Justinmiller171 Wrote:

steinjr Wrote:As it is, there is not enough room below the turnout along the right wall for switching cars between the mainline and the industry park, so the mainline along the right wall is purely cosmetic - and has no utility.

This was on purpose, I was going to use the main as part of the staging, I would store unused cars on the main disguised as a stopped train, I am not sure if that Idea will work or not, but if it doesn't I will take your suggestion and give a couple of feet behind the switch.

As is, you certainly can use the main north of the turnout to store cars (as a purely scenery feature). But the main will not really (except for the lowermost 18" or so) work as staging for the industry park, since it is hard to get much more than a single loco plus one longer, or possibly two shorter cars beween the upper part of the main and the track into the industry park.

Since the locomotive will have to be on the right of the cars to switch the industry park, you cannot have the locomotive station in the industry park, come out to the main, get cars and take them into the park. You will have to start with the loco already on the right of the cars on the spur from the main into the park (possibly with the loco sticking out onto the lower part of the main).

Moving the turnout up allows the use of the north end main as staging, having the loco come out of the park, go onto the south end of the main, go north, grab cars, pull south and push cars into the park.

You could also add a second track (as if there was a siding on the main), maybe something like this:


You now have a small "yard" along the right wall. You can eithers store excess cars on the main or the siding, or use them as part of the switching. Or both - leave inbound cars for the industry park on the "siding", park a train consisting of excess cars on the main, as a scenic feature.


Smile,
Stein

Hey Stein, maybe you can comment on my ops sessions??? PLZ...

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Ed, Here is my version of your Track-plan of the Palmetto Spur:

Nice plan Justin - simple, yet prototypical with plenty of operating potential. I would agree with Stein and Greg that you should probably move the main line turnout further up (northward?) so you could use that portion of the "main" to switch out a car or two if needed. If this represents a typical industrial spur where the switch crew is coming from a nearby yard to work the spur, then it would just look better and be a bit more functional then to use the main for car storage. Also work better if you want to operate it as a separate company that keeps the loco on the spur and picks up the inbound cars off the connecting line.

It would also give you another option for an industry that spots cars on the spur like this location in Liverpool, NY: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r5kx8m8...ORM=LMLTCC. Having room to work between the main and the spur would allow you to do something like that if you wanted to do so.

Regardless, get your staging section put up and temporarily pin down the track and operate it for a while to see if you are happy with it. Would only take you a couple of hours to put the track down, connect a set of feeder wires at the end of the staging section and away you go! Actually operating the proposed plan will allow you to see if you want to change any of the industries or modify the track layout in any way. That's more or less what I've been doing for the past few weeks. Operating the plan; changing things around some and just having fun.

By the way, that AnyRail program is pretty good - even just using the demo version, you can throw together nice ISL plans with a minimal learning curve.

Looking at that location there are a fair number of weed-grown spur tracks around the area, feeding buildings - they might all be disused.. If you follow the main northwards there is a line curving off to the left that is full of cars, and a little further north a yard full of cars (boxes and tanks mainly) not sure if they are "stored" or awaiting pickup.. Didn't find any locos, though

shortliner Wrote:Looking at that location there are a fair number of weed-grown spur tracks around the area, feeding buildings - they might all be disused..

I've explored that one industrial spur and figure that the only currently active industries are GTS-Welco (the tank car spots) and American Steel & Aluminum opposite GTS-Welco. Would make for an interesting spur to model, although personally, I don't care much for the cars being spotted on the lead. I'd have to put that industry on its own spur. Still it's interesting.

On that spur to the left side of the plan, I agree that the space from the switch to the edge of the benchwork makes it impossible to do anything with it. I think what I would do is add a set of crossover switches to the spur just before your mainline turns to go across the top. That would give you a run around track with just enough space at the end for the locomotive to drop a cut and get around it to the other side and an additional industry spot in the top right corner of the layout.

FCIN Wrote:Also work better if you want to operate it as a separate company that keeps the loco on the spur and picks up the inbound cars off the connecting line.

Like this?

Russ Bellinis Wrote:I think what I would do is add a set of crossover switches to the spur just before your mainline turns to go across the top. That would give you a run around track with just enough space at the end for the locomotive to drop a cut and get around it to the other side and an additional industry spot in the top right corner of the layout.

Just to get a common reference frame, I'll introduce some labels.

First, I will arbitrarily declare up to be "north", down to be "south" and left to be "west".

The track that goes vertically north-south along the right side of Justin's last plan is "the main" - I have assumed that it continue north and south for quite a distance past the edge of the layout, and that somewhere off to the north or the south there will be yard from whence cars or trains will arrive - either with the loco pulling the cars (if they arrive from the north) or with the loco pushing the cars (if they arrive from the south).

The track that curves off leftwards from the main, either ending at the far left, between the team track and the warehouse track, or just being cut off at the edge of the layout at that location, I would label "the industry park spur". There may or may not be a locomotive stationed within the industry park.

I don't quite understand how that matches up with your suggestion above. Are you envisioning the main as being from the far left to the lower right, with a spur branching off the main going up into the top right corner, with trains arriving along the main from the west pulling cars, or from the south pushing cars?

Where would you add the crossovers?

Smile,
Stein

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Like this?

Yep, that's it! Adds something to the overall plan and a bit more operation.

Rather than use the "north" section of the main line for car storage, I'd stage my switch job on that section of the main and then have the train head "south" as though it were coming from the yard, pull past the switch and back into the spur. When the work is done, pull back on to the main and shove the train back north to the yard.

You have 4 feet of clearance on either side of the "main" line switch, which will clear an engine and 5 - 50ft cars in HO with no problem. 4 or 5 cars would probably be "typical" for work to be done on the spur.

If for some reason you wanted to operate the layout as though the industrial spur were a separate operation, then the "north" section of main line would be your interchange track. Come out on to the interchange lead (it would no longer be a main track), block your inbound cars as needed and then go on to the spur and switch your industries. When your finished, take your outbound cars back to the interchange track.

I really like the way this is looking! Simple plan, yet very prototypical with a nice amount of operation

steinjr Wrote:

Russ Bellinis Wrote:I think what I would do is add a set of crossover switches to the spur just before your mainline turns to go across the top. That would give you a run around track with just enough space at the end for the locomotive to drop a cut and get around it to the other side and an additional industry spot in the top right corner of the layout.

Just to get a common reference frame, I'll introduce some labels.

First, I will arbitrarily declare up to be "north", down to be "south" and left to be "west".

The track that goes vertically north-south along the right side of Justin's last plan is "the main" - I have assumed that it continue north and south for quite a distance past the edge of the layout, and that somewhere off to the north or the south there will be yard from whence cars or trains will arrive - either with the loco pulling the cars (if they arrive from the north) or with the loco pushing the cars (if they arrive from the south).

The track that curves off leftwards from the main, either ending at the far left, between the team track and the warehouse track, or just being cut off at the edge of the layout at that location, I would label "the industry park spur". There may or may not be a locomotive stationed within the industry park.

I don't quite understand how that matches up with your suggestion above. Are you envisioning the main as being from the far left to the lower right, with a spur branching off the main going up into the top right corner, with trains arriving along the main from the west pulling cars, or from the south pushing cars?

Where would you add the crossovers?

Smile,
Stein

Stein, I was not considering that the "main" was anywhere on the model. I was viewing this layout as an industrial switching layout, if anything the "main" would have come in from the South, but it would have been a branch at best. The spurs in the upper left corner (NW) would have been the end of the line at that point, and the spur ending at the upper right corner (N) would have also been the end of the line, Nothing would come in or go out of the layout except from that South East corner. The crossover would be added at the North part of the right leg just before the branch goes into the 90 degree left curve in toward the West end of the line.

I guess I'm thinking in terms of Southern California. There are 4 or 5 routes used historically by the three (now two) major railroads that come into So Cal. The only line that would be considered a "through" route would be the S.P. route that comes into So Cal through the Imperial Valley at the Mexican border and goes North over Cajon Pass via Tehachapi, or North up the Coast or through Diablo Canyon. Every railroad line located West of the Los Angeles City Hall and South of the San Fernando Valley terminates somewhere in So Cal.

Justin - the plan looks great! Now hurry up and build the thing before you change your mind, AGAIN! BUILD IT NOW!!!

Galen

ocalicreek Wrote:Justin - the plan looks great! Now hurry up and build the thing before you change your mind, AGAIN! BUILD IT NOW!!!
Galen

Like Galen Says!

P5se Camelback Wrote:

Another new avatar ... but no photos of progress on a layout!

How 'bout less time in front of the computer doing track plans for you and everyone else ...

... and developing a new avatar every six months ...

... and instead, spend some time on putting up that benchwork you said you were getting the materials for ...

... and then laying some track down on it!

Then post a photo or two! :!:

I been researching,planing and replaning my Slate Creek ISL for over a year even tho' it will be either 8' or 6'..

I have no doubt at 63 this layout will need to last years and give me hours of operation enjoyment...My "bench work" has been painted and is neatly stack awaiting construction start date.

Careful planing save tons of wasted time,money and frustration..

Agreed, Brakie ... but you are not 16 and just getting started! As a youngun' he has much to learn and do over the next fifty years, but the best learning, especially at the beginning, is by doing, learning what works and what doesn't and then doing over!

Ask Green Elite Cab if that is not TRUTH. He' still young, still learning from redoing his first layout, and still redoing parts of it. But he has learned a lot of lessons.

When you get to be "our age," Brakie, we've made mistakes and we've rethought things and we realize that "this" layout will, in all likelyhood, be our last and we want it to be as "right" as possible right out of the box, so that we can ejoy operating it. A few changes on later will be acceptable, but we've already learned a lot of the "this is not gonna work" situations and we've designed around them.

Justin's still gotta learn ... and Gary S. will tell you that self-discovered principles stick with you better than spoon-fed ones do!