Odd layout space

Chris - layouts are designed around many different kinds of constraints.  You have some interesting challenges but what I would do is decide what your minimum track radius / diameter is going to be.  Once determined draw up several circles of the radius and move them around in your track space to see where they best fit.  Then kind of 'connect the dots' by joining up the circles.  Then add in additional constraints such as access, viewing, control points, etc,.  Just some food for thought.  Russ

I have a very similar area that may get a layout in the future, so am interested to see what comes forth.  I want to run 3 trains and haven't done any track plans yet, but am thinking around-the-wall, provided there's room for turnaround at each end.

I am biased, but based on the layout blank I would basically go with a round-the-wall type operation with a lift up bridge or drop down section set back from the  "open" spot. Every square inch of space doesn't have to be occupied with track. After many years and layouts, ACCESS has become my druther #1. You can reach about 36" at 42" height [perhaps often standing on your tool box]. Reach is key factor for servicing a Yard.

 

Any doors or windows..other obstructions in the way?

I would go with Dewey's suggestion, especially if a door way was involved.

You have a lot of nice area to play with, all kinds of options there....especially on those two long walls!

Greg

Russ - Thank you for the idea. I'm going to try to work something up and post it.

 

Dewey - Good to hear from you. A while back before my basement reno, you had helped me work on some ideas for an L shaped layout. I was lucky enough to gain more room and think I still am stuck in the "more track" is better mindset. I know it isn't always right but I'm battling it! 

I have made the mistake of laying too much track on every layout I ever built. As Greg noted you have a nice area to play with. Take your time and examine all the many ideas that will flow in.

No doors or windows to really worry about. It's my basement so the windows are up high enough to not be affected. As it relates to height, I'm planning on 40" Would have liked it slightly higher but my ceiling is only 6'7" in that part of the basement. I drew up a track plan that would allow for a walk in directly in the center with the outside mainline having minimum 0-54 curves and 0-45 and 0-36 on the inner loops. It's a bit of a spaghetti bowl unfortunately.

My.....that is a lotta track!

 

Anyone ever put up their layout, then look back and think, "Gee, maybe I put down too much track?"

 

Greg

The yard seems very small. You will not be able to park or do anything else. Can you make a second level at that area  so can have the main lines pass underneath? Then you may be able to have longer sidings.

Greg - it does feel like a bit much on paper but standing in the space I think it may be light if I take some out.

 

Don - id love to go multi level with it and put the yard above the mainline in the back to get more space. I'm just not sure how I would connect the yard with the mainline on an upper level. 

Studrat,

I think i'm understanding your drawing and that except for the viewing area, all the other areas of the layout are bordered directly by walls.

How do you plan on accessing the yard area and fixing the derailments that are sure to happen around those switches?

An access hatch would be handy.

Rich

LIONEL 6457

Rich - I think i'm going to eliminate the siding on the inner loop and create a hatch there. I do want to try to figure out how to accommodate Don's suggestion of the upper level yard.

I like the basic plan.  However, if I'm reading the plan correctly, it looks like you've got 10 straight track sections on 4 different legs in the yard. If those are ~10"-12" tracks, I'm hard pressed to figure out just what one can to do with them. I don't think that's enough track to store even 10 cars, much less steam engines and their tenders. IMHO, if a yard spur can't hold and engine/tender with 5-7 cars, what is the point? Is the grid 6" squares?

I'm also a little concerned about putting a yard there, even with an access hatch. If you actually use it as a yard, I'm concerned about how often you might experience derailments and have to "crawl" to the hatch. It doesn't look like the hatch will be easy to access, assuming the grid is 6" squares.

My thought would be to raise the back of the outer loop and use that "yard" space for a mine spur or something (even a fake entry/exit off the layout. I would then put an access hatch in the left inner reversing loop somehow and place a "real" yard in the open space to the left of your horseshoe. I'd also connect the middle/outer loops as part of the yard. The way it is now, the outer loop is not connected to anything else, so where would the stuff in your proposed yard go except on the outer loop?

Dave - Thanks for the feedback. Yes - I've been considering the yard a bit. I'm not sure about it's placement. at a minimum i need to figure out how to get it on a second level. I do like your idea of placing it on the south west side of the layout but i'm stuck with a good amount of dead space in that corner area. I do plan on connecting the outer loop with the inner to make sure i can get cars throughout the entire system.

A yard with less that 6 feet is not all the great, not much you can do with all those short turnouts.

I've worked through two small lower level rooms.
Original lower level room each block is 1ftX1ft


First addition moving into the next room


Last addition across a doorway


Camera walkaround 
Click on the underlined phrase to link.

Some thoughts to consider. Don't know if or how they'd work.

1. Eliminate the outside track on the siding of the middle loop.
2. Reroute the remaining track closer to the figure 8 track.
3. Add the yard lead track to the middle loop about where the left-switch is currently located and branch out from that, 1 track to the right and 2 or more to the left going straight back.
4. Add access hatch along the left side of the back section.
5. Rather than raise the yard, raise the outer loop so it passes over the yard.
6. Still think you need to connect the outer loop to the others.
7. What about access to that double crossover area? Looks a little too far for easy reach.

Studrat - as a novice I thought I would try your layout just as a test to see if I could come up with a slightly different layout using the same parts (assuming what was presented was what you have) and in the canvas provided. My first thought was to align the stock yard on the left with the slant (it would provide longer lanes to have rolling stock on display if thats what you liked to do. Then I remembered you said you liked to run several trains, so that told me you like "the journey, more than the show". So this layout I have has the stock yard pushed to the back not good for swithces but as you can see it frees up the playing field. My first approach was to play to your strength which was the outside parameter. What nice space to have long running lines. Then I worked my way in adding different areas to possibly set up loops for separate trains. I replaced a few 4 sets of 10 inch with forties as noted up top center. I swapped out the spurs for the rolling stock with 5 - 40s as noted in the stock yard and I added some extra parts which I duped in the upper left area. I may have added a few more but for the most part all these pieces were on you original track design. I also took out the flex forties to keep from having to form them just to try to make it easier. there were a few pieces from yours left over which I stuck altogether in the upper left corner.

You have such a large area to work with it was good to try to use large curves in case you ever wanted larger engines, but as you know as we get closer inside the curves naturally get tighter. The outside is more cookie cutter but the inside I wanted more of a whimsical free-flow look. There are a few spots where track was off by less than 3/8 inch but I was ok with those losses over the spans of track they covered figuring the real world may have some give.

So there it is. It was a fun exercise. Take what you want, or not. It may not appeal to you. I am interested in the feedback from some of the veterans that can visually see how the track will flow and if this layout is viable in that regard. I do like the philosophy of setting up a checklist of what YOU want to see in the layout and the scene YOU want to convey to the audience.

Caveot - My layout may not be electronically sound or may have attainable access points because I just am not to that level of thought yet and have not experienced the real world logistics of tackling such a design. Hopefully someone who does might show me some tricks.

  Most of all Have fun with it. I can only plan at this point. Armed only with a free version of software and a delapidated laptop I have no toys at this stage.

Here is the layout. Hit return to attach but it was return post by accident.

Studrat's plan is pretty cool but I would suggest shrinking it enough to put an access aisle all the way along the right side; maybe just 24" wide would be enough.

Thanks Ace. I wish I had a larger room to give myself 24 inches completely around it. If i did that I would really lose a lot of room to run some trains.

 

I modified the layout to put the yard on a separate level.

Sorry, but I still have some concerns. The main one remains access to the yard to handle derailments. I don't see room for an access hatch and I don't believe that area is going to be trouble-free. Cutting out the cross track in front of the tunnels might give you room for an access hatch, but that seems like a long way to have to crawl to get to it.

I'm also confused as to exactly how the yard will be used. If you run trains up to it, you then have to back them down. The alternative is backing trains up to it. I guess either will work, just not very prototypical. I'd probably just park trains on the layout between sessions, but that's just me.

If you're determined to have the yard, you can easily add 2 more spurs for more storage. Simply replace the last straight sections with a curve into another spur along the right. You can also replace the curve leading to the yard with a switch to get another spur along the left.

Given what you have, you could eliminate the tunnel tracks too and keep the yard on the same level. However, access is still my biggest concern.