Layout plan


If you are highly unlikely to ever have more than four locomotives with sound working fairly hard, no matter if by themselves or consisted, a Zephyr will be plenty and serve you well on your configuration. Even six. Once you get friends comming in to play with you, and they each bring their DCC with sound ABBA sets and such, a Zephyr will likely be insufficient as originally purchasable. But, you can get boosters.

I would purchase and get to know a Zephyr at the same time that I got to know the quirks of my layout. You can add power to it any time, but as a start, and perhaps for a few years to come, it should be plenty.

Virtually every DCC system comes with a hand-held throttle. I honestly don't know which it will be with the Zephyr, but by far the best throttle that Digitrax makes is the DT400.

If you are well-fixed for cash, you should probably consider buying a radio system. They're not cheap, but they are so versatile, even for a relatively small operating space. Tethers have the same problems as folks had before we began to use cordless telephones. They twist and wrap, snag, tretch, pull out...oy!
 
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Thanks, Selector. I can honestly see controlling one or two (not in a consist), but beyond that, I don't think I could control more than two locomotives at a time.

Take care,

Trey
 
ICG/SOU said:
Thanks, Selector. I can honestly see controlling one or two (not in a consist), but beyond that, I don't think I could control more than two locomotives at a time.

Take care,

Trey
Click to expand...

I don't know any modeler who at one point or another didn't say, "I wonder how many I can get going?"
 
You don't know me then. :)

Anyway, if you are only going to be running two trains at once, then is three tracks of staging really necessary? More tracks is not always better. Do not get yourself so wrapped up in your track plan that you find you have no space for buildings. Industries are the whole reason for railroads, make sure you have enough.
 
Thanks. I drew the tracks at staging, but two would be sufficient for what I'll run on this layout.

I went to my first fun run session tonight, and had a lot of fun. The South Texas and Gulf Railroad is owned by a local guy, and he says he has roughly 1200' in track. Just running my two engine consist around took well over an hour, getting used to the controls, signals, and where all the track goes.

I put money down today on a Zephyr. I hope to have it by Christmas so that I can practice with my small layout on the dining room table while I build this one.
 
DaWolf85 said:
You don't know me then. :)

Anyway, if you are only going to be running two trains at once, then is three tracks of staging really necessary? More tracks is not always better. Do not get yourself so wrapped up in your track plan that you find you have no space for buildings. Industries are the whole reason for railroads, make sure you have enough.
Click to expand...

Staging is one thing you can have never enough of. Even if you can only run 2 trains at once, your daily operation schedule might include (one in each direction):

A local passenger train
An express passenger train
A coal drag
A container train,
A way-freight
A mine turn
etc. etc. etc.

The more staging tracks you have the more variety and complexity you can have in your operation sessions.
 
ICG/SOU said:
Thanks. I drew the tracks at staging, but two would be sufficient for what I'll run on this layout.

I went to my first fun run session tonight, and had a lot of fun. The South Texas and Gulf Railroad is owned by a local guy, and he says he has roughly 1200' in track. Just running my two engine consist around took well over an hour, getting used to the controls, signals, and where all the track goes.

I put money down today on a Zephyr. I hope to have it by Christmas so that I can practice with my small layout on the dining room table while I build this one.
Click to expand...

Congrats on your op session. My first opened up a whole new world for me in model railroading. Now, even though I thoroughly enjoy making a train go, popping the top off a good micro brew, and watching her run laps, I won't design any railroad doesn't have significant operational potential.
 
Here is a revised plan:

startingover2-vi.jpg


What bothered me about the last incarnation is that if a train comes through from Points West Staging Yard (lower left), cross the diamond, make its way around, it would either have to stay on the layout or start to head across the diamond to points east, with it blocking the interchange. I figured if I moved the grain industry, and made a downtown facade (black line center top with red building fronts), I could fit a single long staging track to give a through train somewhere to go (hence, now Points Southeast Staging). It should be long enough to hold a train of about 10-15 cars. When it gets there, I'll just manually pick up the caboose and engine to "turn" it around.

Orientation: left is north, green are trees, dark blue is limit of benchwork, solid gray is pavement, speckled gray is gravel.

The Campbell Lumber Company got moved to the lower (west) side. I figured it would be cool to have the rail spur going into the middle of a gravel area that could serve as a loading/unloading area for customers. I will add two additional buildings (Walthers Drumlin Lumber) to make this lumber operation bigger.

The only part I'm not sure about is the south (right) side's trackwork. I put the grain elevator over there with a scale house. I still want the locomotive service (upper right), but am thinking now, maybe, making a spur head inward (toward the center of the room) that will be a loading dock for a river barge (and the grain elevator, with additional silos) be where barges are loaded with grain from points west. For ease of walking traffic (from kitchen to outside and vice versa), I would make it a fold-up and fold down. I'll draw a mockup and see if it works.

Anything else that could be improved? The added road (calling it Front Street) will have an overpass over the Points East Staging rail (or underpass, whichever is easier), and depending on its width will allow me to make the downtown backdrop facade fit. If the road is an overpass, the bank of the roadway will hide more of the Points Southeast Staging, and maybe prevent me from having to add a corner to the end building. The end of Front Street (where it terminates into the river) may actually dead end where an old bridge was but had been demolished years ago.

How does the dock idea sound?

Thanks again to everyone here helping me find my vision.
 
Thanks, Chip. Moving the lumber to the corner would make for less congested trackwork in the upper right corner. It would also be nice to put the loco service facility in a more prominent place.

I've been rethinking the dock, and if I remember correctly, barges and tows come up along side the bank of a river, and the grain or petroleum (seen both) is piped overhead, instead of a slip like ocean docks were. I'll do some more work tomorrow.
 
Trey, looks like a really nice plan, especially with the swap Chip suggested. River barges and towbost do tie up to piers that run along the riverbank rather than slips like ocean harbors. You've got enough room for a couple of barges and one pier by the grain elevator but having them tie up to an island that extends outward from the layout not only wouldn't look prototypical, I think it would not be easy to do. It looks like you could add enough river and riverbank to the blank area extending beyond the grain elevators by just extending the layout edge maybe 8 or 10 inches and have the track run right along the river bank, with the pier on a slightly lower level.
 
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