Need someone to develop track plan

Just a note:
The .bak file extention means it's the Backup file.
You may have the .ral file somewhere else on your PC, or accidently erased it.
In either case you covered yourself by having/allowing the software to create a backup/dupilicate file.
I believe you could just rename it to a .ral file.
Then used the Right Track Program to make it a .bmp file,
then with some other picture software made it a .jpg.

Please continue with the layout suggestions.
By the way it looks interesting.
:D
 
O.K. Thought I'd give everybody a good laugh! This plan proves 3 things:
1- I'm not an artist
2- I can't use MS Paint worth a darn
3- I better hang on to my day job cause I'll never make a living at track planning
Having said that, at least give me a E for effort! :D
The numbers are inches of elevation, in other words if the town in the lower right is Makyala and is at 48" then the mine above it is at 54". The lower left is a logging camp (those little brown markings are stumps :rolleyes: ). The town at the upper left is No Name City. I believe this will fit and give you workable curves and grades. I only used a 6 X 9 area and you have slightly more room that that. However there is no loop, no hidden staging, no bridges or trestles, no cattle pens or stamp mill or sawmill. Can't figure out how to get all that in :( . But I'm still trying, in the meantime maybe there is 1 or 2 things here that can be of help. BTW the building on the siding by the turntable could be a sawmill or cattle pen.
 

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O.K. this is my last shot! Hold down the cheering please :D :rolleyes: :D . I left the far upper left corner for a mountain as it would take a 40" reach to get in there. The 2 switches in the hidden staging I would control with automotive choke cables (cheap, never burn out, never go out of adjustment). Makyala is on the right down in the valley, No Name City is on the left up on the mountain. Cattle would be taken to the Packing plant in Makyala. Ore and logs would be turned over to the connecting R.R. to be processed elsewhere. One train would make 1 trip a day to No Name and back during the middle of the day to work the freight. It would also make a morning and afternoon/evening run for passengers pulling a combine and a coach. Would probably use a 2-6-0. A box cab or center cab desiel would work the yard and interchange which is the passing siding right outside of Makyala. I would stage a passenger and freight in hidden staging, they would come thru once a day each and stop at Makyala only. The vegatation would be lush around the Valley, creek and river, getting sparser the higher in elevation you go. The other buildings by the tracks could be more customers. I did this on graph paper first and the tightest curve is 17", the grade averages 4%. Don't know if you care for any of this, but it was kinda of fun as I don't usually get into track planning other then my own. Maybe it will at least give you some ideas or prompt some others to jump in with some suggestions.

BTW if you can getaway with 9 or 10" turntables (instead of 12") and a 1 stall engine house you could add another badly needed yard track at Makyala and have a little more scenery at No Name.
 

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I like this and I think you're on the right track. (pun intended) I hadn't thought about a turn table in No Name. Excellant idea, and saves a lot of space. Using 2-8-0, 2-6-0 and Shey power, I don't see a problem with a smaller turn table. Could be manual and look like the ones for San Fransisco Cable Cars. I think I could also convert the hidden staging to a second loop and the freight track in Makyala to a run around? I had always thought that a long main line was key, however the top speed of a Shey is only 7 mph so maybe that's not so important. You have also dipicted the towns smaller that I had imagined, saving time, space, and money while including several industries for switching and operating interest. Good job:D This puter is slowly crashing over the years and I don't have paint and several other programs like solitare that I used to have. Programs just seem to disappear every once in awhile, never to be seen again:mad: Anyway, I think this is do-able. Any other ideas? Thanks. Chris
 
Taerrah I meant to put a run around in Makyala and forgot, I have edited the pic and its there now. The hidden staging is a loop, your R.R. and the interchange R.R. share the trackage along the river. A second loop would have curves of 11 or 12", way to tight for good operations. You can make the towns look bigger by using photo cut-outs or commerical pics on the backdrop. I put the turntables up front so they could be manually operated (saves money and is more reliable IMHO). I made sure that there was only about 1 and a half inches in elevation on the loop so you could let a train run unattended while running your R.R. or entertaining guests. As far as your puter goes, simply erase your harddrive (after saving anything you need to disks or a zip drive) and reinstall Windows and the problem should be fixed. Just remember to run a scan disk and defrag every couple of months so the problem doesn't recur. I would also throw my turnouts on the visable part of the layout by hand (I made sure they were all in easy reach) as this saves a lot of $$$$$$ and work and IMHO is more realilistic on a small R.R. Glad you found the plan of some use, if I can be of any further help please let me know. :D
 
Chris,
You could probably get by with a turntable with an 8" bridge. It might be neat to build it with some part of the circular bridge rail out on pilings instead of completely inside a pit. A turntable on the side of a hill.
Pete
 
The more I think about this, the more I'm leaning toward N scale. The draw back is they're so small, I can't see if the wheels are on the track. I also want soundtrax! I've been waiting 40 years for on board sound. The problem with HOn3 is there is NO passenger equipment available, and I'm no where near good enough to scale down an HO car. MRC says put narrow guage trucks on std guage cars which I had though long and hard about. That would look real funny, having a big coach behind a narrow guage loco. HO std guage will not take the curves. Are there any N scalers out there with soundtrax in a small steam loco? BTW, Track plan looking better all the time. The Land Barroness likes it too! The bright blue building in No Name is the Cheyenne Social Club (refer back to story) :eek:
 
Chris shouldn't the Cheyenne Social Club be a red building? :D :D :D I'm in N-Scale so I don't have a HO Walthers catalog, but I'm sure they make narrow gauge passenger equipment for HO, h*ll they make it for N. Somebody here can probably give you some links to some. The only way I've heard or seen sound with n-scale is mounted in a box car that has to stay attached to the loco, which sucks for a lot of reasons. As far as not seeing if the wheels are on the track in n-scale goes, good lighting and a pair of glasses solved the problem for me. Whatever you decide good luck and keep us posted! :)
 
Every time you save a new version of a layout the proggy saves one with the same name, only with a .bak extension - that way you can always go back to a previously saved version of your work. Not really useful unless you know about it, and even then it's a limited feature.
 
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