Yard Design

[Cody J]

I am working on designing my HO scale yard. I will be using Bachmann EZ- Track with the following pieces of track:
9 inch Straight
3 inch Straight
18 in Radius curve and
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/bac/bac44131.htm <I'm not sure how to describe that....

Here is a color-coded idea of my yard... It was scanned so it  might not all be readable so If you have any ideas on improvemments or changes that need to be made please tell me.

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/?action=view&current=yardmap1.jpg

I just realized that the words weren't very readable so here they are:
Blue- Main line
Red- Classification Yard
Orange- Locomotive Track
Light Green- Caboose/MOW
Yellow- Logging Operation (Non Relevant)
Dark Green- Departure Tracks

thanks,
cody

[jward]

while your general layout is similar to the prototype, it will be difficult to do on a model railroad due to space constraints. my suggestions:

1. move the departure tracks up beside the class tracks.

2. consider making the yard stub ended, ladder tracks eat up an incredible amount of space, and a double ended yard has two of them. the space taken up by the second ladder can be better put to use lengthening the yard tracks.

3. consider palcing the whole yard on a slight downgrade, from the main down the yard lead to the end of the yard tracks. 1/2 percent will do, you don't want cars rolling on their own in the yard. the grade will take some of the strain off the cars during backup moves, and you should have fewer derailments as a result.

4. use as large of switches as possible. do not use 18" radius switches for yard tracks.

[Cody J]

Thanks for the comments Jward.

I have made a new yard track plan:

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/?action=view&current=yardmap5.jpg

The colors stay the same as in my first post and the first track plan.

I decided to totally take out the departure tracks because I felt they weren't necessary on a small 9x5 layout. I made the classification yard stub ended as Jward suggested and I made another "yard" for my locomotives, caboose and my small MOW equipment. Any other suggestions?

thanks,
cody

[Tylerf]

Might I suggest using a ruler when drawing track plans, it'll make the whole thing look lots better.

[Cody J]

Yeah... sorry. I used one for the complete track plan but I did that at a different time and I didn't have a ruler with me at that point in time.

thanks,
cody

[renniks]

Cody,

Just a few questions. 
What is the size of the space in which you intend to build this layout?
Which turnouts are you using?
What length of tracks are you hoping to have in the yard?

Eric UK

[Cody J]

Renniks,
The entire layout will be 9x5.
I'm not sure of the turnouts yet.
I don't know about the lenghts of the tracks yet. But it will probably be 2 9inch straight pieces with a buffer at the end.

cody

[pdlethbridge]

in a 9 x 5 layout, the yards would be better put in the inside and wrapped and curved around the end

[Tylerf]

Yeah I agree, seeing as I started off with the same sized layout, there really isn't a ton of space to fit one yard let alone almost two. Also I'm guessing your plan isn't to scale because (and I've also done this) the way you have it drawn while it looks good on paper in reality it will only fit 3-4 cars per track. I would suggest extending the yard as far as possible on the outside then placing the engine facility onthe inside parallel to the yard. Honestly you can't fit as much as you would think in 9 by 5 feet.

[Cody J]

Okay, thank you. I'm working on a new track plan right now so I hope to have it on here in about 10 minutes or so.

cody

[jward]

if you are only in a 5x9 area for the entire layout, that really restricts the size of the yard. i'm not saying that you can't have a yard, but you won't be able to have one the way you've drawn it.

2 9" sections mean a capacity of 3 or 4 cars at most per track. your whole yard designed this way will hold less than 20 cars. you can do much better.

a ladder of tracks using atlas #4 switches will eat up about 9" per track for the switches alone. i'd imagine ez track #5s will be similar in the amount of space they consume. add this to the minimum 18" at each end of the layout for turns, and you don't have room for the engine and caboose facilities where you have them.

my recommendations:

consider a pinwheel type yard lead, where the lead takes the curved side of the switches, and the yard tracks peel off on the straight side. that way, the turn at one end of the layout does double duty.

put your engine facilities off your shortest yard track, backwards to the rest of the yard so that you have to pull your engines past the lead then reverse to get into the facility. you'll use otherwise wasted space and should have room for at least 2 tracks. you might even have room for a small turntable there. give youself enough room for 2 locomotives on that shortest yard track, and use the rest of the track for cabooses.

a good example of the pinwheel yard ladder appears in the kalmbach book 101 track plans for model railroaders. look for a plan called sanaxis & phrax.

using these suggestions, you may be able to have at least one 10 car track in your yard, and a total capacity of 30 or more cars on 5 yard tracks.

[Cody J]

Jward,

I cannot find the book you are talking about. Do you have any sort of graphics of this type of yard?

thanks,
cody

[Cody J]

Although this track plan was just drawn, some changes need to be made due to Jward's yard change. Here it is anyway:

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk49/trainsrock96/?action=view&current=BNSFTrackPlan1.jpg

The colors are:
Blue- Mainline
Green- Industry Line-- Since my layout is DC, it will be another circuit. There will be a GP9M switching the cars at the 5 industries. The numerous sidings are where the industries will be located.
Gray- Industry Line Yard
Red- Classification Yard-- The track closest to the main will also serve as the departure track so when I make a train I will be able to take it in either direction.
Purple- Locomotive/Caboose/MOW/Car Storage
Orange- Freemont-- Where all the products will be delivered.
Yellow- Logging Operation-- The only industry on the mainline.

cody.

[Cody J]

Sorry, there is no yellow. The Black is the logging operation.

[Tylerf]

You'll have to draw an exact scale layout plan with say grid paper and proper track dimensions. Really the corners on your drawnings are wwwaaaayyyyy to tight and even though it's just a rough copy I think proper corner dimentions will tamper with the whole plan. Have you tried using cad rail or the atlas program people always talk about, these will allow you to create the 9 by 5 layout grid and then lay out the scale pieces of track. Mainly I'm worried about the branch down the middle and whether it's turns are to tight.