The Rock Ridge and Train City "Final" Plan

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SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
Well, I think this is getting close to final. I'll still take suggestions right up until the cookie cutters go up.

Notes:

1. You can't see it well, but the main out of Train City goes underground, behind the trestle, along the side wall and emerges at Rock Ridge in the lower right.

2. The Trestle is 3.75" above the track in the tunnel. The grade rises at exactly 2%. Going counterclockwise, the falling grade is 1.56%.

3. The rear track is above Train City about 2.5 inches or so. I plan about an 18" trestle through Train City such that you can see through. On the other side there will be false front buildings and a painted backdrop to make it appear that the bulk of Train City is on the other side of the tracks.

4. There is one building below the main in Train City, the station/Wells Fargo Office. Along the left side of the building is the road going out of town. The road winds down Rock Ridge Canyon and crosses the river at the base of the trestle. It then winds up the other side, under a small trestle to the far side of Rock Ridge in front of the mine.

5. The Engine house in Train City is way too large for my old time engines. I'm going to bash it down at least so that it is equal in length to the car repair shop below it.

6. The 3=stall roundhouse in staging is part of the false front buildings that scenic the area. However, the track will extend behind the wall for engine storage.

7. The two industry tracks in Train City are a cattle ramp and a brewery.

8. The Rock Ridge area is a module from the old layout.

9. Rock Ridge Canyone is a series of waterfalls. It runs from eye-level to high knee or low thigh high.

10. The narrow isle is for access only. Think of it as an opened ended access panel. It will not be used for operations.

11. For those of you that have been following this plan's development, the two changes are extending the staging to the end of the wall and re-inserting the switcher pocket.

The plan:

rockridge10b.gif
 

IronBeltKen

Lazy Daydreamer
A most interesting plan, I really like that in-the-wall roundhouse! I have a few questions though:

1) Your staging area seems as if it is an extension of Train City [of course I know it isn't supposed to be]; how do you plan to keep the two visually separated? Or does the operator at one have his back turned to the other?

2) What exactly do the magenta tracks represent - hidden areas?
 

SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
A most interesting plan, I really like that in-the-wall roundhouse! I have a few questions though:

1) Your staging area seems as if it is an extension of Train City [of course I know it isn't supposed to be]; how do you plan to keep the two visually separated? Or does the operator at one have his back turned to the other?

Well, that's a long story. I started out as visible staging, but coming out of the wall from the hidden area. Totally separted. Then, as the plan developed more, Josh suggested I connect the visible part of the wye. I resisted and several people pointed out that anyone who didn't know model railroading was going to ask why my staging wasn't sceniced. If I was going to scenic it anyway, then I might as well connect it and make it a working yard as well as staging.

Rarely will anyone else besides me operate this, and I know it's staging.

[/quote]2) What exactly do the magenta tracks represent - hidden areas?[/QUOTE]

The color means that I did not acheive the minimum 18" radius. The same thing happened over on the Rock Ridge Module. As it happens the Rock Ridge Module is 18" sectional track, but the program wouldn't let me place the turnouts the way they are needed to acheive it.

The same thing happened on the wye. The radius of the magenta piece is 16.9 inches. I know I can get 18, because it is the same issue as over on Rock Ridge. So I left it. Even is I can only get 16.9, though, my short-dog engines can handle it.
 

grove den

naturally natural trees
Chip Very nice and clever design!
Just like Steve and KenL I too like the "trick" with the Roundhouse and also the 18"trestle above train City where you can look through!
I think you got the best out of it now!!


Jos
 

SpaceMouse

Fun Lover
So, how much of the suggestions from the LDSIG folks did you end up using?

:D

Kennedy

In retrospect, I might not have posted the letter I sent to Joe. People responded out of a sense of obligation and were a little ticked off. To a person, they didn't read my notes and commented on things that, had they read them, might have taken a different tact. They missed the fact that there was a tunnel that connected the two cities, making a loop and operations actually possible.

That said, they pointed out that I had forgotten to "fix" my yard and that it wasn't working. But Dave H. pointed that out before the "letter."

After that settled down, I reposted the plan with, instead of the notes, I labeled in magenta, the factors that they did not read from the notes and got two more comments. Dave H. pointed out that it could be operated and told me how--pretty much exactly how I had envisioned it.

George however, I forget his last name, hit a home run. Since I designed and built the room, I had planned to build the layout such that the layout and staging were in the same room, but visually separated, by the fact that the track left the room and came back into the staging area.

There was fundamental flaw of the layout. Even though the Train City yard was small, it served the function of interchange yard and all the locals would come from this area. The problem is, that there were only three industries in the two towns.

George pointed this out and suggested I use the current staging area for industrial switching. It was an obvious a solution, but I was so locked into seeing that as staging I totally missed it. I was able to find another space for staging. I'm thinking now that I will get 5-6 industries in that area.

See the post, Rock Ridge and Train City--Curveball--need help.
 




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