03-02-2009, 07:15 PM
It's interesting to watch the plans evolve but something has stuck in my craw from the beginning. Maybe I missed it, but what's the storyboard? These three yards don't seem all that far from each other to need entire trains heading out of the center yard onto either of the wings. It's like three vanilla yards, or at best, a neopolitan ice cream box with brown pink and white together.
Not to throw too big a wrench into the works, but how about this:
Your center peninsula, unless you put up a backdrop, is a great place to show off some 360 detailed structures, even small ones. So many times our model structures are 'missing' one or more walls, as they just are never visible. A peninsula is a chance to show a couple dynamite forefront structures, like an FSM diorama, (not necessarily era/style-wise, but detail & character-wise).
Let's add some operational challenge & interest by putting the leftmost wing a couple inches lower than the peninsula. Then put the right side wing even lower. Here's your chance to use a carfloat, if you're so inclined. I know you'd make Russ happy
Anyway, here's how it works. Get rid of the top and right legs of the wye. Leave only the track from the center to the left side and the upper right staging to the center. That upper staging can be hidden behind buildings or cliffs or trees or whatever. Keep the turntables on the Left side and center peninsula, lose the one on the right.
Stay with me, now. Trains come out of staging on the right, rolling down into the center yard. The staging is only slightly higher than the center yard. The road engine is cut off and sent to be serviced before the return trip back to staging. The yard goat goes to work breaking down the train and making up the switch job for the day. That engine is coupled on and runs its train over to the left yard, drifting down a slight grade.
At that yard lives a shay (or heisler or climax, you pick). The geared power is to get the cars down the steep grade to the dockside switching section on the right wing. The cars for that area are gathered and the engine backs them down the hill, passing under the tracks from staging. This can be accomplished by means of a deep cut and bridge for the staging track, or a short tunnel, etc. After the work is done, the shay is positioned on the downhill side of the train and shoves the cars back up to the left side.
What this acheives is mental distance between three zones. Your center section has one type of character, either a big city feel, a gritty yard, etc. It is higher than the other two, affording a good close look at those detailed structures, cars, locos, etc. All the neat loco servicing facilities, the storage track for the MOW equipment, that neat yard office made out of an old open platform combine, whatever.
The leftmost wing can have a different feeling. It can be a switching district in a not-so-nice part of town, or mebbe a little nicer on the edge of a suburb. With a signature industry back in the corner (even one not modeled but from which alot of traffic is generated...more on that below) that can flavor the area. Having a little single-stall engine shed for the geared power is a good opportunity for detail and interest.
The right side can be the docks or just another industrial area, but why not give it again, a third 'flavor', a little different from the rest. If that major industry is a lumber mill, then perhaps the finished lumber is shipped out by barge? If it's a gravel pit (modeled off stage by a short hidden track behind a hill) then a nice big rock bunker/crusher/cement plant, something, can be down in the lower yard on the right. Personally I like the dockside idea because I just like that waterfront look. But that's just me.
Traffic cannot go from the center yard or even staging into the right side area. Trains must first be processed in that peninsula yard before being sent out to the left side and on down to the right. Of course some traffic is destined for industries in each of the yards. Not all is through traffic, but to watch a loaded reefer come out of staging, get iced on the peninsula somewhere, then get expedited over to the left and quickly rolled downhill to the docks OR reverse it and let the cannery fill that reefer with fresh fish and you'd better hurry to get it back on the road up the hill before that goes bad! That's exciting, not just switching.
I'm nowhere near my sketching stuff up here, but gimme a week and I'll crank out a sample plan, if you'd like.
Galen
Not to throw too big a wrench into the works, but how about this:
Your center peninsula, unless you put up a backdrop, is a great place to show off some 360 detailed structures, even small ones. So many times our model structures are 'missing' one or more walls, as they just are never visible. A peninsula is a chance to show a couple dynamite forefront structures, like an FSM diorama, (not necessarily era/style-wise, but detail & character-wise).
Let's add some operational challenge & interest by putting the leftmost wing a couple inches lower than the peninsula. Then put the right side wing even lower. Here's your chance to use a carfloat, if you're so inclined. I know you'd make Russ happy
Anyway, here's how it works. Get rid of the top and right legs of the wye. Leave only the track from the center to the left side and the upper right staging to the center. That upper staging can be hidden behind buildings or cliffs or trees or whatever. Keep the turntables on the Left side and center peninsula, lose the one on the right.
Stay with me, now. Trains come out of staging on the right, rolling down into the center yard. The staging is only slightly higher than the center yard. The road engine is cut off and sent to be serviced before the return trip back to staging. The yard goat goes to work breaking down the train and making up the switch job for the day. That engine is coupled on and runs its train over to the left yard, drifting down a slight grade.
At that yard lives a shay (or heisler or climax, you pick). The geared power is to get the cars down the steep grade to the dockside switching section on the right wing. The cars for that area are gathered and the engine backs them down the hill, passing under the tracks from staging. This can be accomplished by means of a deep cut and bridge for the staging track, or a short tunnel, etc. After the work is done, the shay is positioned on the downhill side of the train and shoves the cars back up to the left side.
What this acheives is mental distance between three zones. Your center section has one type of character, either a big city feel, a gritty yard, etc. It is higher than the other two, affording a good close look at those detailed structures, cars, locos, etc. All the neat loco servicing facilities, the storage track for the MOW equipment, that neat yard office made out of an old open platform combine, whatever.
The leftmost wing can have a different feeling. It can be a switching district in a not-so-nice part of town, or mebbe a little nicer on the edge of a suburb. With a signature industry back in the corner (even one not modeled but from which alot of traffic is generated...more on that below) that can flavor the area. Having a little single-stall engine shed for the geared power is a good opportunity for detail and interest.
The right side can be the docks or just another industrial area, but why not give it again, a third 'flavor', a little different from the rest. If that major industry is a lumber mill, then perhaps the finished lumber is shipped out by barge? If it's a gravel pit (modeled off stage by a short hidden track behind a hill) then a nice big rock bunker/crusher/cement plant, something, can be down in the lower yard on the right. Personally I like the dockside idea because I just like that waterfront look. But that's just me.
Traffic cannot go from the center yard or even staging into the right side area. Trains must first be processed in that peninsula yard before being sent out to the left side and on down to the right. Of course some traffic is destined for industries in each of the yards. Not all is through traffic, but to watch a loaded reefer come out of staging, get iced on the peninsula somewhere, then get expedited over to the left and quickly rolled downhill to the docks OR reverse it and let the cannery fill that reefer with fresh fish and you'd better hurry to get it back on the road up the hill before that goes bad! That's exciting, not just switching.
I'm nowhere near my sketching stuff up here, but gimme a week and I'll crank out a sample plan, if you'd like.
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!