Track plan help - opinions welcome

[RobA2345]

On 10/02/2021 at 19:32, 9C85 said:

 

This thread has got me thinking. 

 

I have knocked up a plan hopefully meeting the brief. The thicker line is the arrivals/departure road which will be used by your 20 on a 'Speedlink' type service. 

 

The Goods Out sidings can be either fully or semi enclosed in  a warehouse, or fully exposed. 

 

The siding parallel to the arrivals line could be extended to make a loop, if you have the space. 

 

You asked about doing something with the bottom left corner.  You could have a fuel/powdered goods arrival for the same industry, with perhaps a conveyor/pipeline  leading over the track to the factory. 

 

Tankers would be a good choice to go along with your vans as you wouldn't have to worry about having 'empties' and 'fulls' arriving and departing. 

 

The main thing to note is that the bulk of the track is at an angle to the edge of the baseboard, and ideally it should have a gentle curve, which I think looks more pleasing than having dead straight track bang parallel to the baseboard edge.

 

I will follow this thread with interest.

 

Enjoy the build!

 

Hey @9C85 Something is not sitting right with my plan at all so I'm re-reading the thread to look over the suggestions again and put yours into AnyRail. Is this what you was thinking?

I definitely prefer the angled track. If so I'll plug it into TrainPlayer and see if it works operationally. I don't see why not though.

Note the line down the middle is a baseboard join so I can't have any pointwork crossing it.

[Nearholmer]

Those two sidings bottom left would be really annoying to shunt, because there is barely enough room for a loco and a wagon beyond the three-way point. Personally, I would go for a single siding there, and put the turnout to it to the left of the baseboard join. Having one siding there would un-crowd things a bit too.

[RobA2345]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Those two sidings bottom left would be really annoying to shunt, because there is barely enough room for a loco and a wagon beyond the three-way point. Personally, I would go for a single siding there, and put the turnout to it to the left of the baseboard join. Having one siding there would un-crowd things a bit too.

 

I see what you mean about the space before the 3-way, good spot.

When you say 

Quote

put the turnout to it to the left of the baseboard join

Do you mean put the 3-Way point on the left board?
 

[Nearholmer]

I was thinking something like this (excuse literal back of envelope sketch).

 

 

[Nearholmer]

On 10/02/2021 at 17:49, Dungrange said:

There would be a home signal to the left of the layout that would control access to the yard (from your fiddle yard).

 

I don't think that is necessarily the case at all.

 

Acess to your yard might be controlled by a shunt signal if it tees off from a signalled main line, or it could have no signal at all if it tees off from a non-signalled, non-passenger line.

[RobA2345]

46 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I was thinking something like this (excuse literal back of envelope sketch).

 

 

No I really appreciate any help a simple sketch is perfect. I came up with this before I checked replies and looks like I'm on the right lines. I have an extra siding on the right in mine.

I already have the points built so if you're wondering why I have a 3-way and seem determined to make use of it 

 

[Nearholmer]

Somewhere in a US track planning book years ago I read the advice about switching/shunting layouts ‘keep you loop short and your sidings long’ and it does seem to make for more ‘shuntable’ layouts, while leaving plausible space for loading.

 

How many wagons do you want to be able to run-round though? And, do you envisage long bogie wagons?

[RobA2345]

9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Somewhere in a US track planning book years ago I read the advice about switching/shunting layouts ‘keep you loop short and your sidings long’ and it does seem to make for more ‘shuntable’ layouts, while leaving plausible space for loading.

 

How many wagons do you want to be able to run-round though? And, do you envisage long bogie wagons?

this is why I initially had the runaround long because I’m modelling a Speedlink type layout and it’s all longer wheel based vans. VBAs etc. I’d say loco plus 3 at a minimum, I want 4 but I’m willing to sacrifice this for a better track plan. I can shorten the headshunt a little and just see what works.

[RobA2345]

3 weekends and a few stolen weekday hours later and track has been removed, rebuilt and re-laid. The 3-way point has been corrected to be 1:6, 1:9, 1:8 with curviform crossings where required and it runs well with no doglegs. There are a couple of gremlins I need to fix but other than that I'm happy with it. Thanks for the feedback on here everyone. I'll do a layout writeup going forward in the Layouts section.

[DCB]

I will be interested to hear if it is satisfying to shunt.   It only looks like you can run round a couple of bogie vehicles or 5 four wheelers. Nowhere to put incoming wagons while shunting the outgoing.  Many GWR branch termini has very long loops around 40 wagons so a whole train could be stored on one road while the outgoing train was assembled.  Mine only holds four coaches or 15 wagons or so but I end up shunting rafts of 20 plus wagons as I have a long main line as a headshunt.  Diametrically opposite way of doing it.

[Nearholmer]

Again, I think a lot depends upon the status of this place.

 

I’m reading it (perhaps wrongly) not as a BLT, but a yard serving a couple of industries, and with that in mind, the incoming ‘train’ might be propelled, a shunt rather than a running move, and would probably consist merely of the ‘cut’ being delivered, possibly without a brake van in “pre-continuous” days, and possibly with the wagons running “with the strings pulled” in more modern times.

[RobA2345]

1 hour ago, DCB said:

I will be interested to hear if it is satisfying to shunt.   It only looks like you can run round a couple of bogie vehicles or 5 four wheelers. Nowhere to put incoming wagons while shunting the outgoing.  Many GWR branch termini has very long loops around 40 wagons so a whole train could be stored on one road while the outgoing train was assembled.  Mine only holds four coaches or 15 wagons or so but I end up shunting rafts of 20 plus wagons as I have a long main line as a headshunt.  Diametrically opposite way of doing it.

 

Compared to what I pulled up I don't think it will be less satisfying in its new form.  8 feet at 4mm scale is just not a lot of room and if the worst comes to the worst you still have an Inglenook type siding arrangement for arranging an outgoing train but again the max length of a train is 8 long  wheel based wagons. I imagined it would be bringing in short trains with more sidings off scene for storing wagons over long periods. 

 

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Again, I think a lot depends upon the status of this place.

 

I’m reading it (perhaps wrongly) not as a BLT, but a yard serving a couple of industries, and with that in mind, the incoming ‘train’ might be propelled, a shunt rather than a running move, and would probably consist merely of the ‘cut’ being delivered, possibly without a brake van in “pre-continuous” days, and possibly with the wagons running “with the strings pulled” in more modern times.

 

I had to Google what a BLT was but yes its definitely not for any passenger services or stock. I want to do that at some point in the future but it would have to be 2mm scale. There will be a warehouse at the far end for Speedlink type services.