RhB Swiss Corner Layout

[Sam '43003' Tanner]

Morning guys,

 

Been busy planning a little something that may come to fruition one day. I'll keep it brief..

The traverser type fiddle yard is at baseboard level. Taking the line to the right, we head for the helix which takes us up to the highest point on the layout, the station. Upon departure, we enter a tunnel which signals our decent back to the fiddle yard, gradually losing height through the scenic section above the fiddle yard itself, but a little bit steeper around the non-scenic section at the back of the layout. The inner loop at the station should be able to easily hold a Ge 4/4 III locomotive and 6 Glacier Express coaches.

 

Aqua - Scenic
Yellow - Non-Scenic & Helix
Pink - Fiddle Yard
*Note* Grid squares equate to 12". In addition, this plan is technically 12' 10" (154") to suit my bedroom space, but the additional 10" can easily be removed.

I floor is open for any comments, thoughts and/or critisism.

All the best,

Sam.

[Kris]

Do you have enough height to easily access the traverser?

[PaulRhB]

Sam, couple of ideas. As noted by Kris access to the traverser will be very tight especially if pantographs are up. You might have to tie them down to a set max with fishing line as getting pickup ramps high enough will cost you nearly 25mm extra height

If the traverser is there for better access could you move it forward so the entrance track is right at the front and it slides out of the front of the layout? Then the scenic line above could be further back to give more height.

I'd consider removing or shortening the tunnel at the left end as you are hiding a lot of track, also maybe expose part of the helix as an avalanche gallery?

Finally the two long sidings are ok with precedent at Preda but not common at simple intermediate loops. The examples I can think of are engineers sidings rather than goods so it limits operation unless that's what you want. Consider moving one to the other end of the loop instead as a much shorter one with a goods, cattle platform.

What do the gradients work out at?

[Sir Madog]

One thing that always strikes me with layouts of this type is the enormous amount of hidden track, just to make the run around the loop a little longer...

 

One more point is the track plan of the station - why not choose a prototype location? Google Earth will help you find a suitable track plan.

 

Just an idea I did some time ago for a layout design based on the RhB Berninanbahn: