Testing a new plan for my dad...


Here we go, its a double loop, with some grades (3%+ !!), but no matter, the hills in the region he's modeling call for grades.

View attachment 4958
Open the image, then read...

  • The narrow town area will be to the upper left now, along with the roundhouse.
  • The mine is the spur in the bottom middle.
  • The trains pass clockwise through town to the top middle.
  • The milling being the upper right, the single diagonal spur becomes the tipple (high ground).
  • The yard begins here, looping along the right wall, its single ended, mostly for storage...
  • The mainline disappears behind a tree line, downgrade, to pop out on the drop down bridge, "under" the yard.
  • The mainline the reappears behind the roundhouse.
  • It then passes by the lower portion of the mill, and the copper load out track.
  • Then, looping back around, upgrade, crossing on the inner drop down bridge, climbing past the mine again.
  • The "shoe-fly" track climbs from the roundhouse, to the yard.
  • The difference in height will be about 4-7", enough to hide tracks, yet still be able to get to them from below if a derailment should occur.
  • The front edge of the layout, near the mill will have some water modeled, as the stamp mills used ALOT of water...
 
Hai Josh,

By not disturbing the trains on the mainline : is it a better idea to connect the roudhouse tracks with the tracks far on the left side of the layout, the second track, and crosses the mainline under it..??( look/watch attachment)

Whatdo you think of the part at the top( red circle) Will it be to steep?on that short distance...
Just 2 thoughts...:eek:
Jos
 
Hai Josh,

By not disturbing the trains on the mainline : is it a better idea to connect the roudhouse tracks with the tracks far on the left side of the layout, the second track, and crosses the mainline under it..??( look/watch attachment)
The little gap will be fine, as this its not a 100% final plan. I like the thought of moving the roundhouse/turn table, however then it leaves only the mill's load out on the lower section, which will see boring, to me. It being there already throws the problem of, having to loop though a "filler" section of the layout to get to it, as the backside, downgrade from the mine would be odd, bending a "real" idea, so the disappearing mainline works the best, wonder if I can add a loop somehow.
Whatdo you think of the part at the top( red circle) Will it be to steep?on that short distance...
Just 2 thoughts...:eek:
Jos
Yeah, that thought is OUT, figured that one out about 20 mins after the post. 11%!!!
 
Oh wow, if I moved the roundhouse up, I can add a down grade section from the town down to the mill... I'll try that.
 
Here we go! TRIPLE LOOP! I think I got it down now.

Click the image, then read:
View attachment 5141

Triple Loop:
We'll start our tour on the BLUE line, in the upper left, and we'll be traveling clockwise (RR east). This corner becomes the town, it'll be multi-leveled as the inner most track is on a lower lever (YELLOW). We're starting at the location of a small Station. As we head east, we go into a hidden track, as it disappears, it heads downgrade. After looping the layout's right & lower sides, we reappear in town again, thus entering the YELLOW line. We continue, passing the Stamp Mill's load out (GRAY spur), then head into another hidden track. When we reappear again, we're heading upgrade to pass next to the yard (PURPLE/MAGENTA), then the stub spur to the Turntable & 3/4 stall Roundhouse (TAN). Now we enter the RED line, in town, yet again. This line becomes the freight passing track for station activities (hence the GRAY crossovers). The big GRAY spur to the top, is the tipple to unload the unprocessed copper ore. Now we enter a short tunnel. This tunnel cuts through a tree covered ridge, which serves as a view block for photos and during operating sessions. To the right wall we see another GRAY spur, this is the copper mine. The RED line tracks are between the shaft house and the hoist house, with hoist cables overhead. Now we pass a long GRAY passing siding, this is where mine trains pass each other. Now we've completed the 3rd loop.

Operating Sessions:
"Empty" mine trains run clockwise out of the yard, pulling until they clear the crossover just south of town. There they enter "push mode", with a caboose on the rear, pushing counter-clockwise to the mine. Empties are spotted between the mine & hoist house, loads are then picked up. The train will then pull the empties, and spot them on the spur, then return to the main to pick up the caboose. The return trip is now made in "pull" mode (I opted for this, for 3 reasons: 1 he's modeling a mine run in hilly terrain, thus a lack of "space" for more trackage; 2 operating "difficulty" there needed to be something harder to do; 3 cabooses in modern railroading are rare).

The loaded ore train passes through town, staying on the RED line. Just east of town, it stops, the engines run around to the rear of the train, and then push the loads onto the tipple. They can opt to pull, but must have a short train (1-2 cars). The engine & caboose can now return to the yard.

The "load out" trains head downhill from the yard, to the mill, picking up loads, and leaving empties as needed. Copper is shipped by Gondola or Boxcar. Then the train heads out to the blue line looping around, to return to town from the east. Here's an area that might change, I should create a run around of some sort, allowing the train to return on the YELLOW line. Thus leaving the BLUE line as the "interchange". I think I might be able to squeeze in another small industry too, facing the other direction.

More images below, whatcha all think!?
 



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