Royal Pacific Railway Layout....


AmtrakCr ....

First up - ASK as many questions as you want and never be afraid to or apologetic for doing so ... that's "Rule No 1".
Rule No 2 is ... well, pretty much the same as Rule No 1 - ask questions regardless of what they may be ;)

Sooooo .... to answer your questions. I work in N Scale and the Grid Squares represent 1 Sq'. As such, my bench space will be roughly 11' X 9' with a 4.5'/5' leg on the left and a further 1' to 1.5' extension to the right side. In N Scale, this would be regarded as being around Medium Size. It will contain about 150' of track, will be built on 3 or 4 different levels, attributable to the grades, with the steepest grade being 2.3% or a 2 1/4" rise over 100".

The Track Plan and 3D images of the layout were done with the paid version of SCARM.

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask be they for here or any where else in the forums. If you don't ask you don't learn, if you don't learn, you make mistakes then it might be too late to ask :)
 
As I can't start this until the 27th, thought I'd revisit the plan and see if anything needed to be changed or modified. I have been looking at the "Station Area" and haven't been totally happy with it. It seemed very "cluttered" track and turn out wise to me and had too many opportunities of causing issues. As such, I have made one fairly significant to that area but one that I think will work better and reduce the potential for problems:

UY63t3V.jpg


I also added another track to the "Yard", just for the hell of it and because I could :)
 
Horseman ... well, it's a long and tragic story involving economic down turn and dwindling real estate availability for the railroad in this town but, essentially, cos I made them that long :)
 
Okay, now the time is fast approaching for this build to commence, I have made a couple of small changes shown in Green:

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This will be the last track plan change and what is shown IS final, not withstanding minor construction modifications of course.
 
If I can make a suggestion at this late in the day juncture, I can see a possible problem from where you have your track grade seperations at the long green eastern area. There's not much distance to get the rising double track up and over the lower one at the tunnel in the south.

You've also got the tripple track, very close to your engine shed at a higher elevation necessitating a retaining wall if those tracks are to be laid on "earth". How about instead, a long bridge structure to support the tripple tracks, beginning from the high ground just south of where they first cross over the low double tracks (to the right of the long green rectangle) continuing till it reaches the high ground, north of the small black rectangle, or even to the north of the tracks entering the station. Delete the tunnel you presently have there.

You could then move the turnouts in the long green area to the east to under the triple track bridges span, which would increase the amount of track length available to start the up grade. Here is a suggestion for a modern concrete railroad overpass.
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Toot'n,

Your suggestions are always welcomed and thanks.

I don't know what it is about the plan (or SCARM maybe) but your the third or fourth person to raise questions about the "grade" appearing to be too steep. The steepest grade on the plan is 2.0% with one small section being 2.1% so I am well within the "limits" for N Scale grades.

Don't place too much emphasis on the location of the Engine Shop in relation to the track to its east, but yep, there will need to be some kind of retaining wall and am happy to have that.

I also considered having fewer tunnels and more bridges. The main reason for the tunnels, rather than bridges, was to retain more usable real estate for scenery for the higher elevations. I did try bridges but that made the layout too "flat" and meant (in my opinion) too much scenery would be virtually hidden.
 
Hi Tony. Unless it really doesn't matter to you, the most basic thing I find missing is a connection to the outside world, to other RRs. Unless all your cars and engines bear the name of your RR only, how did / does, say, a hopper car labeled, say, Madison Grains, or a C&O engine get on/off your RR ? This can be depicted quite easily by having as little as 1 track leading off into the distance (to edge of bench).. Better would be a simple 2 track interchange acting as staging where you can, by hand (0-5-0), add and remove cars going to/from your trackage.. There are a few areas on your plan where this could be accomplished. I also think your engine house leads are unnecessarily long. E house could be closer toward the center, below the station, and the 2 lowest tracks below it could be the interchange instead of car shop tracks. One of the 3 stall E house tracks could become the car shop track, depicted by a say, box car sticking out of the stall......If I stated all this already, I can't find it..So, sorry if I'm repeating myself..M
 
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I like the idea of having "track" running off of the layout - I would be interested in adding that.

As for things being more realistic, well that just isn't me when it comes to my layouts. I am 1000% "if it looks good, it is good" :)
 
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I don't see anything amiss with having long leads to the engine house. Maybe used to store locomotives on. I have seen it before. What concerns me is that there are no industry tracks and such for shunting. Maybe it's too hard to do with N scale? BUT, it's a great looking layout for watching trains go round.
 
Sirfoldalot said:
BUT, it's a great looking layout for watching trains go round
Click to expand...
Thanks Sherrel and that is what the layout is for - in a nutshell - just to watch trains, no ops, shunting, just good old fashioned watching trains run and, from time to time, make them change tracks and direction. :)
 
Tony,

How are you going to scenic the layout? Any towns or villages, or is it going to be 'out amongst the wilds of Mother Nature?' Even you scenic it so that its running thru the 'middle of nowhere,' sometimes there's an outpost of some sort, there. Or an abandoned outpost, which wouldn't require you to buy a switch. Just a thought.
 
Now I have the bench work completed, including the two angled sections I have been able to make a few small changes to the track plan based on 1. being given some very good constructive advice and suggestions during the final planning stage and, 2. getting a little more bench work area, it's amazing what an extra couple of inches here and there can make.

Anyway, here is the final plan with "corrected" bench work dimensions and alterations:

AXHGO4K.jpg


The GREEN section is a new siding - and open to your thoughts about that.

The BLUE track work has had radii alterations, the right hand curve has been reduced to 16" radius while the remainder has been increased to 22" (inner) and 23" (outer) on the double with the single line going to 20"

The YELLOW area was shortened by about 8" to better accommodate the Engine Shop and make the track length a little more realistic. Some people thought (and I agreed) that the original position of the Engine Shop was too close to the track work passing behind it.
 
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wombat457 said:
I like the idea of having "track" running off of the layout - I would be interested in adding that.
Click to expand...
I do that all the time. Just a track going off the edge to "somewhere" else.

Below is a track on the Louisville Railroad running off to somewhere. I still don't know what to do with. Originally I was going to put a junk yard or quarry to the left but neither seemed to fit the overall look, so I just dropped the Desert View Station here on the other side of the track to hold the spot until I decide what to do with it.
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