Construction Started on 15 X 32 Update 2-5-2014

Ok... I'll be my first critic.  I did not like the lift bridge in a position where it had to be opened during an operating session.  If I must have a bridge open I'd prefer it in a position for entering or leaving the operating area.  After further review I was not a fan of the tunnel through the furnace room either.

So here is another design for your review/comment.  The lift bridge is now at the bottom where you enter the room.    Although not indicated the track on the top will be graded up from left to right to clear the main line tracks.  

We recently did some street running at the Middletown Hummelstown railroad and my son thought that was cool.  Especially since we were in the caboose which was lead and the conductor asked him to blow the horn for the crossings.  So the long siding on the top is for slow street running before reaching the farm.

The Y enables not only a train to turn around but to switch tracks from one main line to another. 

The diagonal run on the lower right will be a removable surface in case I ever need some serious maintenance to the furnace.  There is another door on the bottom right ride so I can get regular daily access without removing any layout section

The large yard seems king of boring.  Any ideas on how to spruce it up?

Thanks for your comments.

Ron

A couple of things: 

1.  The lead to the turntable should come from the yard and not the mainline.  "Never foul the main!"

2.  You need crossovers (either single or double) to allow trains to leave and enter the yard from either mainline. 

3.  You should add crossover at the end of a couple adjacent yard tracks to allow locomotives to escape to for service.

4.  A engine service area.  Car maintenance area.

5.  You can use several of your yard tracks to create a stub passenger terminal.  You don't need all those tracks for freight cars. 

6.  Add industries to the open areas so you can run way freights.

7.  Additional crossovers along the main to allow switching at stations and industry.

I hope this helps.

Jan

Jan, 

I greatly appreciate your comments.  I've been stuck in a rut with design so it is great to hear another perspective.  Check out version 2 below.  I believe I have captured all of your thoughts.

1. Turntable now has two entries from the yard and a longer extended lead which I can also park a train on if I had to.

2. Added crossovers.  Now trains can leave yard and end up going on either main line in any direction.

3. Still thinking about additional yard crossovers.  Might be a future upgrade.  With the design I have now all trains will be able to back into the yard so the engines can escape.

4.  Put in an engine shed next to the freight yard.

5.  Stub end passenger terminal.  What a great idea.  I took out one siding of track and will put in a view block.  One side will be a passenger terminal and the other will be a freight yard.  As a result of adding this terminal I eliminated the large passenger station at the top.  I added a long access siding for industry.  

6. I added some more industry but still believe I have more room for future upgrades.

7.  Added more crossovers.

Ron

Here are a few more comments:

1.  All railroads except one in the North America are right-hand runners.  That is, they travel like we do on the highways.  Yours seems to be a left-hand runner like in England.  Play like you are a train and try and get into your yard.

2.  Have you thought about any hidden staging under the top portion of your layout?  I left this out of my current layout and am working to get 4-6 tracks in the redesign.

3.  Consider adding a single exit from the right end of the yard.  It would cross the aisle to the inner loop.  It would add some flexibility to operations.

4.  What track system are you planning to use?  I use Atlas exclusively but plan on adding Ross double crossover because of space.  Both Ross and Atlas have double slip switches.  The double slip makes things for improved operations in less space.  I used 5 of them.

This is my current redesign.  The outermost loop goes down to the staging yard on the left.  Its 4 tracks are under an interchange.

Jan

I think that's quite a nice use of the space. I like the dual-purpose yard with a view block to separate functions and I like the idea of the stub-end passenger terminal. If I were to question anything about that it would be the need for 5 tracks on the passenger side. With 2 mainlines and the seeming emphasis on industrial vs city landscaping, it seems like 3 tracks would be enough, with 2 trains running and a 3rd in reserve.

Since you mentioned more crossovers, a train traveling clockwise near the upper right on the outside main can't get to the yard without coming all the way around to the bottom, crossing over, backing up, etc. It seems like a crossover before the turnout to the long yard lead might be useful for an engine on the outside main.

I assume the top track along the wall inclines to the light green level? Is the turnout in the middle on the incline or will it be up, then level around the turnout, then up again?

Jan,

Great comments.  Thanks for sharing your layout pic.  I see some similarities and will examine a redesign of my yard entry.  I like how yours crosses over.  I'm heavily invested in scaletrax so my use of different switches is limited for now.  I do very much understand your design ideas to simplify operations.  I think there needs to be simplicity with some complex challenges.  The one thing that killed my childhood obsession was my trains ran in 2 ovals (L Shaped) and all sidings etc were easy to access.  So I was board after a short time.  Our last island layout was boring and my son would watch trains go in circles and hit a couple of sidings or the easy entry/exit yard and get bored quick.  So I want to be sure he can operate the trains and access everything... just not so easy.  Make him think or make a couple of moves to end up in your final optimal position.  I considered incorporating a timesaver siding for fun challenges too.

Double DAZ, 

I appreciate your comments too.  The stub end terminal was Jan's idea.  But it was a good one.  We currently have 5 different passenger trains (PRR, Reading, UP, NJT, and NS).  Underneath storage sounds like a great idea.  I have some room on the left to bring down the grade and get underneath the current level at the top.  I'll take a look at that.

The top track will incline at the same time the main line declines.  That way I only have to move each track 4 inches in both directions to get my desired 8 inch clearance.  My plan was to have any turnouts/sidings level off to prevent the rolling stock from moving.  This should create some interesting topography.

We built the large table where the roundhouse is going today as well as the 2 foot wide table along the bottom near the entrance.  After examining the farm area that is a lot of space with limited reach access.  I'm reconsidering having the tracks hug the wall and go through the furnace room again like a tunnel.  I'm using all O72 and O80 curves.

I'll get some pics together and posted tomorrow.

Ron

Used your comments to tweak the design again.  I have the 072 and 080 curve going under the farm on the right and back tunneling through the furnace room.  There was too much space to access by curving those tracks before the furnace room.

My son and I started some benchwork.  Some pics attached.  We need a name for our railroad.  We will have various passenger service featuring PRR, Reading, UP, NJ Transit (Don't ask), and NS.  We will also be pulling freight dairy trains (Mostly Hoods) and cattle cars.  Future upgrade to Chessie coal trains.

Ron

Hey, what's that level doing in there! 

Nice start Ron.

Appears to be an excellent track plan and will be enjoyable to operate and exciting for visitors.

I especially like the large roundhouse area with a wye lead track.

How high is the benchwork?

Off to a great start. Looking forward to following your progress.

Good to see the bench work starting. It will move along for you pretty fast. Keeps us up to date on your progress!!!!!!

Dave,  The benchwork is level.  How high depends on where you are standing on our uneven basement floor.  But approximately 41 inches... give or take.  At 6'4" I can reach everything.  Even on the large 9x7 table since it is accessible from nearly every side.

Looks like a great beginning of a fun project!  Nice and clean.

Thanks for sharing.

The start of great things to come.

Thanks, Ron. It kind of looks higher than that in the photos, that's why I asked. I was thinking of going to 45, but now that looks like it might be too high, so I'll keep it around 40.

We originally had ours at 48.  If you look at the picture with my son sitting on the bench, behind him is a white patch.  That was the original height we screwed in the 2x4.  Then my son could not reach the back.  It was fine for me at 6'4", but he asked if we could go a little lower.  We settled on 41".  And I'm REALLY glad we somehow selected that number.  Becasue if you look at the picture with our display case you will see the benchwork nearly reaches the bottom of the case at 41".  Like my tag line says... I would rather be lucky than good.

Ron

I did notice that and got the impression it wasn't planned that way, I figured you got lucky. I'm amazed I was right.

Looks great, I settled on 39" but I'm only 5'10" and with the two oldest being only 5 and 11, I wanted them both to be able to see the trains without a stool.  Keep the pictures coming!

Hello All, 

Been a while since I've provided an update.  The lift bridge kicked by butt for two weeks.  I tried several designs and various hinges but in all cases the track would bind.  I ended up going with a strap hinge elevated above the track.  Since we have two bridges and a road we created one lift structure that we can now model a stream or creek to run underneath.

My son and I spent the last few days cutting out plywood and foam to elevate our grades.  Today, he laid some track down to see how it will all fit.  We still have cork roadbed to install.

The next major hurdle is the 8ft span lift out section.  I bought two 4X8 sheets of 2" thick foam.  I will make the lift section from that material so it will be relatively easy for one person to lift and remove.

We had a nice surprise Saturday too.  I went to my LHS to pick up some girder bridges for the span along the back of the layout crossing in front of the septic clean out.  My daughter saw the Lionel Lighthouse and fell in love with it.  The sticker on the box said $100.  I told my daughter we did not need a lighthouse because we do not have a ocean scene.  She kept asking during our stroll around the store and I said that it was too much money.  Good 'ole Mr. Wagner came from around the counter and said, "Danielle, do you want that lighthouse".  She replied yes.  Mr. Wagner looked at me and said she could have it for $20.  Guess who has to figure out where to put a ocean inlet scene with a lighthouse?

Hope you enjoy the pics.  I have a short video which I will try to add.  I'm having trouble getting down to size, so will load it on UT and then link it here.

Ron

It's been a while but we finished our 1st loop.  My son is excited to run some trains while we build.  Of course, the GG1 #4935 (Nate's 1st train) had to be the 1st one around the loop.

We're going to need some more switches.  I can't believe how much they went up in price over the last few years.  I bought most of my Scaletrax O-72's for $35 and the #4 and #6's for $45.  Now they want $65-75.

Here is our video...

Looks like you guys are going to have a lot of fun with the new layout.

You have a nice train room.  Look forward to seeing more of it.