My upcoming layout! the Ayr, Dundas, and St Catherines Railway Company

[sedfred]

i will be building a 2x8 switching layout soon, the ad&sc railway, it will serve it's namesake towns name  i already have a track plan for the yard, someday i will extend it when i have the space, for now it's just a yard. it takes place in the early 60's, it is one of the last steam strongholds in north america. there is diesel paint scheme i designed myself, however, i have a few variants, which one do you think is the best?  http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/new%20schemes_zpsckafkiep.png~original. my track plan, http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/8x2%20track%20plan_zpssvvi9g7j.png  the upper left industry is a natural gas plant, the one on the top right corner is a lumber yard, the bottom left hand corner is the flour mill, the lower middle is the plastics plant, and the lower right is a slaughter house ( a little bit dark but i need to do something with my stock cars!) The grey lines surrounding the track at the bottom is street running.  cars will be brought in from the street trackage, switched, and sent to their industries, afterwards the empties will be sorted back into a train, the loco will run around it and "depart". updates will be provided as it progresses

[Len]

If you click on the image icon, directly under the I in the "Add BBC tags:" it will generate a pair of image tags: [i m g][/i m g] (without the spaces). If you put your Photobucket link between them, the picture will show up in your post, like this:





I think you got the wrong link for your track plan. So you might want to try again.

Len

[sedfred]

yeah i know, i'm a silly noob! i tried to do this quickly and accidentally used the wrong image, i have no experience with photobucket yet so i am going to make a fool of myself,  i fixed i though so my track plan can be seen, anyway are the paint schemes cool and does it sound awesome or should i be ashamed of myself? i realized they are somewhat similar to the cnj scheme, it was unintentional, here are some new ones: http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/new%20schemes_zpsckafkiep.png~original, my track plan for real this time  http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/8x2%20track%20plan_zpssvvi9g7j.png

[Hunt]

Using the Photo Bucket direct link to your track plan placed between IMG tags as shown next following Code:  will display the plan on this board.

Code Select Expand


[img]http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/8x2%20track%20plan_zpssvvi9g7j.png[/img]


Displays




sedfred. what scale equipment will you be running - HO, N, ??
This information needed so this Topic can be moved from General to the correct Discussion Board.

[sedfred]

ho scale, do you think the track plan is good? also what paint scheme is your favorite?

[CNE Runner]

Sedfred - I think your track plan has merit...with some changes. You could vastly 'uncomplicate' things a lot by eliminating most of those run-around crossovers. May I suggest that you label (or number) all the tracks on our plan so we, the peanut gallery, can efficiently add our comments to specific areas of your layout plan?

Simply put, turnouts equal money...more turnouts equals more money. Additionally, turnouts are (many times) the source of electrical woes (therefore: less turnouts = less woes). Assuming you are having rolling stock enter/leave the layout via cassettes; where would said cassettes be located? Is it possible to eliminate some of the trackage with sector plates (or a traverser)? The plan leaves little space for structures - leading to the question: what is the purpose of this section of railway?

If you do a search of this website (Bachmann Forum) for the Monks Island Railway, you will see that I am a 'switching operation fan' (especially on very small to micro plans. With this in mind, I strongly suggest that you visit Carl Arendt's excellent website...and especially go through the extensive "Scrapbook" pages. Carl's website is owned by another person (Carl has passed away); but the flavor of the project remains intact. [BTW: Is the Monks Island Railway perfect? No. Are there problems with some of the plan? Yes. That is why I am currently rebuilding the layout to eliminate most (all?) of said problems. Remember, a model railroad layout is never completely finished.]

In summary: More track does not necessarily make a better model railroad experience. Your plan has some similarities of the old "Switchman's Nightmare" plan of yore. I suggest:

• Have a definite theme to your railway
  
  
  • Make a full-sized mock up of your track plan and place some actual model rolling stock upon it...does the plan still work?
    
  • Determine what the main purpose of your 'section' of said railway is (does it serve one industry, several industries, a harbor, etc.)
  • Carefully look at the length of your sidings (how many cars will each hold...is that enough for operation?)
  • Can your track plan be made simplier (and, therefore, more fun to operate)?
  
  The hardest step in building a railroad 'empire' is in the planning stage. No track plan is perfect (that is why those of us who have been in the hobby for many years have built several [many?] layouts...after 50+ years in model railroading I have built my share). Try to get whatever track plan you like to be as close to YOUR preception of perfection as possible. [DISCLAIMER: Your perception of perfection will change over time...trust me.]
  
  All in all this is a good first attempt. May I suggest you join other forums and elicit their suggestions. An excellent, non-threatening, forum is Free Rails. There is a lot of help available on that website (among others).
  
  Best wishes,
  Ray

[Len]

You might want to download the trial copy of 'AnyRail' layout planning software. The free version will let you place up to 50 pieces of track and has libraries for several track systems, including EZ-Track. You can download it at:

https://www.anyrail.com/download_en.html

Generally speaking, if a track plan fits in your space limits on the computer, it will fit your space when built in the real world.

Len

[sedfred]

CNE Runner, the layout needs to hold a maximum of 6-7 cars, i will do what you said and create a mock up and see if it works, i need to be able to run around the cars, i didn't quite know which ones to remove but i gave it a shot. i kept the street running but removed the long track at the end that led to nothing, i was planning on using it as an area for a coal and water tower but i found another area. here is a revised track plan, the street section has been kept, it is the mainline that cars will be brought in from, someday it will lead to another industry instead of just ending at the scrapyard. the industries: NG- natural gas,  L- lumber yard,  FM- flour mill,  P- plastics plant, SY- Scrap yard. here it is: http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/8x2%20track%20plan%20revised_zpswsk89stl.png~original, len, i will try that,

[JerryB]

Welcome to the model RRing hobby!

As to your proposed layout, I believe you would be creating a nightmare. I count at least 14 turnouts in your proposed 2'x8' space!

Prototype railroads serving a group of industries will usually have a single runaround that is long enough to accommodate the longest cut of cars going to a single industry. The crew (actually the conductor) works out which end of a cut the engine needs to be on, and arranges switching on the runaround track so the cars to be dropped at the appropriate place without needing a runaround at each industry. That planning and operation is a great deal of the fun in switching layouts and switching puzzles.

If each industry had to have 3 or 4 turnouts as you have sketched, the costs in land, trackage and operations would be huge.

Take a look at some plan books and on-line resources. 101 Railroads You Can Build is one of my favorites.

Hope this helps,

Jerry

[sedfred]

i think the one you saw was the old one, i reduced the number of turnouts in it, it is in my last post but just in case here is the revised one, http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo210/i10dtowinthebrantfordrailfan/8x2%20track%20plan%20revised_zpswsk89stl.png~original, i honestly think this is the most improved it will get, it might be simpler without the street running but i am a street running nut so i just had to have it! i can't think about how i could use the layout with any less turnouts, what do you think i could improve on? i didn't label the tracks but can you see any problems with it? thanks for the info. i am probably going to build many layouts in my lifetime, i keep imagining my finished layout as comparable to john olsen's jerome and southwestern but i am now certain my layout will look terrible! i might practice with pieces of scrap wood until i get better.  benchwork should be up by christmas time, like i said there will be updates.

[Hunt]

sedfred's revised HO track plan

[Len]

I got curious how much of that would actually fit on a 2'x8' layout using EZ-Track, so cranked out the above using RR-Track. All of the switches are EZ-Track #4's. The yellow building in the lower left is a 'Feed & Seed', rather than a flour mill. All of the flour mill kits I could find would fill almost the entire 12"x12" square.

As is, it's pretty obvious a very small switcher and short cars will be needed. The switching leads by the lumber yard, back of the Feed & Seed, and back of the Scrap Yard look like they'll only handle a loco and one car at a time. There's not a whole lot of track shifting that will change that, due to the length of the EZ-Track turnouts.

Using #4 turnouts (or their equivelants) of a non-roadbed track system, which are significantly shorter, adds at least car length to the switching leads.

Len

[sedfred]

nice! that looks way better than my ms paint drawing, think the feed and seed would work way better, natural gas plants can be pretty big so the rest of it will be a backdrop. that's what i shall do, thanks!

[Len]

The footprints of the propane gas works and lumber yard on the diagram are scale representations of the Walthers 'Cornerstone' kits for those industries. There'a a 'Large Shed' and 'Small Shed' for the lumber yard. I only used the small one because of the space limitations.

Len

[jward]

looking over the plan one thing that stands out is that the tail tracks are way too short. at 12" you will be restricted to 40 foot cars, tank engines and very small diesels. adding an extra 6" on each end of the layout would allow the use of 50 foot cars and diesels like the rs3, or small tender engines like the 0-6-0.