Access

Access is a hard thing to think about in that first flush of enthusiasm. I've seen hatches that drop down, lift up, and slide to one side.

In other cases, builders have concealed access holes by placing them behind a low backdrop or a rise in the scenery contours.  Even so, you will have to do some crawling to reach the spots marked on your sketch.

The equipment you mention should perform acceptably on 30" curves, though. here are a couple of ideas:

•   I would inspect the track joints to make sure the radius isn't getting tighter at these points.
•   If there are not easements into the curves, long equipment is going to have a particular problem, because the sudden transition from straight to curve will jerk the car and engine sideways. Here's a good explanation of easements.
•  Take a close look at coupler height and swing to eliminate sticky points or mismatches.
•  Inspect the trucks on the cars to be sure they swivel freely, that the wheel sets are in gauge and roll freely, and that the wheels are "in tram", meaning the wheels aren't offset, causing the truck to "crab" a little sideways.

30" minimum should work.

Make sure that your track work is smooth.  Long wheelbase three axle trucks and 4 coupled steam don't like vertical curves and dips.  If the track is at all rough, full length passenger cars, six axle diesels, and big steam will really have problems staying on the track.

Checking the "True" radius of a curve

Recommend you check your curves as laid with either Fastracks Sweeps or Ribbonrail alignment Gauges for 30 inch curves.  They will locate the "kinks" and provide guidance on laying the curves properly.

I just thought of something else.

Run your trains slowly over the areas where it derails while looking very closely at the the wheels.  Often times the problem actually occurs a few feet back up the track from where you actually see the problem.  You need to watch the wheels closely to see where anything starts to comes off the track.  Once you see the places where you actually have problems it is easier to find the problems.

Track Plan Help

I agree with the above posters that a 30" radius ought to accommodate your equipment.  How long ago did you build the dog bone?  What kind of track did you install initially -- flex or hand laid?  If flex, what brand? What size rail?  Commercial or jig-built turnouts?  What brand?  Plastic frogs or metal ones?  Juiced?)  You may have compatibility issues - for example, Rivarossi engines (is your cab forward a Rivarossi?  They were imported to the US under the IHM name) have very deep flanges and will bump rail tops and frog troughs on code 83 track.  How did you put down the rail, and can you salvage it?  Do you want to? 

The track plan you attached either has no letters A,B, and C, and no dimensions and no elevations written anywhere, or else I can't open the attachment properly with Open Office.  In either case, I can't tell much from what I do see.  The minimum radius is apparently 30", but what's your maximum grade?  Aisle width?  Do you insist on saving the shape of the basic bench work, or just a tabletop or two with town trackage on it?

Although you've provided a few givens and druthers (a classification yard, good access, a continuous run loop, better operations), you haven't said what you really want.  Do you want a rail-fan layout to watch trains, a garage-sized switching exercise, or something in between?  Is your preference a continuous run loop option on top of intricate switching puzzles?  A continuous run loop with hidden double-ended staging (choose a through train to run) with a big, visible classification yard and a bit of industrial switching (focus on yard work), or a CR loop passing through a branch line junction town that accepts cuts of cars off the main and winds its way to a branch terminus town (focus on the branch junction operation and local switching.) 

What's your era -- your collection of locos covers a pretty wide time span?  What's your desired scenery -- mountains, hills, prairies, a seacoast?  Urban, suburban, small town, very rural?  Do you want to maximize hidden storage tracks? Maximize storage capacity in yards? Have less track and maximize your scenery opportunities? 

In sum BJ, there are several of us here who like to doodle track plan ideas, but you haven't given us enough to really get started.    

DOCX opening

Dear ??? (Seustis), BJ

The DOCX format is Office 2010 and newer, as opposed to the .DOC extension of Office 2003. Open-Office 3 should be able to open this file.
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

NB that MS have a plugin/compatibility update which allows MSOffice2007-and-older to open MSOffice2010-and-newer .---X extension files.

For those unable to open DOCX, here's a PDF...

BJ_Aus_Layout_Schematic.pdf

or better still

BJ, I agree with the above posters, 30" should be plenty with the equipment you are mentioning. I suspect:
(In no particular order of preference)

- kinks at rail joints mid-curve
(Particular killer of 3-axle trucks, as all 3 axles need to be "on-axis" or "inline" at any given moment. Run a 2-axle vehicle over the offending track, does it glide smoothly round, or does it "judder" it's way around the curve?)

- gauging issues (either wheelset, rail, or combination of both)

- incorrectly weighted cars
(not enough per car, or light-cars sandwiched between locos and heavy cars)

- variations in car rolling resistance/truck<> axle resistance
(a car with "the brakes stuck on" can cause issues)

- cars with their trucks not adjusted properly for smooth free rotation and grade/flat transition
(if a single wheel of a 2-axle truck lifts clear of the rail, something's not right...
3-axle trucks are just longer, more rigid, and must have _all_ wheels on the ground at all times...)

- coupler swing restrictions
(esp if the issues tend to occur at/near the start or end of each curve)

- Mixing "short" and "long" cars in a train consist.
(without adequate coupler swing, a long car with large coupler overhang will try to drag a shorter coupled car straight off the outside of the curve...)

- train handling
(just because they are models doesn't mean that they don't start handling like full-sized trains when train lengths and weights start getting longer/higher. Rapid changes in speed _will_ cause semi-prototypical slack-bunching, with attendent chances of popping light cars up-and-out of the consist)

It's going to be keen observation at track-level of each "misbehaving" piece-of-equipment in turn which will sort this out...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Thank you for the advice

Thank you to everyone for your help and advice.  I will definitely have a look and see if there is anything obvious both on the cars and the curves.  The curves were originally built for the larger/longer streamlined cars.

Seustis you bring up some great points that I have omitted, my apologies.  I will try to answer all of them in turn.

Not sure why the file will not open for you as I tested the download, I will have to try and work out the elevations and explain as best I can.

The layout was originally built about 8 years ago and since then has been in and out of use as enthusiasm and time has allowed.  More often than not it is the later which I lack.

I run using an NCE system and program using JMRI.  As the layout has given me more trouble I have been focused on decoder installs and programming locos for a while.

The track is code 100 Peco mostly Flex track and the turnouts are a mixture of Peco electro and insulfrog turn outs depending on location.  I have stuck to the larger radius turnouts on the mainline and tried to keep the curves sweeping.  The track has been pinned in place on cork.  There is only one section that has been ballasted (the top most passing tracks in the diagram).

I would prefer to salvage the track if possible. I have no preference for saving the benchwork.  That will very much depend on the final design.  My biggest problem with this design is access to the far tracks against the wall (bottom of the diagram).

I model the Pacific Northwest with the Southern Pacific and Great Northern railroads.  The streamliners of the 50’s are a particular passion with the CZ, Daylight and Empire Builder all on the roster.  So while the time frame is loosely based on the late 50’s to the as a free-lanced layout it’s more whatever people enjoy running.  Strings of PFE cars are pulled by BLI Cab-forwards, grain trains and when visitors come the Amtrak superliners and center beam lumber cars can make an appearance.

Having never been a fan of trains ‘chasing their tails’ on a loop I was looking for something a bit different, that offered a continuous run while not visibly chasing its tail.  I have visitors who come and run a train (while I program locos for them) and for them the ability to just run and railfan is great.

I would like a design that will allow me to run the streamliners while providing a couple of small towns and industries to switch.  I prefer the mountains and small towns.  I do like the idea of a mainline with a branch line terminus, allowing for a single person to 3 operators, but fear space will limit this. Maximising the storage of the streamliners in a large town/yard and then running through the mountain scenery would be great.  I personally enjoy a mix of running long trains and switching cars on a local to service some industries through the rural towns along the way.

I had been toying with a way of stacking the tracks more effectively to limit reach issues on the track against the wall (straight run on the bottom of the diagram) but this requires reducing the minimum radius which I was trying to avoid.

Hope this all makes sense.  Thank you for all your suggestions thus far.

Having never been a fan of trainschasing their tails on a loop

 If the room is not big enough to fit in turn back curves of sufficient radius for your equipment then the best way to go about it is probably an around the walls layout with more than one loop or level. It's possible to get three turns around a room without overly crowding the trackwork  by running some spots behind buildings or other scenery. It's not theoretically as good as a once around scene but it is great for train running. Lots of run length and places for industrial spurs.The best  thing about around the walls is if the room is say 10 feet wide the tracks can be lay'd with 54 inch radius if desired while maintaining a wide central operating area. It does require a lift out or otherwise moveable section at the room door to make construction and maintenance easier. For a three times around design you could probably work in 48 inch radius minimum.; Each loop might have two towns or industrial switching destinations staggered to not all be at the same part of the room for a 6 station total route..DaveBranum

More info please

You provided some great information in your second post.  However, some dimensions would also help.  What is the width and length of your available room?  Where are the walls and doors?  What are the dimensions of the bench work?  

I think you have a great start here and with some tweaking it could be a solid layout.

Art