Tommy24a

Hello, in the process of doing a layout with my grown Son . He has a nice size basement. The footprint of the layout is 22FT long by 15 FT wide. Bench work done (L girder) and now starting to put down the road bed. This is a DCC system with tortoise switches. I have some small DPDT toggle switches and a bunch of Bi color (Red\green) led's. Very new to the hobby (at least the building part) and need help with my ward. I would like to build a control panel for the yard. I could use some help in the placement of the switches and led's that make sense. See Below. The circles are when I think the toggles should go, and the green dots are the led's. Thoughts if this is the way to do it? Thanks in advance !

ladder.jpg rackonly.JPG 

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ChiloquinRuss

Looks good

Just need 4 more leds.  Russ

w%20leds.JPG 

http://trainmtn.org/tmrr/index.shtml  Worlds largest outdoor hobby railroad 1/8th scale 37 miles of track on 2,200 acres
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Tommy24a

Thank you so much for the

Thank you so much for the help!
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Tommy24a

Thanks

Again thank you!
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jimfitch

Judging by the track plan

Judging by the track plan grid, the curve minimum radius appears to be about 24 inches.  I didn't see a scale listed (HO or N?).  If HO what ware the longest cars you are running?  If you are running full-length passenger cars, then 24 inch radius will be rather sharp and you may have issues depending on the longer rolling stock being run.

.

Jim Fitch
northern VA

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Tommy24a

Yes HO scale...more of an

Yes HO scale...more of an industry type layout...so won't be running any passenger cars...
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Russ Bellinis

What era?

You may not be running passenger cars, but 89 foot freight cars and long locomotives will have the same problems with a 24 inch radius.

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Tommy24a

Era mid 50's...

Era mid 50's...
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Ted Becker rail.bird

LED colors

I would suggest using single color LEDs.  On and off will be easier to quickly see which track is selected.  Also I would suggest LEDs on both legs of the turnouts.

Some color-blind people cannot tell the difference between the red and green LEDs.

I would swap the position of the short and long crossovers at the right end of the yard.


Ted Becker

Granite Falls, WA

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Tommy24a

Not sure I get what u

Not sure I get what u mean...if u would mark up on my yard where u think the switches should go...I think those are pretty good not? Its the led locations that I am stumped on.thanks!
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PeteM

Tommy, excuse me for poking my nose in...

...but I was thinking about your yard design. Maybe it would be a bit awkward to operate so I made a few suggested adjustments, hope you don't mind!  My idea was to flip the yard vertically. That makes the yard ladder more accessible from the aisle for switching, gets you more yard lead length at the right side, and larger radius on the main and lead. Also you could have larger radius on the main and longer tracks at the left side of the yard, but at the expense of one industry spur. Rough sketch:

d%20plan.jpg 

HTH but by all means tell me to mind my own business! 

Pete M

Frying O scale decoders since 1994
https://www.youtube.com/user/GP9um/videos

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Ted Becker rail.bird

Suggested Changes

Sorry the drawing changes are crude but it should give you the idea of what I was suggesting.rackonly.JPG 


Ted Becker

Granite Falls, WA

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Tommy24a

I don't mind at all..open to

I don't mind at all..open to any and all suggestions at point of the game...thanks!
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Ted Becker rail.bird

Suggested changes

I apologize if this got posted twice and sorry about the poor drawing quality on the changes.  This should give you an idea of what I was suggesting  What drawing program are you guys using?konly(1).JPG 


Ted Becker

Granite Falls, WA

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eastwind

PeteM's suggestion

I noticed two things about PeteM's suggested alternative that would be negatives *if* (and only if) you are manually operating switches with ground throws or finger  flicks.

In your original arrangement, if the yard tracks are completely full of cars, you don't have to reach over the cars to throw the yard turnouts because the longest yard track is furthest from the aisle. But with PeteM's arrangement, you'd have to reach over cars on the long tracks to throw the switches for the short tracks.

The second thing is that in your arrangement, you're not reaching over the mainline to throw switches, but in PeteM's arrangement you are, creating the potential for having a hand hitting a through train as it passes, should you be planning on running a mainline continuous train while  switching the yard with a second engine.

Obviously with electrically controlled switches or even fasica-mounted pull rods both these points go out the window.

I've been assuming the yard operator is standing on the 'north' side of the table.

 

 

You can call me EW. Here's my blog index

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PeteM

OK my bad

Eastwind, I thought the aisle was below (south of) the yard as the most northerly track is elevated. But now I realize it could be below the main line. I was trying to achieve the exact opposite of your comments! My yard is very similar to what  I drew and with the aisle below (south) I never have to reach over cars, and with the main at the back, no risk of hitting moving trains. Oh well, as you were...  

Pete M

Frying O scale decoders since 1994
https://www.youtube.com/user/GP9um/videos

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eastwind

duh

Ooops, Well, now that I look again I think you're right. For some reason, I  saw the plan as a table-top in the middle of a room style, with aisle around the outside and maybe a popup in the middle. But now I see where the interior aisle is, and it's not on the north side as I was thinking before. So never mind my post.

You can call me EW. Here's my blog index

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