02-19-2010, 03:15 PM
Gary S Wrote:Back to my original thought... the point-to-point ending at each side of the door is what I have invisioned since the inception of the layout building. The reason I like that is that the trains really are going to distinct locations, and for me, the overall "feel" of that is "appropriate"... I mean, it just feels good to me.
I agree, Gary, I prefer the railroad to "go somewhere" rather than back to where it started.
Gary S Wrote:But the thought hit me that I could gain even more room for industy trackage by combining the interchanges at the far left. To me, this sacrifices the realism of the layout, in that trains from both directions end up at the same place.
As for car floats and all that... very creative. My intent was to model a freelanced shortline/industrial railroad similar to the LAJ and loosely based on the industrial parks around Houston, Texas.
Yeah, I jumped on the carfloat idea because it's something that I wish I could have included on my layout. I do have one, sorta, although it's on interchange partner TH&B's trackage and is unmodelled.
If it doesn't suit your prototype inspiration, don't include it.
Gary S Wrote:Wayne, when you say put the staging under the layout, you mean have a track on grade that goes down to a lower shelf with the staging?
No, the idea was to make the staging physically separated from the layout itself. The only connection would be via the "carferry", which I envisioned as a rolling cart, the height of whose top could be adjusted from that of staging to that of the layout proper. Using a grade between the two would eat-up too much real estate - a 2% grade would require 50' of track to put staging 12" below the layout.
Gary S Wrote:My thoughts on the interchanges: The interchange yards would be scenically complete and would be where cars come off of and go onto the layout. I would have storage drawers underneath. Between operating sessions, the cars leaving my railroad would be placed back in storage, and new cars would be placed on the interchange tracks based on some type of waybill system or whatever. During the operating session, we would drop off the new arrivals at their industries, at the same time we would pick up loaded cars and empties and take them back to the proper interchange (later to be removed by hand from the railroad entirely). In this way, the staging isn't so much a parking lot as being a real destination where cars really leave the layout.
If your staging is meant to be visible, then scenery is a good idea. Your operating scenario is similar to what I have envisioned for my own layout, where cars will cycle on or off the layout, using car cards and waybills. Because my staging yards are stacked fairly closely together, scenery will be impractical for all but the topmost one.
Wayne