Hello guys,
New to model railroading and am wondering if the yard that I have designed makes sense as I am not super familiar with railroad operations( I know I should be...sorry). Layout is a relatively small wrap around the room Ho, in a 7x9 ft space. Any advice, tips, etc. would help me alot as I have found it tough to figure this one out. thanks!

Hi and welcome!

I'm definitely not the expert on track planning around here but we have a lot of members that really enjoy it and I'm sure will be interested in your project. No worries about not knowing a lot about rail operations...that's the sort of thing that you pick up by talking with folks here. I'm still learning abut that myself and find it a fun part of the hobby! A glance at your plan tells me that you have a yard for freight cars that can be accessed by your locomotives coming out of the engine house. I also see some runaround sidings that should be useful for switching those local industries and for giving locos access to service. Are you thinking of assembling trains in the yard or simply setting them up by hand on the staging tracks...or maybe either as the spirit moves you? I guess that if you can talk a little about what you'd like to be able to do with your layout the track planners will have some thoughtful recommendations!

Glad you could join us!
Ralph

Welcome at big blue. Tell us a bit about your thoughts how to use the planned tracks. It might be also helpful to know time and location of intended operation.
You wrote "wrap around the room". Is it correct that the track under the word "sanding" at the top and the track right to "RIP" at the bottom are the connections to the loop around the room?
Looking forward and again welcome!

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.

FYI the picture I included has changed a lot (track plan anyways) bit included it to get you guys to see the overall plan here. THanks! and any advice on the newly designed yard would be greatly appreciated.

It seems awfully cramped for a working yard. You'd do better to have fewer, longer tracks than a bunch of short one that can't hold a train. The yard in the colored plan is much better than the first.

Hi FLARailfan, Welcome aboard. I did some planing for all my layouts , but plans are always, for me, a rough idea. when you start building changes are always needed.
You look like you have a good idea and lots of research has gone into your drawing. Have fun.
Charlie

Hi,

I am not experienced at designing track layouts . One of my favorite things is looking at other's track designs. I have enjoyed yours. I am looking forward to seeing more of it. Have good relaxation and enjoyment from all this.

railohio Wrote:It seems awfully cramped for a working yard. You'd do better to have fewer, longer tracks than a bunch of short one that can't hold a train. The yard in the colored plan is much better than the first.

Really? you think its better in the original? I was told that it had too many switchbacks, which im not even sure that is, and that the curved staging tracks were a nono as coupling is hard on turns...

I appreciate all the info. I just want to have a working yard that allows me to arrange cars with my locos, supports a couple industries on the back side, like in the woodsriver yard in layout tips of MRR and I want a few engine servicing buildings etc. Just something that works and looks realistic.

H1. A switchback is a place where you have to pull into one siding, change a switch, then back into another. One example is getting in to your turntable in the coloured plan.

I think that for the size of your plan you shouldn't consider anything called "staging". Staging is where trains wait until they are scheduled to appear. At 7x9 there isn't room for that.

Again, it depends on what you want. If you are going to do switching (which your plans suggest) you'll do better with a couple of locos to move cars around. I had one a bit bigger than that and I put a hidden staging yard under one of my stations -- actually most of the layout was connecting from the station to the staging yard.

How many people are likely to run it most of the time? Just you? You and some family? A half dozen guys from the railroad club?

FlaRailFan Wrote:

railohio Wrote:It seems awfully cramped for a working yard. You'd do better to have fewer, longer tracks than a bunch of short one that can't hold a train. The yard in the colored plan is much better than the first.

Really? you think its better in the original? I was told that it had too many switchbacks, which im not even sure that is, and that the curved staging tracks were a nono as coupling is hard on turns...

I appreciate all the info. I just want to have a working yard that allows me to arrange cars with my locos, supports a couple industries on the back side, like in the woodsriver yard in layout tips of MRR and I want a few engine servicing buildings etc. Just something that works and looks realistic.

LESS IS MORE


I agree with Railohio, a few long tracks are better than a lot of short ones. The same goes with industries. If you pack them too close, they won't look right, and you won't be able to have fun switching them.

This is ESPECIALLY true of the modern kind of rolling stock I assume you're going to be using (since you mention CSX and UP, we're talking between the 1980s and today). many of your industry tracks are not really long enough to handle these cars and fit properly.

The switchbacks are another issue. You have one switchback on the left side leading back to your roundhouse (which is also probably too cramped to function properly), and another one on the pier along the water.

These aren't always trouble (I have one on my layout), but if you're going to have one, you're going to want to make it so that you don't get grid locked. You're better off just having direct spurs right off your mainline, or better yet, on a passing siding. In fact, your "pier switchback" is completely unnecessary, you'd probably be better off using a diamond. You also seem to have redundant run around tracks, so you don't need any switch backs.

Curved yard tracks are "OK", depending on how curved they are. Almost all of my yard tracks are a little bit curved, but the curve is so gentle that generally, coupling is not a problem. However, it is probably wise to avoid them.

I might play with your track plan a little

BR60103 Wrote:I think that for the size of your plan you shouldn't consider anything called "staging". Staging is where trains wait until they are scheduled to appear. At 7x9 there isn't room for that.

I disagree, I've seen 4x8s with staging tracks in them! The trade off was that the staging was literally almost half of the layout, leaving only one side sceniced with some industries. However, it held two short passenger trains and two "thru freights" on top of the local.


That said, you're probably right that he'd be better off using all real estate as "modeled" space.

May be we can figure out what all the switches and tracks are used for if we "play" scenarios.

A possible scenario could be:

1. UP train arrives at track? (Transfer job)
2. UP train drops cars in track?
3. UP train picks cars from track?
4. UP train leaves from track?

5. CSX job 1 arrives from the right side in track? (CSX local serving the right side of the layout)
6. CSX job 1 drops cars in track?
7. CSX job 1 picks cars from track?
8. CSX job 1 leaves from track?

9. CSX job 2 sorts the new cars from tracks ?,?,? into track ? to serve local industry (CSX local serving the local industry at the left side)
10. CSX job 2 serves all industry at the left side
11. CSX job 2 drops the picked cars from the industry in track?
12. CSX job 2 engine goto track ? to meet a tank track for refueling

Now, take your track plan, number all the tracks and replace all ? with a track number. That might be helpful to keep all required tracks and switches and remove all others.

FlaRailFan Wrote:

railohio Wrote:It seems awfully cramped for a working yard. You'd do better to have fewer, longer tracks than a bunch of short one that can't hold a train. The yard in the colored plan is much better than the first.

Really? you think its better in the original? I was told that it had too many switchbacks, which im not even sure that is, and that the curved staging tracks were a nono as coupling is hard on turns...

I appreciate all the info. I just want to have a working yard that allows me to arrange cars with my locos, supports a couple industries on the back side, like in the woodsriver yard in layout tips of MRR and I want a few engine servicing buildings etc. Just something that works and looks realistic.

What you have is known has a "satellite" yard where cars for local industries is dropped and sorted into locals-railroads have many of these small cramp yards meant for light terminal switching.These are not major terminals meant for heavy classification of cars but,could very well be near the major terminal..Crews work out of these satellite yards and these yards would have a certain number of assigned locomotives.There would be a yard office and crew building.

Short lines use small cramp yards too.

Sorry guys,
I did not mean staging. I just meant the yard body where I could sort/classify cars. So far this is the layout in its entirety. I scraped the roundhouse as felt it didnt keep with the times I am modeling based on what others have told me on other forums. I am sorry, but unfortunately it is hard for me to imagine what people are suggesting as I do not understand the technical terms for much of this. Im a pain in the a$$, I know. Lamen here! But regaurdless, this is what I have come up with so far(with the scenery in the colorful picture excluded)......critique please! I wanna get this right! Its been a long process and this guy wants to start laying some track!

P.S. I know it seems like alot and very crammed, but the ultimate idea is that I will not be in my little shed for long (bearing wife approval). Built as modular s that eventually these two sides of the layout will be separated far apart with lots of scenery in between. Perhaps being replaced by much longer top and bottom sections, a large M shaped sort of layout, or who knows really; In the much later future!

[attachment=16000]

After looking at it now I can see that my spur (bott right) needs a track that allows the train to pull forward onto the main instead of having to back out onto the main. Will fix that.

Like so??? [attachment=16001]