Sorry I do realize that track plans I present here are incomplete, but I do think there is enough of them to estimate the number of problems I may encounter with reverse loops. Anyone care to comment?
Basically it would appear to me that I have a number of situations where tracks are looping around, BUT not coming back upon themselves, RATHER they are becoming the other side of the double mainlines??
New Top Deck Track Plan
Fri, 2018-10-12 12:01 —
railandsail
Trans-Continental Theme
I'm at the point now that my new layout plan has progressed significantly past the TL&F Junction plan, the one that originally inspired me. With that in mind I seriously considered starting a new subject thread titled “the Trans-Continental Connector, East meets West”, and proceeding with new postings and layout discussions under that title.
But there is so much material already contained in this subject thread that will have relevance with the new plan, I will just continue on this path for the moment.
My hopes that a more professional or inspired computer trackplan designer would come along and help me with ideas/images of alternative track plans for the 2 main decks of my layout have been delayed again, ….maybe as much as another 6 months.
So I had better get started on some new ideas myself. I sketched this up just recently for the very top deck
TOP DECK, Idea #1
I previously suggested that the bottom deck would represent Balt and east coast, and the top deck would represent LA and the west coast. Well that is NOT going to work. My debate centered around the fact that if I had the entire upper deck representing the west coast and primarily a source of container trains,...how was I going to get to run all my beautiful steam engines up there if i remained true to the idea that steam engines didn't pull container trains??
I think I will do 2 things, the second one most important,....
1) Like you I will run some container trains with steam engines,
2)
I have divided up my upper deck in half,...one side will represent the LA area and source of container trains headed to the east coast (lower level), and the other half will be coal mines, timber, etc with freight cars that would have been pulled by steam engines. There will be a 'hidden track' behind the west coast scene so the good old steam trains can pass over to the other half of the upper deck without having to pass in front of the Santa Fe station and the stacked containers/ docks/ships.
That 'hidden track' is on the left had side in the dwg and likely accomplished with some sort of scenic blocker just tall enough to hide that steam train, and camouflaged by being painted with ships & cranes that blend in with the container yard.
The other mainlines and sidings out in front of of the Santa Fe station and the container yard will be for those diesel powered trains that are pulling long container trains or passenger trains. One of those 'sidings' out front should be reserved to hold a full consist of the infamous Santa Fe passenger train (I've got both the Walthers set and some nice MTH cars).
That inside corner (in front of the station) could well serve 2 functions.
1) A parking area for some of the nice Santa Fe diesels I have
2) A big fueling and sanding area for those diesels getting ready to make the trip east.
3) I had thought there might be a loco maintenance building somewhere here, but it would not be a good idea to cram it in here ,...how about down that side at the other end,...in an area of that 'continuous loop track'? There might even be some more extensive fuel oil tanks down there.??
Across the entrance-way bridge on the right had side of the layout is a fairly big piece of real estate that is open to suggestions.?
That right hand side will represent 'industries/scenes' from the middle of the country or the Appalachians. Some sort of coal mine is needed to fill up coal hauling trains and bring some to the steel mill. I just randomly placed that coal mine scene in there , but I like some of its trackage and non-liner design.
On this upper level I am proposing to put some logging tracks and trains down that peninsula. There might be a very tight loop at the free end of the peninsula for the short logging locos to run. Or it might be just a back and forth operation for them. They will bring logs out to the saw mill scene at the trunk end of the peninsula. I have the whole Walthers saw mill kit(s) and would like to make this scene some sort of transfer of logs to cut product that would be loaded onto mainline log cars and center-beam loaded cars, and a number of other wood carrying cars ( I have quite a variety).
Then to just throw a curved ball at the situation. I've actually thought that these two sides could be reversed? The upper deck on that left hand side is a little bit deeper than the one on the right.
That one upper loop might well reconnect with itself and present a 'reverse loop'
(sorry for such a long posting, I just find it more 'complete' to include the 'background material', rather than expecting the reader to find previous postings themselves)