Need Some Design Help


KB02

Well-Known Member
Rail traffic is just about ready to start rolling on the whistle stop RR again, but I now I need somewhere for it go. I need some help with the operations side of my design. I've got a pretty blank slate, and I've been looking at shelf layouts designs and I just don't know enough to plan this out myself. Anyone willing to offer suggestions?

Here's what I've got so far (HO Scale):
Operations.jpg


The "Top" section, as you look at it, is 14" wide and is accessed by an 18"r curve. It will be mostly GP's servicing this area, so radius can be sharp like that.
The bottom section has just come out of a tunnel and under a bridge but has a lot of real estate to play with once it gets there..
The section on the right highlighted in Green is the lift up section. Really don't want any structures there, but another track would be fine. Again, 18"r curves are no problem.

I'm open to just about any kind of industry (fantasy layout), My thought was to put a backdrop of an industry long wall on the top with loading docks or covered load areas sticking out from it. Just can't quite figure out how to make that happen.
 
I don't have a good grasp of what you're trying to do. To me, the space is quite small, eminently more suited to N scale. It's just my opinion, of course. You don't have any room for grades, unless it is a dead end and not part of a loop. Your already tight curves are apparently, as depicted, too close to the edges of your bench for most of us with any time in the hobby.
 
The main issue I see is the lift up , the cuts are going right thru the frogs almost . My experience with liftups is their a pain , assuming your using wood , wood always swells and moves and shrinks even in air conditioned environment and you want to have as few rails crossing it as possible. Temp changes will cause the rails to move as well and since you dont have joiners to keep them alighned on the lift / swing section . Any time I have ever seen a lift /swing section on a layout , they eventually got bolted down , especially if the environment is uncontrolled , like a garage .

if it were me , I would do away with the lift up and use the bottom tracks as industry and the 2% grade track to service industries at the top .
if you keep the loop? 18"R is pretty tight ,and I would stick with switchers drive shaft binding forces will be less and engine handling consequently should be a little better.

I am assuming that line that goes across the lift is not a mainline. Its hard to make good recommendations without knowing the entire context.
 
Spent a little time looking at the layout this morning and trying to come up with an idea - Sometimes you just need a good night's sleep.

Could I get some thoughts on this?
Operations2.jpg


In the foreground is one of those Scenic Railroad destination stations. Along the back track will be a gravel industry loading shed and a storage track. In front of that will be a small engine house for the local GP that services the Gravel industry.

Makes use of the space, gives me some scenarios to play with... thoughts?
 
I guess I'm somewhat ambivalent because of the apparently unfinished business at extreme left. Why is your track dangling without any support? What will be there?

The rest looks okay, if it meets your needs.

There is a way to make a perfectly reliable liftout, and its not a great deal of work, or terribly complicated. All you need are some common L-brackets that you might find for cabinetry, two small lengths of 1X2 for support blocks at the entrance, some 1/2" wood screws for contacts, and some wire. I built a liftout to access to the above-garage layout through a sliding door. It was a loft meant for grand-kids. We were able to have a layout in the loft, and then several things changed, including getting grandsons. We moved. But that liftout provided 100% reliability, both mechanically and electrically, for three years.

If you'd like more information, I could explain here, or we could do it off line via pm...your call.
 
I guess I'm somewhat ambivalent because of the apparently unfinished business at extreme left. Why is your track dangling without any support? What will be there?

The rest looks okay, if it meets your needs.

The tracks that lead off on the left and right of the picture go to the rest of the layout. I started with a 4x8 and turned it into an around the room layout. This section was the original 4x8 that has been rebuilt to make it more "useful" rather than having a bunch of circles.
 
too small. for example, the two sidings in the corners, you can park one boxcar in each. If you have a magnetic uncoupling device it will be hard to recouple .
The turnout in the foreground serves no purpose without a lead track to the left.

Are we looking at a small section of a bigger layout? Some track goes off the platform!
 
Are we looking at a small section of a bigger layout? Some track goes off the platform!
Yes.
The is the actual space (probably should have posted this earlier... my bad...)
49845166241_8494d3f84b_z.jpg

Lighting improvements ARE on the schedule.

I'm actually thinking now that maybe I should play a bit with a Double Crossover on the right side (over the lift up).
 



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