# Yard in HO



## hancop (Dec 23, 2012)

Have struggled with trying to design a yard and have come up with the following. I am building a domino style layout and the yard is going to be on three domino's, each 36 inches deep by 60 inches wide. Therefore 15 feet in length. I think I have followed all the 10 commandments of yard design. The yard in this picture is 2 ft wide, what you don't see is the foot that will be raised as part of a mountain behind it with industry and trains going by. 
Was wondering:
Should I add anything else to the yard to make if fun to operate ?
Should the yard have automatic throws or manual (plan is to have train controller running eventually with signal system)
Maybe you could take a look and suggest any changes that might make it better ?

Thanks

Peter


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

That looks like any-rail. If so can you post the file so I can down load it an get a better look.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

Looks good to me. The only thing I see to change is to have two tracks to the truntable. One in bound and one out bound


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Actually looks pretty good; I like the arrangement around the yard ladder.

Instead of that stub-end track, i'd have a double ended track that connects from the engine house lead to the ladder bypass, parallel to the ladder and bypass track for he caboose track. Cabooses were often assigned to particular crews, and even if they were pooled cabooses they'd be handled on a first in first out basis, so caboose service tracks are usually double ended. I might still keep part of that stub track though, but connect it to the engine house lead, as the coal delivery track for the coaling tower. If your modeling a more modern era with only diesels where the coaling tower has long been torn down, some signs of its previous existence would likely still remain, and the old stub track probably used for MOW storage and other company service cars.

A second lead track for the turntable can be easily added at the bottom by drawing a track beginning from the little stub off the turntable and connecting it to the existing lead as close to the far end as possible. This gives you a mentioned above and inbound and outbound track, or a way to have engines being serviced on one track and still a way to move engines to/from the turntable around them.

Questions: 
Are you running any passenger trains? Is there a station near or next to this yard?
What era? Steam? Transition? Early diesel? Modern day? Totally loose?
Is this yard at the end of the line, or does the track continue off in both directions from here? If this is a stub terminal, the main and passing tracks don't need to exist as separate through tracks, so you can make those arrival/departure tracks if you like and use the other tracks as additional classification(sorting) tracks. If it's a through terminal, then those tracks should be left clear.


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## hancop (Dec 23, 2012)

thanks for your input, attached is the any rail file.
One more question. Do most people use rolls of cork for the yard ?
Was thinking of purchasing 1/4 inch cork roll from home depot. 
Does it matter what kind of cork you get ? Do certain types shink or expand so would not be good ? What do you recommend for cork in the yards ?

thanks


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

I took the liberty of making some modifications to the service tracks on the layout. Uses a couple more switches (although I eliminated the one crossover at the left end of the yard which wasn't really needed) but makes the caboose track and shop area much easier to deal with.

If this terminal is a stub, the passing siding isn't really needed, but that can be made into the passenger station track, and the passenger coaches just parked and serviced at the station (while the locomotive cuts off and goes across to the engine terminal).


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I like the changes, but I would keep the engine escape track on the left. On the turntable you should have tracks that line up with tracks on the other side so that you can push/pull none running locos onto the repair tracks.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

There's really no need for the additional crossover at left, he's got two double ended tracks still for arriving/departing trains.

I never did get a clear answer from hancop as to whether this yard is a terminal point, or whether the track continues on in both directions. If it is a terminal, then there's actually no need to have a dedicated main track and passing siding past the yard, so that can be used as an arrival/departure track as well. So that additional crossover really doesn't add anything, and doesn't form part of the ladder at the left end because of the way it's offset; it can only be accessed from the one track.
So getting rid of it doesn't actually lose much, and adds another class track. Note that in any version of the plan, the bottom-most track is NOT a class track and cannot have cars left parked on it - it's the lead to the maintenance facility and can't be blocked.

As far as the turntable goes, I simply didn't spend any time lining up those tracks, just roughly sketched the idea, but to suggest that every track should have a corresponding opposite track that lines up with it is actually quite unrealistic and you won't really find that sort of thing in any real facility. The radial tracks will be spaced at certain angles around the circle, so tracks on opposite sides will align with each other, but no attempt is made to provide every track with an opposing counterpart. The lead tracks should align with two of the roundhouse stalls, but the additional stalls of the roundhouse don't need additional matching stub tracks on the opposite side.


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## hancop (Dec 23, 2012)

Thanks for the input guys. The yard is not a terminal yard and will have trains arriving/ departing from the east and west. My thought with the extra crossover on the left (west) end would be to maybe just have an extra option to get the road engine to the turntable on a train arriving from the right (east) into the yard.

Thanks

Peter


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## pattaya65 (Nov 18, 2012)

*Yard*

I like it. It kind of reminds me of "Brittain Yard", Wheeling and Lake Erie in Akron, Ohio. Take a look on Google Earth. You can't miss it.
Thanks
Wayne


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

for the yard lowes and maybe home depot there is a underlay that looks like gravel. rolls are cheep.
maybe you can think of making part of it a hump yard.

skip.


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