No blob

Branch line feel

I'd suggest shortening the passing siding that serves both industries.  As it stands, a train that's big enough to need a siding of that length looks like it would cover the rest of the distance between that siding and the interchange once it left there, giving the layout the feeling of a short industrial spur rather than a branch line.  I understand your reasoning for going with that length - to keep your current modules intact and just add track between them - but I think two shorter sidings would give a better branch line feel and help to enhance the feeling of going somewhere.

My only other suggestion would be to put the yard on a part of a segment of the railroad's mainline, with the main continuing on in both directions and the branch diverging from the main on one end of the yard.  That way, the yard itself can serve as your "staging", as cuts of cars can be built and removed from there before a session as though they were left or picked up by a mainline manifest since you last operated.

shortening the passing siding

I thought the same thing as Joe when I saw the siding and the interchange yard position. My other question is the use of the staging cassettes beyond the ethanol plant. does the line continue to more off scene industries or are they just to increase the storage of the plant spurs?  If the line continues it might be handy to curve it around the walls and connect to the staging yard so the yard can do double duty as both ends of the branchline?  Making a loop would allow continuous running for breaking in locos or railfanning trains.....DaveB

Plans

I would swap the wood chip and chemical tracks, paper mills use about 1 car of chemicals for every 10-15 cars of chips.

I would make the yard single ended and consider it the interchange.  If you only have one class track then you really aren't making classifications.    I wouldn't worry about designating a A/D or class tracks , I would make one track double ended and then just have the rest yard tracks.

Rather than a turn back peninsula, I would suggest just a stub peninsula with the aisles actually wide enough that you can turn around in them.  Alternate plan is to make it look like an upside down G.  Put the interchange yard along the bottom.  Running room and a smaller industry on the right wall, the ethanol plant on the top wall, then extend the "end of Track line in a left hand curve and run the paper mill down the center of the room.

Storage Track

Consider moving the storage track so the loop feels like a bit longer run.

I also agree that the passing siding could probably be shorter.

This image shows a shorter passing siding and moved storage track.

Revised Track Plan

That was a lot of good feedback in short order.

I guess I'll have to accept ripping up a little bit of track on the current modules. Better to do it now than regret or be unhappy with it later (I don't plan on making another layout anytime in the next two decades).

Some stuff I didn't mention: The entrance to the room is a set of stairs near the top left. I need to keep the room feeling open as there is access to other rooms and a storage space near the left and bottom left. It has to wrap around the walls on the top, right and bottom, or the room will be really closed off and my wife won't put up with that. For the same reason a loop around the room is off the table too.

In this new version:

- Shortened the siding that serves both industries at both ends (don't need a cassette or runarounds near the ethanol plant anymore).

- At the paper mill:

    - Made the lead track shorter

    - Cleaned up some of the curved turnouts and managed to get rid of the #4s (fit in a #6).

    - Didn't switch the chip wood unloading track for the chemical unloading track. I'd like to hide the chip unloading track somehow so that chip unloading occurs off the layout. Put a high stack of logs / chips there maybe? Or maybe a few more chemical tanks?  Dave, is that a plausible solution for the higher chip traffic?

    - Adjusted the storage track away from the turn.

- The interchange yard is now on the mainline with the mainline disappearing off the layout at both ends.

- Track no longer loops around the bottom wall increasing space in the aisle.

Let me know what you think of this version.

Current Layout

For fun, here's what the current layout looks like.

Greater Capacity & view blocks

With a few creative view blocks you can increase the chip track capacity. In my drawing, unloading of chips takes place off layout, behind the mill. A view block (chip pile, a'al Mike Confalone) and maybe some buildings over by the yard, obscure the chip cars and the holes in the backdrop.

Remove Interchange

I thought about aisle space yesterday and 2' was really narrow. This plan removes the interchange until I move in a year or so into a larger space.

It opens up the aisle to just over 3' and simplifies the track work somewhat.

There's no more run around at the paper mill but I'm thinking that could still be achieved on the siding if necessary.

Min radius is 20". Min turnout #6. 13' x 7'6".

Staging Cassette?

What is the purpose of the cassette at the Ethanol Plant?
Wouldn't you prefer to load traffic on the interchange?

Cassette

I guess I shouldn't call it staging. I added the cassette later to increase the length of the corn unloading track so a few cars could be pushed through at a time.

I also have a small cassette that connects at the "End of the Line" at the ethanol plant (also 18") and one that connects at the "Interchange" (also 18").

These are for my current 12' layout. They add a bit of extra run around room on the siding. 

Revised Track Plan (Island and Off Layout Interchange)

I spent a lot of time working with this over the weekend. I'm feeling good about this one.

I'm taking the advice of putting the paper mill in the center without a backdrop. I will use a large cassette to extend the ethanol plant operations.

This version requires very little modification to my current 6' modules, increases the operational possibilities at the ethanol plant and paper mill, gives me 3' of isle space, and keeps the room feeling open. The section toward the interchange is only 8' long along that wall as the room extends to the bottom but I have to keep that area open.

Let me know what you think.

Updates

Hi Joe - I like the simplification in this new plan.  Just a few thoughts:

• I wouldn't bother with the runaround at the paper mill.  Being so close to the branch's mainline, I think crews would shove in and pull out.
• To increase your interchange capacity, could you flip the lead into the paper mill so it diverges from the branch in the upper right corner as it was in your older plan rather than coming off your siding in the lower right?  You might have to sacrifice a few inches of space in the lower aisle, but I don't think a short stretch of 30" aisle, or even 24", should be a problem for the 1-2 operators I would think you'd be using.
• Given the amount of traffic these two large industries will generate, if that siding at the lower right corner is to serve as your interchange point with the outside world, I think it'd be worthwhile to add 2-3 tracks and turn it into a yard.  Perhaps one through track on the backdrop side, and 1-2 stub tracks on the aisle side, stubbed on the interchange end so they could be worked from the branch.
• With the above changes, if you wanted to give this more of a branch line feel, you could add a switch just above the siding, along the right wall, with a short stretch of track extending from there and disappearing behind trees before hitting the backdrop.  That track would serve as the mainline that feeds your branch, continuing through the siding/yard and out the other end along your lower wall.

Interchange

Thanks Joe,

I was thinking that I would leave out the interchange altogether until I get more room, so presumably the branch line continues left along the bottom wall to a future interchange and/or another smaller industry. I put the siding at the bottom right with the thought that it would be used for switching at the paper mill and not as an interchange. I liked the suggestion of leaving more room between elements to make it feel like the train is traveling farther. That's why the paper mill lead comes off the branch line from the bottom right instead of the top right. (Avoiding having one long siding that was mentioned before and separating it from the ethanol plant).  I left the extra run-around at the paper mill because it will save me from ripping up track on that module. If its unrealistic because of the one on the branch line I'll pull it up. If I can get away with leaving it in by removing the siding on the branch line, I'd like to leave it in place. Let me know what's plausible. I'm basing the siding lengths off a 10 car train. This is the number of cars I think I can reasonably get away with given the space I have and the industries I want to model. But I really have no idea. Advice on that is welcome too. If I remove the siding on the branch line for the paper mill should I increase the length of the runaround to fit 10 cars? The runaround at the paper mill currently only fits about 6 cars.

I like all this feedback. To be honest, the only stuff I know about railroads is from websites like these and railroad magazines.

What If

What if I remove the top track at the paper mill all together and extend the track that is second from the top to the left making it as long as the other storage track. One track can be used for inbound cars delivered by the branch line, the other can be for the mill switcher to put all the outbound traffic. (Or should I keep the top track but still remove the run around, so the mill switcher has a third track for sorting cuts of cars?).

I could then delete the siding at the bottom right corner as the branch line would push cuts of cars right from the interchange (still off the layout) to the paper mill and then return to the interchange and pull cars to the ethanol plant.

Does this make sense?

I'm waiting on a book about designing layouts for operation. I'm sure it will help with some of these questions.

I really like what I see!

I think this last iteration is excellent. I would leave it as is with one possible exception. I would add another track to create a bit of a yard in the interchange area.

Looking Great!!

add another track to create a bit of a yard in the interchange

and since the tracks on the right wall are near the back might as well scallop that middle aisle end to narrow the benchwork there  and make it easier to switch the upper end of the yard.....DaveB

Narrowing it down.

Seems like I'm getting close.

I played around with some switching using XtrackCAD to develop a general operating scheme and remove unnecessary tracks.

After  that I decided to add a few extra feet to model the interchange and to leave the run-around at the paper mill as spotting cars at the tank car unloading track will be difficult if the mill switcher has to go through the rotary dumper to run-around there.

For my operating concept I'm thinking that once or twice daily:

1. The branch line shoves a cut of cars from the interchange to the paper mill inbound track and then pulls cars from the outbound track (placed there by the mill switcher) back to the interchange. The interchange has a run-around so I can reset everything down there.

2. The branch line then pulls a cut of cars to the ethanol plant lower siding, runs around, and picks up a cut-of cars from the ethanol outbound track and pulls them back to the interchange. Plant switcher than pulls the cut-in off the branch line.

There's just enough space at the interchange to stage those two cuts of cars and run-around for the engine when it comes back from the paper mill to head back to the ethanol plant without getting stuck in the small yard.

Lots of room for future expansion with the mainline now modeled there too.

Winner winner chicken dinner

Great plan Joe!  This version is my favorite by far.  Only one minor change I might suggest:  Instead of tying your Interchange runaround into another yard track, tying it into the main will free up a yard track for actual storage and switching without getting in the way of runaround moves.  You can't tie anything down on the main anyway, so why not use it as your runaround's "escape route"?

tying it into the main will free up a yard track

 Yeah and since there's quite a bit of industrial tracks every bit of staging will be appreciated when operating. I might even consider moving the yard throat right a bit into the curve to lengthen the staging or perhap add one more track on the aisle side.  The track plan looks like it will be fun to operate now, and I like the way each scene stands on it's own as a separate location..DaveB

Increased Interchange Capacity

One more thing

Joe, I think you're on the right track, but one minor tweak might open up another track for the yard:  If you swap the mainline and siding so that the main is closest to the backdrop and the siding closest to the yard, then your siding can become the logical interchange point with your mainline trains.

As things stand now, there's no way for manifests to drop cars for you on the siding since the tail tracks on either end aren't long enough for you to move them over to the yard, unless you do it one car at a time.  That means that interchange cuts would have to be left on one of your yard tracks.  If the siding and main are swapped, the siding can become a dedicated interchange point, leaving all three stub tracks open for yard work, interchange overflow, etc.

Interchange Tweak

Great suggestions

You've gotten some great suggestions and the plan has improved tremendously. Its been fun watching this take shape.  Your latest plan is looking pretty darn good to me. Run every kind of scenario you can think of on XTrkCAD to see how it will operate.  Its fun and really helps point out any issues.  

Randy