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Hello everyone.

I have been trying to come up with a smallish switching layout for my N scale trains. The idea is a 1 foot wide shelf along two walls. The first leg is 79" long and will contain a yard. I have come up with the plan above using Atlas #7 turnouts an 2 curved turnouts. I tried to include all best practices in designing the yard, but was unable to include an escape track for incoming locos. My idea was to pull the train into one of the center tracks and have a switcher ready on the yard lead to pull the cut of cars from the incoming train and move them to the other center track thus allowing the incoming locos to get to the service tracks. I know it's not realistic but it's the best I can come up with. The yard has a capacity of around 50 cars but a working capacity of 25-30. I have 2 GP9s, and an F7 A & B as road units and an SW9 for switching duty. Train lengths will be 8-10 cars, including 2 locos and a caboose. Any thoughts on this design will be most welcome.

Thank you,
John

The first thing that comes to mind is that any consist being sorted will block the exit/entrance as there is that short little bit of track that is common to the yard lead and the main.

An escape track should be easy to include. Not sure what the issue is? Is it that the arrival track would be rendered too short?

Does the main lead anywhere, or is it just for show (i.e. the yard is the whole layout)?

The track that creates the run around (between the engine service and caboose tracks) has a funny little curve in it towards the right end that could be a problematic "S". If you move the turnout to the left, I think you can make a smoother transition.


Hope that helps.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew,
Yes the main will continue on but have not designed anything yet.
The yard lead can be extended as well.
Yes the inclusion of an escape track, I think, would make the arrival track too short.

Thanks for the heads up about the Ss, I'll see what I can do.

John

What if you extended the lead to run parallel with the main and add a crossover at the far end? Your arriving train could drop its cars on the main or the yard lead. The switcher could then run around the train and push it into the yard. It would then back up onto the lead to classify the cars leaving the main open for arriving departing trains. No more worries about an escape track.

Another possible option would be to flip the yard so the stub ends would go into the corner and the yard lead would go to the right instead of the left.

Just my two cents...
Chuck

There is nothing wrong with your current plan..I seen prototype yards where the inbound/outbound leads doubled the switch leads..The yard crew had to clear untill the inbound passed.
Why?

These yards was located between a unmovable objects(s) and a river or lake.

I would put a cross over track for an escape slightly farther from the end of the layout than your longest consist. You pull the train in and cross over and uncouple the road consist from the train. Your switch crew just pulls the rest of train back to clear the cross over, the switches are thrown, and the consist moves to the engine terminal tracks. Once the consist is clear of the cross over, the cross over is ignored and the yard is used as though there is no cross over.