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  1. Yard Goat

    Proposed Large Shelf Layout

    Good luck Gary. Going with the plywood for your major benchwork components is a good move. I don't know much about your part of Texas, but I guess it must get pretty humid in the summer. Up here in Ottawa, with our cold, dry winters and hot, humid summers, we've seen all kinds of problems...
  2. Yard Goat

    Proposed Large Shelf Layout

    Hi Gary, Yeah, there's two Andrews here, and we're both in Canada and both in the same modular club to boot. Funny. On the other hand, my sister's named Jennifer and I know about a fifty-thousand other Jennifers. I think things will work out fine with your plan, whatever choice you make...
  3. Yard Goat

    Proposed Large Shelf Layout

    Sorry if any of the confusion was due to me. I really like your idea of having two staging yards, one on top of the other, on the right side of the plan. For a layout of this size and given your real-estate limitations, I think that may be the best staging setup you could have. I appreciate...
  4. Yard Goat

    Proposed Large Shelf Layout

    Gary, First of all, the basic concept of your layout is really appealing to me. In particular, if you're doing a sort of freelance industrial shortline railroad like the Modesto and Empire Traction Company (http://www.metrr.com/rail.html) you can establish your lower staging yard as the...
  5. Yard Goat

    Yard Switching?

    8 x 8? One thing I don't think we ever established was the actual shape of the layout we're discussing here. It was described as an 8x8, but does that mean an actual 8x8-foot square table--cause that's a very big table with lots of access issues etc.--or some other shape? Once we know the space...
  6. Yard Goat

    Yard Switching?

    I'd suggest a pinwheel ladder, actually. And we still don't know enough about the original poster's layout. Is it a shelf layout going around the walls or an Island (8x8 feet is a pretty huge island). What minimum radius do his locomotives and cars require? What era is he modelling, and thus...
  7. Yard Goat

    Yard Switching?

    Too much track? That seems like an awful lot of track for a relatively small space, Brakie. A 6.5 foot yard in an 8x8 layout would have to have a curved ladder since there's only 18" left to accommodate curves otherwise. And why 7 yard tracks + 1 arrival/departure? With the length of the...
  8. Yard Goat

    Yard Switching?

    Yard design rules One of the best available online resources for track planning is the Layout Design Primer by the NMRA's Layout Design SIG. The section on yard design has some good general rules. http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/%7Esmithbf/BFSpages/LDSIGprimer/Yards.html I'd say rules...
  9. Yard Goat

    Why are large turntables so high?

    I would just have a straight run-through "barn" for the big Mallet. Especially if you're modelling the present day, and the big steam is for a tourist train, it's more realistic to house it in a straight engine shed (even a modern-style one with metal siding and roll-up doors like Pikestuff...
  10. Yard Goat

    Why I love being in a modular club

    So I've been noticing posts from younger Gaugers--student-types--asking for advice on building starter layouts and that sort of thing. I just want to say to anybody who's in that position, if you can find a modular group anywhere near where you live, give serious thought to joining. Even...
  11. Yard Goat

    Is the Real Thing getting, well, blah?

    Yeah, but in your very first post you said "anybody else agree or have I hit my head?" Some people agreed with you, some people didn't. Why get upset at those who disagree? Andrew
  12. Yard Goat

    Is the Real Thing getting, well, blah?

    It's the system I've never understood the obsession with locomotive design and paint schemes, etc. For me, it's always been the whole system of railroading that was interesting, including what they haul, but also how they haul it--car types, track layouts, signalling, etc. Locomotives could...
  13. Yard Goat

    High-speed Montreal to New York

    While it is probably true that steam-hauled passenger trains did hit higher top speeds than modern VIA trains, average speeds were mostly slower and trains tended to make more stops. The fastest runs between Montreal and Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa and Ottawa and Toronto all take less time...
  14. Yard Goat

    What Do You Do If You Have No Sheet Of Wood

    Hi Drew, Realising that you're probably pretty committed to building the Atlas track plan, I'd still like to call your attention to the club I'm part of, HOTRAK, www.hotrak.ca, which is based in Ottawa, same as you. We're actually having a setup next weekend (Sept. 10-11). If you're...
  15. Yard Goat

    Traffic density

    I can't recall seeing a formula for traffic density vs. number of main tracks in any of my many railroad-related books. One that might have the answer is "The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does" by John Armstrong, which I don't own and which may be hard to find. The easy way to sidestep any...
  16. Yard Goat

    Road bed for Modules

    Forget the Homasote and plywood. The whole point of going with foam as your base material is to reduce the weight of the module, allowing for easier setup, teardown and transportation. First thing I would recommend is painting the entire top deck of your module with brown or tan latex paint...
  17. Yard Goat

    Oil Refinery Carloadings

    First post to The Gauge! I'm bashing around ideas for an oil refinery plan for my HO modular club (Hi Bob and Andrew), but I'm severely hampered by my near total ignorance of how refineries and railroads interact. Wondering if anybody here has advice or suggestions on where to go looking for...
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