Shamrock Ave. Ft. Worth, TX

[Brakie]

The gate would more then likely have 2 locks-a standard lock and a switch lock..These will be interlock so if you unlock one you can remove the chain open the gate.

The reason for this is at 2 or 3 AM in the morning there may not be anybody around to get the key from..

Your layout shows a very nice improvement on design and isle space.

[paulus_jas]

Hi,
I would prefer a little passing track at the left.

Only the lower plan is appropriate.
The small yard is so close, though impossible to incorporate. Or make your local completely up by hand, get the cars in the right order before you start an OP-session, or you add the passing siding. Then the cars might arrive in "false" order and some additional switching is needed.
Paul

[Brakie]

Paul,A small yard in a industrial area would be used for overflow cars and holding empties not for actual breaking down and building of trains..I have use such yards on my larger ISLs..They also give you some head room when needed by having a place to leave cars out of the way while you work the industries.

Also note that there is only two tracks to that "yard" so,again its for holding cars.

IMHO that top layout favors a switching puzzle design so,I would pass.

[paulus_jas]

Brakie,
it depends as always.
I would not be that sure that cars were always placed in the right order before a local left the main yard. Just a block of cars for Shamrock Avenue could be made up in the yard; It could be up to the Shamrock local to do so on a convenient spot. Especially when shoving moves have to be done, it might even be in the rule book to make these moves as short as possible. The availability of a convenient spot might be the clue, schedules and an overloaded classification yard could be as well.
At stake is something else too, maybe it is not that bad to accept not-that-prototypical moves, if the resulting fun is rewarding. Here opinions will surely be different. A longer OP-session could be one of the designer's aims.
BTW the first plan is from Great Model Railroads 2012, the second is an old plan by a Brit who frequently attended shows with this little railroad.
Both are almost like puzzles, it is obviously what the owners wanted. My preference is for simpler plans, though not to simple. I quite like the elongated operation time.
Just my opinion,
Paul

[steinjr]

Nice track plans, both Paul and Jack. It is always fun to see how other people interested in track planning can play ball off each other's ideas.

If I had to vote, I think I would have cast a vote for Paul's latest plan, if one doesn't mind the larger departure from the prototype location - putting a runaround on the left and having two tracks in the lower right results in a nicely balanced and varied layout without access and reach issues.

The runaround could representent the runaround and holding spur that is there in real life - over by White Settlement street - past those buildings in the upper right hand corner.

To the original poster in this thread - sorry if we sort of hijacked your thread :-)

Smile,
Stein

[shortliner]

The gate would more then likely have 2 locks-a standard lock and a switch lock..These will be interlock so if you unlock one you can remove the chain open the gate.

The reason for this is at 2 or 3 AM in the morning there may not be anybody around to get the key from..

Your layout shows a very nice improvement on design and isle space.

Thank you for that - your suggestion about the interlocking makes sense
best
Jack

[Brakie]

Paul,By the time a local would reach Shamrock Ave the train may not be in industry "working" order but,still manageable.

You see the cars that was pickup on the way to Shamrock may be in front of the Shamrock cars and rearranging those cars may not be done as long as the Shamrock cars are together.There's no need to do unnecessary work since that takes time and time is never on the side of a local.

[macmiller]

Hijack all you want! Ideas help everyone. Somebeody else could use ideas from these plans, or an entire plan.

If I didn't lurk here in the first place getting ideas, I would have ended up with a mess that would never get played with.

I think I've gotten a few ideas on this thread and have tweaked my design by moving TBD to the right a foot or so. IF everything looks and runs okay around the curve, I'll go from there, if not it would most likely be one of the plans that has a pre staged train coming in from the upper right.

[steinjr]

Hijack all you want! Ideas help everyone. Somebeody else could use ideas from these plans, or an entire plan.

If I didn't lurk here in the first place getting ideas, I would have ended up with a mess that would never get played with.

I think I've gotten a few ideas on this thread and have tweaked my design by moving TBD to the right a foot or so. IF everything looks and runs okay around the curve, I'll go from there, if not it would most likely be one of the plans that has a pre staged train coming in from the upper right.

I hope you mean "to the left". To the right will make that aisle on the right even narrower :-)

Smile,
Stein

[Brakie]

I hope you mean "to the left". To the right will make that aisle on the right even narrower

Smile,
Stein
-------------------------
You ever notice when we was young and slim we don't notice such things but,as we age and gain the "easy chair belly" it comes back to haunt us.

I know of several older HO clubs where a human meet in the isle takes some maneuvering.I help design one of those layouts and all of us on the layout planning committee was slim and trim and its haunting the membership today..

[steinjr]

-
You ever notice when we was young and slim we don't notice such things but,as we age and gain the "easy chair belly" it comes back to haunt us.

I know of several older HO clubs where a human meet in the isle takes some maneuvering.I help design one of those layouts and all of us on the layout planning committee was slim and trim and its haunting the membership today..

LOL - I know exactly what you mean :-)

Btw - it is spelled "aisle" - an "isle" is an island, like the Isle of Man.

Grin,
Stein

[macmiller]

I'm looking into track now. Considering that most of it will be in the street, what rail size do you suggest? 83? Don't the Peco Streamline turnouts have the springed snap switch mechanism? I don't want to deal with switch machines. Powered frogs or not? If powered, what's the best way to change the polarity?

[Russ Bellinis]

I would continue what ever size rail you are using for the rest of the layout, although because it is buried in the street, you could use code 100 without having it show as out of scale!

The Peco turnouts do have the off center spring that is very nice for manually throwing the turnout. If you need to change frog polarity, you could wire the frog to the points so that when the turnout is thrown, the frog polarity changes to the polarity of whichever stock rail has continuity with the points. The problem is that a poor electrical connection between the stock rail and the points will result in a relatively long dead section. If your locomotives will all bridge the frog, then running insul-frog turnouts would be the best solution because there is no frog polarity. A further consideration if the insulfrog turnout has such a long insulated section that it causes electrical pick up problems, you could use an electrofrog turnout and cut gaps close to the frog.

The modular Ho club I belong to, which pre-dated both N-track and the NMRA o modular standards, has always specified a 4 inch joiner track between modules because 4 axle diesels like F-7's and Gp7's & 9's will easily bridge 4 inches. We do have problems on occasion with smaller locomotives like 44 toners, and steam engines, since the joiner tracks are the only place on the layout where every piece of rail does not have a drop soldered to it.

[Justinmiller171]

Micro Engineering also makes turnouts that are sprung, they have #6 turnouts in both code 70 and 83.

I have Peco code 100 turnouts and my layout, and I like them alot, but if you are going for street trackage code 100 may look a little bit too big.

[Brakie]

Justin,C1OO will work as street trackage as Russ pointed out..It will be buried in the street..