Yard

OK, let's start with the purpose of your yards.  Are you just looking for places to store locos and cars?  Or, do you really intend to break-up trains that arrive and make-up trains to depart?  Second, what's the over-all operating scheme for your railroad?  If you haven't figured that out yet, it is something to be considered.

As drafted, your plan looks like a large oval on an "island" with the island center filled with yards.  Have you considered an around the walls layout with each (or most parts) being less than 3 feet wide?  Then you could create two separate yards (maybe on each side of the room) and operate cars from one yard to another.  Have you considered engine facilities or storage?  Have you considered how to turn an engine around (reverse) so it can travel in the opposite direction?

Finally, what are the impediments in the "room" that will affect the location of your layout and where are they on your drawings?  Consider electrical, plumbing, heating, doors, windows and anything else that you just can't move but may need access.  And remember, the best advice I've heard is that the name of the game is NOT "Fill that Space."  Translated, that means don't overuse track.

Chuck

Oh, and just for info, yard run-arounds are normally within the yard limits, not out on the main line.

Chuck,

In order to make what I wanted to do fit in the room dedicated to my layout, I had to put the yard inside of 3 loops (i put my roundhouse/WYE on the side/in the middle (respectively) ).  I'll attach a couple photos of my layout.

If you want to do any switching in those yards, you need to design in a Switching Lead. You do not want the yard ladder to go right out to the main line. That's a bad design.

Read the attached PDF file.

Rich, thanks for posting that PDF.  I saw it some years ago and forgot about it.  I'm glad to see it resurface as it is very well illustrated, valuable planning advice that results in significant operational improvement.

Instead of connecting your roundhouse to one of your ovals, why don't you "cross" all three ovals and just connect to your yard(s).  Then, reconnect your departure yard to an oval with a wye switch so a train leaving the yard can go in either direction.  Further, it might help us to understand your plan better if you attached all your SCARM files for viewing.

Chuck

@PRR1950 posted:

Instead of connecting your roundhouse to one of your ovals, why don't you "cross" all three ovals and just connect to your yard(s).  Then, reconnect your departure yard to an oval with a wye switch so a train leaving the yard can go in either direction.  Further, it might help us to understand your plan better if you attached all your SCARM files for viewing.

Chuck

Chuck,

A fellow forum member was kind enough to put my files together for me.  I attached it below.  The mainline closest to the edge of the table at the top of the "mountain" has a gap at one point; that's my error and a single 1.25" piece of track fits perfectly.