The Lye, Stihl and Djheet Rwy. (Layout updates)

[WoundedBear]

I have been in a state of layoutlessness (spell check that one if ya dare....lol) for almost a year now. The move to the new house is coming in less than a month and I've been planning all winter.

A few of you here have seen this, and the description, in the past few weeks, but I thought I would throw it up for everyone to have a bash at.

Layout room is 11.5 feet by 22.5 feet, and to the right (east) of the diagram, in an adjacent room that measures 11.5 feet by 16.5 feet, will be my studio.

The layout room has the main entrance in the lower right corner, with another doorway roughly midway along the lower (south) wall. This "extra" door is going to be handy in providing access.

The sawmill is located on the northeast peninsula. There will be a drop down leaf running south to mate up with the narrowish shelf along the south side (I missed drawing it on the plan). Logs will be dumped in the pond from an unloading ramp set between the loops.

Once on the south side, the engineer can decide whether to continue along the main into town, or take the switch and start a roughly 3.2% climb through a tunnel and up to the summit. Up here will be the main logging area. The sidings are for log cars and one for the camp train. A short branchline splits off and climbs up to another small town and past to a mine at the extreme south-east corner.

The logging loop can haul loaded cars back to the mill from either direction, although the line running north to the yards is less of a grade. It only needs to be about 2.7% to gain the same 5 inches between railheads. So it would make sense that the empties come out of the mill and take the steeper route back up, then run a gentler grade on the downhill, once loaded. I assume a prototypical railroad would use the two different routes similarily. (Assuming they had the luxury of 2 routes).

Along the route are 3 small towns, possibly a fourth once I get building. These and a whistle stop would give an excuse to run a short passenger train using Roundhouse's 34 foot Overton set, in CPR colors. Also gives a reason to have the 4-6-0 low driver loco on the layout. The yard is more than ample to hold freight cars as well as a string of log cars if needed. I still could use an MOW, RIP and 'boose track, but will fit those in as construction progresses. I'm still undecided if the turntable is going to stay or not.

As it is, the table will turn my Shay and Climax locos with no problems, and will hold a Mantua 2-6-6-2T. The tenderized version of the 2-6-6-2 will not fit the Atlas table, so the Mallet house has both bays accessibly with a straight through pass on the turntable. The Mallets can be turned on the loop around the mill.

My 2 Climax locos will "live" on the south shelf only. Their primary duty will be shuttling loads out/empties in at the mine. The parallel tracks in the southwest serve as the interchange for the ore cars. I may mount a small A frame turntable on the Atlas mechanism and move it to the Climax engine area, then replace the turntable in the yard with track and turnouts.

The town in the center will allow switching and a variety of structures. The double mainline running SE to NW will allow almost a sixteen foot run and should make any train look good.

There will be a hill covering the inner track in the northwest corner, and the outer track leading up to the logging area, will flow through a cut and be visible. The 5 inch height of the logging area also gives me room to run a staging loop so I can take a train off scene until it's scheduled return. If I don't put the staging area there, it will pass through the wall in the NE corner and connect into the adjacent room, which will be my studio.

I'm seeing roughly 50 foot mainline runs on either route. All mainline turnouts are #6, yards are #4 with the exception of the mine. I can use up my last couple of Atlas snap-switches there.

At bottom left is a second doorway into the layout room, and I have left 18 inches to get in there for maintenance. I think I could build two lift out sections of scenery for the access area, and not have the canyon effect. Access seems good for all of the turnouts with the exception of the one leading to the mine branch. I may have to move it further north.

This Atlas program does some nice things, but lacks the inventory of some of the other CAD programs. Once I start laying things out, I'm sure I can streamline the trackwork even more when I incorporate my various curved turnouts into the scheme.

I'm thinking of a fictional shortline using scenery like one would see on a trip between Edmonton and Hinton. Basically prairie to foothills. I would love to have the high mountain, narrow passes feel, but with that complexity, comes reliability issues. This plan should be a fairly easy build as far as benchwork goes. Wiring may be a different story.

I can see I will be needing probably 3 polarity reversing modules, and probably a fourth for the turntable.  I use an MRC PA Squared unit with a 3.5 amp power supply.

So many things to work out ahead of time. Hopefully I catch major points and the little points fall into place as I go....lol.

Anyhow...have a boo at the plan...let me know what you think.

Cheers

Sid

Here's a direct link to the track-plan image if you don't like the shrunken version.
http://members.shaw.ca/wbearart1/Models/GoldBarHills.jpg

[pdlethbridge]

Nice plan Sid. Have you thought about how it should be wired yet?

[Frisco]

That looks really great .

[Tylerf]

Sounds like you've planned the layout out VERY well and it sounds like lots of fun.
Good luck
Oh DC or DCC

[WoundedBear]

Nice plan Sid. Have you thought about how it should be wired yet?

Well, now you've found my weak point....lol. Going with DCC  will simplify things somewhat, I still think I need at least 2 Auto-Reverse Polarity Modules. There is one reverse loop at the mill, or maybe 2, due to the inner loop.....and 1 loop at the logging area. I thought if I gapped these like I did on my last layout, I should be ok.

Have I missed something obvious?

Sid

[pdlethbridge]

the turntable will need an auto reverser and the left loop actually looks like 2 loops. Like you, I'm electrically challenged.  Eliminating one of the cross overs on the left side by the orange block might help. ( lower left one)
Also eliminate thew right side entrance track to the turntable will solve the reverse loop problem there.

[WoundedBear]

I think you're seeing two loops on the left because of the overlapping tracks. The elevation change is around 5 inches, so there is only one loop on the upper logging area.

The "orange block" represents a barrel factory and is above the line leaving the west end of the yard. What you are seeing as a crossover is actually a siding off of the logging loop.

I knew about the turn table needing a reverser (see 1st post). The Atlas program has the ability to hilight short circuits, but doesn't always indicate where exactly to gap the rails.

Sid

[pdlethbridge]

Its hard to tell on a small picture whats up or down

[WoundedBear]

If you click on the link just above the small picture, it will open up a full sized view.

Sid

[pdlethbridge]

Now I see what you did. My bad

[Yampa Bob]

Sid
That is a great plan, I especially like the name. Building it should keep you out of mischief for a few years. 

Please keep us posted on your progress.

[jward]

sid,
that one reversing loop in the lower left can only be entered or exited through the same switch. so it doesn't need an auto reverser. a much more cost effective solution would be to wire the contacts on the switch motor to change the polarity on the loop. it works every bit as well as the auto reverser at a fraction of the cost.

[pdlethbridge]

The polarity of the loop doesn't get changed, it's everything else. If you changed the loop polarity, the engine would stop and reverse in DC

[jward]

The polarity of the loop doesn't get changed, it's everything else. If you changed the loop polarity, the engine would stop and reverse in DC

that's the beauty of using the switch motor contacts, it will work for both dc and dcc. in dc, you merely stop the train once in the loop clear of the switches, throw the switch and the reverse on the power pack, then continue on your way. in dcc you don't have to stop. an auto reverser is incompatable with dc.

my friend and i have been using just this system on loops and wye tail tracks for years without any problems, on both dc and dcc.

[WoundedBear]

I will be using DCC. I like the idea of the switch machine contacts, but I do have a couple of AR1 modules already.

Sid