The Ryan River RR

F

fuzzyloggin

New Member
Oct 9, 2006
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Sydney,Australia.
hey friends,
its been awhile since ive posted on the gauge, some may remember i was planning in about early november, anyways put things on hold for the Xmas (kids,wife,work) but now im back, new year and fresh ideas ready to begin planning the Ryan River Railway :)

the layout space has changed a little since my last thread so i need to give a new description of what i have to work with. what i have is almost half a double garage, i have a 21 ft run down the side wall of the garage where i can fit about a 25" radius bend to return from and i have an area where it will bend around 9 ft across to form a J shaped layout at the other end, now i dont pretend to be a professional at all with this , in fact i am absolutely crap at most of what im gonna have to do to build this thing but its something ive wanted to do my whole life and now that i have bought my own house i can :)
ive been reading the gauge for about 5 months now and ive learnt so much already that i did not know so i now feel like i have just enough knowledge to begin the process. i only hope that i can get a little help and guidance along the way from everyone here that knows what they're talking about and even input from anyone thats possibly at the same level as myself.

below is a few shots of some of the benchwork that i have started on already you may notice in the background of some shots that there is a hot water eater in the far corner, this sits appoximately 10 inches above the level of the benchwork ive already built i intend on havin a long run up the back wall to climb to this level and have a loop and return, i have a few ideas as to what id like to do with this wall run but really have no idea how to plan a Yard for the other side of the layout .
 

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in the first phot the right hand side shows the garage door, i willbe building benchwork that will come across that door and extend 9 feet out from the wall, it will also stretch approximately 6 ft from the garage door back towards where the photo is taken from
 
also i downloaded the xtrkcad program and have been fumbling my way around it does anyone know a way of being able to post what i have drawn on it into the forums here for ppl to see?
im terrible at using the software in its entirety but at least i could show you some ideas i have for mainline and you could see the exact benchwork dimensions to see wha i have to work with..
please let me know if anyone does...
anyways good night from australia i gotta get some sleep its 11pm here and i got work in 6 hours :)
 
a vision

i re posted withoutthe grid to try and make it clearer,
as ive done it , the black lines indicate physical barriers ie walls.
the yellow line indicates proposed benchwork(although i have a little bit of flexibility with the unbuilt parts of the bench.)
the circle in the bottom left represents a 22 " helix and the way ive drawn the mainline i intend on the top track to wind its way up the frontside of a muntain range and around the 24ish" loop and back along the bottom track which would be higher up in the mountains , back into the helix, lthough i have drawn it wrong and dont intend on the top track coming out of the helix, blah anyway im tired ill fix the drawing tommorrow and repost with abit more, as i said earlier tho i have no idea how to design a yard and maybe some industries for the other side of the layout, i was also thing maybe a branchline up into thos mountains.
talk soon guys take care.
 

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My space is very similar to yours (only reversed) and I've gotten some good advice here. Check my thread "The Latest Version"
 
In the first pic, you have 2 x 4 cross members on top of the bench work. I'm not sure of your plywood thickness, but plywood tends to sag if it isn't supported every 12-24 inches depending on thickness. I would get some more 1 x 4 or 1 x 3 lumber and make cross members between the front and back stringers mounted flush with the top of the stringers. Then remove the 2 x 4 cross members on top of the framework completely. Also put in a 1 x 4 across each end.
 
hey guys thanks for the responses.

quinn , ive read through your post and there was some good advice, a question for you is how long is your planned yard,it looks like it will be huge? that is the part that im most puzzled about at the moment. i really dont know how to design a practical design for mine ..

and

Russ, your dead right about the benchwork , the only reason i have left it so unsuppported is that im still not sure whether to gowith a flat top ply base or an open gid with risers style so i did not want to commit to either at them moment. the ply i have at the moment is 3/4 inch, i think ill go for a combination of both benchwork methods.
 
heres a revised pic of more what i meant to do in he earlier posts.
the only thing is that im really crap at using this program and also my knowledge of what will work best in terms of operations is non existent.

ill keep woking on it till i get this mainline connected to some sort of yard.

the peninsula where i have the yard is not a definate in terms of its position / shape / size
above it (as you look at the image) will be a car so thats why i dropped the peninsula sown from the bench edge, this way the drives doo can more easily open to get out and stay clear of the layout, other options i have is to run and angled line down and away from the car starting from the 6 ft line as shown in the second image
 

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Welcome back Fuzz!
I can't help you with the planning....but I'll be here to cheer you on until you get further along
good luck!
 
thanks steve, ill appreciate all the support i can get , as you know its daunting in the beggining!, specially when you know very little about modelling, but im not going to let that stop me, i just cant wait to get my NYC diesel going, i haven't got many loco's yet i just want to concentrate on the layout first and then put trains together that i think will look good on it. heres a pic of my first loco for the layout :)
 

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fuzzyloggin said:
hey guys thanks for the responses.
quinn , ive read through your post and there was some good advice, a question for you is how long is your planned yard,it looks like it will be huge? that is the part that im most puzzled about at the moment. i really dont know how to design a practical design for mine ..
Click to expand...

I haven't finalised the track plan for the yard but I have 2" x 16 feet to work with. Less really in length when I take into account the area leading out onto the main etc. Say 2' x 13' or 14'. Depending on how much of that I use I may fit in an industry in there as well.
 
wow quinn that seems like alot for the yard, i think im going to have to work something out so i can all9ow more room for my own yard..
hmm.. i guess ill draw it up as im going and then see what i have, once i get this plan of mine down tell me what you think..
im a real noob man so i know im going to stuff up this design part over and over till i get it right :)
 
fuzzyloggin said:
wow quinn that seems like alot for the yard, i think im going to have to work something out so i can all9ow more room for my own yard..
hmm.. i guess ill draw it up as im going and then see what i have, once i get this plan of mine down tell me what you think..
im a real noob man so i know im going to stuff up this design part over and over till i get it right :)
Click to expand...

It does seem like a lot but I've never heard anyone say they wish they made their yard smaller but I've seen a lot who wished they made it bigger. Once I get to actually laying track I can make adjustments but I'm not planning anything else for that section of the bench right now.
 
Classification yards usually take a lot more space than you'd guess at first. Ladders eat up an incredible amount of space, and you have to remember to put in more car capacity than you need, because a full yard is impossible to switch.
 
hey galen, good to see your around anyway and yeah id love the critique as im totally making thngs up as i go, im really just throwing ideas down but i may build a trackplan totally different to what ive posted so far ,you know how it is.

there were a few things that are governing the layout that cant be changed,

the fact that the car MUST be able to stay in the garage, you see the temperature gets real hot here and i have two kids one little boy thats only 2 so i want the car to stay cool in the garage for wife and kids(right now the temp is 40 degrees celcius - 104 degrees fahrenheit, its meant to climb to 112 by the end of the day :( )

i also MUST have storage built into the benchwork ,was a comprimise.

and I have the water heater up one end and told myself i wanted a run the full length of the wall so this means i need to climb the track along the wall in order to clear the water heater.
so all of those things have influenced the plan i have so far drawn all tho i am not happy with it ... :)
so ill keep tinkering with it but id love any comments or suggestions as to why this plan sucks :) or any thoughts on anything that may be good about this plan , anyway ill keep chippin away on the bench as there are some parts that i can do then modify once i make final decisions. (that is why you will see in the pics of the bench that it lacks a proper top on it, i have just thrown on a few cross members just to hold things in place , then once i finalise trackplan ill reinforce the top :)
 
here is abit more done on this trackplan, im really nervous about posting this as im sure you guys are looking at it and saying that is totally crap :)

i just want to post it to get thoughts so that i can work it out and get a good layout in the end.

as a side note does anyone know how i can post a larger picture of an xtrkcad drawing here?
 

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i didn't get alot done today it was just too damn hot, but i did extend the benchwork along the wall another 5 and a half feet ,
next weekend im going to build the benchwork over and around the water heater which will involve creating the platform for the 24" radius turn around above the heater.not sure exactly how ill do that yet in a way that will make it easy to disassemble if the heater ever blows, i guess ill have to make it semi removable i was half thinking of hiding the turn behind a mountain face so i dont have to scenic the removable section. still thinking.
 

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if anyone gets a chance any comments good or bad would be appreciated on the above trackplan,
if you think it sucks please let me know and tell me why it sux so i can re do it and make the right changes ! :)
 
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