Here's the One I'll really build

[screwysquirrel]

well, as I mentioned in 'Eek! the Cost', the first railroad plan had just WAY too many turnouts to be affordable.

Here are plans for the layout I will be building on that door.

this is what I will start with, with no scenery or notes on elevation, other than the white-blue is a planned tunnel area

 

[screwysquirrel]

next pic

here it is with planned Scenery.

This is intended to be an Appalachian short line. with a small town on the right and a small mountain on the left, , noted by the ridge line, with a stream running through the upper central region, the siding in the town will be a small factory or a large warehouse, possibly a farmers Co-op or grain silo. The siding on the Left is either a mine (perhaps a gem mine, to be different) or its a tunnel that leads to the 'rest of the railroad'. the black line is a road (note the use of 2 Re-railers as rural grade crossings). the Upper right siding is the interchange track with the class one railroad.

The grey track is 'base level' (1/2" of foam), the yellow is ascending, the blue is the tunnel (still level 0) and the green is elevated between 1 11/16" and 2"

 

[screwysquirrel]

and finally, the future expansion

this future expansion plan adds 3 Passing Sidings, shown in Orange

 

[trainmasta13601]

WOW,very very cool to complicated i think it is ur first layout after all isnt it?

 

[N Gauger]

SS Here's my idea of the blocks

 

[screwysquirrel]

Slight modification

Here is the image again, slightly modified
I have removed the straightline passing sidings, because of the difficulty of turnouts on Piers. It has been shifted into the tunnel area now.
the colors:

Track:
Grey: lvl 0. sitting on top of the 1/2" of foam base.
Blue: lvl 0. Track inside tunnel
Green: elevated track at 12-14 (1-11/16 to 2" high)
Yellow: Climbing track. Grade is 2.8%, and the numbers indicate the appropriate Atlas Pier (in 9/64" inch increments)
Dark Blue outline: Bridges
Red dots: insulation points.


Terrain:
Green: basic grass
Blue: a stream running down the mountain and off the board
Yellow: buildings, not specific but gives an idea of the town
Thick black Lines: Roads, note clever use of rerailers for crossings.
Brown: mountain, rough height 2". Note: the skinny mountain at right center may end up just being a collection of piers forming and elevated railroad.
Dark Brown: mountain higher than 2", note the spur disappears into the mountain.
Dark Brown: mountain areas higher than 2"
Purple/Pink: rough tunnel area. wide area to left side will be open to allow access in case of derailments or similar troubles.

 

[Clerk]

SS. I like that. Go for it.

 

[mnguy]

That is a darn good design. Nice job

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Re: Slight modification

Originally posted by screwysquirrel
Note: the skinny mountain at right center may end up just being a collection of piers forming and elevated railroad.

Actually, that would be a place where you could expect the prototype to use a fill.

 

[screwysquirrel]

Actually, that would be a place where you could expect the prototype to use a fill.

the problem with a fill is it'll make the town look like its in a bowl, so I'm using Piers and the Atlas Viaductb

 

[screwysquirrel]

Adding some switching

well, after picking up a Lifelike SW9, a favorite loco design, I decided to add some switching options to the layout.

I removed the passing sidings (meaning only 1 train rolling at a time on the main!) I came up with two options and would like opinions on operational possibilities with each, Also note that I'm going to follow the overwhelming consensus and put in a single uniform 2% grade, instead of piers and viaducts to climb at 2.8% rade. Currently thinking of using the woodland Scenic incline to do it if someone tells me the easy way to cover up its zig-zag shape! Preferably one with minimal messiness!


The two trackplans will follow, with commentary

 

[screwysquirrel]

Option 1

This option has the switching area has only 1 link to the mainline area, and has its own small run-around area and 3 spurs running off the top end of the runaround

In theory you can add 1 more short spur on the lower right side, but I'm out of turnouts right now.

As it stands, this plan, has 93.25" of car storage on it. at 3" per 40' car, thats room for 31 cars(!), probly a bit fewer when accounting for couplers. Of course, the spurs would be unusable if all that was stored there at the same time

this plan would allow two train operation, as long as the switcher stays on the orange track

 

[screwysquirrel]

Option 2

This layout is fairly similar. However, it connects with the main in 2 places, and uses the inner (9.75 radius) tunnel loop on the main as a runaround. Here There are two long sidings coming off the lower-center part of the main, with 1 switchback siding, and a switchback link back to the main. The switchback to the main makes the industry area a reversing section. Not a problem as the switching area will have its own power pack, and will be electrically isolated. The runaround section of the main will probably have to be cab selectable. It may need to be wired as a reversing section

I like the look of this one a little better, but the wiring is more daunting

Two train operation is still possible this way, but isn't as easy, since your switcher will be using the single-track main as a runaround! The switcher will usually have to wait until the mainline train runs by to make its own move, then hustle back to the switch area!

This variant has an impressive 119" of space, if you filled it, enough for 39 ( ) 40-foot cars, though again, you couldn't switch the industries that way.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

If you build the second one, and plan to add two switches later as money is available, you could put a crossover in between the two bottom orange tracks with one switch between the two switches on the upper of the two tracks. That would give you nice runaround track in the industrial area. If you put in two switches past the switches in the upper track you would have a longer runaround; but it might require a curved turnout. One more thing to check. I think your industrial section constitutes a reversing section, but I'm not sure. I got a little "dizzy" trying to follow it all the way around.

 

[screwysquirrel]

Originally posted by Russ Bellinis
If you build the second one, and plan to add two switches later as money is available, you could put a crossover in between the two bottom orange tracks with one switch between the two switches on the upper of the two tracks. That would give you nice runaround track in the industrial area. If you put in two switches past the switches in the upper track you would have a longer runaround; but it might require a curved turnout. One more thing to check. I think your industrial section constitutes a reversing section, but I'm not sure. I got a little "dizzy" trying to follow it all the way around.

I've tested it: The place to add a crossover for max runaround space is the upward bend in the upper of the two long sidings. place a left turnout so the curve follows the existing curve. you can then add a right turnout directly across it, and connect its curved section to the straight of the first turnout

As for the reversing section, yes. it does (to see it, start in the lower end, where it connects to the main. Follow that curve around (itrs grey, then blue in the tunnel, then grey again) into the switch that takes it back to the switching area. if you run through that curved section onto the upper siding, you then back up into the main where you first arrived.

Since I'm going to fully isolate the switching zone with its own powerpack, I think the reversing section is migitated. Inside the switching zone, its not a reverse section, and shouldn't need futher special wiring. The loop section *might* need it though

 

[60103]

SS:
The loop should need no special wiring.
You could eliminate the reversing section effect by connecting the switching section to the outer track at the bottom, by putting a crossing instaed of the switch in the inner track and moving the switch to the outer track. Might change your operations a bit, though.
Ther is no problem with wiring reversing loops -- you can get Atlas components ready wired for your layout.
You might find a problem going from the switching area to the main line if you don't have all wheel pickup on a loco -- say one where the loco picks up RHS and the tender picks up LHS and they sit on each side of the insulated gaps.
Check the wiring by stretching the layout out into a long oval with the switching section off on one side -- you'll see that there are no more problems.