First stab at this


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fiend540

Member
So I decided it was time that I designed my first layout and I had a few things in mind when it came do it's design. First I knew I wanted a functional switching layout, based around this industrial area of Buffalo NY. I first tried to stay pretty close to the prototype but it took up way too much room than I will probably ever have :) So using some selective compression this is what I ended up with. There are still a few things I think I need to change like that y turnout in front and I really wanted it to fit in a shorter length (it's 2.5x16 now) and I don't know how much of an annoyance it will be using one of those car trays like on MR beer line to get cars on/off the layout. I guess I am just looking for suggestions and ideas.
 
No one has any advise on how I could make it better? I'm going to take another stab at it later tonight to see If I can fit something I like more in a 2.5x12 area.
 
I see you have some track printed in brown. Is that where your cars are going to be parked while being loaded/unloaded by their customers? If not, then what's the significance of the brown?

I also notice you have a switchback between the tank car spur and the scrapyard. How many tank cars will be parked at that location at any one time? Will there still be enough room for a road switcher [like a GP38-2] plus a gondola? If it were me, I would try to squeeze in a separate piece of track for the tank cars so they wouldn't block the scrap yard switchback track.

Other than that I like the plan, Buffalo is a cool area to model. It would be great if you could get a Sylvan Scale Models Great Lakes Freighter to dock beside one of the elevators!
 
this brown - that in the flex was badly bent - are here extended. It is an error in the design.
 
Johnny, you can get rid of that second crossover from the left, by the General Mills plant. You don't need since you have a runaround track just below it and that will give you strage for a few more cars. I agree with Ken about the oil storage facility. There would normally be two tracks, one for cars loading (or unloading) at the tanks and another for either loaded or empty tanks cars. The switcher can then work the plant without disrupting operations. I don't think the cement plant would be a good idea. I imagine General Mills might object to clouds of cement dust around their mills. :)
 
JohnyTRS said:
that's which company?
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It's run by CSX currently but I would be modeling it as if Conrail was servicing it now in 2009.

CSX_road_slug said:
I see you have some track printed in brown. Is that where your cars are going to be parked while being loaded/unloaded by their customers? If not, then what's the significance of the brown?

I also notice you have a switchback between the tank car spur and the scrapyard. How many tank cars will be parked at that location at any one time? Will there still be enough room for a road switcher [like a GP38-2] plus a gondola? If it were me, I would try to squeeze in a separate piece of track for the tank cars so they wouldn't block the scrap yard switchback track.

Other than that I like the plan, Buffalo is a cool area to model. It would be great if you could get a Sylvan Scale Models Great Lakes Freighter to dock beside one of the elevators!
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The brown is where I stretched a piece of flex track over a longer distance than possible in real life, but since this is sort of a rough sketch I didn't bother to set about changing colors. Yes Buffalo represents plenty of modeling ideas, it's just a shame how what was such a great industrialized city has slowly fallen into despair. My whole goal is to have a larger layout of Buffalo where this would be an island in an around the room style layout.

UP2CSX said:
Johnny, you can get rid of that second crossover from the left, by the General Mills plant. You don't need since you have a runaround track just below it and that will give you strage for a few more cars. I agree with Ken about the oil storage facility. There would normally be two tracks, one for cars loading (or unloading) at the tanks and another for either loaded or empty tanks cars. The switcher can then work the plant without disrupting operations. I don't think the cement plant would be a good idea. I imagine General Mills might object to clouds of cement dust around their mills. :)
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You got the wrong user ;) but I appreciate the response. Note taken on that cross over and with the tank unloading area. I was thinking it would be a place where General Mills would receive things like corn syrup that they would use in making cereal. I will try to rearrange things to free up some more room, I really wish I could trim it down to only 12 feet long. I will be back with a redesign later on tonight guys thanks!
 
I took the liberty to rearrange your track diagram a little, hope you don't mind.

For your scrap metal yard track, I changed the mode of access from a switchback to a line coming in directly from the opposite direction, with a few diamonds (indicated in red) where it crosses other tracks at grade. I also eliminated the redundant runaround track from the center, no point in wasting turnouts and real estate.

As for compressing it from 16ft to 12ft, I'll let you decide how you want to do that.
 
I don't mind at all Ken, I want to design the layout the right way from the start, no sense in wasting money right? So working within my new size requirements (2.5'x12') this is what I have come up with. All turnouts are #5's although I think there is one or two #6's. I tried to keep all sidings to at least 3 feet long as I think this will allow me around 3 cars per siding which seems fair to me for such a small layout. Let me know what you guys think and what you would change :)
 
I like the changes you made, and in my opinion, the 12' plan looks like it would be more fun to operate and is layed out a little better :D

You got some good industries in there that will be fun to model, especially the scrap yard
 
fiend540 said:
... I tried to keep all sidings to at least 3 feet long as I think this will allow me around 3 cars per siding which seems fair to me for such a small layout. ...
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Your latest plan looks like a near-perfect fit. The only thing I might change is to move the bottom-right crossover [near General Mills Cereal] another 8" toward the left (see diagram), that way you can fit an extra car in the string you are planning to spot at the cereal factory. BTW what's the average length of the cars being spotted? If you want 3 cars per siding, you'll need to factor in their combined length plus a typical 2nd-generation 4 axle road switcher.
 
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Thanks guys, I am pretty satisfied with it considering this is really only my second or third attempt and other than reading John Armstrong's book I am flying blind as I have never operated a layout before.:p

CSX_road_slug said:
Your latest plan looks like a near-perfect fit. The only thing I might change is to move the bottom-right crossover [near General Mills Cereal] another 8" toward the left (see diagram), that way you can fit an extra car in the string you are planning to spot at the cereal factory.
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Thanks that makes a lot more sense.I am also going to try and smooth out S curve on the General Mills Elevator siding and hopefully moving the switch back giving me another car length or so.

CSX_road_slug said:
BTW what's the average length of the cars being spotted? If you want 3 cars per siding, you'll need to factor in their combined length plus a typical 2nd-generation 4 axle road switcher.
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I don't really own any covered hoppers yet, so I measured my Athearn gp40-2, a couple of my 60' boxcars and decided that going with 10" as car length seemed pretty safe too me. Now not every one of my sidings can fit 3 cars and a loco but I tried to keep room for a loco and at least 1 car at every cross over and the mill siding as well as the 4 elevator sidings should hold I hope 3 cars. The tank siding is only big enough to hold one maybe two cars but I am fine with that, Tank cars are Expensive! :)

So am I safe with the 10" assumption? Really my motive power that I will use will your typical gp units with some sw action thrown in. It's set in modern times so I hope most modern covered hoppers fit around the 60' mark.
 
DaWolf85 said:
Actually, modern equipment is only getting bigger.
Still, what will you use for staging?
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I will end up using a removable tail track like MR used in their Beer Line article. While it's far from perfect it will have to do my space is limited with being in an apartment. I have it so this can be expanded on and will be a industrial branch off of a mainline in the city of Buffalo. If you look at the area I am modeling in real life it funnels off into a small yard and then continues to a Y where it splits and heads south to the yards or north towards Niagara Falls.
 
fiend540 said:
I will end up using a removable tail track like MR used in their Beer Line article. While it's far from perfect it will have to do my space is limited with being in an apartment. I have it so this can be expanded on and will be a industrial branch off of a mainline in the city of Buffalo. If you look at the area I am modeling in real life it funnels off into a small yard and then continues to a Y where it splits and heads south to the yards or north towards Niagara Falls.
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Going to have to be a pretty long removable tail track to work as single-track staging, as well as your switch lead.
 
Well I did some more revising and I think this is near perfect for the situation I have. Moved two turnouts which gave me some longer sidings for cars as well as extending the tank unloading siding to the edge of the table to get another car in there. Let me know what you guys think, I am still a little concerned with how well it will operate as I have 0 operating experience, any help or insight will be greatly appreciated.



DaWolf85 said:
Going to have to be a pretty long removable tail track to work as single-track staging, as well as your switch lead.
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This is still a big concern to me but I don't really know what I can do about it. My only choices are make a smaller layout to give more room for staging or find more room than I think I will have so I can add on some staging. I could probably add another turnout towards the bottom of the ladder, above the scrap yard to give me a dual "main line" onto a two track removable tail if you think that would be better.

From what I can tell from my current plan I will end up switching each car spot individually with incoming cars coming from the removable tail onto a siding while the outgoing cars are removed and set onto the removable tail. Hopefully this will keep me entertained while not being too tedious that it removes all the fun.
 
fiend540 said:
... My only choices are make a smaller layout to give more room for staging or find more room than I think I will have so I can add on some staging. I could probably add another turnout towards the bottom of the ladder, above the scrap yard to give me a dual "main line" onto a two track removable tail if you think that would be better.

...
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Looks like you've got the trackplan pretty much nailed. Would it be too much trouble to draw up and post some type of diagram of the room this layout will live in, showing where the layout itself will be? That way we can figure out if your staging strategy will work, and maybe come up with a Plan-B if it doesn't...
 
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