River Harbor Belt Line

Paul: It's great to see the layout coming along.
Nice looking benchwork and a solid foundation for starting a layout.

NO!
As I explained before, the layout is set up for cuts of specific lengths, especially when the Harbour in the Alcove comes into play.
Or the attached staging cassette / lift-up/down/clamp-on.
That crossover at the upper right (the one you think you should move) is there only to facilitate staging cassette/harbour ops.

If you consider NO harbor and NO cassette, then the crossover is redundant, as switching the Food Distributor or the MoPac North main would involve a specific job separate from any other (like the Industrial Metals) that would require a runaround at that end.
(In other words, you'd leave the Belt Line Yard with the cars already on the correct side of the switcher).

Given no Harbor, no Cassette, then the trackspace past the Industrial Metals becomes a "farnow" track for that industry / or visible staging, while you need the entire "main" above it to service the Food Distributor (for which you wouldn't need a runaround, because you could pull in/out of the Belt Line yard directly).

If you never build the cassette or the harbour it doesn't matter, but if using the staging cassette or Harbour plan then keeping the crossover to the far right and maximizing the car space (and mirroring that on the cassette) on those two tracks at the top of the "L" will be rather important.

You can always tack down track with t-pins / double-sided tape and push cars and locos through moves to simulate an ops session.
Then you can find out how much space you need and if it bothers you to have to shunt partial cuts of cars back and forth across the entire layout.

Also remember you really don't need more space than 2" between yard track centerlines.
The 2 yard tracks (far left) on this HO layout I've been working on are 2" apart and there's plenty of room:



And that's on a tight curve.

No matter what's on the layout design, use the locos and rolling stock that YOU own to determine siding/yard lengths and clearances

Great space and start!
Looking forward to seeing this industrial switching layout come to life!

Cheers!

 

RE: the raising of track levels etc.

Seems to me you are aiming for a reliable working layout. So I would agree with keeping things simple and decorating around the track. There is nothing worse than getting fancy and then realizing your fancy is actually just a lot of headaches that can only be removed by tearing out a section of the layout.

 

Who makes the booth?

 

Congrats!
Always important to be able to "test" / play as you go.
Keeps things fun instead of staring at plywood and the long list of "things to do"!

A few questions:



Yellow Circle: Any particular reason you used a left turnout here? In the plan that turnout is a #6 right, which would eliminate the awkward jog/bend of track past the points.

Orange Arrow: Is that crossing the 25 deg Atlas from the plan? It looks bigger and farther away from the turnouts, thus creating that very sharp curve at the arrow. Flipping that turnout from left to right will bring the crossing closer and create smoother curves (as well as more space for structures behind it).

Red Circle: I'm guessing you put in the length of flex to accommodate the long ties sticking out from the throwbar? You can gain a car-length on each track by moving the turnout back towards the first turnout, and you can fit them all with some careful cutting of ties, like this:



Notice I even cut off the end of the throwbar to make it fit

Anyway, food for thought.
That's one good aspect of powering up and playing with trains early: you can find out what works and what doesn't.
And if it all works well for you and all your equipment, then it's all good!

Looking forward to seeing the layout come to life!

 

Just curious about that one turnout and why used left instead of right.
(Order mix up? Seemed to fit better when laying track? Helped extend spacing between "main" and Belt yard?)

Seems like flipping that one turnout from left to right would improve a number of issues, including awkward bends and tightening the space between crossing and "main".

But if you've already laid it down and it works fine for all your equipment, allows enough space for trains and stuctures, and creates an aura of aesthetic bliss, then go for it!.

It the trackwork is not totally tacked down yet, then try out the flipped turnout.
Then you can also paint something dark underneath the points of each turnout so you don't have to use as much ballast / cinders / etc., like this:



[The rectangle holes are for the switch machines]



You don't need to use paint, you can just darken with a sharpie / permanent pen:








That way when painting the track and ballasting you can cover the points and hinges and not worry about pink/tan block showing through.

Food for thought.

 

Sensational work Paul. Very happy for you.

 

The grain elevator is going to be impressive. Looks like you've got a nice collection of rolling stock, too.