This one's a toss up. While the capacity of either option remains the same, I do like the idea of having a dedicated spot for a loco pocket as Gats suggested. However, Harron's suggestion would give you one more spot for a little vignette scene. I'll flip a coin. You want to call this one in the air?
Good illustration. I actually understood Corey's point the first time around. Including the phrase "real railroad". In 1:1 scale I would very likely have taken into account how easy or hard it would have been to find a new job if I kept smashing up cars or causing breakage for the customers. I would not be overly concerned about that on a model railroad. Not much mass involved there Anyways - I quite agree that any of the three configurations would work just fine. My personal preference would still be for Gats proposal (the middle one), but it is pretty much a toss-up. Grin, Stein
Final bit of tweaking Did a little more tweaking, changed the angle of the team track and oil depot so they're not as parallel. Fixed the run around turnout. Instead of stores in front I think I'm going to rather put a row of company houses, much smaller and less invasive. Also manually aligning turnouts and manually uncoupling cars with the stores in front is going to be challenging at best. Let me know what you think.
I'd run with the track plan at this point. Maybe swap the stores and the yard office? Would put the office closer to the engine track (shorter walk for the crew). You could lay some ties in between the bulk oil dealer and the BN interchange to create a look of former double-track that was recently removed.
I think Corey's suggestion to swap the stores with the office is good. The office will likely be lower relief than the stores reducing the reaching over to operate, as well as place it closer to the operations segment of the layout (service). The right hand portion of the layout is very similar to Coon Rapids on my layout. Numbering your tracks top to bottom, 1 to 6, mine run; 1. cannery 2. main 3. passing 4. storage 5. feedmill 6. not used The feedmill was to have two tracks but opted for a single and using the other track as the storage road. Original Coon Rapids; Modified Coon Rapids (the warehouse is now a cement batching plant); The storage road has two functions; excess car storage for the elevator (similar position to yours) and cold store make up of outgoing trains (keeps the passing clear for switching I also like Corey's idea for modelling removed trackage between the oil dealer and the interchange track. Mine has three sections of removed second mainline for visual interest (and was actually done on the BN 11th Sub which it is based on) like single tracked double track bridges.
I've been playing around a little more with other designs. I figured I like classification a lot more than switching so decided to see if a yard could make for a small layout. Here's the result. It includes all elements of a decent yard: 1. Classification Tracks 2. Yard Lead 3. Engine Terminal / Service 4. RIP Track 5. Caboose Track 6. Industry Track I included the grain elevator and plastics manufacturer for those times when I want to do switching. I lose the oil dealer and team track but I figure the RIP track is pretty much similar to a team track - practically any car can go there. Not sure if I'll build it I'm still exploring all possibilities but I think a small yard scene like this can make for a good layout. Includes a small 2' x 4" removable section that spans across a doorway. Removed when not operating the layout.
Pretty solid design and should serve you well. If you wanted a little more yard space, I would suggest moving the caboose track to the left of the yard lead/main crossover, then you could extend the yard about a car length each track. Certainly not necessary, but just an idea.
It is really starting to look "railroady" (in my opinion.) As something to do AFTER you get the rest of it up and running, it might be fun to "suggest" the presence of a town by a bit of the edge-only of a road-- as if the road is just off the front of the layout. There would be vehicular access to the team track and the bulk oil dealer from the front (probably unpaved shell, caliche or gravel). And there could possibly be some low-height non-rail-served something in the leftover spaces. Small working-class one-story house or two like my mother-in-law's in Hutchinson Kansas... The kind of place I would imagine between a team track and a bulk oil dealer would be a poor-boy mechanic with a couple of small buildings-- none bigger than a regular backyard garage, and lots of open space with cars half-done and left for parts... Something that would be stuck between a back street and the tracks, low enough not to intrude.
