Rail yard...newbie here

[Brakie]

As far as industries here's a list Lance Mindheim used on his East Rail layout:


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You will need to scroll down below the photo.

[railohio]

And I'll add, that given the space available, a 2-track engine shop is likely a waste of space. Remove the engine house and add a third spur for the car shop. Then designate it as a contract car shop and you can then move any type of car to and from it. Move the engine "service" to the shortest yard track closest to the main line.

Also at the top of the plan, extend the passing siding around the top along the main line as a switching lead. That way you can switch in the yard and pull the longest yard track without interfering with main line movements. It should come off the siding just below the word "engine" and extend as a stub track almost to the little blue building at the top.

Ditto that short little siding in front of the station, which would likely hold only a single car train. Make it a longer stub track to hold a commuter train off the main in front of the station. Any longer passenger trains can just stop on the main line.

In the yard, right to left, you'll have the short engine service track; three long classification tracks, a shorter utility track for cabooses, MoW equipment, or overflow freight; and industry tracks.

And after all that, every yard track has a use and you will have one less turnout to buy.

[Charlie B]

Having ran a short line with 2 locomotives for 14 years I would really have liked to have a 2 stall locomotive shed. I only had 5.2 miles of track so only one locomotive was in use at any time, but in the winter they were both kept warm, one in the shop the other on a boiler. You never know when that back-up had to be used. We generally used the one that sat out because we could warm it with it's own engine while working.
The New Castle Industrial railroad has a two stall engine house with 10 miles of track, so having a two stall facility is not redundant, especially if one locomotive needs repairs that keep it inoperable for any length of time, you have another stall to keep your other locomotive out of the elements.
a short line doesn't have the resources to repair a locomotive rapidly like a class one so it is up to the normal crew to do the repair work too.
Charlie

[Brakie]

And I'll add, that given the space available, a 2-track engine shop is likely a waste of space.
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A Lot of short lines and terminal roads has a engine house for various reasons most are large metal sheds like Pikestuffs one or two stall engine house.

A good contract car shop will have several buildings for repairs and rebuild programs including the finishing buildings - the sand blasting shop and the paint shop.Most has a 4-5 track yard since they need the storage space.In fact a contract car shop could be a one industry layout.The majority of these shops has a locomotive to move cars around the shop area-including a shove from one work station to another on the same shop track-some times its a one car length shove.

The best way to model a car shop on a small layout is the contract shop interchange track.

[railohio]

Having ran a short line with 2 locomotives for 14 years I would really have liked to have a 2 stall locomotive shed.

Yes, but that's a real railroader talking about a real railroad. On a model the track really only serves as a place to store power. How much space should be dedicated to that is the question here.

[railohio]

And, for the record, the last livestock movements by rail in the U.S. ended about 1990.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Yes, I do want the ability to sort/arrange cars etc. with my locos and not by hand. The other side of my layout plan shown below(its a wrap around the room in a 7x9 foot space) includes a farm area with industry (stock yards, big grain elevators etc. aleast on paper right now) It also includes a wharf area with a small gulfcoast town. I will include the other part of the layout on here. I am modeling kind of a protolance. North florida farms, coastal town, pine forests etc. CSX in north florida gulfcoast area. Also have an interchange as I want to run UP as well since I have had the same UP engine since I was young and want to run it. Since they both run into Louisiana gulfcoast its not entirely unrealistic.

I think in order to properly Iron out the details of your track plan, we need to get more information.

For example, If you're modeling CSX or UP, you might not need more than a short track set aside to handle normal engine maintenance. If a diesel fails more than what can be handled on that short track, I'm sure they'll haul it dead-in-tow to a larger maintenance facility that handles the whole region. I'll have to dig around, but there was also a "Perspectives" article in an old RMC I have, where UP parked an SD40-2 outside set in the ground, where fuel trucks and things could pull next to it. It also didn't require an engine house, since the routine maintenance could be done where it was, and when it needed to be checked at the shops, it left on the next train to the region shops facility and another locomotive replaced it.

On the other hand, if you DO go the "Freelanced" railroad route, then having the engine house in some form might not be a bad idea. If the two track engine house looks like it will take up to much room, You might get away with a single stall engine house and a stub track, similar to Charlie's experience.

This is totally dependent upon what you want to do, since different railroads have different operations and different needs. This is why its important to know what you want train-wise before you plan a layout.

You might need to make the hard choices and sacrifice less important things in order to better accomadate the railroading you really want.

Also at the top of the plan, extend the passing siding around the top along the main line as a switching lead. That way you can switch in the yard and pull the longest yard track without interfering with main line movements. It should come off the siding just below the word "engine" and extend as a stub track almost to the little blue building at the top.

RO has good point here. If you want to keep your mainline open (and it seems like you might if you have a passenger stop), then a yard lead is a must. It might be a good idea to include one regardless of what you do.

That said, there are plenty of times where the real railroads do pull out onto the main to switch the yard, within "Yard Limits". Again, its important to know what your intentions are. If this isn't a busy line, switching onto the main a little bit might not be a huge deal.

Ditto that short little siding in front of the station, which would likely hold only a single car train. Make it a longer stub track to hold a commuter train off the main in front of the station. Any longer passenger trains can just stop on the main line.

This is really another whole can of issues. RO is right, you're not going to get much of a passenger train on that track.

Most passenger cars are just about a foot long. What sort of passenger trains do you have in mind? If you're sticking to the modern day (1980s and up), the only passenger trains I know of in Florida (besides Amtrak, which isn't going to be running any short trains) are the "Tri-Rail" trains. These run in relatively short 3 car sets, so they could fit on this layout without to much trouble, but you would need a longer siding to accommodate this train, at least 4' long.

The problem with modeling Tri Rail is that the only thing you can get is the cars. Walthers long ago ran an F40PH in Tri-Rail colors, though it wasn't very accurate, and their current F40 variant looks stretched (F40PH-2C). IHP ran the F40PHL-2, a very interesting locomotive, but another model you will have a hard time acquiring. I know Mike Bartel, and I'll ask him if he has any left over, but its very unlikely. Your best bet is a GP49, which came from an NS GP50, but rebuilt. decals are here

I wouldn't even know where to begin with Tri-Rail's "New stuff", those monstrous DMUs, equally monstrous hyundai-rotem bi-levels and those new BL36PH locomotives look too tricky to be kitbashed easily.

You could also just free lance the passenger trains too, but unless you're running with RDCs (nobody makes the new DMUs as far as I know), you're still going to need a larger station area.

Ultimately though, if you're not into passenger trains, you could probably do without them. I don't know what the minimum curve is on your mainline, but 24" is probably the minimum. The boxes may say 22", but I am increasingly finding that most of these cars operate with poor reliability over these curves.

A good contract car shop will have several buildings for repairs and rebuild programs including the finishing buildings - the sand blasting shop and the paint shop.Most has a 4-5 track yard since they need the storage space.In fact a contract car shop could be a one industry layout.The majority of these shops has a locomotive to move cars around the shop area-including a shove from one work station to another on the same shop track-some times its a one car length shove.

The best way to model a car shop on a small layout is the contract shop interchange track.

Fortunately, this can be easily compressed. "Star Trak" on the Boontoon line does this sort of work on old equipment for the URHS here in New Jersey, and its a fairly small building with 4 tracks, 2 going into the building, and 2 along side these tracks for storage. The building is essentially a roof built on top of shipping containers with some metal siding around the side.

I'm not sure I think its a good idea for this layout, since I'm sure the space could be put to better use, but its not a bad idea.

[Brakie]

Having ran a short line with 2 locomotives for 14 years I would really have liked to have a 2 stall locomotive shed.

Yes, but that's a real railroader talking about a real railroad. On a model the track really only serves as a place to store power. How much space should be dedicated to that is the question here.

A small lead,a switch and two tracks-not much room at all.

I don't see any reason not to have a small engine area.

BTW..last time I looked model railroading was modeling a railroad and in that light we should emulate the prototype.

[Brakie]

Fortunately, this can be easily compressed. "Star Trak" on the Boontoon line does this sort of work on old equipment for the URHS here in New Jersey, and its a fairly small building with 4 tracks, 2 going into the building, and 2 along side these tracks for storage.
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A contract freight car repair company would fold with that smaller type of operation.

Transco Railway Products here in Bucyrus uses two of the old T&OC shops and former yard for storage of program cars.They built a building used for sand blasting and another one for painting.

It would be best just to model the interchange track.

[railohio]

Yep. And the railroad failed to provide what the crew wanted.

I probably agree with you more than you realize, Larry. But we all know this is a hobby of compromise to get the most of what we want out of it.

[lajry]

And, for the record, the last livestock movements by rail in the U.S. ended about 1990.

UP did it's last Hamtrak in '95.

[lajry]

And, for the record, the last livestock movements by rail in the U.S. ended about 1990.

UP did it's last Hamtrak around '95.

[lajry]

FlaRailfan check your private messages. Having trouble putting a revision to your 1/1/14 plan on here.

[Brakie]

But we all know this is a hobby of compromise to get the most of what we want out of it.

While that is true there is no reason to sacrifice needful things such as a engine house or industries. I would rather cut track and scenery then to cut operation(aka play value) of the layout.

Here's the rub..A layout must fill the builder's needs.I wouldn't give two whoops and a yell for a layout that doesn't fill my needs.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

But we all know this is a hobby of compromise to get the most of what we want out of it.

While that is true there is no reason to sacrifice needful things such as a engine house or industries. I would rather cut track and scenery then to cut operation(aka play value) of the layout.

Here's the rub..A layout must fill the builder's needs.I wouldn't give two whoops and a yell for a layout that doesn't fill my needs.

The concern I have is that if the tracks are too crowded or short, that they might hinder operations (making play less fun thus reducing the play value), rather than add to it.

Case in point, his mainline is to tight next to that engine house. You can see the "excessive bend" indicators on the track. The track planning program does this to show that the flex track has been bent beyond the minimum radius (definitely tighter than 18", and probably tighter than 15", the minimum HO curve conventionally sold).

For someone who wants to run CSX and UP with Intermodal trains and Orange Juice cars, that curve should be unacceptable. Heck, I have trouble with some of these modern cars and locomotives on my 4x8's 18" curves, and I even put easements into my curves to reduce the excessive coupler swing!

The shop tracks have the same problem, the red indicators on that flextrack attached to the switch show that in reality, this switch is not at all lined up with those shops. At the very least, he needs to change the switch to better line up the flextrack. At the worst, he is going to have to redesign the whole area.

The bottom line is that there is too much packed into that corner. Those shop tracks would never be functional without a redesign, but that pales in comparison to the mainline curve problem, which will necessitate redesigning that end of the layout.

Ultimately, you can get a lot of the same operations out of a short stub of an engine track on the other side of the yard where there is space, instead of trying to force an engine house and shop building together in that curve.

That track plan would do a lot better to just remove that shop building entirely.

He could probably fit a small industry in that corner much more effeciently. Perhaps a transload facility, where trucks and rail cars can exchange loads? You could get a few varieties of tank cars and hoppers onto a track like that, and it doesn't need to take up a huge chunk of the layout like those shops and engine houses will.