Wow, Chris! That's a neat plan, and a prime opportunity to build a hinged liftbridge... Having a liftbridge or liftout at the doorway would allow continuous running.. Would be a great way to model Stampede tunnel....
As far as the questions go, 1. continuous runs...yes 2. hidden staging....no 3. double track mainline 4. some steam, mostly 70's to present diesel 5. realistic operation...I am not an expert here, but I don't want it to be unrealistic 6. no more than 2 people, normally, just me I want to run long trains. I am limited by the small size of my room I am not stuck on modeling a specific area or geographical existing line. I want a large yard for switching I would like to integrate point to point and continuous running into the same layout I do not want a turntable I do want a trestle or viaduct I would like to hide some of the mainline behind trees or hills. Bob and I found the perfect plan to meet these criteria, but it doesn't work well in this room. I refuse to crawl or climb on a ladder on a regular basis for a layout. I have found many many track plans that I love, but they are all wrong for one reason or another in this room. I don't want to settle for a rectangular layout, the mainline and yard is just too short. I am trying to maximize trackage in my give space. I want long runs and a nice yard. I would like to run 20+ car trains and not have it follow itself. I think that is about it.
Yes, you are right. I am waivering back and forth, but it would be cool to allow the mainline to contine and not just have the reverse loop on the peninsula.
Wow this place is busy. I just reread the first post and was editing my last post... And bam we got new comments. LOL You could do a sort of backdrop divider between scenes. That way you could have one setting, say a town. Then through the backdrop to another setting. Mountains with trestle. Lastly to some kind of inner city setting. I'm just tossing out vague ideas here. It's your layout. I don't want to tell you what to do with it, and there are so many options.
I am partial to it because it allows you to scenic one scene at a time. That way you don't end up looking at a huge unfinished mess. You always have something to show people too. P.S. I envy your space. Your layout room is larger than any room in my house, and you've seen my layout cave in the low ceiling basement.
Built by Northern Pacific as part of its transcon, it was deactivated by BN long ago, and recently re-built and traffic rolls across Stampede Pass now. Stampede Pass is in the Washington Cascades. IIRC, it is directly south of Steven's Pass. More info about the tunnel itself: (http://www.mrcd.org/main_line_snoqualmie_pass.html) Stampede Pass Tunnel (2 miles) - Built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late nineteenth century, this tunnel was the first to be constructed. The eastbound and westbound grades are 2.2% compensated with the summit break inside the tunnel, not a happy situation for train handling. The low ceiling puts a crimp on traffic flow. Milwaukee Road detours I worked through this tunnel were devoid of our usual profitable auto transport business. The one Burlington Northern train I worked over this route, Train 175-6 (Auburn to Yakima), hauled mostly forest products and grain; the more valuable merchandise and auto traffic was sent via Steven's Pass. Stampede Pass was closed in the early 1980's as redundant. Any more info than that, you'd have to ask an expert...
Hemi, Incredible reading! Thanks, I enjoyed that. For a minute, I miss the old layout as it was that pass and tunnel exactly.
I would hate to see you not do that Pass again, since you were doing so well on the last attempt. I would really like to see it modeled, since I have never been there. But, hey! It's your layout, do what you enjoy!
I couldn't sleep, so I started designing the benchwork. This software is really nice. I like wallking thru the layout as I design it.
So, time to try and fit some track to that? See what you think here, basically it's a big oval with a wye to an industrial/switching area. A large yard on the right, and lots of opportunity for scenic bits like bridges, tunnels and trestles without too many instances of the track appearing in-scene twice.
Hutch, it is comimng together nicely, I like Martyn's ideas. The comment I would like to offe ris to reverse the direction of the turnback loop at the lower part of the model, so once a train leaves the yard it sticks to the front of the benchwork and curves away to the wall. This way you can make it circle upwards and make it run behind the yard, but on a slightly elevated level. There is the opportunity for some nice bridges behind the yard. With a smaller layout I would suggest to limit the hidden track to maximize the time your trains are visible. I look forward to your progress reports.... Cheers Dirk
I originally drew it similar to that (I located the yard on the lower of the two lines rather than the upper) but then thought of access to the rear high level track on a 3' deep board and decided to bury the low level track under the yard on the higher level A third option might be that the lower line could skirt the front of the yard in a cut, that might keep it visible but out of eyeline of the person working the yard? If it's not needed as a closet (or structural in any way) then that's a great idea! I think it's workable-with if you need the closet space though.
You must not have kids huh? :teeth: (yep, I know you just got married ) What software are you using, Hutch? Most closets are not structural/load-bearing, so I'd rip 'er out if I were you. Another thought if you like tunnels/trestles.. you could model the Milw mountain division, and use a little modeler's license to give the BN trackage rights There are also areas where the Milw and BN run very close, even parallel to each other. But alas, I'm no trackplan expert. Great thread, this is the kind of thing that helps keep me motivated guys! Tim
Hutch, You are giving us a seminar on how to use 3rdPlanIt to get your ideas and concepts across! Way cool, run steam, as someone said. :shade: Joe Daddy
Good morning Hutch, I am impressed with your latest graphics! :thumbs_up: What software are you using? Your redesign progress is reminicent of what I went through earlier this year. I'm going to offer some tips on what I learned in making the design of the Santa Fe & Cajon Pass in N Scale. 1. The track plan will dictate the benchwork design. 2. Do not get carried away with the benchwork design untill the track work is almost complete. 3. Set your standards early. At a minimum, Min Radius on the main and industrial sidings. Also set the frog angles normally 8 on the main and 6 on the sidinges will be very prototypical. Do not forget the human interface! People need a lot of room to move around. Allow a minimum of 3 feet between benches for people to pass. More would be even better. 4. Allow a sufficient distance from the centerline of tracks to the edge of bench work. Normally 5-1/2" will work out very nicely for N Scale. Less will work if you can design a topography that tends to prohibit wayward trains from plunging to the floor. 6. Take the time early in the design process to compute the grades on any inclines you may want to use. Pay particular attention to where the vertical curves start and end. Keep the BVC and EVC at least 6" away from the ends of your turnouts! A distance of 12" from the ends of your turnouts to the VPI will work out nicely for a 12" vertical curve length. 7. Get some pictures of the area you are interested in modeling. They will help fix your goals to coincide with what you want to achieve. Please refer to the latest versions of my Room Layout and Landscape plan for some interesting information about large yards and how much space they require. When you get down to track planning, I may have some turnout blocks that can save you a lot of time in the layout. Let me know if you want them, and I will send them to you Via E-mail.
I like that initial design as well. I would tweak it and have the hidden mainline under the yard on a upper elevation and have it cross the main and run along the back of the layout behind the yard. Maybe put a huge long passing siding on it so it looks like a double main. It could function as a visible staging area. Add some cross overs and you can have a bunch of trains parked on the double main waiting to join the fun, yet still leave a through main for when you just want to run the choo choos. You have a huge space. I would think in terms of towns being fed by the huge yard. With the long staging being all points east and west, or in the case of Illinois central, all points south and north. Another thing, You could put a long point to point branch on your layout that would connect to the oval. It could be inside the balloon near the closet. Nothing to complicated. Just a spur here and there that a local needs to switch. Maybe run a doodlebug for passenger service. Kind of like a Virginia Coal branch on N&W, with lots of quaint wood structures. You talk about running a free form era, so maybe the mainline can be very modern with nice ballast and the branch could be backdated to about 1963 when N&W got rid of its steam. (I'm not saying it has to be N&W, but there is a precedent for this style of line. Your library should have books on this. The thing to look at is the structures and tracks on old photos. It can give you some good ideas.) One design flaw I find on many medium to large layouts is that people think too big. Inudstrial spurs and switching areas don't have to be large. Even though you are running long trains there will be places where a little switcher needs to slip in and out of shorter spurs to collect cars for a return trip to the yard. A really worth while layout to look at is the Reed brothers N scale layout. It may give you some food for thought. Someone had alink to a website about this but I cannot find it. I would advise you to run the layout as soon as you can so you can figure out any operational glitches you may have as far as design is concerned. DO this before adding scenery. I do not know what the codes are in your city. In my city it is a bad idea to remove a closet. Once you remove a closet the room does not qualify as a bedroom, so it reduces your houses value. Then again you can always build a new closet if you sell it. Ok, I'm writing a novel, I better stop now.
