Hello all!
I'm an American modeler planning an American prototype layout, but I based its operating scheme on British model railway philosophy more than anything I've seen over here: a heavily-trafficked passenger-only urban terminal with no mainline run. So I'm coming to you for advice and critique.
Here's the track plan:
Larger:
https://i.imgur.com/K4Wf7ED.png
The prototype is the Southern Pacific's Third & Townsend Depot in San Francisco, in 1973. By this point long-distance passenger trains were gone but the railroad still ran frequent commuter trains, diesels pulling coaches. Push-pull operation was still a few years away and two switch crews moved all the coaches between arrival and departure while the engines went to a wye to be turned around before returning to a compact engine facility near the throat. The station was, and its successor still is, crammed into city blocks and with a little compression, seems perfect to model.
Here are photos of the approximate era I plan to model:
http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_fran/3rd/townsend4.html
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/3rdst1.html
The station has been replaced with a newer building with shorter platforms, and trains run push-pull with no switching at the station, but the track plan is still basically intact:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7736611,-122.3984107,729m/data=!3m1!1e3
I originally considered a fiddleyard, but since I'll be running a homogenous fleet which gets turned and reused repeatedly, often just a few minutes apart at rush hour, I'm considering building a loop so I don't have to worry about turning trains by hand. In N scale using Unitrack, it's no more space than I'd need for a train-length turntable or even space to turn a cassette by hand. The inner loop represents the wye where locomotives were turned and lets me turn locomotives even if there's a train sitting on the mainline track waiting for its next arrival. All curves are Unitrack R282 and R315, which are used on T-Trak modules that fit full-length passenger cars reliably.
The layout can accommodate up to three operators:
Station switcher Mainline operator & hostler (runs all trains besides the switcher) Tower operator (all switches off the main are powered and inside an interlocking; engines headed from the wye to engine servicing must reverse in a platform track)
The layout will be built on hollow-core doors and sit on folding tables. It's somewhat portable but I work weekends so it'll be a home layout. Operators will sit on both sides to avoid getting in each others' way, so it won't have a skyboard, just a low wall around the staging loops.
Thoughts?