Track planning for mainline operation

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J

julienjj

Noodle is good
I finaly made the floor plan of my new train room. I want to have a layout focused on mainline operation, ex.: giving priority to passenger over a freight, traffic management and the like. I have a few ideas but i lack the experience:o to make an interesting and realistic trackplan containing the following:

-2 passenger station
-1 or 2 undertable hidden staging to keep unused train assembled
-1 yard (for showing off and do a little switching)
-Mainline should be able to continuous running with the removable bridge(see plan)

I model modern equipment, HO scale, so a minimum radius of 22" is mandatory, switches will also be NMRA standard #6 ( I make them myself with a fastrack jigs)

The room has electrical equipment in the back,so a small corridor is needed behind the layout, and a liftout section is needed to give a free acces to the breaker box. Because of this, the layout will be build on its own legs and will be able to be pulled further backward in case service is needed to the electrical equipment. the workbench area can be shortened by 2.5 feet, and the track can also go over it for a couple feet because the layout will be higher than the bench. I'd like if the yard was close to the workbench

Any help for the design would be GREATLY appreciated, from a little draft made on the corner of the table, to some CAD plan :)
 
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Mmm - I think you are overly optimistic. You have about 7 feet x 11 feet in that part of the room. Minus a 16" wide strip, minus a walkway (which should be 24" wide minimum) - so let's say the area you actually have available for a layout is a about 4' 4" x 11 feet.

If you want passenger trains and longish rides, I would suggest you put your workbench along the right hand wall, switch to N scale, and build a nice big walk-in empire along the left wall of the room and lower wall, with a long peninsula with a loopback curve from the bottom wall up towards the center of the room.

Smile,
Stein
 


You are asking for a lot in a very small space. Your best bet is to model one station with the main track leading out both ends to staging.

If I was to use this space I would move the wide section to the front and make the scene the front sections and parts of each side and the make the entire back half of the layout staging yards to hold trains, that will run onto visible front portion, do work, meet other trains, etc.

The front scene could also incorporate a junction or interchange for added activity.
 
I dont have limited space. I can use all the room, the grey area was to give a rought idea of how i would make the bridge for continuous running. Let say that the left section is 8 foot long, and the right one is 9 feet, all the table are 26" deep. the layout will likely be 48 inch tall, and can go over the workbench. I forgot to mention, im in HO scale.
 
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Even if you have the entire room, you still have limited space. I have a 12x 23 foot room and it definitely has limitations. 8-)

Assuming you can use the entire room except for the area along the back wall that gives you a space about 16 x 11.5 ft or 184 sq feet.

If you assume benchwork 24" deep and a minimum of 36" aisles, that means a running foot of main track is 42" deep or 3.5 sq feet. That translates to a roughly 50 ft main track. If you go with 48" min aisles that raises it to 4 sq ft per running ft of main so the upper bound of main track length is about 45 ft. That gives you an idea of roughly the maximum length of your main track you can fit in the room.

Next think about the "standard" length of your train. A siding with be 2 ft longer than that standard length. So lets say you want a standard train to be about 10 feet long, that makes a siding about 12 ft long. Your main track is roughly 4 train length long. If you assume a minimum of one train length between sidings, that gives you space for about 2 sidings. If one of those sidings is incorporated in the yard, yards tend to be longer than sidings. Your railroad will have a yard and the first siding outside the yard on one side.

From a single track dispatching standpoint that's not a lot to do, so the one siding isn't gaining you much.

Even if you double track the layout, you gain capacity but you will still end up only 3 or 4 "control points", sets of crossovers. So the trains will even move faster.

My suggestion is to put a large staging yard along the wall with the electrical equipment. Since its staging, it doesn't need a backdrop and all the equipment is more accessible. Then build one larger station/town/junction/yard/place/etc. that is a scene that is 24-30" deep and is U shaped or almost diagonal across the room. It would involve a yard where there is a junction with another branch or subdivision. Both ends of the mains and the branch would run into staging, which would have 10-12 tracks in it.

There would be one or two road operators, a branch operator, a yardmaster/switch crew and a tower operator. Operations would be the yard originating or terminating trains off the branch and exchaning blocks between trains to and from the branch and the main, with the yardmaster running the yard, the switcher, if separate, working industries and building trains, the tower operator directing the movements of the trains.
 
Would you be able to make a quick sketch ? i dont get the design youre suggesting, i'm kinda visual :D

I just ordered myself a copy of what some people would call the bible of MRR; Track planning for realistic operation
 
I'm starting to think that a folded dogbone might be a better choice for my room. it is possible to move the workbench to the bottom wall or across the room, next to the door, freeing the layout from clearing the breaker panel
 
Avoiding duckunders and liftouts is really a plus, especially when there is as much room as you're dealing with. It's not difficult to create a layout with peninsulas large enough to turn a train around with that kind of space.

The attached image is a rough idea using your previously posted image as a base.
 


For my initial planning I found and downloaded a free track planning program called:
XTrackCAD (4.0.3a)
Although it has its limitations, Its a great tool for planning.
Again its free and very easy to use and I do believe after my experiences
It would assist you greatly.

Anyway only my sugestion.

regards

Alan
 
I tried many time to use it, but i find it rought edged; many feature does not support to undo the last step, so if you click something wrong, you have to start over. I tried SCARM this week thought, and wow, it was working very nicely !
 
Like I said it worked for me.
You have found something that works for you.
So go forth, go to it and nough said......

Love to see the end result of your endevours..

Best regards

Alan
 
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