New layout feedback please

[Alan3]

Hi,

 

I would like some feedback on the plan for my new layout please.  I am happy with the grain elevator side of the layout but am still unsure about the other side, especially industry track 6 which I feel may be too much, and would like to get some other opinions on it

 

 

 

 

 

All feedback both positive and negative is welcome

 

Thanks

Alan

[woodenhead]

For me with any layout you need to think what a siding's purpose is - as you've marked them all 'industry' it feels like you haven't decided.

 

Knowing what is going to go onto a siding will determine it's length, distance from other tracks and whether it has a purpose or not.

 

Track 6 could for example run parallel to the main, making it longer and if it was by a factory or warehouse you could have multiple spots to leave wagons alongside doors - the building could then taper into the back wall so a full relief building at the start and tapering to a lower relief at the end.

[simon b]

I think keep track 6 but git rid of track 4, otherwise it looks like a mirror of track 5. 

 

Turn your fiddle yard track into another industry, the fiddle yard can connect on your larger moveable section with the yard itself under the main layout boards.

 

A minor thing but the 2 points that are in front of the radio in your pic create an s bend for trains, consider using a left and a right to smooth that out. 

[skipepsi]

I would ditch I6 and disconnect the line to the fiddle line from the oval so that the fiddle yard line could be used for staging until you actually got the fiddle yard sorted.

[Andy Reichert]

It looks like of your thru route (Main line ?)  goes through the diverging sides of many of the turnouts. That's not very prototypical and imposes very slow speed restrictions.

 

Personally I'd add passing sidings in between the two side switching areas so you can have the interest of more than one train and  running both ways around

 

Andy

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Hi @Alan3 - some helpful feedback already.  If I may add some thoughts and questions that I hope might help:

 

First thing I notice is the quality fascia on the baseboards (bit of baseboard envy here, perhaps ).  Suggests this might not be your first rodeo?  I’ve had a guess at the size of your layout space and I’ll have a shot at 3” squares on the diagram, making the two long sides 2’ wide and the operating well just under 6’ across?  If I’m right, the total space is about 12’ x 10’ ?

 

I’m intrigued by the second movable section at the top of the plan - many plans just have one removable section across the doorway.  Will they need moving often?  One thing you could do is set up the yard and industry spurs on the left side so you can run some switching turns without needing the removable sections in place at all - you only then place them in position for full operating sessions.  If the room is mixed use, that may make life around the railroad a bit smoother.  Just a thought.

 

One thing we have no clues about (other than the concrete grain elevators) is the era or period you’re looking at, and the type of operation you’re thinking of?  If it’s a modern layout, cars will be longer, power will quite likely be two units coupled back-to-back, and there may just be one train a day switching all industries?  Track layouts may have been rationalised, with some tracks relaid, giving longer spurs serving multiple industries, but fed by switches facing the same way wherever possible.  Go further back and you may have a yard goat to do some of the switching, and will need someone for the road engine(s) to be stabled / refuelled for the return journey?  I’m guessing you’re looking at freight only operations?  
 

I like the way the plan doesn’t over fill the space with track and short spurs, and if you already have some freight cars, I’d suggest setting them out on the layout to get a feel for how much space they take up - and use them to measure the effective length of each spur.  The longest reach looks to be into the corner at the stub end of Industry Track 4 - so I’d think about taking out Track 6 and bending Track 4 round, with the added appeal that it would reduce the reach needed to get to the end of that siding.  Taking out Track 6 also makes the first part of that loop / siding longer, so it can be used for staging / spotting cars - as it stands, the switch for Track 6 is right in the middle of that section of the siding, so it’s only really useable as a run-round track. 

 

Some more specific thoughts:

 

If the Grain Elevator side is to be imagineered as more rural (say Midwest), then one option for Industry 2 could be an interchange with another railroad crossing the Midwest - it gives endless flexibility for car transfers, fits with a rural location, and needs no building, just an extra piece of dummy track perhaps representing the Other Place and Gulf RR.

 

To me, Industry Track 3 looks like a good candidate for a Team Track or a Transload platform - again, no big buildings needed at the front of the layout (the space is a bit narrow), and a wide variety of cars can be spotted there.

 

Would it be an idea to have the major industry on Track 5 connected to the Grain elevators - perhaps a feed mill, for example?  You’ll then have the option of routing cars from one to the other, as an alternative to taking everything out into the Fiddle Yard / Staging and bringing it in again?

 

My final thought: I always feel the “three loop” arrangement looks good, but do give some thought as to how the tracks are to be used - are any for storage?  Was it the site of a former depot (now closed)?  Was it a passing place?

 

Just some thoughts, mainly based on the helpful advice I had here on this Forum a year or so ago. Above all, have fun, Keith.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke

[woodenhead]

If you are thinking rural, take a look at this chap's layout.

 

[Alan3]

Hi,

 

Here is the second larger moveable section.  I need to keep access to the window and did not want to block off the large radiator under it.  It is built on wheels and moves around easily.

 

Yes the total space is about 12' x 10', and the plan is done using 3' squares.  

The time period I am aiming for is 1990 to 2000 ish.

It is my first personal layout of this size so I have spent quite a bit of time working on the finish of the facia getting it to look good and getting it to flow through the curves

 

The corner cut outs which hold the small removeable section across the doorway that can be seen in the last picture of my first post, will have corner fillers in place when the lift out section is not in use

 

 

Alan