Hello Well a few of you asked to see what I have in mind for the track plan so here it is, The other 16' section is planned to be my Shop and main yard ,which is yet to be designed. All suggestions welcome:mbiggrin: Tyson
I'm not sure how experienced you are. I can't analyze the plan. It looks ambitious. I infer this is just a crude sketch and you are aware the turnouts will take up much more space than reflected in the plan.
I agree, that plan does look ambitious, but no less interesting and fun! The only thing that concerns me is the elevations steps on the long stretch. They appear easily possible, but I'm worried about aesthetics. It's good to separate foreground tracks and background tracks, however you have a constant and even stepping, from front to back which might counter the implied separation. Have you thought about combining the tracks at elevations 0 and 2 along the front into a larger yard? By combining those yards, and adding a reverse loop (which is practically there already), you can create very interesting operations while maintaining through traffic on a continuous run. Aside from that, there are a few turnouts which operate better if flipped from a left to right hand turnout or vice versa, to eliminate small "S" curves.
What the grades are for is too simulate a climb through the prairie foothills then levels off at bottom right where there is a small passing siding with an elevator siding approximately 8 car spot. Then the mainline starts the down grade from 6" to 2" which is where there is another grain elevator with a two track spot approx. 8 cars per track=16 cars total. after the 2"elevation in the corner it goes down 2% to 0" in the bottom corner and as to the yard at the zero elevation is supposed to be a long passing siding with a low hill separating the two diff elevations and plan on using rolling hills to hide other tracks that i feel need it. Combining the yards really would not work for me as i will have a 14' classification yard and Locomotive shop area on the right hand side , i was really hoping to have a few grain elevators to spot cars and because the look so cool in the rolling hills i am hoping to model.
Will there be enough room for elevators? There is a lot of track... Is it prototypical that the tracks are crossing eachother that many times?
I was trying to figure out if this was two loops or loop to loop or what. So I printed the plan and started labelling points. Starting with the top end of the Wye as A and going clockwise til the next junction B (which is about as far away from A as possible) and so on. Then I sketched it out in a line. What it ends up is a loop with three sets of sidings and a turning wye. I think you'd get bored awfully fast running that. You have a HUGE space for N scale. I'd consider looking for other track plans (Even HO) that can be stretched or squeezed and bent a little to fit.
Can you provide us with the dimensions of the benchwork? It appears to be only about 2ft wide across the 16 foot span, with 7 tracks through the center leaves only 2.5 inches between each track. That leaves room for little more than a retaining wall when you're looking at 2" elevation steps, let alone structures. Have you considered a double deck layout?
Thank you all for the comments, which made me see the error of my plan. Sorry I didn't reply sooner but was on a trip south which usually takes at least 24 hours to complete due to me having to reset my clock at the other end and catch some much needed zzz's. I see now that I am trying to cram way too much track into the space I had given to the project.Which by the way is just on paper right now ,no bench work layed . Now to start from scratch again , like Mystere suggested maybe a double decker? I had thought of this earlier but the ceiling height on the left half of the room is only approximately 7 feet and the right half is about 8feet. Also I do not want to make the shelf too wide as the room this is going in is my living room and need to have my TV and stereo underneath the layout, so I need about 50" layout height minimum. As too another question asked about what industries I will be serving on this road is mainly grain and agricultural facilities maybe coal as I have a 20 car coal train, the design i want is to model rural rolling hills in the prairies with lots of crop land and some pasture land. I also want to be able to run as long a train as is possible with the space I have and have it a continuous run as I like to see the long trains run.The era I want to model is mid 60's to the late 70's. Motive power then for the CPR was really quite interesting as they had Alco's ,EMD's and the kewl Trainmasters and C-liners. So mostly 4 axle power with some 6 axle M630's, SD40's and my personal favorite SD90/43's that I would run to mix things up a little "even though it doesn't fit the era" , for this reason I want to have no curves tighter then say 18" visible . So I ask for any idea's what I should do, I had a hard enough time drawing up the first draft and could really use some help and ideas with the new plan. Ty
I think you have a great start, so I wouldn't scrap everything altogether just yet. You mentioned something about another 16' section for a shop/main yard? Is there a reason these are separated? I'm guessing that section continues from the wye shown, giving you an L with two 16' lengths, plus the extra zig-zag in the plan shown? For the special circumstances of your layout/living room, I think you should first plot the room to scale on grid paper or in a drafting/CAD program. Then mark where the TV/Stereo, ect. will live and where you imagine the layout to go. Once on paper, it becomes easy to move different benchwork designs around until you get the optimum araingment. Keep in mind your minimum radius for the turnarounds at either end.
Tyson, you've got some great ideas and a nice amount of space to work in. I'm wondering if you're thinking a little too much like a real railroader, though. They have lots of space; modelers don't! So to that end, you might consider a basic track planning publication from Kalmbach. Also, write a list of the things you want the most on your layout, then prioritize them. Finally, take your time and be patient with the planning. Layout planning can be incredibly fun. It's your chance to get as much as you want in your space, and there's a lot of dreaming and creative problem-solving that goes into it, which makes it both fun and a challenge. I took over a year to develop my layout plan and must have made 10 or 12 different layout plans before I finally settled on one. I then put that one into a free software program and tinkered with it. I revised and printed out no less than 19 different versions of each deck before I was satisfied. I've built layouts with a lot less planning--and was always unhappy with them. So now for the suggestions, which I'll try to keep to a minimum. You've said you want long, smooth stretches of track on which you can run long trains. You also want industries. And at least one passing track. What I'm thinking is this: Make all the track at 0" elevation. You can show changes in elevation by varying the scenery. (Believe me, this is effective!) Alternatively, use a loop that twists over on itself so that you have one bridge crossing and your maximum elevation is 2". Use one long loop. Your sidings or yards then go into the loops and off of straight stretches. This eliminates switches running off of curves, which will derail your trains. Before you plan, find out what switches (turnouts) you will be using and how long they will be. Straight? Curved? 6"? 8"? That sort of thing. Then figure out how much of a footprint you want each of your industries to take up. (Remember, you don't have to show an entire industry. You can even show a track disappearing into trees with some cyclone fencing and a sign). You might also want to look at layout plans that others have done. You can get terrific ideas from those. Whenever you're ready, download Right Track Software 8.0 and try to put your plan into it. You'll quickly learn that turnouts take up a LOT of room!
I love watching the MR railplans: it gives you a lot of inspiration and ideas. I make a rough sketch of my layout, and then I take some track, turnouts and buildings and try to recreate the track plan I have drawn on paper. Nothing better than seeing the possibilities in 3D!
Chaya mentioned Right Track Software. I know people who use that. One of the guys in my club uses XTrkCad to great effect, and it will also run on Linux. If you are a Mac user, there are other options. I use a Mac and I have been happy with RailModeller. Your plan looks very interesting so far. Where you do have grades, you might want to check them to see how steep they are. Lots of our equipment struggles much beyond 2% grades, kind of like in the prototype.
Hello Mark no unfortunately :tb-sad:. Work has been crazy as of late with holidays and all but i also heard possibility of getting lay'd off coming Xmas:thumbs_down: so I have been getting in as many trips as I can. On a more positive note, you did get me too thinking about a double deck'r and have been doodling out ideas but nothing concrete yet . I am also thinking of maybe using the 16 foot shop/yard section as main line property which would give me a 16' by 20'(well more like 28' with the dog leg in original plan) L shaped layout. There are just so many possibilities . Not related to this thread but finally got pictures of the oak display Case my father and I built 24"x72" the rest of the motive power is waiting for paint Tyson
I second the experience that without planning my layout results were less than satisfying. Turnouts can consume more room than anticipated. Track grade and alignment need to be carefully laid out. I designed my first pike by eyeball; a two track main that folded over on itself with two reversing loops and a yard complex that jointed the two legs of the folded loop. Overall I'm happy with the operational aspects but the alignment and grade didn't fare so well. I'm usin CadRail to design my next layout. I had a prolonged learning curve with CadRail but looking back it was worth it. I can print out the layout, or any piece of it, full scale and be confident that the alignment and grade will be precise, turnouts and curves will lay without forcing them to fit.
Exactly. I used RTS, the free Atlas program, which is nowhere near as fancy (or difficult) as CadRail. Still, it gave me what I needed. All I had to do was transfer the plan to the benchwork using the measurements the program gave me. I had planned it so there was NO room for error--and it all fit just the way I wanted it. If it hadn't, the track wouldn't have worked nearly this well.
