2'x15' yard ideas...

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CbarM

CbarM

HO all the way!
Well I am pretty well to the point now of laying track permenantly on my layout. I have the benchwork, pink styrofoam glued to it, and I have 2 strips of Woodland Scenics foam trackbed glued to that for my dual mainline. The allowable space I have for my yard is 2' x 15'. The east end has 27" and 24.5" radius coming off the end and the west end will be strait track off the yard. My dual mains run along the back of my benchwork and the yard will be in front. Can somebody help me with a trackplan of what I can do with this useable space?
My total layout space is 12x33' with a peninsula that comes out 11' for more mainline run. I would like to run trains of 25 or more cars and I realize that they wont fit in the yard, but a couple run thru tracks would be great to do some switching...
 
Have you considered using curved switches? If you start the yard [lead] on the curve, each track will probably be 6-12" longer than if the switch is located at the end of the straight(tangent) track. Pecco makes a 'large radius' curved switch, which has a 28" radius on the inner track, and about 60" on the outer. Walther's and several other firms make a #6, 7, and maybe 8 curved switch, also. If you mount the switch machines under the layout/roadbed, side clearance shouldn't be any problem.

Hope this helps.
 
I thought of using a curved switch as a yard lead off the inner mainline, but the problem there is that the inner radius is about 24.5" and so then I would pretty well need a long custom made switch, or get stuck with a 20" radius turn and I dont think my 8-40's and 89' auto decks would like that...
All my mainline switches are #8's and my yard and backtrack switches are going to be #6's
 


Here are some pics that i just took that might help you guys know what I am lookin to do. I have the roadbed for both mainlines down and I would like to swing a good sized yard off as close to the inside curve as possible...
 
You have about the same looking yard as we are going to have. We are using peco insulfrog #5 code 83 turnouts and just spurring them off one another until we get a decent number of tracks (I wish we could use #4's but peco doesnt make them in #4's for code 83 :( ) The curved turnout is a good idea if your radii match up. We couldnt do that because as previously stated, the curve is a big radius and it would be to big for our 22" mainline. Something we are doing is having a turn table and roundhouse at one end of the yard with fuel pumps and sanding towers and maybe an engine shed if it fits, and a intermodal line on the farthest siding, so maybe that will give you some ideas. Also, we are about to put down the WS roadbed like you have, what did you use to glue it? We have ruined alot of foam using glues we were told and thought were safe for it, and glues that just didnt work, and dont want to mess up again lol
 
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Here is something I just whipped up on windows paint...let me know what you all think....anything I should change?
 
Hey Trainfan...sounds good! Most of my motive power is SD40-2's and Dash 8-40's, with my 6 geeps that will be used mainly in the yard and local assignments. My rolling stock is mostly intermodal (double stacks/89' auto decks) and grain. My tightest curve is going to be the inside curve to the yard lead and its 24.5" R to help keep things running smooth. I really like how flexible this WS roadbed is, and its alot cheaper then the cork...at least from our LHS ($12/roll). I used just regular ol Elmers white glue to tack it down to the styrofoam and used long (3/4") track spikes to puch thru the foam to hold the curves in place and then put blocks of wood overtop to hold it down while the glue set up. I think I will just leave the track spikes in there, they are hardly noticeable and will be invisible once the ballast is laid. I did alot of mine last night n this morning it was good n dry. I did some this morning (inside loop) and within about 4 hrs it was pretty well set up. Good luck...let us now how yours turns out...
 
CbarM said:
Here is something I just whipped up on windows paint...let me know what you all think....anything I should change?
Click to expand...

Well, it looks as if you've drawn it with a frog angle of 17 degrees, which is equivalent to about a #3.5 turnout. In other words, not build-able as drawn, sorry.

Yard throats take a lot of length -- more than you've shown. Double-ended yards are thus real space hogs and create very short yard tracks in the space you are using.

A compound yard ladder would help, but the tracks will likely still be shorter than you hope.

Depending on what the rest of the layout looks like and what you need the yard to do, using just one or two double-ended tracks and leaving the rest single-ended might help.

Yards can look really different depending on their purpose relative to the rest of the layout.

Best of luck.

Byron
 
Diagram looks good, but they are right, it does eat up alot of space quickly. For example,(Im gonna try not to confuse everyone lol) we are using #5 turnouts, and to get the spacing between rails in the yard at 2.5", the turnouts are about 10" apart from one another. So to have 3 tracks 2.5" apart, you will have lost 30" of distance since the first turnout by the third track. I hope that made sense lol. And yours will be a bit longer since you are using #6's. Now this is just on our layout, others might be a little tighter or different, but this is generally what we noticed. That is why we are only having 3 or 4 yard tracks, with the farthest being the intermodal. Because if we just continued the ladder until we used up our 3 feet, the last track would probably be about a foot long lol. Something I would do, like we did, is just get a few turnouts (if you already have them even better) and just play around with spacing until you figure out what you like. Alot of members use Xcad i think its called, to get correctly scaled track layouts, so you might consider using that as well to see if your ideas work. Best of luck and let us know what you decide!
 
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Actually, what you might consider is a drill track for your switcher to work the yard. Take your longest train or cut of cars that you would be shuffling with your switcher and add a stub end track the length of the cut of cars for the switcher to hack into instead of using the yard feed off the mainline. This keeps traffic moving on the main line and keeps the yard throat clear while you are switching
 
Well thanks for the info guys, really helpful. I didnt really measure anything on the diagram I posted, it was just sort of what I had envisioned. I do have about a dozen of each L and R #6's and I sure like the compound yard ladder idea. I think you are right on Trainfan when you say to play around with it first...I think that will be my project tonight...right after I get bored playing with my new air brush!!
 
OK...1 more thing before I get to soldering track...in the diagram I made up again (not to scale) on windows paint, should there be a crossover on each side of the yard lead so a train can jump from the outer main to the inner main to access the yard going either direction?
 
The most important point is to have a clear understanding of what you want to do in your yard.

What is the purpose of your yard? Is it to hold whole trains until they make their run - i.e to function like staging?

Is it to be a place for passing trains to exchange blocks (groups) of cars - i.e. drop of cars and pick up cars - say a small yard where two railroad exchange (interchange) cars?

Is it to an efficient sorting/routing point - where cars will be coming on trains from several directions, and be sorted into blocks going out in several directions - i.e. to be a classification yard?

Is it to be a local yard - essentially work space for a local crew sorting the cars in their train in preparation for taking the train out and serving local industries?

Is it a place to collect coal cars from several mines before putting together a train to take the cars down towards the coast, or where cars with different grades of iron ore are held until it is time to load an ore ship - a marshaling yard of some kind?

Is it a place where commuter trains are parked between the morning rush hour and the afternoon rush hour, or where passenger cars are taken to be cleaned and restocked before their next run - i.e a coach yard or something like that?

Is it a place where trains swap power, going from the plains into the mountains or the other way around, or where trains will stop for engine servicing - coal/fuel/water/sand - i.e. more of an engine terminal or helper base than a freight yard?

You mentioning 89 foot auto racks. Is your yard a car destination of some kind - a place where cars are actually loaded and unloaded, rather than a place where cars are just sorted or held for a while - like an intermodal (container) yard or a loading point for auto racks by a car factory, or a distribution point for cars - where cars are transferred from railroad cars to trucks?

There are many types of yards. Having a clue about what you want to model is a good idea.

Likewise, it is smart to have an idea about the mechanics - how many and how long trains will be coming into the yard per operating session? How many cars will be coming in before some cars go out?

How many destinations will you need to build blocks for at the same time? Will other trains be passing by the yard while you are sorting cars in the yard?

Can't recall if you explicit have stated what scale you are in, but I expect H0, based on your curve radii.

Here is e.g. a small 12 foot plan I drew up for a friend for a small end of the line terminal mainly for containers and auto racks:

30w837q.jpg


Note how few auto racks will fit in 12 feet of space, in H0 scale, each 89' car is about one foot long.

If you need to be able to switch 6 auto racks from one track to another - i.e. pull them forward past a switch, throw the switch, and then push them into another track, you need 13 feet of length - six for the tracks holding the auto rack, one for the crossover between the tracks, and six for a lead.

Smile,
Stein
 
OK...here is what I did last night n forgot to take a pic of it. Its a compound yard ladder like another posters previous diagram here but with one extra outside track...what do ya all think?? I would like my yard to be able to hold trains for dispatch, possibly set up a small intermodal terminal at one end, and also be able to build trains from local industries for shipment across the subdivision...hope that clears it up some...
Yes, this is HO scale!!
 
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That is lookin really good! It looks like it saves more space than just a single ladder. This has me thinkin we might possibly redo our idea.....hmmm
 
Yea after lookin at this compared to how I had it before I even put the foam down this saves ALOT of space. I really like this set up and I think that I will be goin with this. Only problem is that all the Atlas turnout throws are on the wrong side for this end and presently they are jammed into the ties of the adjacent track. I will have to cut em off n glue em to the other side to attatch my ground throws. The 1 track that comes off the main right after the yard ladder....should that one have roadbed under it? I want to have my yard right down on the pink foam, so how do I go about doing a medium incline so as not to bind switches, and also to avoid uncouplings there...
 
CbarM said:
OK...1 more thing before I get to soldering track...in the diagram I made up again (not to scale) on windows paint, should there be a crossover on each side of the yard lead so a train can jump from the outer main to the inner main to access the yard going either direction?
Click to expand...

How about a crossover beyond the ladder?
This frees up the siding (track 2) and main (track 1) to creates a switch lead.
To get to the main or vise versa there would be a crossover farther down beyond the yard limit.
 
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Well the diagram was just one end of the yard. I am planning to have it very similar at the other end with probably 4 tracks coming into a compound ladder instead of 5, but similar. Do you mean that I should have a crossover on each side of the yard lead and siding at both ends? If so then thats what I was thinking about doing...make it easy access to siding and yard in either direction from either mainline...
The 2 tracks on the foam roadbed are both intended as main lines....just an FYI...
 
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