i have been working on my layout plan for a while now and i think i've come up with something that will work: I'm modeling a freelance branch of the, well i haven't actually decided yet. i do think it will be in the northeast. i'm thinking of the NH. So, the junction with the rest of the RR is in staging, from there the branch runs through two towns. there is a classification yard at the end of the branch, my idea is that there is no yard anywhere near on the mainline so all trains with deliveries for the branch or the branch off of the branch (represented by the continuous run connection). the leftmost yard track is the A/D track and the track next to it is an engine escape track that can hold about 3/4 cars above the x-over. the rest are just normal yard tracks. i have just the usual questions: any major flaws? is there a better way to design the yard? i also would like to put in some better and higher capacity engine storage ,any ideas on how to do that?
From what I can tell with my rather rudimentary understanding of yard design is that you have the basics accounted for: a/d track, runaround, classifcation tracks. You mentioned that you're interested in perhaps tackling the New Haven as your prototype but you didn't mention the year. I assume by the engine servicing facility it'll be diesel era. That'll work as is, I'm not sure with this small of a pike you'll need a larger facility unless you just want a place to park your motive power. A few thoughts: 1. A yard lead. Right now it's too small; your A/D track is longer than the lead by a fair bit - this will mean that you won't be able to work a full cut of cars but will have to take smaller cuts to classify cars appropriately. This will reduce the efficiency of the yard but again, with this small of a pike I'm not sure it'll matter... I'll leave that to the more experienced commenters. 2. A caboose track. Since the NH was pre-Conrail, the caboose requirements were still in effect. Perhaps you should consider a dedicated track to park cabeese. 3. RIP track? 4. I assume that the yard to the right is staging only? 5. You can currently only access the yard from one direction without backing in or out. Again, this might not be a huge concern operationally or prototypically but it will reduce your operational potential. 6. Perhaps reducing the storage capacity of the classification tracks and adding some industry would increase the enjoyment you'll get from that section. Just a thought.
NH branch line ops back in that time frame would lead me to think of average train lengths in the 5-7 car range. Your staging and classification tracks are quite a bit longer than that. I am just going to throw out the things I see The first industry out from the yard is a facing point move. Either a shove from the runaround in the yard or a shove from the run around on the back of the layout. Usually you would see a through train set out a cut of cars for the local to grab and then work the branch. With the local then returning the outbounds to the same track for the next through train to take. If you had a touch more space at the top of the diagram for a 180 degree turn to the staging tracks you could have a through train out of staging to the yard by way of a tight 180. It would drop the loads for the branch, pick up the empties and continue on through the two areas and into staging. then the local would grab the inbounds, sort them on a couple of tracks in the "yard" and then make the run up the branch. It would continue into staging, make a run around move in staging and then return down the branch. I guess you could switch all the facing point stuff on the way back. If you did not put a 180 at the far end of the yard, I would make them on two levels. The lower level would be the staging and it would be towards the front, with just enough space to get your hands in there if something jumps the rails. The yard would be on an upper level at an angle with the end at the top closest to you. The continuous run branch would come off the spur in the lower right corner and start dropping elevation immediately. It would cross under the main about where the two rectangles meet. This two level yard staging would make you be able to have a really nice size yard facility with space for all the extras.
ok so ive been working on the plan and i have a new idea: the layout is based in the HOG but i added staging. the way it would work is that a through train would come out of the top staging yard (lets call it north)into the yard. it would leave the caboose on the branch (actually the main) and pull into the A/D track and drop the inbound cars that would already have been sorted at the previous yard so they would be at the end. then it would use the main and pick up the caboose and head around into south staging. then the cars would be sorted and a local would drop cars at local industries. some time another through train would come from south staging and drop off some cars then go into north staging. then a train would be made up to serve the industries along the branch. the train would drop off inbounds and pick up outbounds. the out bounds would be sorted back in the yard and eventually two outbound trains would be made up. they then would leave to their respective staging. in the layout the continuous run connection would be disguised/hidden. so how does all this sound? does the plan look good? i think i may want to rework the yard a bit so that its easier to use from staging.
