridge curves around at each end as it slowly descends to ground level, your track could just follow along the ridge, down and around on either end the same way. The industries, businesses etc. would be in the valleys on either side of the diagonal ridge, and along the ground level track that passes through the gap, under the bridge. This is just a simple example to make a point about track plans and terrains that support them. In general, the more loops and tracks you have, the harder it is to figure out a "reason they are there" and a terrain plan to support them. I say all this because I use viaducts to experiment with a layout (by running and operating on it) before I commit terrain, which is more labor intensive and harder to tweak. I place the viaduct track where I think the track would look good slowly climbing up the side of a mountain or along a ridge, and plan tunnels where ground level track needs to get through the terrain without going over it, but I can't logically place a valley. This all probably sounds really abstract, and by all means, if you just want to run trains and switch yards and industries, using viaducts to elevate some tracks up and over others is a perfectly good way to do it. This is, after all, your layout!
I have some Kata track that is *probably* 8 years old and has been used in at least 4 'different' track layouts. I can't tell the pieces apart except for where paint might have gotten on this piece or that. Still, I just built a new layout and even the turnouts function as the day they were new.
I know what you mean! I have quite a bit of N Unitrack acquired and used going on 20 years ago, and it is still as good as the day it was new! To be fair, it has always been used and/or stored in climate controlled environs.
