Thoughts

The switchbacks in the upper right, while interesting, are not going to make for an enjoyable operations experience.  Here are a few ideas that you might want to look into.

 1. Team Track - move the car spot and unloading platform to the bottom yard track area.  It really doesn't have to be a dedicated spur and using one track for two purposes would make the RR a bit more efficient.

2. Switchbacks - drop them both.  Instead run a spur off of the run-around at the top into the Plastics plant area.  This way you make the plastics plant larger - maybe have two tracks in the area and provide car spots for the pellets, chemicals plus a warehouse.  With multiple car spots you can spend a lot of time switching just this location.

Just some thoughts..

Rick G.

More thoughts

Nice concept and design. Just a few more thoughts:

1. I agree with about the switch backs.  Not realistic and not fun to operate.  Often a switch back can be replaced with two spurs crossing each other which is more realistic and visually interesting.
2. Consider coving (curving) the interior corners.  Again visually pleasing and keeps your 90o curves from touching the bench edge.  Since your bench width is 18" this should introduce reach issues.
3. I like the generally curvy track work ... but not next to the buildings ... those spurs should be straight ... at least where the buildings are.
4. Consider curved turnouts to get more freedom in the design.  For example a curved turnout will allow you to get spurs into the plastics industry on right and eliminate that switch back.  It could cross the team or the cement track.
5. You only have one run around, is that on purpose for operational interest?  You might want one more in the yard so you can re-block trains there while a second operator is switching the industries.
6. Is there something going between the yard tracks at the bottom? They look too widely spaced for a typical yard.  If you make them closer (2 or 2 1/4 inches in HO is good) and parallel ... and straight ... then still keep in mind the yard does not need to be parallel to the bench edge.  Even a 2 degree angle to the bench edge will make for a more visually interesting yard at very little cost in added bench width.
7. It would be useful if you could post a drawing of your room with dimensions and obstructions shown.  That would allow us to think beyond the bench so to speak. I prefer to design my track first and then decide where the bench edge after.  

Let us know what you decide to do.

Thanks

Jan

Wye not ?

Hey Paul, Great layout for operations.

 You might want to consider the ability to reverse the direction of a single car or locomotive by inserting a wye in the upper right corner.

Comments

Thank you very much for your comments.

The reason the tracks are curved is because of a problem I am having with the layout program SCARM.

I guess I need to work with it more. The industry and yard tracks will be straight and the yard tracks will be closer together.

I currently have no restrictions on layout size, but I want to keep it small as we may move next year to a smaller house and the small layout will be easier to move and I don't know how much space I will have.

I will try to incorporate many of the comments and see what I can come up with.

Paul

Runaround

the single runaround is pretty short and is actually entirely unusable if there are any cars in the interchange (which is also extremely small for the layout - any operational scheme would probably be cars from interchange to industry or vice versa and the track looks like it would hold maybe two cars. I think it would be better off not given any purpose other than "switching lead" and create an interchange track elsewhere.

also as mentioned, the multiple switchbacks may create some interest for switching but also may end up being extremely awkward to switch one car at a time with the short head room, also considering that the only runaround is at the far end of the layout. (Having the single runaround for the layout is fine, just plan how you might switch the various spurs

Try the Anyrail trial version

Try the Anyrail trial version, your layout is small enough that you shouldn't exceed the 50 piece limit.

What radius' are your curves?

Anyrail

I will try Anyrail and see if it works better.

The track radius on the layout is 18 inches.

Thanks for your comment.

Paul