Jumping in with both feet

Sounds like a great new adventure!  Show us your progress as you go along.

My first stab at a track plan. The 2-rail is the outer loop. The minimum radius on the 2-rail loop will be 49.5”

The inner loop is three rail. It will have 40.5” radius curves (081 in three rail-speak).

Jeff C

Now that I have a little benchwork going I can start laying out track and begin to see what will fit and how it will look. My first impressions are that 49.5” radius (the 2-rail main minimum) curves seem huge in comparison to anything I’ve worked with before!

There’s nothing like working with actual track to see what fits and what doesn’t, which is why I don’t get overly involved with sweating out track plans on paper or on the computer…

Jeff C

The latest track plan, which is guaranteed to change—but it serves as a very rough and ready guide to what I want to do…

40.5” radius minimum ( 081 in three rail speak) on the three rail, 49.5” radius on the 2-rail, 6” center to center spacing of double track on curves.

Jeff C

Looks cool! Wish we planned for big curves when dad and I set up our layout. I never thought I'd need it, then we got our first premier big steam and have been kicking ourselves since.

Basically, your layout plan is a dual-track route with several stub sidings. OK for "looping" operations, if that is your intent. Is there room for structures (such as rural, suburban, or downtown buildings) and action accessories that may give reasons for a freight railroad to exist; i.e., hauling logs from a forest to a lumber mill, delivering coal from a mine to a power plant, or picking up milk cans at a dairy farm and delivering them to a processing facility.  For passenger trains, a small suburban station could provide a transportation site for passengers bound for a downtown terminal depot.

Just thinking out loud.  Carry on, regardless ...

Mike M.    LCCA 12394

In your initial post you mentioned researching control systems at some point. As an experienced control system evaluator, I will first say start with a conventional track based AC power setup. There are an amazing number of advanced control systems available, both track and R/C based. Also, battery power has become quite popular. I have tested many of these systems and power approaches and they all work well with many containing unique features. The advantage of conventional power is when you obtain a new engine you can immediately check its operation before any planned control system upgrade. In my experience of having tested  and published articles about the many available control systems, I would never give up the conventional AC power setup servicing my layout.

@Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy posted:

Looks cool! Wish we planned for big curves when dad and I set up our layout. I never thought I'd need it, then we got our first premier big steam and have been kicking ourselves since.

Thats the second biggest mistake , most make

@leikec posted:

The latest track plan, which is guaranteed to change—but it serves as a very rough and ready guide to what I want to do…

40.5” radius minimum ( 081 in three rail speak) on the three rail, 49.5” radius on the 2-rail, 6” center to center spacing of double track on curves.

Jeff C

Nice looking layout design ,  and you shouldn't have any issues  , with your curves.    PS  Im over   in the North Woods  of Wisconsin

If you want some interesting switching on the outer loop, I suggest adding one or two facing-point spurs and a passing track.

The outer loop, the 2-rail part of the layout, is where any runaround track will be, and I’m contemplating whether to include a facing point siding.

As far as structures go, they will mostly be flats, as the combination of broad curves, double track, and fairly narrow benchwork precludes having much in the way of appropriately sized, fully rendered buildings on the layout. But right now I’m still in the “seeing what fits” stage of design, because, in my situation, the available space for benchwork is to some degree mandating what can happen with the track plan, which is contrary to how many other layouts are designed.

Jeff C