New On30 Layout.

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Shirley, Is it the Knotty Pine you like? Or, is it the little chest freezer we bought in 1977 that is still going strong after all those years?
 
So, I am going on 3 full months of not actually doing an modeling. This is scary stuff! It has been 33 years since I started the old Northern Pacific Layout and I have forgotten how much carpentry and other skills, go into building a layout. I remember vividly, the first complete round of the three eventual laps I made with a locomotive on the N.P. Layout and how much satisfaction I got from this! Maybe as soon as next week I will start putting down HO flex track in the storage yard and on the sector plate. I estimate I might be two to four weeks away from actually starting to hand lay track in the yard (section one in the CAD drawing).
 


"Scary stuff", because if I hadn't bought a few On30 locos, some On30 freight cars and lumber for the the project, I don't know that I would have started a new layout. At 71 years of age, how far I will get on this project is an unknown. When I made the commitment to get going in On30; however, I felt that this project would probably be better for me health wise than not working on some type of a project.
 
I am about to install the Sector Plate on the yard section and will take a few photos when that happens. I had been thinking I maybe should start a new thread, since I have designed a new layout and am actually starting construction of that layout. However, after looking back at the name of this Topic Title: "Layout Design and Construction" I am in exactly the right place to discuss my build and if anything, maybe my de-construction of the old HO layout was misplaced! As can be the case; at times, I am fully capable of overthinking things! But; I've decided I'm not going to change a thing! I've got seven pages of what I've been up to lately. So, it's onward and upward we go.

I actually started the tear down of my HO layout on December 31st, 2020. So, I'm three months and 11 days since I've ran any rains. That may change very soon, as once I install the sector plate, it will be hooked up to my DCC system and I can test run my locomotives on it.
 
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because you all feel nothing really happens, unless there are photos of it, here are photos proving that my Sector Plate has power to the track: The following is photo of my On30 Climax! The proof that power is working is that the headlight is shinning brightly!

HPIM8604.JPG


This photo shows the same; but, it is my On30 Heisler this time. Note that the sector plat has been positioned differently.

HPIM8605.JPG
 


The Sector Plate is the long box that the locomotives are setting on, in the above photos. Later today I will take better photos showing it in a bit better detail. Essentially, a sector plate is a moveable section of track that will align with however many tracks, as is desired. You could say that it is a Transfer Table that instead of the entire table moving from track to track, pivots from one end and aligns with tracks similar to a Turntable. Per David Popp of Model Railroader Magazine's Trains.com Videos; where I got the idea, Sector Plates are more common on European layouts, where room is at a premium. It's a method of pulling a train; or, loco from a staging yard (Staging Yards).
 
That's cool -- Why didn't he just call it a "staging box"?
Actually, It is a good idea - just a weird name!
One could use it to exchange whole trains in and out - if you built twp or more of them?
 
One of the definitions of a SECTOR is as follows: A geometric figure bounded by two radii and the included arc of a circle. I take this to be shaped like a piece of pie. Getting farther into it, a Sector Plate is defined as: A popular space-saving device is the sector plate — a track or tracks mounted on a board that is pivoted at one end so it can match up with several approaching tracks. ... The left half of the yard is “offstage”, where a sector plate serves the tracks of the runaround loop–invisibly acting as part of the operating pattern.

In the end it really doesn't matter what it's called, it only matters to me how useful it is. I have no problem with calling them a Staging Box, or Cassette. If you Goggle "Sector Plate", there are videos of them in use. Some people will use a sector plate as the staging yard, whereas, I used it for gaining access to my staging yard. David Popp, in his Olympia Logging Layout series Videos used his Sector Plate as a way to access his Staging yard and to access his sawmill level and what he termed the High Line on his layout.
 
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OK, I always understood sector plates and have seen them used before. But why are you having to use one? Why not just build a staging yard there? Or is that just a temporary platform under the chute?
 
The reason I chose to use a sector plate is it allows me to have a staging yard in pretty much the same space as my main yard. If you look at my layout plans posted earlier, you can see how the staging yard and main yard of the layout are all within a 10 foot by 3 foot area. I saw David Popp's layout with a Sector Plate, liked the idea and incorporated it into my new On30 layout. I do have something that needs to get worked out, however! I've used Atlas HO flex track in both my staging yard and on the Sector Plate. But, I am going to Hand Lay all the rest of my exposed trackage. The height of my hand laid track and the Atlas Flex Track do not match, The hand laid track is .060 higher than the Atlas Flex. I have an idea on how to get the tops of the rails even and need to try my idea out. I don't understand what you mean by CHUTE, Willie?
 


The Temporary Platform under the Chute that you refer to is MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard. It has very smooth surfaces that allow the Sector Plate to slide across. That piece of MDF is only 3 foot X 3 foot. Not enough to build a staging yard on. The Sector Plate is almost 4 feet long. I expect to be able to get 4 less than 4 foot long trains or two around 8 foot long trains in Staging on the tracks leading away from the Sector Plate in post 133. Maybe I'm using a Sector Plate because I like to experiment!
 
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