EZTrack HO Layout

[copperleaf]

My son and I have been working on a layout using EZ Track on a 4x6 table. The image below is what we have come up with on our first pass. We originally wanted to do the Morgan Valley, but it doesn't appear to be possible with the EZ Track. Any comments or feedback on this layout? It's our first pass at drawing one.

We aren't looking at doing any extreme inclines but thought it would add to it to have some slight variation (nothing more than 2 deg). How well does the ez track handle inclines?


eztracklayout1 by copperleaf, on Flickr


TIA,
Bill and Billy

[Doneldon]

B & B -

I'm thinking about the spur track which leaves your oval at the lower right, curves around the right end of your layout and then splits into two tracks. Have you thought of making that a mountain branch up to a mine, logging site or whatever?

To do that, use a 2.25" or 3" straight track right after the switch and then a couple of curves, probably 18" radius. After two curves, or I suppose you could use three, add a wye switch but, instead of having two tracks leading away from the spur track, put one side of the wye on the end of your curves so one track continues on ahead and the other becomes a switchback accessed from the part which continues on. You could have a fairly steep grade, even four percent. What would make this work is a background divider which would run up and down between the rightmost track of your loop and the new spur. Access the spur through a short tunnel and have the far right side of your layout be mountainous, with the steep grade and switchback.

You might even be able to carry this a little further by using 15" curves and a second switch and switchback to climb even higher. You'd have to play around with the track to see what fits but perhaps your mountainous area could be a narrow mountain valley with the third leg (after the second switch) bridging a creek and climbing up a canyon wall on the very far right edge of your layout. Again, you'd access this via a tunnel so you can change the terrain in a logical way. You could designate this short bit of track as suitable only for short wheelbase equipment, including small tank locos or even a two-truck Shay or suchlike. Mainline locos would be prohibited from entering the branchline except to pick up or drop off cars at the very bottom.

Whatever you build, good luck and have fun.
                                                                                                        -- D

[OldTimer]

Your plan has a couple of serious shortcomings.  First, you have no run-around track.  Look at the Morgan Valley plan and see how the run-around track is used to help switch facing point spurs.  Second, I fail to see the purpose of the interior oval.  Once you've gotten your train on it, there is no way out, short of backing the train through an ess curve...unless you backed in to begin with.  And if you did back in, you need to be sure that any cars for the sppur off the inner oval are in front of the locomotive. 

On the plus side, the sidings in the upper corners could easily be extended to stageing tracks which could provide traffic for your railroad.

This is just my opinion, and I speak only for myself, but it seems to me that the plan is much more important than the track that it's made out of.   The Morgan Valley is a well-designed switching oval that can be operated with a purpose--a sure cure for lack of interest and bordom.   Hope this helps.
OldTimer

[Terry Toenges]

One thought  - Raise the outer oval all around. Make the inner oval a little higher. Make the right hand spur at base level.

[timhar47]

Hello - so I took the challenge and got it - 4x7 Morgan using EZ track and the RR track software system.
Remember-Bachmann has added several new small fitter pieces, as well as a small 60 Xing, which may not be in your program library.
Now if I can figger out how to show the picture --- I cant get it down to the dumb 128 kb

Tim

[timhar47]

Well now that I have the pic down to 22 KB, the forum keeps saying error, what the world is going on with this thing anyway?

The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator.

[tford]

timhar47, you have to put your picture on an outside site like photo buck and load it from there.

[timhar47]

Well - that lets me out

[copperleaf]

Tim emailed me his drawing Morgan Valley that fit on 4x7 and I modified some to fit 4x6. Thoughts?


morganvalley by copperleaf, on Flickr

[jward]

i like the fact that you eliminated most of the 18" radius switches from this plan. they are not very good to have on a switching layout. that said, you still have two of them in a crossover at the bottom of the layout. when you run around cars, i'd avoid backing strings of cars through that crossover. that's a minor restriction, and it will add an interesting wrinkle to running this railroad.

[Joe323]

Wondering if there is a way to either use straighter turnouts at the bottom of the layout or insert a straight of at least 6 inches ( 1 car length in between) the turnouts.  However as Jward said its an interestinf wrinkle,

[timhar47]

The problem is that with the #4 or #5 the straightaway is too long for this 4x6 layout.
You may be able to remove the inside LH, change it to an RH, with the curve going to the passtrack, and the straight now going to the siding. The siding will now go to the right instead of the left. This eliminates the huge reverse curve, BUT it adds in challenges due to the extra 1" or so added to the curve portion of the standard EZ switch.

[kamerad47]

Would it be nice if they made curved turnouts!!!!

[OldTimer]

Lots of curved turnouts out there...there is no reason not to "mix and match" to get what you want. 
OldTimer

[Len]

FYI for any who care, HO EZ-Track library update 4.60.008 adds the new 44592 EZ-Track fitter pieces to RR-Track. For those who have RR-Track with the EZ-Track library it can be downloaded at:

http://www.rrtrack.com/html/updates_ho.html

Len