Hi All

Been working on the railroad ....duh... and have come up with a design to submit.  It is not complete, but I have the main line to where it looks good.

Layout is housed in a 31' x 39' pole barn.  My operational wants: signaling and operation as much as I can.  Era is 70's to now.  Sure, pretty broad in nature but it IS mine.

Main 36' radius.

Branch down to 24' radius in spots.

Less than 2% grade everywhere.

Switches: #6LH/RH, #6 Double Slip, #6LH/RH 36/24 curved, #6Wye on the main; #5's on the branch.

16 foot sidings length ( 8 Sidings )  with 16 Control Points, 9 Track Segments between those.

2 Levels with 24" separation with a 6 turn 5 track helix up/down ( 4 tracks for serial storage, 1 run-through ) with 4" of separation.  Think that I figured I could store 34 16' trains on the dang thing.  Helix takes up about 81 square feet with room in the middle to work on stuff.  Ya, roll under.

The pix shows a 'pink/lavender' border around the tracks.  This ( for my wife ) is/was used to locate track and loops so I could keep a 36" isle. Did pretty good with that as there are only a few pinch points @30" AND I should be able to fudge stuff as construction continues.  Note that there is not an upper level at the top, bottom and right side.  In the case of the top and bottom the roof comes down to about 45 inches above the floor.  The main line is set in towards the middle of the room approx 5' so operators don't have do duck - well unless you are taller than 6'.  I tried to keep reach to 28", and have done that for the most part.

For those that are interested AND have XtrackCad - current file: http://www.soundrail.com/images/temp.xtc

Lower Level:

Upper Level:

I still have to fill-in the towns and various house tracks, the bottom branch ( Riverside ) and such.  Geesh, there is always work to do isn't there?

ctclibby

Todd Hackett