I'm planning a yard using Ross's 4 way eight track yard set. The yard length limit is 12 feet. I'm looking for track plan ideas to incorporate a reversing loop within the yard. Thanks in advance.
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Steve,
In stub terminals and yards some railroads have in cased the entire yard within the reversing loop. NYC Grand Central Terminal does this, and on thread on the forum showed an aerial photo of such a yard.
I don't know what you are planning for the width of the yard but the smallest loop would be the diameter of your minimum radius, Twelve feet would give you enough room to have the loop descend at 3% and pass under the yard.
Jan
Hi Steve,
Google Earth BAYHEAD NJ to see the NJT yard with Balloon Track that circles the yard to head back out.
What is the Width of your yard to incorporate a reverse loop or balloon track?
Paul
Thanks Jan & Paul for your ideas. I sketched a 072 Balloon Track with 8 yard lanes which looks like it would fit the space. The yard will actually be in another room from the layout. I'm planning a camera to see what going on. The width of the yard is limited to 7 feet. I'm going to enclose the yard in a box since it will be essentially on a concrete floor. The floor elevations in the two rooms are different with the yard room floor being the higher by a couple of feet.
Steve,
In a yard, parallel storage tracks are closer together than one would expect; about 14 ft or 3.5" in O scale. This would allow you to fit 16-19 tracks within the loop. Ross turnouts and adapter tracks will allow you to do this.
Other things you will need to think of is how you intend to use the yard. Will it just be staging for completed trains, or will you be breaking down and assembling trains in an operational environment. In the former you will need a "yard lead" long enough to hold the train after turning before you back the train onto its storage track. In the latter case you'll need arrival/departure track, runaround track to help the break down of the train, etc. There are several threads about yard design.
One last thing, Rich will get on to you about having a yard lead sufficiently long enough so not to foul the mainline.
This is the car storage yard for my planned upgrade.
Jan
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Steve,
it sounds like this will be a staging yard for complete trains. If you balloon around a straight yard, you'll still need another 12' to head in the balloon, come out past the yard throat and then back into a spur.
I suppose you do it the opposite way also, but my point is that you a need a 12" lead to the balloon.
Also, consider the length of your trains. If you run a scale ABBA with a complete train it's almost 20' feet long. Jan did a nice study on this trying to fit his yard on an end with approaches.
Tom Tee built a nice storage yard that is all balloon tracks. That may not work for you if you only have to work in 7' of width. (pic attached)
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My layout incorporates a simple WYE and a stub type yard track. Many passenger terminals have used this concept. Here is a small around the room layout with a wye track leading to a small stub yard. The yard could be easily expanded by adding more sidings. The layout is designed as a "concept" layout which will be used to demonstrate innovative wiring and control techniques.
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Thanks all for your ideas. I plan to use the yard for car storage. So far in the 12 x 7 ft space I have an 072 balloon plus 8 lanes. I could fit more lanes but the storage vs cost is diminishing. The longest lane is about 9 feet and the shortest about 5 feet. I'm thinking in a pinch I can use the balloons 19 ft for storage also. I plan on using a combination of Ross's 11 degree and 072 switches. The balloon and yard should accommodate most engine/car lengths.
Made actual measurements for my yard space. Its 6' 10" x 14' 4". The yard entry point is not in the center of the space. It is offset and 29.25" from the edge. I redesigned by offsetting the balloon track maintaining the 072 curve. All this allowed longer and more (12) yard lanes. The longest lane is now 12 ft and the shortest 5 ft. The bad news is there are now 12 switches which exceeds the real estate (8 control panel positions) on my control panel. Maybe some switch controllers can do double duty: ideas ? I can always control the switches via an AIU but I like the manual DZ1000 buttons. Lots more wiring for track power control, switch control and uncoupler tracks. It's around a 35 ft run from the control panel to the yard.
