Little brothers track plan once again...

[LIRR]

Expanded a bit, any suggestions or improvements?

[sams]

LIRR,
i don't know if this is an "around the wall" type layout...
but i would be a little wary of being able to reach the corners on the right side of the pic.
...i see the 4 track yard in the upper left...how about if that was extended all the way down and made into a double ended yard?
another quick suggestion...i see you have long nice straight runs...
making some of them slightly curved, and/or not parallel to the layout edge would increase the "aesthetic" appeal of the layout.

[tillsbury]

Yes, I agree. There are so many first-time layouts where the track religiously follows the outer line of the benchwork... try to have some small amount of flexibility in the track position and direction... and of course the first thing to do is to stop using that software and use software that works well with flextrack, allowing you to create nice gentle sweeping curves. Xtrkcad is free nowadays, which a lot of people seem to use (although I haven't).

Do you need double-track all the way through? The layout is starting to look big enough to have a story -- a town at one end and another or some industries at the other end -- dropping to single-track in between would add interest and remove the forced symmetry. Try to think of the design in a 'real-world' sense -- i.e. scenery first, place the towns and industries or harbours or whatever, and then design a railroad that would service the industries (you can then cheat by taking the return from one end round to the start of the other end, pretending that they both are continuations of the track rather than connections to each other).

How many people will be operating the trains? One? Two or more? Think of where they'll stand and what they'll want to be doing, without getting in each others' way...

Charles

[Muddy Creek]

A run-around at your yard throat would be helful to your swiching crew.

Wayne

[LIRR]

Thanks for the comments. The layout isnt designed for operation, my brothers only 8 and I think the only thing he wants is fast passenger trains and room for long frieghts to strech out, I threw In the Industrys and the branch line to add some flavor and maybe something for me to do as my layout is being created, The bottom past the cross over almost all the way up past the end of the branch line will be a tree-covered tunnel, masking the boring loop a bit, and I am considering making the yard something more then it is. Maybe one day he'll have DCC and real couplers on his stuff (Rapido is the word around the shops on his pike) and he'll want more then we have. But now its nothing more then a place for him to run his trains and a place for me and my dad to practice with foam scenery.

[Muddy Creek]

Ah, simple pleasures. I do miss those days.

Have fun!

Wayne

[brakie]

LI,With what you just said I would build the layout as is if you and your brother is comfortable with it and it should do very well in the way it is planned to be ran.


BTW,I also follow the edge of the layout for my main lines..I found I could add more yard tracks,industries and of course a town area on the inside of the main loop. Now for me a yard,engine service area and industries is a must.On my few loop type layouts( I can count 'em on one hand*) I have built over the years I also omit mountains saving the space for more industries and bigger town area.. So you see we all have our givens and druthers and the main thing is to build your layouts that fills your desires..

* Due to space reasons I built far more industrial switching layouts then loop layouts..