CP rail freelance plan in N - Modern Era

[DjShaggy]

Well, its taken me quite a long time, but here is "mark 1", or my trackplan before consultation:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v605/djshaggy/cpmk1.jpg

Its a pretty big image, but I think y'all can get the idea of whats going on. The table will be 55" by 164". The gray area is the area I've left open to reach across the layout. The narrow area at the back is 25" wide, and the two large outcrops are about 4' across.

Mainline minimum radius is 13" and averages around 14 1/2". #6 switches.

Yard and industry minimum radius is 11". #4 switches.

The colors:

Green - Elevated 2 1/2" above the main table height. This represents the 'City' of the layout and my staging area
Orange - Grade, 2% max
Blue - 'hidden' track
Black - Main table level, the industry will either be a Quarry or open mine of some sort

What I like:

Lots of switching opportunity as well as a long mainline run.
Lots of options for scenery
A reversing loop so I don't have to manually change directions of locos

What I don't like

The location of the staging track
The amount of 'hidden' track including the switch
The way the quarry area joins the mainline
Too many s-curves


The industries in the 'city' area have not been confirmed, but I figure I'll need a stone and gravel distributor at minimum. I was also considering replacing the quarry with an oil refinery, which will change the industries I need at the top. My main concern is that I have a purpose for the railroad, which has been the most difficult part of planning my layout.

Ideas? Suggestions? This particular layout plan has been changed so many times from my original idea of the course of about 3 months, so I'm open to major overhauls if a better design comes out of your ideas.

 

[UP2CSX]

That's a very interesting track plan. You do realize that you'll have to electically isolate that reverse loop, right? If you're using DCC, an automatic reverser makes this easy. It's a little more complicated in DC.

How is the "hidden" track hidden? I always hate to have switches on hidden track unless you have really easy access to it. If you don't have easy access, I'd suggest moving the switch out in the open toward the balloon loop.

The green city area trackage actually seems to be excessive, It's hard to see where you're going to put much of a city. Do you really need that much trackage?

All the "S" curves I see look reasonably broad to me. An "S" curve that's not too sharp actually makes the layout look bigger since you can have the track follow terrain, like the real railroads.

I'm assuming your staging yard is the stub end yard the far right end of the layout. If, so, it looks like a great place for a staging yard. Easy access and you can hide it with some industrial flats if you don't want it out in the open.

I'm not clear on the quarry concept. Where would it go compared to the tracks inside the balloon loop? Again, it lloks like too much track with not enough room for the scene you're planning.

For a "Mark 1" version, you've done a really good job. I think you just need to review each switch and decide if you really need it. It's fun to set up a lot of spurs and siding on paper but switches are the most expensive piece of track work you'll buy and they tend to need work to get them running reliably. The more switches, the bigger your budget has to be and the more time you're going spend filing and adjusting to get them to stop causing those dang derailments.

 

[DjShaggy]

Thank you, that was exactly the kind of input I was looking for! I agree that that the green city area looks a little cluttered, and since not every track has a purpose, (yet), it wouldn't be too much to thin it out a bit. The same goes with the quarry. Back to the drawing board!

 

[UP2CSX]

You're welcome. I've drawn up many track plans and, when I'm done with bill of materials, realized I'd need a second mortgage to buy all the track and switches. You've hit on the key point I was trying to make. Go through your track plan and come up with a business that each spur will serve. Just like real railroads, try to find a way to serve two businesses with one switch. It actually makes operations more interesting and it's one less switch to buy and fool with to get working right.

 

[DjShaggy]

Well, with a bit of research and redesigning, I have replaced the quarry idea with something more traditional; coal and coke facilities.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v605/djshaggy/cpmk2.jpg

The image only shows the far right where I have done the most radical changes. The track that runs parallel to the staging track will represent the coal 'mine', and actually sits underneath. As such, it won't likely be hidden with scenery in the front, however it will have to tunnel underneath the mountain that leads back up to the city. The brown square is a guestimate of the size of the coal and coke facilities, but I have plenty of room to make adjustments once I have the actual models.

The city will be a lot less cluttered, with a steel mill taking up the right side. As for the rest, I've made little change. There is still one hidden switch, but with the elevation change, I should have room for an access hole under the city. We'll see if that actually works out. Also, I've eliminated 8 switches so far.

I've decided to move forward with this layout design, assuming that nobody catches any major flaws. I imagine that I will make hundreds of small changes along the way, but for now I think this is a solid, if not challenging, design.

 

[UP2CSX]

Eliminating those switches will allow you to buy a nice set of hoppers for the coal mine. I suspect that you've grossly underestimated the amount of space that you'll need for a steel mill but you can model just parts of the mill and have it still look good. The one thing I'd change is that circle of track going around the mill area. You only have one spur into the mill and that spur can only accesed from one direction or your engine will be trapped. I'd build a ladder track coming off the second inside loop with a runaround track for the yard and delete the rest of that inner circle. It seems to serve no purpose and limits the size of the steel mill and the amount of trackage you'll need to serve a milll.