Next step

If you want help, I would say the next step is give us some information.  Out of 5,000 people on this form, chances are that you are the ONLY person who has any idea what the track arrangements are at Brookings SD.  So you have to share.

Post any pictures or track plans you have of the prototype and what your last drawing was, even if you didn't like it.  You are much more likely to have people help you modify something you've started than to design something from scratch.

Ideas starting to brew

I played with Google maps a little bit.  It doesn't look like there's a lot there to sustain switching operations, so I assume you're wanting staging of some sort?  Also, I assume the 3M plant is the large complex with the loop of track nearby?  What is the white mineral?  Salt?  Lime?

What are you wanting to get out of this layout?  Main line operation, or a single local switching industries?  How many operators, and what else has to be in the room?  Minimum isle width?  Does it have to be just along the walls, or can it extend outward in any direction?

I have a couple ideas, and I enjoy layout planning, but it would help to have some more information.

  Thanks I would like to

Thanks

I would like to keep the isle width between 12'' to 20''. mainly 20'' for Brookings. As of this time main line running is out of the question. The big loop of track is an ethanol plant at Aurora I don't have the room for that. My last drawing made it in to the trash, I'll start a new one of what I had. at the end of the long wall I will have temporary stagging. a room drawing is next.

We need a drawing

That would be most helpful, especially if you include any "no-go" zones, or room where the layout can grow.  For example, it sounds like you have a roughly 6' entry into the room - can part of that be used for layout?

Also, the isle is the part that you walk/stand in, so a 12" isle is not going to be useful for any humans that I know.  I get that the benchwork should be between 12"-20", but how wide an isle would you like?  24" is tight, 36" standard and roomy.  I try never to go below 30", as a good compromise.

Room drawing

 ok need to redo that picture! isle with duh! my bad, 36'' for isles.

One or two operators. A track Mobile for the Volga soybean plant, and a gp38 for Brookings.

Bridges?

I assume you're thinking of having some sort of removable bridge in the doorways?  If you're plannign on having duck-unders or removable layout sections, how wide are the doorways?  Using removable sections, there's no reason why you could not make use of that space as well.

As an aside, it is slightly confusing to put the benchwork dimension in the doorway.  My first assumption was that the doorways (or openings, since they would be too small for doors) were 16" and 12".  I figured it out, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Also, what about bringing a peninsula into the center of the room?  Is that permissible, or do you need/want to keep the center of the room open?

Sorry to keep asking questions, but as you can see it takes a lot of information to come up with a detailed plan and know exactly what you have to work with.

Lol bad place to put the

Plans

First off turn your track books upside down.  The bottom should be away from you as you view it.

At Brookings make the left end the I-29 overhead bridge at mp288.  Put everything between there and 6th street on the 16 foot wall.  This is the spot where you will emphasize  the rural, out in the wheat fields look.  Unless you can jut a peninsula into the room, 3M will have to be a series of 3 spurs with the switches on the right end.  You can angle them as much as your benchwork depth and minimum spur length allows you to.  Put the 6th street overpass in the corner with the road pretty much running into the corner.  Brookings yard will go on the 12 ft side with the depot against the aisle.  The mp290 switch can go on the 16 ft wall.  Adjust the position to set the siding length.

At SVS its pretty simple, a main track with 2 sidings.  GCC Dacotah will become a single spur  with the switch between the siding switches. 

The wye is pretty much a non-starter unless you want to go to some sort of fold down wye.  Major problem with that is even with a minimum radius of 22-24 in the wye would be 4.5 feet wide at the base and the benchwork section is only 7 ft long.  I even thought about putting the wye as a removable section spanning the bathroom door (just a more complicated lift out bridge) but that puts the west switch into volga and you are going to need every inch of that bench for Volga.

At Volga model SD Soybean with 2 tracks instead of 3 and 1 crossover.  Make the total length about 6-7 ft.  Have a gap of single track and then model the other two cracks as single ended spurs  with the switches at mp 297 and cutting the layout off at Samara Ave.

That arrangement captures all the major elements in the proper order in the proper orientation (except 3M which probably needs to be on "north" side of the tracks.  make the doorway bridges pur straight track through fields to get the proper look

I'll work on it tonight

I'm headed off to work soon, but I should have some time tonight while I'm sitting in the hotel.  I'll see what I can come up with.  It may not be a finished plan in one evening, but maybe it will give you some ideas, and I'll keep at it for a bit when I have spare time.

First pass

Okay, here goes.  I didn't get a lot of time to work on it, but it's a start.  I tried to keep every track on the plans you shared (though I did have to lose most of the wye on the spur).  To do that, I drew the plan with Atlas Custom Line #4 turnouts - a compromise which I feel is reasonable as long as you're using mostly smaller locomotives and 50' cars.

When I get some more time, I'd like to try to make a plan that uses some of the open space in the middle of the room.  There's quite a bit of usable space there.

looking good. thanks Ken

looking good.

thanks Ken

Freewheeling

I'm at a bit of a loss here.  On one hand, I can cook up track plans all day (when I don't have something more pressing to do).  On the other hand, none of them will do much to help you out unless I have a better idea of what you expect to get out of your layout.

For example:

I used #4 turnouts, and left 10.5" at the end of the track to allow a single locomotive to run around a train.  I also constrained the sidings in order to fit within the straight portions of the layout.  I used Atlas turnouts, which drove some of the geometry decisions.  I completely omitted any notion of staging, assuming that the layout would be worked by a single locomotive traveling from one end, out and back.

That's a lot of design-induced restrictions, and I have no idea if they fit in with what you had been thinking.  How many people do you think will be working, with how many locomotives, in how many locations?  Are there any through trains?  How do cars get on and off the layout?  What is your budget for track, or your skill and handlaying?  Do you need all the tracks in the plans, or are there some which can comfortably be omitted?

By the way, if anybody else is interested, e-mail me and I'll gladly share the XTrackCAD file that I'm working on.

Well it was a long week of

Well it was a long week of work and now have had some time to look at the track plan in depth.

I was thinking of maybe one or two operators, one working Brookings with a GP-38 and one working Volga with a track mobile.

No through trains as of yet, well not till the kids move out. I'm planning on a removable shelf for staging. As for the track I'm using Walters code 83 and min #5 switches I can do he track work just cant put it on paper. The budget for track, haven't given it any thought, I have one box of Walters code 83 two box's of cork already and have 7 turnouts on order for Volga. Volga is only getting the soybean plant.

 the one track I cant live with out is the perry electric warehouse stub.I can do without rainbow products and L.G. Everist.

the center of the room can be used.

Dacotah DCC ???

  What is this industry?  Bing 3D maps appears to show it as some kind of cement  operation...

Jim

GCC, not DCC

jbernier wrote:

 GCC Dacotah, not Dacotah DCC Groupo Cementos de Chihuahua's (GCC's) - produces cement.

 In South Dakota they have a cement plant in Rapid City, and cement terminals in Brookings and Sioux Falls. The Brookings facility is cement storage and a rail-to-truck transload facility.

 The Brookings terminal is about 4000 feet or so north of a wye west of Brookings, with the facility being located about 6-7 car lengths south of a road, with another 3-4000 feet of track on the spur tail beyond the road.

 On Bing 2D overhead maps there were 6 covered hoppers north of the road, 6 at the unloading tower, and about 25 or so covered hoppers on the spur closer to the wye - so say about 37-38 rail cars total.

 3D pictures show one cut of about 18-19 cars on the west leg of the wye, another cut of 14-15 cars on the east leg of the wye.

 Smile,
 Stein