Narrower aisles vs stacking operators

I don't have any real world experience, Chris, with a double decker.  For what it's worth though, anything that I've ever seen printed talks of staggering operating areas so people don't get doubled up, and that's a direction I'm going to try and head in for mine. So I'd suggest the latter of the two - a narrower aisle that is shared with operators on the opposite side. 

Maybe easier to bump behinds than constantly dodge someon else.

Yeah.. the worst is when someone's upper deck cord keeps dragging across your cars on the bottom deck..

Chris

Since this is all theoretical, it's very hard to give suggestions. But one thing to consider is not just whether the yards are stacked, but where the operators will stand in the aisle to work the yards. In my experience, operators mainly tend to stand along the body tracks just beyond the yard ladder, at least with manual uncoupling.

That's because they tend to be moving cuts of cars into various tracks and uncoupling the string near the clearance points. (This is for a pure classification yard -- if there are industries along the yard that the operator is also responsible for, he or she will move around more). Once in a while the operators move along the body tracks or the switching lead, but they tend to settle in where they are doing the most work.

So stacked yards may not be so bad if the yard lead and throats are at opposite ends. That will tend to move the operators apart from each other. This is a situation where I will somtimes depart from the pure prototype configuration in order to create a reason for the yard operators to be (mostly) out of one another's way when stacking is unavoidable.

A separate yard aisle can work, too, but if it requires a duck-under it's less attractive. And, of course, the best way to deal with this is to make every reasonable effort to separate the yards as the plan is being developed.

Yeah.. the worst is when someone's upper deck cord keeps dragging across your cars on the bottom deck..

Wireless cabs (DC or DCC) solve a lot of these problems.

Byron, thanks for the feedback. I am deliberately not posting specific plans because until  I am more committed to a course of action as I don't want to waste people's time on a RFC for a plan that never gets started. Be sure that before I start cutting I will put the final plan up to be appropriately commented! I hope to have two competed plans actually. Track planning costs a lot less then track laying!

There may or may not be a duck under for the upper level with about 60" from floor to bottom of bench, but thats really a seperate issue having to do with whether I choose to utilize under-stair space for a turnback.

I have to give some thought to where the operators would work. The natural choice for each yard would have each operator standing in the same spot. I will give that some thought and maybe see if I can encourage them to work at different ends. There will be industries to switch but that is relatively minor. 

One plus to the mushroom is that a crew dropping a train off will really feel like they are somewhere else. The idea that after your run over the subdivision you end up 15" above where you started is kinda silly..

Thanks,

Chris

Two yards or busy switching areas right above each other, or across the aisle next to each will mean operators getting each other's way constantly.

At  our club layout, we have a separate narrow aisle along the back of the yard for the yard operators (it's double ended and its size easily supports two switchers), and mainline operators walk down the other side.

There are a couple areas on our layout where there are switching areas on both sides down a particular aisle, but its rare for multiple crews to be working these areas at once, or the same train actually works both locations so there is no conflict. Other locations have either just mainline running or a simple passing siding opposite, or a blank wall (opposite the main yard). Eventually, Levack (which has some interchanges and switching) will be across the aisle from Cartier yard (the second largest yard on the layout), but only a few trains work at either location, and Cartier has no assigned yard switcher. (Neither Levack or Cartier has been built yet on the layout)

So stacked yards may not be so bad if the yard lead and throats are at opposite ends. That will tend to move the operators apart from each other.

I agree with Byron, but add that yard operators will interfere with each even if there are wide aisles unless the yards are designed so operators aren't usually occupying the same immediate area.  So, have yard leads and throats at opposite ends when the yards are stacked as Byron suggests.

I'm going to beat up on Joe here a bit - he's got a central location on the Siskiyou Line which tends to get clogged with bodies fairly often.

As you can see above, Roseburg Yard, which has a permanent yardmaster position, is directly across from both Dillard (usually a major 2nd trick mess involving at least two people) and Cottage Grove (where everyone stops to pickup or drop off helpers and water cars as needed). Add to that the entrance to the layout is the door at the bottom right, and the access to the lower deck is the narrow aisle to the upper right, and it gets downright crowded at times - Try putting a yardmaster (1 person) in Roseburg, the Dole Turn (2 people) in Dillard, a Siskiyou Line East from Medford to Eugene going through Dillard (2 people), just about any random train in Cottage Grove (2 people), and a Coos Bay Hauler East (2 people) somewhere in the Roseburg area trying to get to the lower deck....

Stack the decks... not the operators.

But you'll also notice the aisle is 4-5 feet wide in most of the Dillard-Roseburg-Cottage Grove triangle. I knew the combination of this triangle plus it being the layout room entrance and the passageway to the lower deck would make it a prime candidate for congestion - that's why it has the most generous aisle width of the entire layout.

One could argue that in the worst of times, even that's not enough - but fortunately, we're all friends and it's a good thing we're using wireless DCC! (see photo below)

Ah, you found the photo I was looking for!