Gentleman, I have a severe lack of space around the yard on my developing freelanced layout. This is making it very difficult to plan much...of anything around it. If you haven't read any of my posts, yes I am very much a newbie at this, and it is my first layout as an adult. I cut the bay/inlet water feature [shown below] with another track plan...then after several revisions and advice seeking, DKS & Paulus came up with this current plan that I really love. However, the result of the existing water feature and new track plan was little room around the yard. I am open to any use for the yard that will work & look realistic, and use the space efficiently. The yard is a pretty prominent feature in my humble little layout, so it needs to be done just right! As you see, I'm bringing the road in on the hill, which lands at-grade, right next to the yard. This could be changed, but I didn't like my other options for routing the road. However, I'm remaining open to suggestions. Also note, I have only spent one session shaping foam terrain, so it is pretty far from being final form. To provide a bit more space around the yard, I could add fill with a retaining wall or cliff, next to the water. There is also about 5-6" at the end of the yard. Any other suggestions for the style of the yard, or tips are absolutely welcome! As I said: the layout freelanced. But I'm modeling a little pretend coastal town in Northern California that has an old fashioned feel. The industries I've considered: small intermodal, farming (grain-elevator), and a lumber yard. The 30" ruler is next to the track for scale. The max width of the yard area is about 10" from toe of road, to edge of water. Thanks in advance for helping out a new guy! Cheers, Noah
Couple other notes: Before you note the steep grade of the road, I am not done shaping it, and it will be brought out a bit more, resulting in a 9-10% grade. Not too uncommon around Nor Cal Coast roads. And I'm not going to re-route the track, if I can help it. Feeders/Buss are completed as you can see:
Where does that track that goes off from the yard go to? A pic of the whole thing would be more useful..
Good call. Obviously, an older shot, but gives you the whole layout: And here's the track plan as authored by David K Smith. A few modifications were made:
How about Autorack unloading? Something like this? I know that those yards are usually pretty big, but here is a single track one in RI, so anything is possible. You could do two or three tracks of autoracks and one of intermodal. Since the tracks are so close together you might have problems with unloading containers, unless you go for a really big overhead crane.
You have come to the point so many people who are beginning small layouts come to -- which feature do you want more? Because one of them has to go. In this case, do you want a yard with space --or mountains? Because it pretty much is down to that. It's obvious that to get good-looking mountains you need lots of them. However, if you want a yard with working space around it, you need lots of flat space for industries, roads, buildings, facilities, etc. Unless you have mountains full of Unobtainium (see Avatar), you can't have both soaring peaks and industry-busy area around the yard on this layout. Maybe if you make the layout a flat coastal area and put all the soaring mountains on the backdrop.... The track plan is very good, but it seems to be designed for a relatively flat area.
For a yard that small, it may be worth while to scrap it entirely and make a clever series of industries to switch instead. It would give a lot of visual interest and you can send all the cars to what looks to be a lovely little interchange track.
I kind of agree with Backshop.There's not much you're going to do with the RR as far as a trackplan,it's overpowered by scenery.I'd be making some of the features like that gorge much smaller,loose that entire open section in the front to expand the useable track area,ETC.I'd also add to the useable area by expanding out to use that last little bit on the sides..You'd be surprised how much an extra 2 inches on the end changes everything.If you want a mountain railroad,the mountains should be more prominent,and expand the trackplan up onto them..
I would like to see a couple more industry spurs but I don't see a place to fit them, not so much because of mountains but because of track curvature and the long bridge at the front. There is little straight track left to cut in a turnout. EXCEPT from the shortest track in the yard, which you have used for a switchback. That makes that short yard track useless to stick anything on whenever you need to access the switchback. Grrr. The spur at the right front corner of the layout could be used as an interchange. That would give some slight relevance to the yard- a need to switch interchange traffic in and out of through trains. Another way to add relevance to the yard and to the layout as a whole would be to have trains "come from and go to" someplace distant. Hidden layover staging would be best- but you don't want to tear up track. Dedicate the space at the back of your outside loop as OPEN STAGING, a place to park trains that have supposedly gone somewhere else. Imagine you don't see them, or that there is some operational reason for leaving a train sitting in plain sight. The train will need to make one circuit to get to the inner track and into the yard for enroute switching. This might be described as the unconventional reuse of what would normally be used just for running. As your post title implied, your yard is short on functional need. One respondent suggested tearing out the yard and having more industry spurs. You don't wan to move track, sooooo... change the function nof existing track. Use your front yard track, the longest one, NOT as a yard track but as an industry spur, serving industries on the river side of the track, on piers. One respondent said you needed flat space for industries. Maybe not absolutely true. You need a relatively flat area for industry spurs, but the industry buildings can be built split-level, adjusted to the slope of a hill. It is going to be more work and engineering to make them fit that way. Not going to work with "out of the box" buildings. But more fun.
In going the opposite direction, and if the hills are retained, then something that would go with a river, mountain foothills, and trees would be a paper mill, plywood, or a particle board plant. Or again going with the hilly country an apple or other fruit packing plant and cannery. With the former selections you would have loads in (woodchips or logs), chemicals for the paper mill, and boxcar loads out. No log pond but dry stacked for logs, or piles of wood chips by the unloader. With the latter it would be both truck and railcar loads in, along with coils of metal for cans and loads either of wood for apple crates or pallets of cardboard. Depending on the era an icing station for ice reefers, or a service and cleaning area for mechanical refrigeration cars. One of the yard tracks would be the service area for the reefers. Knock the hills down to more gently sloping hills for the orchards and behind them the backdrop featuring the high mountains. Any small switcher lettered for the industry would take care of that area in either case. The yard would be the industry yard. The Walther's paper plant would fit nicely and a number of other buildings could be kitbashed and combined for the fruit packing. As far as other structures think small. Keep houses down to the small 1 to 1.5 inch square and small retail and gas stations would make the company town. There are some very small combo train stations with small freight house attached. If steam era no more than a single water tank. The main facility would be 50 to 100 miles away thus just the need for water. Somehow this layout seems right for small power like any 4 axle diesel or small steam like a 2-8-0. Passenger service could be by way of a gas electric or RDC, or even a mixed train with a baggage combine and an express boxcar that can be left spotted at the station as the local sets out and picks up cars.
Continuing... I enjoyed running a small N layout for 25 years and 100+ operating sessions, with no yard at all, as such. It had layover staging, one "town" with a passing siding/ runaround track, one general purpose setout and team track, 4 industry spurs and an interchange. Trains came from somewhere else, worked the town and went on. Trains came from somewhere else and had meets on the passing siding. A branchline train would come in, leave traffic and go back up the branch. I never missed the yard.
All good suggestions...or at least, thought provoking for me. I know a lot of you are advanced and experienced model railroaders, so sometimes suggestions, although great, are a bit over my head. And perhaps beyond the expectations of my first 'real' layout. Don't get me wrong, I want to do as good of a job as possible. I desire realistic scale, and logical operations, but I do have to draw the line somewhere. There's a lot to respond to so I'll try to summarize/respond to what I read in bullet points: -Yes, that is an interchange at the front right -The hills are far from final form, and are not glued down yet. I could potentially scrap them. Although, I really do not want it to be a flat layout. Living in Northern California, I'm used to hills, no plains. -I'm going for more of a Coast/River/Delta area, not mountains. -Someone said the layout is scenery heavy. Good! That's what I was hoping for. I don't want it to appear cluttered, but I do of course want some industry to give the trains a purpose. -The layout is modern day, but it's a small, old town area. I might even have a novel steam engine or two -likely for a tourist train. -Since I'm semi-modeling (not prototyping ) Northern California, I am thinking logging/lumber would be a good option. -I should note there is a small wharf (MT Cannery, MT Hotel (on piers), and small cafe) on the part of the inlet closest to the interchange Again, I appreciate you guys being cool and helping out a new guy. Cheers Noah
Looks to me like a sweet spot for a grain terminal. Grain elevator receives unit trains of corn & ships barges on the river for export! Might need to loose one of the yard tracks to make room for some silos and bins!
Here's my 2cents worth; Since it's a modern layout and the fact that you have an interchange to the outside world and a smallish yard that is almost too small for a working yard, you could model a modern shortline that it's main business is outsourcing car repairs for some of the local big name roads in the area. The small yard could be converted to a small storage yard where cars are held until the repairs can be done to them, then they get set out to the interchange track for pickup. This type of an industry can bring in all different types of cars and would allow you to buy whatever type of cars you can find or suits your fancy. This may or may not set well with Mr. Wallet. You made mention of having a steamer present for a tourist line, this could be another source of income for your road. Along with the car repair shop, you could also have a few smaller generic local industries to serve as well. Just something to chew on.
Besides logging/lumber yard, farming/grain is the next on the list of likely industries. I love intermodal cars, but an intermodal yard is quite unlikely for my setup. My most important objective is which specific kit(s) to use, and how I can get creative with placement. Also, I had planned to pave/level in between all yard tracks (after its final purpose is determined) so that only the rails are exposed. There's probably a name for this. Would this be appropriate?
I would go along the lines of modeling a small rail yard. Have a general yard office, some maintenance buildings. The yard would be used to build your consents for your line and interchange. As you have a small yard foot print that would be the best option. I am faced with same issue on my layout in progress. As you can see I have a engine / freight car maintenance shed, a gyob and other small buildings including a train station on the main. You will find most small yards in real life used for railroad purposes rather then business / industry. Most smaller industries use sidings and spurs. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Allen- I'd previously thought of something like that -a small general service rail yard. But you described it in a much more knowledgeable manner. I'll definitely ponder this more. Syrous- Your idea is more or less similar to Allen's, so I guess I have two votes for that route
You know,the way David drew it in the first place,if you just had that 2 track industrial section there up front expanded a little by putting in a shorter bridge,you could use that as a yard and interchange by adding another switch,and make the drill track go on the bridge by adding a third track on the bridge.I'd lose most of that yard in the middle,and put a few industries there.If you just filled in some of that gorge on the right side,you could get the yard a little straighter to the main,and open up the entire middle to switching..
That's not a cool idea, Lou. But a little more modification than I prefer to make at this point. I'm beginning to think my best bet, is to add some foam (land) back to the bay-side of the yard. This would more resemble David's illustration of the bay/inlet. This should provide enough room for a decent little industry. So now, I suppose I'm debating between the lumber yard and small repair yard for outsourced repairs and storage. Or perhaps a combination of both.
That's really the most important part... You have to figure out what kinds of things you want to model, then plan the track around those ideas. It's difficult to look at an existing plan and try to adapt your interests to it. Not to say it can't be done, but it's easier to pick a track plan if you already know what kinds of things you want to model. Also, the original design has some features that you've omited from yours, and I think those features are going to be important visually and operationally. Your yard seems like it has no purpose because it doesn't. The yard in the original plan would be used for off spotting and holding area for cars being delivered to & from the industry on the river. Cars could even be off spotted there waiting to be placed at the industry on the lower right. I'm an agriculturaly minded fellow, so when I look at the original plan, I see a midwestern river valley town along a river or Great Lake coast. The industry in the middle by the yard looks like a grain terminal for transloading corn from rail to a barge. Likewise, the industry on the lower right looks like it ought to have some form of terminal for potash or some other raw fertilizer component to be transloaded into rail cars or trucks. Granted these types of facilities are gigantic, but they would selectively compressed to reasonably suggest those things. Both facilities would be served 5 or so car long unit trains delivered to the yard area by a class 1 who operates the double track main. Other traffic on the main would be misc. mixed freight passing through, maybe some unit coal or container trains. The industries themselves would be serviced by a private industrial line owned by the industries. The private line would have maybe one or two tired old GP or SW, or maybe a newer MP (or a genset if we get one someday) that's stored in the shed at the top of the yard. In addition to switching out the two main industries, they would switch out an occasional diesel fuel or sand car from the locomotive area. That private line would have trackage rights on the main line to be able to service both industries, but would have to get clearance for using it and need to stay out of the way of mainline traffic that takes priority. The river would have carved a deep valley, so a hill or cliff or fairly dense tree line could be placed from the end of the yard lead to the top left near where the river narrows to form a view block for the rear part of the loop. Additionally, a small staging yard could be put in the back to serve as a source/destination for on and off layout traffic. Here's an example of something like this: http://goo.gl/maps/osPDe
