Has anyone built the MR Salt Lake Route from 2010? I think it is the perfect type of layout for me, but I'd like to put in a lower staging level. I'd like to put a helix in one of the large turns with the smaller radius Kato Super Elevated double track, down to a base level with 3-4 longer staging tracks, ideally long enough to hold my longer trains like the 18 car Morning Daylight, the 9 car TurboTrain and a few super long double stacks. Thoughts?
I think the Salt Lake Route is an excellent trackplan and would make a fine layout. I was in N scale at the time and considered building it but went with a bigger layout of my own design. I used Kato Unitrack and would again if I built another N scale layout. I don't have the track plan so I'm not sure how you would add a helix and a second level but I'm sure it could be done. Adding a staging yard would make the layout much more versatile. My main concern would be the helix. I'm not a fan of helixes. I've know some who couldn't get trains to run reliably on them. Pulling a grade on a curve is difficult at best. The curve adds to the drag and the tighter the curve the greater the drag. The helix will probably limit train lengths. I love the trackplan and the staging yard but I'm not wild about the helix. I would try to come up with some way to add a staging yard without the helix, but of course, that's just my opinion.
I once had a layout that I built around a pair of 4 ft Ntrak modules and had a staging yard in front of and 3 inches below the track level of the modules, drawing below. Overall space of this layout was 12 ft x 3 feet. The yard was 8 ft long with the net length of the 4 sidings being somewhat less. I did not use a helix but instead had ramps that were about 4% grade behind the Ntrak module sky boards. Trains of the length I would run on this layout had no problem with this because it was straight. As already mentioned, the effort needed for a grade is increased by a curve such as in a helix. That being said, I do have a double track helix on my current layout with grades of 2.1% and 2.3% and it has been very reliable You say you want a staging yard to hold an 18 car passenger train, that would take a longer siding than the length of the Salt Lake layout. Another possibility would be to use a stub ended staging yard that comes off a wye at one end of the layout. This yard could be as long as the length available along the wall so this would be an "L" shaped layout. If you are using DCC on this layout the electronics of the wye is easily taken care of the a DCC auto reversing unit.
Thanks! I definitely have considered doing ramps instead of a helix, and I think I could accomplish what I'm intending, even if I have to curve the ends of the yard. 18 cars is a bit extreme, the longest set I currently have is the 10 Car Morning Daylight, but even that sucker is almost 7 feet long with a GS-4 in front of it. I've been modelling more and more passenger consists, but I do also love a long CP coal drag. My plan is to build the Salt Lake Route, but scenic it more along the lines of Interior of British Columbia. I like the large radius canted curves on the layout, the Rapido TurboTrain looks great.
