# Back from the drawing board



## Wheels70 (Jan 17, 2012)

After spending quite a lot of time designing and redesigning my layout, I decided I ought to run some virtual trains on it. Lesson learned: you ain't got a layout if you can't run your trains.

So I'm fresh back from the drawing board with a slight (ha ha) revision. This time, I ran trains on it first. I put about forty 40' cars, 3 cabeese, and 5 locos (3 road haulers and 2 switchers) on the track and I could still run trains and do some switching, although it got a bit delicate.

Here's the plan, with a few comments on it and notes following:










The switch at (1) is a single-slip. I've read about the reliability problems of double-slip switches, but I didn't find much about their single-slip brethren. Should I just go with two regular switches and be done with it, or am I (probably) okay here?

Not shown here are elevations/grades. I have a maximum 2.8% grade on the main (on the reverse loop), and the short section from the spurs on the reverse loop to the logging camp at the far northeast corner is 3.6%. Minimum vertical clearance is 3.5".

Operationally, the railroad is an out-and-back. Trains leave the yard going towards the left ("westbound"), bound for the rest of the layout, and arrive from the left (going "eastbound") via the reverse loop, in a loads-out/empties-in fashion. There is also a loop for "watch the trains go 'round" interest.

I'll stop now before I bore you (further)...as always I appreciate any comments and feedback. Thanks for reading!

Thomas


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Sucks. I liked your last one.

Edit: I mean it sucks that you changed it.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

:laugh::laugh::laugh: Cdawg.....So nice to have you back!


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

What happend to the additional side yard? I think that would add a ton of operating interest in the layout if you can still have it in the plans.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I think your previous design had alot of potential and as the guy from the other forum said, a simple spur with four car spots can be more interesting than four spurs with one car slot each. In fact, one of my personal designs for my new house uses just a couple spur tracks, one of which is for the "downtown" area of my layout and it has roughly 15 car spots! In TrainPlayer, I have five different shops, each with two or three spots, and it gets interesting when there are cars that have to be left in place, but others need to come out or go in. I sometimes spend a half hour moving cars in/out on that track alone. There are also two grade crossings that cant be blocked, so I cant keep the cars hooked together after they've been spotted.

Keep in mind too that not all the cars will fit sometimes and will need to go back to the yard until spots free up. SO now one of the yard tracks can be dedicated to "for later" cars. It's not only prototypical, but adds alot of operations interest as you'll have to decide which cars can go back to the yard and which ones must be spotted due to perishable items (if that's an industry on that track).


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## Wheels70 (Jan 17, 2012)

Thanks for the comments. So much to learn...and I haven't even put down a piece of track yet! I've spent an hour or so reading about sure spots and some other operational concepts, and I am going to do some more studying and then go back to the drafting table (aka laptop equipped with Xtrkcad). 

Thomas


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

If you want to operate it like a RR - I recommend "Track Planning for Realistic Operations"

http://www.amazon.com/Track-Planning-Realistic-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890242275

I learned a TON from this book.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

That is a good book. It's helped with alot of stuff. The car spot stuff I got from a Model Railroader magazine (same company that makes the Track Planning book). That particular magazine is a bit spendy but has tons of useful info as well as thier annual Track Plans edition. Of course, most of the layouts featured in that one are quite large, but its the inbetween articles that I used to my advantage.


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

I have to say I dont really like this one. There is simply too much track stuffed into every bit of space you have to use. Where are the buildings and scenery going to go? 5x 9.5 is alot of space and not all of it needs to be track. I did a 5x9 and it never made it out of the plywood prarie stage but it had 2 towns 4 industries and 2 yards (one in each town) There also was a 2 bay engine terminal and reverse loop. I had plenty of space for the city that I modeled, some tunnels and a scenic divide between the 2 places. Take a look at what I did and see if you can gather inspiration from it.




























Each yard only had 2 tracks but room to store quite a few cars each. One challenge I also had was one of the yard tracks also was shared with a business that was located there. There was not alot of sorting in either yard but there was plenty to do for 2 trains.

Massey


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