ISL switching trackplan

[shortliner]

Came across a switching layout trackplan that I thought might be of interest to our members - size 100" x 26"

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[Brakie]

That's a lot of switching in a 8' x 2' (rounded off) area.
Nice track plan too.

[shortliner]

That's a lot of switching in a 8' x 2' (rounded off) area.
Nice track plan too.

It was the fiddle area that particularly intrigued me - was wondering how it would work with a double slip instead of a diamond?

[jwb]

With the diamond, it's basically just two Inglenooks back to back. You would need to set up one fiddle track with the loco pulling the cars out and working the trailing point sidings and the other with the loco shoving the cars and working the facing point sidings. I think you could do a lot better in the space, which is actually generous for an ISL.

[Mike Kieran]

I would figure that the crossing helps to keep one track free for a drill track. If both tracks were used as fiddle tracks, there wouldn't be room to use the runaround.

[jwb]

With just the diamond, though, there isn't a runaround at all. There are two fiddle tracks, but they're unidirectional.

[Kev1340]

Looking at the photos it isn't a diamond, but two switches back to back creating a double slip.

Quite a nice layout but it doesn't really shout 'paper mill' to me.

Cheers,

Kev

[Mike Kieran]

With just the diamond, though, there isn't a runaround at all. There are two fiddle tracks, but they're unidirectional.

One could be used for a fiddle track and one could be used for the runaround. Two turnouts set up as a double slip is genious.