# Ridgewood Lines - Layout planning



## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Hello members. after few years of absence i'm planning a railroad again. My first attempt did leave me with quite a bit experience, learned what works and much more so what doesn't . I hope to build a fun road that will keep me busy for many years. in this thread i will be sharing and discussing my ideas as far as track-plan and operation. 

Room i managed to negotiate with significant other. 
Requirement: TV, Fireplace and Aquarium(plumbed) visible from couch. 
Colored Sections - Permanent. Operation - Out and back in. 
Dashed sections - removable, allowing continous run when deployed. no solid plan yet, will attempt Free-mo compatibility where possible.











Westrern Wall Module. 
Normal direction of traffic Counterclockwise. Light Orange and blue Sections climbing to upper module. Brown access to lower staging. Any rail calculated max grade to 2.5 with exception of solid brown 3.4 which will only be used to descent. this allows me to have vertical separation of 6.5 inch between lower and upper tracks. 










To help visualize elevation











Green Northern wall Module- dual level. 
shadow staging plan in development. considering transfer tableat the easern (right) end instead of keeping a clean escape track for arriving trains.










with only 6.5" track to track vertical separation I plan to construct Upper green section with 3/4ply +~1/4 of roadbed leaving 5" clearance for rolling stock. for any derailment or maintenance the top portion will be comprised of liftable sections. no track plan for upper section yet

for your consideration and discussion.
Thanks!


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

One thing that immediately jumps out is the width of your aisles. At 19", these are extremely narrow. Modt interior designers recommend an absolute minimum of 20", and even 24" is pushing it if you or any of your operators is overweight.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Thank you for the comment CTV. 
Indeed this is a concern. Justification for thin passage by the bookshelf is that there will be no reason to be there normally unless something derails. On the ground there will e actually little bit more as I'm very conservative with measurements. Passage between the sofa, yes I might need to go thinner on that module 

Ideally it would be good to get rid of the bookshelves and sprawl into that area as well (+some of the storage room for the loop) , but that is not yet approved.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Reworked western module almost completely. 
well, bookshelf needs to be accessible too as it turns out :dough: lol. 
remeasured available space , left 2 feet isle. no more bridges, but with this arrangement i'm below 2% grade everywhere on mainline and below 3% on the hidden spiral. additional loop downwards will add 4" more inches vertically between layers to comfortable 10"+
but what i especially like is that i now have entire bottom portion accessible by rail for the industries! the red and blue spurs are a temp placeholder while i plan for a better light industrial district.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

working on peninsula industries and rail. and so far not getting anywhere.

1. in order for the green section to vertically clear the return loop it is raised somewhat.

idea of operation: switcher can either push the train (up to three 9" cars) or pull in and run around to shove to destination. peco code75 track .

reach to couple/decouple can be problematic but i like that the are becomes kind of mini switching layout all by itself here











From Operator eye point it will look something like this. thinking to block the farthest line off sight with taller scenery 











2. reworked for much simpler siding , with passing siding (hidden downward section is reworked as well from more run). this way things are much flatter as i don't need to climb over the hidden line below. and i guess i have a bit more room for non rail dependent industries in the 

what do i need passing siding for at all ?


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

the arrangement is going nowhere. not sure what i don't like, something just doesn't sit right

reread the J Armstrong's "track planing for ..." book chapter about the "square business". tried to rearrange the permanent sections. stil at 24" minimum . not yet sure what does the blue module gets me. the blob will have to be full blown helix now in order to bridge between levels


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Hey Tank........welcome back.

WOW from the garage to the house.:appl:


And a nice looking room for a layout, looking forward to watching it come alive.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi Ed.
While my new place has a two car garage I did setup my workshop in there , so no railroading . and no parking cars there either )

Before railroading starts I do have few more pieces of furniture to complete for that room, so for now I'm in the drawing stage


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

9" vertical separation between layers, all grades still below 3%, R24" maintained
attempted to bridge (removable duck under). spurs are not developed yet. 

Red triangle marks hard to reach area working at which will require stepstool probably

ADD: still not entirely sure where i'm going with this TBH. Long loop will make for a nice long round trip for railfanning. Operationwise it looks like the grey isle is becoming a centerpiece that will recieve incoming trains from the hidden staging to be broken down and taken to industry destinations on layout.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

it seems so easy to just drag and drop track around in planner, but the amount of time it takes, wow. some refinements made

played with dummy interchange (goes nowhere) at top left. can be utilized to store an engine off the mainline, otherwise just for aesthetics reason so a very low priority. was thinking a double slip there, i love the slip switches, want to have one somewhere just to have one 

idea of operation: 
1. Railfanning. train leaves hidden staging, climbs the blue line route and starts doing loops in clockwise direction using the orange track. to return it reverses via the yellow section and goes back into staging (perhaps doinga loop).

2. "operation". cargo train arrives from staging to the track next to orange and leaves a cut of cars there for a road switcher to shuttle to and from industrial spurs while observing traffic. downside is only 4 foot of track available.
still working on spurs, input welcome.











a quick 3d refference









and a staging galore, lol :laugh:
not sure i really need it all , but with ever increasing rolling stock item count can there be ever enough staging ?


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## Old Growth (May 10, 2018)

*Software using for your design?*

I'm new to Model Railroading and am in the planning stages, what software are you using for the design and is it applicable to other uses?


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Anyrail is the software i used. If you just starting I would advise to get a rough sketch of your idea on paper first


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## SantaFeJim (Sep 8, 2015)

Old Growth said:


> I'm new to Model Railroading and am in the planning stages, what software are you using for the design and is it applicable to other uses?



Depends... Are you using a *PC or a Mac?*


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Flattened the layout to achieve this diagram. Rails are magically connected at the checkers (the bridge).

Now planning for occupancy blocks and signalling.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Latest working version of track plan .


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## Xnats (Dec 5, 2010)

WOW
This is going to be nice Tank. Grats on the new place too.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Now that I have top surface installed and I can see actual rail arrangement I'm back to second guessing the plan 

Double mainline roadbed is glued, I like it's shape. 
Trying to find where to put siding switches (to the north of mainline) to not interfere with streets that cross.
I also going back and forth on Industries to model again...

What would you do on this 2.5'x8' surface?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Anton, we thought you fell into the septic pit or something! Welcome back!


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Thanks John, I think it's more or less my normal schedule. lots of things happening even without any special pits  i'm here and there, reading the forum once in a while


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