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Hi All,

 

It's been a while since I've been able to ask this question as I renovated my basement and was able to gain more layout space although it's very unique. I'm not sure what the best way to use the space would be. Any advice would be great. I enjoy running as many trains as possible at the same time. The only thing it seems is pre determined is the placement of a yard in the small square narrow space in the top right. While I may not be able to have the best reach into that space it seems like the best thing to use it for.

 

ps. I used SCARM to develop this and if anyone feels like playing around with it - please feel free.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Chris

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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 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.

 

Last edited by Dewey Trogdon

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! 

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.

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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.

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.
Last edited by DoubleDAZ

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.

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.
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