Switchless Layout

Not for me.  I enjoy switching and have lots of them.  The pesky part is coupling. I have decided the trains don't look too bad when you bang them together at 10 SMPH.   I just finished my main switching yard which lays out before me as I sit in my swivel captains chair.  So I will be doing even more switching.  Don't get me wrong though, I also like to run long and short trains, freight and passenger trains, round and round the layout.  This is a great hobby we have.

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Dennis

I tend to very carefully put a switch down here and there. They are not cheap.

 

I am still working my plan and other than the wye, passenger station area switches will be somewhat limited. One in particular is a very large Ross Curved switch, that one is the king and I would have high engineering expectations of it.

 

I am not sure yet if I will be focusing much on freight switching, maybe a little.

 

One thing though, I enjoy OGR and everyone has something good to think about. That is one of the best things about the Hobby.

Gotta have some

Most display layouts like Lionel built and department stores use few, if any switches, and with multiple loops can be interesting to watch for an hour or so.

 

I decided long ago I like operating a layout therefore I have 27 switches, turntable and lots of operating accessories.  I have three main loops, two can operate two trains at a time.  All loops are interconnected and one transformer can operate on the whole layout.

 

The complex operation of my layout has kept interest up for 30 years and going strong.

 

Charlie

Art, that looks like my kind of layout!

Nice job. Greg

How many people have switches just for creating scenes or for placement of operating accessories and really never use them for switching?

A good reason for minimizing the use of switches is to improve operating reliability, especially for older trains that may have very sloppy tolerances for wheel gauge. Through the decades 3-rail O-gauge has not had uniform track and wheel standards like HO, and the shortcomings often show up when running through switches.

 

I think some of the old tinplate trains were only intended to run on a basic oval. Sloppy wheels sometimes short out on the center rail when going through switches. I've made some prewar cars track better through switches by placing tubing over the axles between the wheels to maintain better wheel gauge.

Choo Choo Charlie said:

" . .  with multiple loops can be interesting to watch for an hour or so."

 

Particularly if designed to provide lots of variation.  I spent alot of time planning my layout for this, so that " routes vary and trains meet" and it's just fun to watch for long periods, and I deliberately did this so I use few swtiches.  I have three loops with a little less than 300 feet of mainline track, using this strategem:

- the outer loop (141 feet of track) loops around the layout and has no switches at all, it goes over itself and loops back around once, then down and inside itself again.  It has no switches at all: the train on it always goes the same direction ut comes around any viewer twice per one orbit of the loop.

- the second loop (75 feet of track in a twisted dogbone with switched reversing loops at each end for a total of 103 feet of run each lap) is inside that outer loop.  A train on it changes direction with each orbit: last time you saw it it was coming left to right, not its right to left, etc. 

- the third loop (64 feet of track in an over and under dog bone with unswitched reversing loops - the common (two way) portion of the "bone" is a guantlet track - is inside that second loop for about 74 feet of travel per orbit.  Unswitched reversing loops at the ends mean although the train reverses, except for the common truck of the dogbone, it is always going the same direction around the end loops. 

The result of this pattern of two dogbone-reversing loops inside one that is not reversing, all of different lengths, means that trains meet and pass one another at different times in different patterns as you watch.  Not a lot of repeition and lots of surprises.  Its fun.

The result is near-unpredictable patterns of trains coming at you wherever you stand near the layout: with three trains running.

- you see the train on the big loop twice per orbit because its over and under itself, always going the same direction.

- you see the train on the second loop once per orbit, but the switched reversing loops mean it comes back at you the other direction each time.  Also, it passes the train on the outer loop in the other direction each time. 

So anywhere you stand to watch, there is a lot of variation in what you see coming at you, watch passes what, where.  Never the same thing over and over and over.  This makes it fun - at least for me.

Art: Great pictures but those switches that are flying make me very nervous! Put some more lumber under than so that there isn't a nasty collision with the floor if your points misaligned! I think for any home layout you need some switches but if you need the ultimate in reliability, eliminate them all, like many of the stores do (as mentioned). You can make it look pretty good if you have a few loop tracks, tunnels, scenery, etc.

I use many switches; 32 and counting. In the beginning they have to be set up properly. After that mine have been trouble free. I use Real Trax switches. 

 

I use them in yards and to move between towns and commercial areas. Almost all are connected to SC2 controllers as well as throw switches on control panels. 

 

I never really thought about reducing switches for reliability because that has not been a problem. I can move any engine to any loop and change directions easily. Setting up routes in the Cab 2 makes for interesting sessions. 

 

I am a switch addict. 

Lee, is there a link to pics of your track plan?

I would also like to see Lee's track plan.

 

Doug

Lee's layout plan, found easily with advanced search:

 

https://ogrforum.com/d...069#2415514336924069 

 

Yes, that is it, except this shows the layout before I replaced my Fastrack with Atlas.  I did not replace the uppermost blue loop in the diagram:

- red loop is loop 1, has no switches at all, and 72, 84, and 96 inch curves and goes over and back under itself but the route is pretty easy to make out

- green loop is loop 2, has the two switches (remote electric Fastrack switches despite the Atlas track at each end of the reversing.

- upper blue loop was removed, not replaced. 

- lower blue loop is loop 3, is hard to follow but is also a dogbone with reversing on each end but the Guantlet track instead of switches.  it goes completely over itself

- Black lines indicate Superstreets road, not all of which is installed now. 

- light blue area in the middle of the lower and bigger table area of the layout is my lake with the ski-boat: exactly 8 feet long to give some idea of the size.

I hated to give up that fourth loop but there was something I wanted more, because having it and my Superstreets country road (the black sort of running alongside it) was just too much crowding - it wasn't going to look like the country road was really out in the country by itself.  Eliminating the fourth loop allows it to "roam the countryside" more naturally without bing pinched and permits it to go farther, etc.