Hello, I am planning a somewhat large layout at home and thought that I would share my progress.

I have been wanting to set up a layout at home for a while now since it has been a few years since I have had one. I was never ever to really finish any of the other ones for one reason or another so I am hoping this one will be different! (There are pictures of some of my past attempts in my Flickr stream).

I am getting very close to starting to build this layout. My biggest hurdle right now is getting my basement cleaned up so that I have room for it. I have slowly been acquiring ideas and the parts that I need to pull this off. The good thing is that I have almost all of the track that I need and most of the tables.

So after many iterations, this is the layout that am planning to build. I had a few different criteria that I was trying to meet and it was very difficult to fit everything in and make the size reasonable. The layout is 9' x 17'. The section that contains the yard is 4'x8'.

1) Yard for switching

I absolutely wanted a yard that I could do some switching in. I took the design from the "Ten Commandants of Yard Design" article that I found on the web (then later found that it had been posted on Railbricks.com). I tried to incorporate everything that I could and I think that I mostly succeeded. I have a few tweaks that need made but I am mostly happy with the results.

2) Run multiple trains

I wanted to be able to run multiple trains at the same time. I have two continuous loops but I would prefer more, However, I have no idea where to put more.

3) City Area

Room for a small city scene

4) Industries

A couple of siding for industries that can be used for switching

5) Room for scenery

6) Try not to have to buy more track.

The only thing that I am missing right now are the ME R104 curves. I already have the R72 curves and I just bought 4 pairs of PF switches. Everything else I have in 9V. I can probably do without the R104's if I need to, I just thought they added some interest to the layout.

7) Roundhouse and Turntable

This obviously is not there yet. I don't know if I have room for it. I have a draft of the layout that includes one, but it requires another 4x8 sheet of plywood. That might be pushing it...

8) Remote Points

I really want to be able to stand in one place and be able to control my trains AND the switches. I have been researching what people have done to do this and I think that I found a solution that works for me in a way that I personally have not seen anyone else do. I am starting another thread about these.

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome!!

Thanks,

John

That is a nice layout with a lot of opportunities. Several thoughts-

I like how the outside track has a meandering feel to it, much better than the nearly right angles of the R40 curves.

I like how you have a 9v loop on the inside, so you can also run legacy equipment. You might want to tweak the layout so that the 9v track has a continuous path to the engine house, e.g., connect the small siding on the left side of the 9v loop to the bottom track in the yard, then swap out the three PF switches that fall between there and the engine house with 9v switches from the outer loop... that is assuming the black shed is an engine house.

Depending on how complicated you want to make your operations, you could add a second passing track to the outer loop on the bottom of the layout schematic. It would require reworking how you do the crossover now and might require a modified switch or two, but that is not too difficult to do with PF switches. The advantage of having two passing tracks is that you could run two trains on the outside track, heading in opposite directions. Not worth the hassle if you don't plan on getting that complicated though.

Would the layout be accessible from all sides? A yard should be great fun, but remote uncoupling is a potential problem unless you explicitly include uncouplers at all locations of interest. Even then, I have yet to see a remote uncoupler that is so reliable that you do not need to occasionally pick up the derailed car.

If you are going to wire up remote controlled switches, you might also want to include crossing signals and block signals in a longer range plan (don't build them now, but make sure you have access to do so if you want to add them later).

Finally, roundhouses are fantastic, but they do take up a huge amount of space and brick. So before heading in that direction just make sure there is not something else you would want more given your constrains on space, track, etc.

Looking again at your yard, one potential problem I see is that to access the main storage tracks you would have to be traveling clockwise around the mainline, pull into the spur track, then shove into the yard. Pulling out of the yard a train would have to reverse this sequence, first onto the spur, shove back on to the main to get out, or have a second engine pull it counter clockwise from the spur to the mainline. I have no idea how you could make it any smoother though, that is the challenge of any yard and might add to the fun of the layout.

Thanks!

Yes, the goal of the inside loop was to run 9v trains since I still have more of them than PF.

The layout will be accessible from all sides. I have thought about the uncoupling but, honestly, I haven't put any thought into a solution!

I do like the idea of the additional passing track at the bottom. I actually did buy an extra set of PF switches with the intent of modifying them. I just have not decided on which approach I am going to take to do it yet.

Yeah the roundhouse takes up a LOT of room! Like I said the one I have designed fills another 4x8 sheet of plywood (and it is only has 3 stalls). The one problem I have with it is that it would sit on the other side of the mainline from the yard. Not sure if that is very ideal, but until I have another idea. I do not want to shorten my outside loop and run it on the inside of the yard. That I know.

I have been trying to work through in my head how and if the yard would work correctly and I think you just confirmed what I was thinking :) I will have to think about that some more to see if I can come up with a better solution...

Thanks for the input!

Well, if you do install a passing siding on the bottom of the image, you could tie the yard lead into that to allow for a smoother pull out.