Homework

It seems that you have done your homework well.

Read that wrong

Saw it as "Twerking and twerking". Not too sure what I was expecting...

Ooooooo, is that the door?!  Later!

Hmmmm...

...I would like to try one of Dukes Cold Nose Brown Ales! 

Hmmmm...

...I would like to try one of Dukes Cold Nose Brown Ales! 

Dukes

Its actually a real brew made at a micro brewery here in jacksonville, fl.

CSX or FEC?

Hi,

I assume it's a Florida railroad, current period or close.  Looks like a good start.

Nick

That beer does sound good.

That beer does sound good.

Some Potential Ideas For You

I do like the transformation from your initial design to the latest one, but I have a few suggestions I would make if i were building this. 

I would remove most of the outer loop. I don't see it adding a lot of value. You could still have a train running on the main loop without a lot of attention. You would lose having a train running on the outer loop while switching, but I think you would have some switching nightmares trying to do that.

You have taken away the passing sidings/runarounds on the inner loop. You need them as you have industries coming off the main line in both directions. By taking away the outer loop you could have a few passing sidings.

I would remove the outer loop from the staging to just past the brewery, turn that switch around and start a siding there and end it behind the trailer park, eliminating the double cross over. You could keep the industrial siding at the top coming off the passing siding. I would then remove the outer loop from there to Morton Salt. I would keep the outer loop staging connection to the blue track going into the inner loop and create a connection from the inner loop at the bottom to the staging entrance creating a second passing siding/runaround. The Morton Salt tracks could come off this siding.

You may also want to include a classification yard to sort and group the cars coming from staging for the industries you have. I would try to put that between the oil and salt industries. It might be tight though. You might have to eliminate one of the salt plant tracks. 

You have a few S-curves you should try to eliminate as well. One at the brewery, the other at the salt plant. Those will only cause you problems.

Finally, you may want to include an extra track at the brewery for storage while switching that industry.

Good Luck,

Chris

Maybe not southern

Not sure yet Nick. Its totally fictious so I can make it wherever I want. Could be Milwaukee Road. Might be NS. Just not sure yet.

Great suggestions Chris

     I do appreciate all the thought that you put into it. I think at this time, though, I am going to keep it as is. I wanted the outer loop so a train can just go round and round while I am working on a project. I am going to set up some sort of electrical circuit that can be set to stop a train at a certain spot, probably behind the town, for a length of time, if i want to do some switching. That way i can simulate having to clear the main every so often to let a through train go by.

I'm not a big supporter of staging. I prefer to just stage right on the layout and go for it.

All terrific thoughts and suggestions for sure. And things I might consider later on.

Great Ideas.

Dear John,

It's great to see an interesting trackplan, and the sort of thinking that has gone into it - like how many cars can be stored on one siding. My own planning is basically to say "I haven't a clue and I'll learn as I go along and as long as it's interesting, I'll be happy with it!"

I take note of your reducing the number of industries from seven to four. My own plan started out around four times bigger than the space available, and is being culled as reality slowly impinges on my imagination. You might have seen my attempt at a gas producing plant, which came about through my need for a larger radius loop. This was an unexpected bonus for me as I'd not expected to use that area for operations; now it's become an entire operation in itself - and may become the focus of the layout. I simply don't know! The one industry that cannot be culled is the Droste chocolate factory!

Once I get the high level work done is when I will know how much space I have for the other industries and that is when I really will need help from people like you who have some experience of doing these things.

Have a great time with the layout,

Gem xx