'The Layout'...finally

It looks like a nice plan for running two trains as you say.  So the little yard is for engines and not cars.  Would you want car storage yard on the other side of the open space?  Does this plan fit up against any walls?  If so, you may be tight on clearance on the two sides.

It is actually similar to the plan I am building except mine is continuous twice around with the track crossing over top of itself on the second go round.

I am not planning on a car storage yard as such, though I could decide to add it later, I debated having a car storage yard on the left side of the layout, but I kind of figured that having open space there would leave room for a town with structures, so I didn't try to execute it. There is a wall on the right side of the right leg, and that could cause problems with clearence (on the left side, that is all open). I suspect I'll be doing some jiggling with track, probably will need to shorten the straight segments in the loops to bring the track away from the edges, given my inexperience with using design software it is inevitable I'll find those gotchas. 

I think at this point it is about building the layout, seeing what works and what doesn't, and changing things as needed. I may try to build an elevated section above the main tracks on the right side and have a mostly background cityscape with a train station in the foreground with stairs to the tracks underneath, as one possibility. The table features like 4" of foam over plywood, so I can easily create sub track level features, too, to make it interesting, it won't be the flat landscape this looks like at the moment either.

Unless you’re using a computer display that is taller than it is wide, you’ll get more useable workspace by rotating the layout 90° so the longer section is on the X axis.

With all the rails being displayed I can’t make out the text and the image is too blurry to zoom. I can’t tell what size curves are going to the 4-way storage yard on the right or what size the curved switch is, but I’d try to move that whole section up to allow for longer storage tracks. Right now you’ve got 24” for the switches and maybe only around 36” for storage.

On the left side, you might get a little more siding length by relocating the upper switch on the curve. I can’t really tell what is planned for the space between the siding and the main track, it’s quite a large space.

I don’t know how you plan to operate, but if you pull a train off toward the yard, you have to pull far enough into the yard to be able to back across to the siding on the left and the train has to be short enough to clear the curved switch. I don’t know how reliable the curved switches are for backing a train through them. If you back into the yard, you have pretty much the same limitations. Not sure there’s any way to do things differently, but I’d try a regular switch near where the curved switch is to see if I could get more room on the yard side. The curves up there might be too wide for that though.

Inasmuch as you are considering an upper level, there may be an opportunity to create a reversing loop(s) in that trackage. Up and down ramps could connect to the outer main line on the lower level for access to and from the "upstairs." Perimeter loops without reversals may quickly become monotonous.

Mike Mottler     LCCA 12304

I did originally think of an upper level connected to the lower, by basically running the track along the outside of the layout on the support posts for the upper deck in a spiral, but the engineering of that waits for a future expansion/redo. 

That's a good plan.  A little at a time