The Plans of Mice, Men and then trisonic.........

[shortliner]

Pete - can't remember if I sent you this link to some trackplans

 

http://www.shenware.com/layouts/index.html

[trisonic]

Sorry Pete, not yet - but I do now have a properly working video card so it might happen.

 

No need to apologise, Martyn! you're doing me a big favour!

 

 

Jack, Your designs are significantly superior to me!

 

Best, Pete

 

 

 

[Glorious NSE]

Sorry, it's taken me ages to get something down in paper, normally I would draw them and scan but that isn't an option at the moment, so here's a couple of Xtrcad scrawlings bodged up with ms-paint overlays

 

I must stress these are very rough thoughts, i'm not happy with the industrial area's on either for example but have just thrown some track down to show what kind of thing would fit.

 

The first one has the yard on the curve of the 10' end, downside here is that it "squishes" the runround more than i'd like, but maybe that's a good excuse to use a switch crew to shunt release? There are industries to switch on both legs, and you can either run it as the switch crew from the class 1 or as a separate shortline. A possible downside is the yard being on a curve, I reckon it will look great but coupling up will need the occasional nudge. I did also borrow a foot of the other leg, and another couple would be nice to get the yard to work better, ideally the yard tracks and staging tracks should be about the same length....

 

 

Second one sorta flips the first, but with some inspiration from Jack's plan, you end up with staging tracks on both legs, so you have a definate two railroads, for Phoenix that could be UP vs BNSF, or one a shortline, or whatever. The yard ends up a bit more spacious, again there are industries to switch on both legs, the thing I should have done but didn't was having the "main track" on the 10' leg curve round to end pointing to the potential extension rather than at the wall....just in case. In this one you have two railroads crossing the dry wash, and a nice junction scene.

 

 

All of the staging tracks are staging tracks in the US sense, where before the running session you would have to set up a train to be staged there, and after the session remove or reverse the one that is there (if that makes sense!)

[trisonic]

Very neat, Martyn (and no double-slips)! Let me study them......

 

Best, Pete.

[Glorious NSE]

Nah, don't like using slips on US designs unless i'm forced to.

 

There's plenty wrong with both of those as-drawn but I think both concepts have potential as starting places for thinking about a plan.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I'd like to throw a couple of mine into the ring if I may, both based on observations of the real thing - admittedly one is Texas not Arizona but current industrial tracks follow the same basic principles. The main one is, as little track on the ground as you can get way with.

 

This is Zone 4 in Lubbock, Texas... pretty neat and compact.

 

And a look at Luther Transfer

 

and a genuine Phoenix one, this is the end of the industrial spur that wanders south through Tempe and peters out just south of the Loop 202. It used to be the direct line to Maricopa, now buried under Highway 347

 

 

and some cameos of the industries there.

 

Don't be fooled by the apparent lack of iron on the ground, both these pikes would keep a crew of two busy for several hours.

[trisonic]

Some great ideas. No bigger than 12' by 10' by 2', though.

As I can go to 2' wide then I'd prefer to have fiddle/staging yards behind the scenic section rather than tacked on the end.

 

Many thanks, Dr. G - .F!

 

 

Best, Pete.