Yard as a Layout

[jpage]

I was wondering if a model of just a yard would hold operational interest over time verses a switching type design. I do not recall seeing any layouts designed specifically as just a yard. Designs all seem to concentrate on the delivery/ pick-up or running. My idea is to model operations at the Beck's Run Yard on the P&LE. Make up outbound blocks of cars for other yards on the line, transfer runs to the close smaller yards that the road freights did not stop at, switch cars into/ out of the J&L steel mill, and send out locals to switch industries. Anyone attempt this, thoughts?

[teejay]

My own thoughts on this are that it would be wise to leave room for expansion ......what seems interesting and exciting today may not be so in the months and years ahead . I like your thought process on what the railroad will actually do because it helps keep the interest ( instead of trains just going in circles the way most of us started out ) .
As someone who built a steel mill layout a number of years ago , I think your inclusion of activity to and from J&L Steel can add a lot of interesting variety ...steel mill products , raw materials , byproducts , waste products etc. , can be almost endless

Terry

[steinjr]

I was wondering if a model of just a yard would hold operational interest over time verses a switching type design. I do not recall seeing any layouts designed specifically as just a yard. Designs all seem to concentrate on the delivery/ pick-up or running. My idea is to model operations at the Beck's Run Yard on the P&LE. Make up outbound blocks of cars for other yards on the line, transfer runs to the close smaller yards that the road freights did not stop at, switch cars into/ out of the J&L steel mill, and send out locals to switch industries. Anyone attempt this, thoughts?

Very doable.

If you want to see pictures of a large layout where everything is within yard limits, look for articles on Chuck Hitchcock's "Argentine Industrial District Railway". Large staging, long transfer runs, several yards, but also industry switching.

Jim Senese's "Kansas City Terminal Railroad" also has several yards in an urban area. And switching.

This prototype based version of San Fransico's "State Belt" layout has several yards and gets traffic from car floats: http://www.statebelt.org/layout/index.html

You have Nick Kallis's former Long Island Road 's "Montauk Branch" (http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirrmb/lirrmb.htm) - inbound cars by car float, several short trains are created from the inbound cars and then sent out to switch industries.

If you are just looking for a small yard, see our own Shortliner (Jack Trollope) and his version of the Erie Harlem Terminal layout - it is a tiny float yard with a warehouse and transloading to trucks (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.p...shortline/) - the rmweb web site can be a little slow loading at times, but worth seeing. Or Tim Warris's "CNJ Bronx Terminal" layout - google it.

It all comes down to how much space you have :-)

Smile,
Stein

[steinjr]

Oh, and I googled "Beck's Run yard". Didn't find any hits, but found a potentially interesting one for "Becks Run Yard" here: http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/archive/ind...93522.html - it may already be familiar to you. In particular, track charts like this one (http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railr...0Chart.pdf) may be nice for inspiration

Smile,
Stein

[Mike Kieran]

A yard would be a great layout. You just need a lot of cars and a lot of staging for it. Model railroader has a book out about freight yards with some track plans included. One of my favorite track plans is the Fair Haven Terminal also published by model railroader. It.s a yard serving a small port with several industries included.

[MasonJar]

This is an almost scale (only missing 180 scale feet) yard as it once was in my hometown of Orangeville. It takes up 23.5 feet and is only part of Richard Wakefield's (now dismantled) Bruce Railways layout focusing on CPR in the 1940s. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mcswiz.com/MyLayout/Orangeville.htm">http://www.mcswiz.com/MyLayout/Orangeville.htm</a><!-- m -->

With some staging at each end, you could run trains in and out of the yard all day and be kept very busy. While Richard has added a few fictional industries and trains for the purposes of his layout, for the most part it is accurate. There were as many as a dozen trains a day, each doing their own switching as there was no yard switcher at the time.

Could make for a very interesting operation!


Andrew

[paulus_jas]

A yard would be a great layout. You just need a lot of cars and a lot of staging for it. Model railroader has a book out about freight yards with some track plans included. One of my favorite track plans is the Fair Haven Terminal also published by model railroader. It.s a yard serving a small port with several industries included.

Hi
the railroad is the 10 x 11 HO Free Haven Terminal by Russel Schoof. You'll find the plan in 48 Top-notch Track Plans or on Byron Henderson's weblog (google "layout vision") under inspirational layouts.
Andy Sperandeo's "Guide To Freight Yards" is worth every penny.
Paul

[jpage]

Thanks for the links and suggestions. After looking through what was quickly available, I noticed that none are of just a yard, with the cars going off into staging to be delivered. Is this due to the propensity to "cheat" when operating by not putting the cars into the correct order when they are just going to get shoved into staging verses into an industry spur where the miskate would be made obvious? The lack of scenic options? Certainly the prefered design seems to me to be a yard with industry(s) to switch, or just industries to switch but not a stand alone yard?

[steinjr]

Thanks for the links and suggestions. After looking through what was quickly available, I noticed that none are of just a yard, with the cars going off into staging to be delivered. Is this due to the propensity to "cheat" when operating by not putting the cars into the correct order when they are just going to get shoved into staging verses into an industry spur where the miskate would be made obvious? The lack of scenic options? Certainly the prefered design seems to me to be a yard with industry(s) to switch, or just industries to switch but not a stand alone yard?

Not likely to be because people "cheat" - what would be the point of that if your layout were built to be exclusively a sorting machine? Not likely to be because no one else has ever considered your idea - few ideas are truly new :-)

Most likely because yard + industry switching tend to offer more variety than just yard work. You still get car sorting when switching industries (perhaps using a small auxiliary industry yard to organize your cars before delivering them or before heading on).

This is e.g. a relatively small layout with a nice little yard, based on a track plan by poster Arjay1969 (Robert Beaty) in the Kalmbach forums:


Here is a discussion thread in this forum about a sorting yard based on a yard from David Popp's Naugatucket (sp?) layout:
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...35&p=14471

But how about we get a little more specific? How much space do you have available for a layout? What scale do you you want to model in? What do you want from your yard?

Smile,
Stein

[Brakie]

Stein,Why would you need a engine house in a industrial area with what appears to be a holding/overflow yard?

Just wondering why the railroad would need to maintain a enginehouse..

Or is that a small switching line owned by the industries it serves?

[steinjr]

Stein,Why would you need a engine house in a industrial area with what appears to be a holding/overflow yard?

Just wondering why the railroad would need to maintain a enginehouse..

Or is that a small switching line owned by the industries it serves?

You could play something like that plan in many ways - you could e.g. have it be the home base of a small switching railroad, used for interchange, holding a few cars and engine service for the small railroad - which in principle could have served more industries for many miles down the line that exits the layout at upper right, or down the track that exits the layout along the left wall.

But by all means - if you don't like the look of an engine house, just remove it and replace it with just an old caboose or a shed for a yard office or whatever :-)

Smile,
Stein

[Rscott417]

CNJ Bronx Terminal by Tim Warris, really tricky track layout but an example of a yard layout with one warehouse and car float operation.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bronx-terminal.com/">http://www.bronx-terminal.com/</a><!-- m -->

[Brakie]

You could play something like that plan in many ways - you could e.g. have it be the home base of a small switching railroad, used for interchange, holding a few cars and engine service for the small railroad - which in principle could have served more industries for many miles down the line that exits the layout at upper right, or down the track that exits the layout along the left wall.

But by all means - if you don't like the look of an engine house, just remove it and replace it with just an old caboose or a shed for a yard office or whatever

Smile,
Stein
------------------------
Interesting thoughts there.

I suppose it would be depend on era as well..A engine house for a steam powered industrial railroad would be needed as would a water tank.

If diesel powered a small shed for storing bags of dry locomotive sand and lubricants. Fuel could be delivered by a fuel distributor under contract.A electric outlet would be needed for the locomotive's pre heater on cold days.

Sounds very interesting.

[Mike Kieran]

Thanks for the links and suggestions. After looking through what was quickly available, I noticed that none are of just a yard, with the cars going off into staging to be delivered. Is this due to the propensity to "cheat" when operating by not putting the cars into the correct order when they are just going to get shoved into staging verses into an industry spur where the miskate would be made obvious? The lack of scenic options? Certainly the prefered design seems to me to be a yard with industry(s) to switch, or just industries to switch but not a stand alone yard?

jpage,

A yard only layout could be really fun, but you must also realize how much space an actual yard takes up. They can be a mile long with quarter mile drill leads. That would be 91 feet of length in HO, 49.5 feet in N. To have a decent sized yard, figure that you need 25 feet for a yard. A plan like what Stein put up or the ones that were suggested are a good comprimise between having a yard and other action involved. The Fair Haven Terminal yard can hold 70 40 foot cars. You can always add onto this yard to increase capacity. You don't want too much capacity because cars sitting around in the yard don't generate revenue.

Most railroads had land around the yard that could be sold off for industrial use. This became a strong selling point because railroad access was right there, especially being that a yard job would handle the industrial switching and the cars could be sorted into a train faster cutting down on transit times.

[iandrewmartin]

I was wondering if a model of just a yard would hold operational interest over time verses a switching type design. I do not recall seeing any layouts designed specifically as just a yard... Anyone attempt this, thoughts?

Jpage;
A couple of thoughts for you in regard to this:
Firstly a purely yard design layout (I've not drawn this up yet, but the design is sound and works)
http://huntervalleylines.com/gallery/dis...fullsize=1
Length of the layout depends on the length of trains you want to build. As a shortline the yard will be much smaller than for a class one.
Second option is this layout:
http://huntervalleylines.com/gallery/dis...fullsize=1
The yard here can be used as a yard only design (front section only) or as the whole layout within yard limits as a switching district. The nice side is that both sides of the layou have the vew blocks in between. Gives you the feeling of going somewhere.

PS: Notification - all designs and the website are my own - so I have declared my vested interest.

Hope this helps.