Need a yard plan got any good ideas?

[scubadude]

Don't thank me, thank Squidbait, he took an idea and made it into a plan. I just stole it fair and square.....

[steinjr]

Coming in kind of late....here is a double-ended yard Squidbait came up for me sometime ago on the old Gauge. It originated from a John Armstrong plan. Squid tweaked it and added the roundhouse. This is what I plan to use. I stole it fair and square, you may find it helpful...

Your yard plan is showing 3 1/2 cars per square. With H0 scale, you get two cars per foot of length for 40-foot cars, or three cars per two feet of length for 60-foot cars.

Is your yard plan N scale instead of H0 scale, does your layout use very short cars (e.g. iron ore cars only or 1880s cars only), or are your squares not one foot each, so the total length of the yard is more than 12 feet?

FYI, the OP is trying to fit in a yard for a H0 scale layout in 12 foot of length. Mmm - I guess he has not actually said in this thread that he is in H0 scale - I just assumed so because he talks about H0 scale in another forum we both are members of.

Assumptions are always dangerous.

What scale is the OP in? What era is he modeling? How many and how long trains (in the number of cars and type of cars) does the layout need to support?

Smile,
Stein

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

Yes my bad HO scale of course is the correct answer as you noted in earlier posts so I would classify your answer as an accurate observation not an assumption......

Era: Transition late 1950's
Location: Appalachia, extending up to Pa. then east to NJ route of the PRR
Car length: typical of the era 40' to 50' max.
Car type: 100 ton & 70 ton coal hoppers main revenue haulers of the railroad
Passenger cars: Heavy Weight PRR coaches with one N&W express passenger train on a daily run.
Typical train length: Never long enough and as close to the prototype as possible.
Realistic train length: 30 to 40 cars maybe.
Power: Articulated Steam Y3 Y6 A type, Heavy Mountains, Berkshires, K4 Pacific's for passenger service
Yard Switchers, 0-8-0 & 0-6-0 and several RS2 and RS3 road switchers.

I think that ought to cover it.................

[scubadude]

Coming in kind of late....here is a double-ended yard Squidbait came up for me sometime ago on the old Gauge. It originated from a John Armstrong plan. Squid tweaked it and added the roundhouse. This is what I plan to use. I stole it fair and square, you may find it helpful...

Your yard plan is showing 3 1/2 cars per square. With H0 scale, you get two cars per foot of length for 40-foot cars, or three cars per two feet of length for 60-foot cars.

Is your yard plan N scale instead of H0 scale, does your layout use very short cars (e.g. iron ore cars only or 1880s cars only), or are your squares not one foot each, so the total length of the yard is more than 12 feet?

FYI, the OP is trying to fit in a yard for a H0 scale layout in 12 foot of length. Mmm - I guess he has not actually said in this thread that he is in H0 scale - I just assumed so because he talks about H0 scale in another forum we both are members of.

Assumptions are always dangerous.

What scale is the OP in? What era is he modeling? How many and how long trains (in the number of cars and type of cars) does the layout need to support?

Smile,
Stein

My plan is N scale, designed to be part of an 11' x 20'' shelf. It was intended to just give a suggestion of a double ended yard as Allegheny was asking for, not an HO scale trackplan. Thanks for pointing that out. He will of course need to tweak it and convert it to HO.

[steinjr]

My plan is N scale, designed to be part of an 11' x 20'' shelf. It was intended to just give a suggestion of a double ended yard as Allegheny was asking for, not an HO scale trackplan. Thanks for pointing that out. He will of course need to tweak it and convert it to HO.

Sorry, but the problem is that a double ended yard including a yard lead that works just fine for three or four 15 car trains in N scale in 11 feet cannot in any sensible way be "tweaked" to make room for a number of 30 - 40 car H0 scale trains pulled by long steam engines in 12 feet.

One quickly runs up against fundamental qualities - like the fact that 30 40-foot cars, plus a large steam engine and a caboose needs about 15 feet of track length for just one train. You will not be able to fit 15 foot long tracks plus a 15 foot yard lead in 12 feet of space.

You can of course double up or triple up trains on yard tracks - e.g. put 10 cars in one track, 10 cars in the second track and 10 cars in the third track. If each of those tracks are long enough to hold 10 cars. In which case, 12 feet used for a yard with six single ended tracks and a compound ladder can hold two trains worth of cars when filled pretty much to the gills, without having much room for a dedicated yard lead.

It is a sad fact of life that double ended yard is a luxury the OP ill can afford, given his chosen scale, desired train lengths and available length. Even a single ended yard will be a stretch for 30-40 car trains - which will be longer than the entire length of the space set aside for a yard.

Stein

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

Stein,

I was playing it through in my head yesterday while driving to a train show reading about the double ended yard and what your saying is correct hence the reason why I wanted a track off parallel to the main where the big articulated would have to uncouple and the yard switcher would have to come on a break the train up into two or three sections. Not really prototypical but Its what would have to be done to make it work. I am leaning towards the more practical solution would be actually two stub ended yards next to each other sharing a common lead in track. This way I could theoretically take a car from the west yard and drag it over to the east yard. Like you said the space just isn't there but I have to maximize as much of the room as I possibly can and improvise.

[scubadude]

Like I said, it's just a SUGGESTION he can work from......they're his rivets, he can count 'em how he wants.... :

[steinjr]

Like I said, it's just a SUGGESTION he can work from......they're his rivets, he can count 'em how he wants.... :

I am a little at a loss as to why you seem to feel it is nitpicking to compare expected train lengths with the yard track lengths possible in a given area in a given scale. It has very little to do with fine tuning appearances, and quite a bit to do with rather basic yard functionality.

But by all means - if you feel you were insulted because I pointed out that your track plan (which is a perfectly nice track plan for N scale) won't work for H0 scale and the OPs train lengths, I do apologize. No personal offense was intended.

Stein

[scubadude]

I don't think you're nitpicking and I don't feel insulted. I just thought you misunderstood my intention. Now, back to the thread at hand.....