Third attempt HO layout

C

COMBAT

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Oct 28, 2006
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:wave: Here is an image of my layout plan and I am looking for suggestions. Each box represents 12". I need to keep the radius at 22" for my big loco's. Take a look <--- left for an idea of what I am running. :)

I want to do a shipping container yard, a main street, a strip mining area, a residential area and a bridge under construction. Be kind but be honest! :thumb:

Sorry about the size of the pic. If I had changed it and made it smaller you wouldnt have been able to see it with detail. The image is hosted off site! Thanks for understanding.

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COMBAT said:
:wave: Here is an image of my layout plan and I am looking for suggestions. Each box represents 12". I need to keep the radius at 22" for my big loco's. Take a look <--- left for an idea of what I am running. :)

I want to do a shipping container yard, a main street, a strip mining area, a residential area and a bridge under construction. Be kind but be honest! :thumb:

Sorry about the size of the pic. If I had changed it and made it smaller you wouldnt have been able to see it with detail. The image is hosted off site! Thanks for understanding.

PUBLISH.JPG
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Are the colored lines your wiring?
 
LOL

Sorry, I should explain. The red lines show the table edge. The large black lines are the building edge. The yellow line is an existing work bench that will stay. The blue lines represent water ect. The gray line is a road way. The little gray lines represent smaller streets. I hope that helps!:D
 
COMBAT said:
LOL

Sorry, I should explain. The red lines show the table edge. The large black lines are the building edge. The yellow line is an existing work bench that will stay. The blue lines represent water ect. The gray line is a road way. The little gray lines represent smaller streets. I hope that helps!:D
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Wow .. :rolleyes: slightly green :). Looks like it's going to look great when you are done!

I'm interested in this streets they make the layout look real, but i can't wrap my mind around how i would actully make them. Different colored felt? construction paper?
 
Lots of ways. Tar roofing paper seems to be a good choice. You can also pave your own. Get some fine sand, water, paint..... I am sure you can imagine how that will work. I have used that before and got great results! :)
 
I guess I am an idiot. I do not get what you guys are talking about. Where is this extra two feet you are talking about???? :oops:
 
That looks like a cool plan COMBAT, I like that stip mine area.

I think that they are talking about between the red line and the yellow line (bottom walkthru), there is almost 3 open boxes in that walkthru and on the top walkthru there is only 2 open boxes.

BTW, what trackplanning program are you using?
 
The work bench needs room so you can use it. There is about 30" of space there for that reason. I have to have that. I wish I could just use that too but its not going to happen.

The program is called RTS 7.0 Winrail.com

I got it from Atlas ant it was a free program. There is a learning curve but there is also a lot more I can still do with this program I haven't even touched yet. :thumb:
 
The program is called RTS 7.0 Winrail.com
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Righttrack 7 is made for Atlas by the people who make Winrail, but you have to pay for winrail. I haven't seen any major (at least for what i want) difference in rts 7.0 and winrail8.0 demo.

I got it from Atlas ant it was a free program. There is a learning curve but there is also a lot more I can still do with this program I haven't even touched yet.
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:thumb: i agree wholeheartedly this program has what i need and a whole lot more.

http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm

You can download it there. I downloaded it on wed, read through the dox a little (not super intense just skimmed) then clicked on each menu name in the program and took a look at what does what. Next i opend the example layout and tried to play w/ for about an hour or so and finally i started building my own layout, it took me about 2 days to really get the hang of how to do stuff but now i fly around in it like an old pro.

I had to ask a question or two but there is a thread here on the forums for software. Do a search for "layout software". There are some very helpful and experienced folks here on the forums that would be happy to help!
 
COMBAT said:
I guess I am an idiot. I do not get what you guys are talking about. Where is this extra two feet you are talking about???? :oops:
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I think he meant move the tracks below mainstreet, instead of above.

I also changed the right side so the two tracks cross each other. This will let you have a bit larger radius. I removed a couple of the switches so you could put a nice retaining wall or natural elevation change between the two tracks for a bit of varity. Well, unless you were planning on a double track main the whole way. :thumb:
 

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I really like it. :D I have to keep a 22" radius so my big boys can go around. I have to see if the changes will effect the radius or not.

I also am concered about the cross over on the right side. The grade and the allowed distance may be too much. The other issue is the bottom water way. That is a double truss bridge and the tracks cant be seperated. With that in mind an incline cant start until the train crosses that point. What grade % would that be from the bridge to the cross over?

I like the ideas and the main road changes you did. Keep those suggestions coming! :thumb:
 
The lift bridge from Houghton to Handcock (UP Michigan) is a double decker. The rails were on the lower level and the road on the upper. The rails have been removed from the lower level and replaced with a snowmobile track now but might be an idea for you to combine both on a single bridge.

...Jim
 
COMBAT said:
I really like it. :D I have to keep a 22" radius so my big boys can go around. I have to see if the changes will effect the radius or not.

I also am concered about the cross over on the right side. The grade and the allowed distance may be too much. The other issue is the bottom water way. That is a double truss bridge and the tracks cant be seperated. With that in mind an incline cant start until the train crosses that point. What grade % would that be from the bridge to the cross over?

I like the ideas and the main road changes you did. Keep those suggestions coming! :thumb:
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That grade would be waaaay to much if you wanted them at the same height over the bridge. If you moved where the tracks cross further up, you would have a more manageable grade. Better yet, you could have a slight rise before the bridge to about an inch or so over normal height for the bridge. That would allow one track to descend and the other to ascend on the other side of the bridge.

Some random ideas I had:

The under track could go into a tunnel, allow your residential area to be built on the hill on top of the tunnel. Something steep like San Francisco might be cool. The exit of the tunnel could be right after the two tracks cross (sort of like the spiral tunnels on the SP in British Columbia).

Another idea would be to have the lower track descent down next to a small creek into a valley, while the upper track crosses the valley and goes over a ridge on a rather large trestle.

Where Main Street crosses just in front of the bridge over the waterway, you could make Main Street go under the tracks instead of having a grade crossing. There was one close to where I grew up that would flood a couple feet deep when there was heavy rain. It was quite a site to see.
 

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Thanks for the suggestions. Those are some good ideas. I will have to look at them and see where it takes me. :thumb:
 
OK.... :wave: After thinking about it, playing with it, tweaking it and even throwing out the orginal idea and starting all over this is what I think is going to be built. Now, as before the question is, what can I do to make it better? You guys had some great ideas before, some I even used like the crossovers. So, please feel free to make suggestions. Oh, and thanks in advance for your ideas. Sorry for the imagie size, I had to get the detail in it. :D

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