My first attempt

[kevin58]

Thanks to ToyGuy's thread, Yard Design Feedback with steinjr posting the Junction Town yard along with elements from Peter Whites designs including the town of Armstrong ...I think I have a solid start on my basement layout.

Take a look and tell me what you think. I'm not sure I need that many yard tracks myself but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[Rico]

Hey I like it!
Lots of switching and the single track makes the run down the left seem like you're going somewhere.
Now get thee to ye olde lumber yard!

 

[Photogdad]

This is a great layout. I'm still in the planning phase of mine, and this makes me want to expand a little more then what I had thought of.

 

[SABRR]

Looks good! I like the East Yard.

May I suggest you look at the industrial section that runs North/South and consider more in terms of local servicing.

Consider bringing the tracks behind the buildings in town, even if just for visual effect.

Consider making a few abandoned tracks, heavily weeded, overgrown with dirt, etc., with a permanent locked switch. Abandoned industry lines add so much detail.

 

[Irongrave]

I like it. clean simple not overly cluttred like some layout can get and seems like you could spend a good solid 2 hours doing switch moves in the yard and running the local into town so to speak

 

[Doughless]

Very nice Kevin,

Love the yard.

As another poster has mentioned, try to have some low buildings along the front edge in spots, just for visual effect.

Personally, in the north/south switching area, I would extend the runaround to the south by using a left hand turnout where the curve is. It would also eliminate the double S you have heading into the runaround from the south. You should have enough space to rework the turnouts to switch the industries. Personally, I would prefer each industry to have its own turnout to eliminate the need to move a car that's in front of the middle industry just to serve the industry that's farthest north. Personal preference. You may consider that move an operational challenge.

Edit: Just an observation. The yard seems to hold more cars than what you will need to run the layout. Stein's example that he posted in another thread color codes cars that are destined for branch lines and other destinations. You don't seem to have these destinations incorporated in your plan. You may want to consider a stub staging track somewhere to represent a branch/railroad interchange as a place to send cars to (and from) as they exit the yard area.

Or you could reduce the size of the yard a bit to be more consistent with the volume of traffic you appear to have.

 

[kevin58]

I did do some tweaking last night. Adjusted the switch heading to the dock at the south end to eliminate the S curve. Plus after "running" some trains on the software I decided to extend the industry runaround a tad. I draw it up later and post the revision

And I also thought of adding an industry behind the street scene so that tracks entered that area too. At the very least I was thinking of a scrap yard between the industry and street scene so I could run some gondolas.

All the structures are pretty much just place holders for now and, except for the ones placed in the street scene, are not to scale... I just drew some boxes to indicate where I would like an industry.

As suggested I think I will shorten the yard by a couple car lengths. After filling the yard with cars and then spotting some of them at the industry's I had about twice as many more still sitting there. Compressing the yard will also give me a bit more running room between the two business ends of the layout.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[kevin58]

A quick question about slip switches. I don't know if you can tell that there is one on the yard (where main goes into yard). I've never actually used on of these in the real world and I wonder if I need a single or double slip switch. I'm thinking double??

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[diburning]

Beware that if you use a slip switch, you may need to wire a reverser module to it.

 

[Doughless]

A quick question about slip switches. I don't know if you can tell that there is one on the yard (where main goes into yard). I've never actually used on of these in the real world and I wonder if I need a single or double slip switch. I'm thinking double??

Thanks,
Kevin

Stein is usually very thorough in his planning, so I may be missing something with his thinking, but I don't think the slip switch is essential to the yard in your situation. If you replaced it with a simple turnout (like the RH one that comes off the main right there by the slip) you could still access the ladder from the lead.

I'm not certain, but the slip may simply enable the yard to have separate arrival and departure tracks, which on your layout would be overkill. Slip switches are expensive too.

If others see the slip switch as being essential, please correct me.

 

[steinjr]

Stein is usually very thorough in his planning, so I may be missing something with his thinking, but I don't think the slip switch is essential to the yard in your situation. If you replaced it with a simple turnout (like the RH one that comes off the main right there by the slip) you could still access the ladder from the lead.

I'm not certain, but the slip may simply enable the yard to have separate arrival and departure tracks, which on your layout would be overkill. Slip switches are expensive too.

The purpose of the double slip, as originally drawn, was to allow inbound trains (which would be coming from the left only for the layout the track plan was drawn for) to go into any track, to avoid having a single A/D track being a bottleneck for all arriving and departing trains.

This is a yard that was intended for relatively frequent termination and origination of trains, and building several trains at the same time.

Might be a bit overkill for just supporting local switching.

For a look at a cool local yard for a switching layout, have a look e.g. at Bill Kaufmann's State Belt Railroad from San Francisco in these videos:

http://convozine.com/conversations/7989

If you look at about the first three minutes of the uppermost video, you will he the main yard for his layout - the King Street layout - it is located in the lower right hand corner of his track plan here:

http://statebelt.org/layout/thumbs/newestbeltlarge.jpg

Basically two-three parallel tracks that could hold maybe 20 cars or so while things were being sorted out.

A yard doesn't have to be all that big to work just fine for supporting some local switching.

Have a look at "the patch" Keith Jordan's amazingly small L shaped layout consisting of two 8 foot long shelves - one 12" deep and one 10" deep, wrapped around an outside corner in the 2011 Model Railroad Planning magazine.

Mmm - found a web page - you can read more about Keith's layout here: http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/Patch_Home.html

The track plan is on this page: http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/Layout_Plan.html


There are several urban smallish yards on this track plan suggestion which I drew for someone in a different forum quite a while ago - one along the left wall, a smaller one along the right wall and a third two track yard on the left side of the peninsula:

The small three track double ended yard along the right wall is based on the track plan for the main yard on Nick Kallis former E-shaped urban layout from New York City - that tiny little yard originated like 4 or 5 local turns during an operating session - one train going to the float yard to pick up cars, one serving the freight hours, one serving the peninsula and and so on and so forth.

Here is a a couple of small yards on my interpretation of Thomas Garbelotti (Scarpia in various MR forums)'s Vermont inspired layout, which he is building on sectional shelves balanced on top of IKEA furniture in a small 22nd story apartment in Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf, where he is currently teaching.

The track plan design is by model railroad designer Byron Henderson - you can see pics of the layout build at Joe Fugate's Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine ezine website: http://www.model-railroad-hobbyist.com

Basically, it comes down to how you plan to use the yard.

Small auxiliary yards of all kinds (both urban and in small town yards) can be built surprisingly compact, if their main purpose is to help serve local industries, rather than being efficient routing machines (which is what bigger classification yards are supposed to be).


Smile,
Stein

 

[SABRR]

Stein,

Why don't you write a "how to" layout book. You definitely have good insight. I learn from you every thread you write and every layout you draw. I have to come up with ideas for my 15x11 and your helping here, helps me.

Think about it.

Manny

 

[kevin58]

The alterations are small but here is the update.

1) the yard has been pushed to the east shortening the stub tracks by 1 to 2 car lengths. I'm thinking I could shorten it a little farther.

2) the runaround in the south district has had some turnouts moved a tad to eliminate a couple of S turns.

I'm still thinking of adding a spur that extends into the back of the street scene. Or not. I kind of like the idea of an area where the scene itself is the focus and not have every inch of the layout crammed with track.

The slip switch mentioned earlier is highlighted in red. If there is an elegant way to avoid it without creating nasty S curves in the switch arrangement I'm all ears. However I DO want to keep that switch lead because I envision one operator servicing the industries above the yard while a yard master carries out his job simultaneously.

 

[Doughless]

The alterations are small but here is the update.


The slip switch mentioned earlier is highlighted in red. If there is an elegant way to avoid it without creating nasty S curves in the switch arrangement I'm all ears. However I DO want to keep that switch lead because I envision one operator servicing the industries above the yard while a yard master carries out his job simultaneously.

If you remove the RH switch from the mainline that connects to the slip and replace the slip with it, you could still switch the yard by using the lead. It would still be a well designed yard too.

A train would arrive from the left and the locomotive would use the escape at the far right and head for servicing. Or, it could run around the train and possibly switch the industries. Your yard switcher would have to be parked somewhere on the ladder until the arriving locomotive detaches and begins to work its other assignment.

Since this is a switching layout, its possible the locomotive may occasionally arrive to the yard by pushing a train. It could either head for servicing or begin switching the industries, and again, your yard switcher would be parked on the ladder until the other locomotive reached its assignment.

The angle of the crossover between the lead and the main on the left side makes the yard work well. Simply reverse the angle of that crossover and the lead becomes useless since you couldn't pull an arriving train onto it without backing onto the main again first.

As it stands now, that slip allows the yard goat to assemble a train and place it on one of the tracks, either the main or what kind of looks like the longest ladder track. The arriving train would pull onto whatever track is unoccupied and the switcher could break it down while the departing train sits and waits for clearance. The slip allows either track to be available to accept a train. Having separate arrival and departure trains occupying a yard at the same time represents a more robust railroad than what you probably want.

You only need one arrival track, the main, since a branchline's operation is less active. Again, just replace the slip with a RH turnout and eliminate the RH turnout that now connects the main to the slip and you s/b set.

 

[kevin58]

@Doughless: I took your advice on replacing the slip switch. I took the RH turnout going into the slip and moved it into that position.

I am looking at that Montpellier Junction yard you posted Stein and it is basically an upside down version of the one I have drawn. Except I have the two turnouts connecting the main to the yard lead (and vise versa) reversed. I am going to turn mine around as in the illustration you posted.

Pic provided. Oval shows where the slip switch was replaced and the arrow points to the two LH turnouts that have been replaced with RH turnouts.

 

[Doughless]

@Doughless: I took your advice on replacing the slip switch. I took the RH turnout going into the slip and moved it into that position.

I am looking at that Montpellier Junction yard you posted Stein and it is basically an upside down version of the one I have drawn. Except I have the two turnouts connecting the main to the yard lead (and vise versa) reversed. I am going to turn mine around as in the illustration you posted.

Pic provided. Oval shows where the slip switch was replaced and the arrow points to the two LH turnouts that have been replaced with RH turnouts.

Kevin.

Yes that is how I would replace the slip. I would have left the crossover the way it was. Edit: Or you could flip the escape crossover on the right and use the track that's second from the top as the arrival. Might be better yet.

Nothing is perfect here. A branchline would probably just use the main as a lead, so the yard itself is a bit out of place. You want a separate operator for the yard, of course. And you'll have to switch the industries by using the main. That's okay for a branch line, and maybe even unavoidable for a busier railroad.

If you want to switch the yard and industries from the lead (not sure you do) you could try to flip the yard, so both the yard tracks and industry tracks are on the same side of the main, as opposed to opposite sides now. You'll have to adjust the curve over by the town as the mainline arrives into the yard. Use the same basic design of the yard. That's just a suggestion.

It looks like you have enough understanding of the software and how the yard works to maybe experiment with it.

You may also want to consider leaving the length of the yard and arrival track the same as it was and just reduce the capacity of the yard by eliminating one or two of the classification/storage tracks.

 

[ctclibby]

Good ideas above. You might think about the below. Replaces two turnouts with the doubleslip, but more importantly the yard and associated stuff gain one turnout in length.

 

[steinjr]

I am looking at that Montpellier Junction yard you posted Stein and it is basically an upside down version of the one I have drawn. Except I have the two turnouts connecting the main to the yard lead (and vise versa) reversed. I am going to turn mine around as in the illustration you posted.

Montpelier also does not have a dedicated caboose track next to the yard ladder, and is smaller - only two single ended yard tracks. I think the yard you have there (based on my take of David Popp's Waterbury yard) still looks more like a classification yard than as a small auxiliary yard.

Here is e.g an example of a small yard:

Doesn't have engine servicing for a number of engines, or dedicated space for cabooses - just a couple of tracks where a cut of cars can be left and the cars in a train can be sorted into order.

Lots of ways of doing things. Just go with whatever tickles your fancy.

Grin
Stein