It's still unclear you want realroad ( my name for the 1:1 ratio) plans or model plans..But if you don't have room for a full scale model of a realroad yard (who does ?), a stub-ended yard can be alot smaller than a thru yard..And MRRing-wise, a stub-ended yard can and usually does create more activity,shunting cars in/out/trains made-up to/from...Why not merely make yourself the architect/designer of a yard which is best suited for your RR in that particular area of your RR property..It's not likely you'll be able to copy a prototype operation in full anyhoo. So take the bull by the horns and lay in switches and track of your unique design.That simple..And your 'head offices' designed it. And your 'track gang' laid it in...No? This is what I do and I've never regretted it..
The MNNR "A" Yard in St.Paul, MN would make a great layout. It has industries, flat switching, team tracks, an Amtrak depot, BNSF, UP and CP interchanges. Check it out.
Except that the A-yard at Midway in Saint Paul is not all that small from a model railroading viewpoint. It originally had 42 tracks. Even today it has 32-33 double ended tracks, and the yard area is about 4000 feet long (which would be about 45 feet long in H0 scale). The core challenge here is that we have no clue whatsoever about how much space the OP has to work with (for the layout as a whole, for the staging and for the yard), what scale he is in, how long trains he plans to run, how many blocks of cars he need to be building at any time and so on and so forth. Classification yards handling multiple inbound and outbound blocks at any time sound cool. But they take a lot of space to model - both in the yard and in staging. It is possible that modeling a small auxiliary yard of some kind would be a smarter move for a smallish layout. A yard where one switcher could be stationed, and there would be one inbound and one outbound train per session, with the rest of the time spent switching local industries. Say something like this simple little H0 scale track plan I made a while ago, very heavily inspired by a track plan by Robert Beaty: Or one could go for some other special yard - like the track plan below inspired by the Bush Terminal RR in Brooklyn, NY back in the 1970s: Here is a third H0 scale plan based on Vermont Railroad's Burlington yard: The plan above is designed for two different train lengths - long trains of one engine, max fourteen 40' freight cars and a caboose, and short trains of one engine, max nine 40' freight cars and a caboose. The key to yard flexibility is the interaction between tracks F, G, H, K and L. Track L is the Running Track, which can be used to allow trains to bypass the yard without disturbing switching operations. It can also be used as a runaround for trains that turn at Burlington and head back to the left or to the right. It can also be used as an A/D track for long trains (engine, 14 cars and caboose). And it can be used as a siding for a passing meeting- one long train can hold on L, between the crossovers to track H, while another train snakes past it by way of track H or track F/G. Track H is the primary A/D track of the yard. It can also be used as a runaround for a long train on track L, or when dropping off or picking up interchange traffic on track F/G. Track F/G: Left bound interchange traffic is dropped off and picked up at F. Right bound interchange traffic is dropped off and picked up at G- Track K is the yard lead - or rather - part of the yard lead - it is also the lead for traffic to the engine service facility (J) and to the RIP track (I). Yard lead is long enough to pull an entire short train of 9 cars from the primary A/D track (H) and move the cars to classification. Track M is the caboose storage track - it can hold 4-5 cabooses. The label E marks three general classification/storage tracks - long enough for 10-12 cars - ie long enough to built a full short train of nine cars and a caboose. Track C/D is the team track - at C there is an end unloading ramp, while cargo is unloaded directly in trucks at D. Track A/B is another industry track - at A there is a fuel dealer, while at B there is a concrete company. There are lots of possibilities. If you want a small yard on the MNNR, have a look at the yard just to the north of 1st Street NW in New Brighton: http://binged.it/N9qET4 - scroll towards the top to see the MNNR yard. The OP could perhaps model say the lower half of this yard, with some interchange with CN and a couple of local industries? Smile, Stein
Stein says, "...have a look at the yard just to the north of 1st Street NW in New Brighton..." Nice little yard. I see a lot of telephone poles. I need a smallish one, say 20' long, to hang my collection of cross-arms. I may have to wander over that way to see if I can buy one.
LOL - If you are planning to buy, move and put up a phone pole, I hope you guys have it a little cooler over there this weekend than it has been lately. For this Norwegian, being in the Twin Cities with temperatures in the high 90s and high humidity during the last weeks felt just a wee bit on the hot side for my tastes. It was a relief to get back to more typical Norwegian summer weather over here in Norway - temperatures in the 60s and a light drizzle Smile, Stein
UPDATE! I've come up with the small yard plan to use. I've created it in trainz 2010 and been running it as planned to test out how it works. This is going to be a portable layout. It'll be Z scale in a 52" by 15" rifle case. That way I can take this with me on weekend get-a-ways. Trackplan: Operations: Basically, it is a small classification yard. Trains (the same engine over and over) enter the yard, drop off cars, and pick up outgoing cars. I will use card cards for forwarding. Each car card will have 4 colored dots. The dots represent locations (exact cities yet to be named) and the incoming cars will be classified in groups for departure to the appropriate city/color. Every time the train brings in new cars and picks up cars, the classification process continues. In this way, the layout can be operated continously for as long as desired.
Umm. You asked for examples of real yards because you wanted a yard with character instead of just 4-5 parallel tracks with a ladder on each end. What you have here is 4-5 parallel tracks with a ladder on both sides, where someone has taken an eraser and removed a little of two of the tracks. I am not so sure that this really adds much in the way of "character". You also call this a classification yard (i.e. a yards where you sort cars into blocks bound for different destinations). But you have no destinations. No staging. No interchange tracks running off the layout. No way for two trains to interact with each other in any meaningful way, since there is only one place where trains can meet - in the yard. Maybe it would be a good idea to rethink the overall vision for the layout. Maybe turn the yard into say a 4 track run-through staging yard, put a scenic divider between the staging and the upper half of the board, and develop a scene for the upper half of the board - say a passing siding, a depot, a track going to the end of the board for interchange, and one or two industry tracks. That way you could have three or four trains in staging, interacting with each other on the visible side of the layout - having a meet in the siding. Arriving with outbound cars for the interchange, swapping them for inbound cars at the interchange, a local freight train switching the local industries, and a run-trough passenger or freight train. Or something. As is, the operational possibilities are pretty limited. You can run one train around the loop. Take off some cars. Sort cars. And then take a different groups of cars around the loop. But your layout - it has to fit your goals, not mine. Smile, Stein
At the very least, I'd put a passing / staging siding on the "top" of the plan so a train can "go somewhere" for awhile. But like stein says, it's your layout.
You mean the Wisconsin Central/Canadian National Neenah yard (http://binged.it/O76xje) ? Here is a candidate for an even smaller yard with character - Otter Tail Valley Railroad's yard along Junius Avenue in Fergus Falls, Minnesota : http://binged.it/O780WW. Here is a quick sketch of a similar yard in a space that would take about 11" x 57" in Z scale (1:220) - slightly big, considering that the OP wanted to fit the whole layout in 15" x 52", but not so horribly oversized that it cannot be pruned back to a something like 7-8" x 52" in Z scale: But I suspect the OP has long ago departed from the thread and the forum. Btw - the yard above is not a "classification yard" sorting cars by what trains they will be departing on - it is just a small auxiliary yard, where you can drop off a cut of cars, and store and sort cars inbound to or outbound from the local industries. Smile, Stein
Nope a little further northeast over Doty Island and into Menasha - Between Racine St and Depere St next to 4th St. 44.206278, -88.443402
Aha - didn't spot that one at first. Yes, this (http://binged.it/NB3Skj) is an very modelable small yard, with at least three industries (of which two are multi-spot industries) along the yard. Smile, Stein
Thanks for posting these new ideas and photos. The Otter Tail yard piqued my interest. I've revised the track plan a bit. It ads an industry at the lower left, and will have a warehouse on the top stub ended track in the yard with multiple doors the will be spotted specifically. To address a couple comments: 1) I thought about straightening the top of the layout and add a staging track or two. I may do that at some point, but to start, I want to keep it simple and keep costs down. This will be built in Z scale, so adding one staging track and train would be $50 in switches, and $140 for an engine let alone cars for an additional train. As I said, that can be added later. At this point, I really don't have a plan for specific track work or scenery on the top portion. 2) While adding an industry or two adds character and switching opportunities, I don't want to much because braking down a train and classifying cars in the yard is the main point and what I enjoy most. 3) This layout will be operated just by me. There won't be 3 or 4 or even 2 trains running at the same time. One man, DC control and one controller. 4) It was commented that all you can do is run a train around, sort some cars and do it again. You're right. and that is what I desire. I understand that one train leaving looks like another train, but this is about the yard and the specifics of the coming and goings details will be worked out, but less important than the shifting of cars in the yard, receiving trains, and building new trains within the yard.
her is my plan for Z-scale : http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr61/BaronvBavert/Modeltrain Scale Z/TrackplanCapture.jpg with WinTrackplan
These switches were on the Los Angeles Junction Ry A Yard. There's what looks like two slip switches to the right of the three way switch. But they are just very compressed, They are gone now as BNSF, the current owner, is redoing the A Yard.
