Well tonight I finally did a layout. This is my first attempt at one, so please excuse the crudeness of it. The two towns on the layout are ones where I really got into photographing trains back in the late 70's and early 80's, hence the name of my railroad is Silverton Valley & Eastern Washington. All thoughts and comments appreciated. Having problems again posting an attachment to a post, so please go look Railimages for the layout design. Steve
Steve,I think you have done a very nice job,for your first attempt at a layout design.It looks as if you have a lot of operational potential for the layout.The main thing is as long as you are having fun that's what is important.Great job,look forward to seeing the progress of your layout.
Steve: You did a nice job on your first attempt at a layout. Are you going to use Unitrack for this layout? Do you want to do continuous running on this plan? If so some changes might be necessary with the outer loop of track.
Steve: You can use a Kato double crossover in two places on the outer loop on the left hand side of the layout. The double crossovers will connect the outer track to the inner track so you can connect your trains to both the outer line and inner line. The inner loop then turns around below the furniture plant and then goes back up around to the window area and then back down the right side of your layout. Right now if you follow the path of your trains they always will wind up in your staging yard. By the way, I'm moving to Texas in January and will be building a new layout using Unitrack in a room 20x12'. It has the same basic configuration as your layout along with a staging yard in the same location as your layout. Contact me offline if you want to compare notes.
Steve: I'm assuming the width of your staging yard is 15-18 inches wide. You can't have a return loop at the right end of the yard as is drawn out in your photo.
No but I will have some of the boxcars and maybe a engine in their colors, since this layout is based in the NW
Steve: You want to use two Kato double crossover track. The part number is KA-20210. Each double crossover goes for about $47, They operate flawlessly. You can place one at the top of your double track on the left side of your layout(join the two brown main lines. The second double crossover is placed at the bottom of your mainline (brown main lines)before that left hand turnout that starts the violet mainline also on the lower left hand side of your layout, This will allow you to run trains continuously from the outer brown mainline on the left to the violet mainline on the right to Walla Walla. If you didn't place the double crossover in that position, your train running down the outer brown mainline will always run into your staging area and you won't be able to turn it around, I also suggest you modify the staging area and make it less complicated. You can't turn any trains around on the right side of the staging area in 14 inches. With Unitrack you can make a ladder yard and fit 7-8 tracks in fourteen inches. If you have the turnouts and track, lay it out on the floor and see what fits in a 4'x14" area, That is the beauty of Unitrack. A more ideal width for the staging area would be 18". That would free things up and make your staging area less crowded. In that way you could use a combination of #6 and #4 turnouts in the staging area. You can easily extend the length of the staging area another two feet to make it six feet long by 18 inches wide.
Thanks Bob for the information. Those double crossovers, is about the only thing that I do not have in Kato uni-track. Off to the hobby store I will go. Finished A & B benchwork today, had something already done but wasn't happy with it, so just remodel what I had to into what you see in the drawing for A & B, which so happens are the two biggest pieces. Was re-thinking the hills section, and that piece of benchwork will be the next piece that is finished. Yard is next. Now I am no carpenter, so my brother just happen to be visiting me for a few days, so I put him to work helping me with this project.:tb-biggrin:
