My Next Track Plan

[Bob Bryce]

Well, after re-designing over 20 times, here is where I am at.  I have attached a JPEG of both levels and the .any file as well.  On the .any file, all the upper level layers start with "Upper" and all the lower level layers start with "Lower".  The rest are for planning and reference.  Might be easier to print the two layout JPEG's or open both the Anyrail file and the forum at the same time to follow all of this.

It is HO scale, and consists of 2 levels, totally independent of each other.  No room for an elevated ramp or a helix.  Tried this on versions 1-10 and scrapped the idea due to the waste of real estate.  If you want a train on the lower level to run on the upper level, I will be using a crane powered by Spanish (Manuel) Hydraulics.

First, it is not a walkaround, but there is access to the center via a pass through.  The upper center access is high, about 4'-6" above the floor and only has a 29" deep "duck-under", while the lower level pass thru is about 30" above the floor and has a completely open access.  The shape of the layout is totally dictated by the room size and obsticles. 

I have an NCE DCC control system with both corded and wireless throttles.

The upper level will consist of a base layer of 3/8" plywood over a 2X3 frame, covered with 3" of foam.  The foam will be contoured as rolling hills and scenery, with earth cuts and retaining walls as necessary, just as real people would have to build.

The lower level will be 3/4" plywood with 3/4" foam as a base, as it will be fairly flat, but will have some elevated contours. 

In both cases, higher hills and such will be made with more foam in specific locations, and the Upper level will have two major mountains with access from beneath.  A large 18-24" long, 12" high trestle bridge will span the two mountain ranges for the mountain rail (maroon) and a shorter span bridge for the mountain passenger rail (green) at a lower elevation.

The two lowland freight lines, coal (dark blue) and freight (light blue-grey), will pass over the stream with short bridges and the spurs will use culverts.

The Upper level has 4 railroads, none of which have cross-over turnouts, therefore I can control all 4 trains running in different directions and at different speeds by myself without collisions.  The mountain rails are all elevated higher than the low land rails.  There is track access beneath the tunnels where hidden track is shown.  The top left, center and right corners will try to replicate the Alaska mountains.  The Mountain freight rail train is pulled the the Bachmann EM1 2-8-8-0 steam locomotive, while the Mountain Passenger train consists of 4 Alaska Diesels pulling 7 of the new Bachmann McKinley Explorer passneger cars, the same train that provides tours between Anchorage, Whittier, Wasilla, Talkeetna, the Denali National Park and Fairbanks, Alaska.  Each of the McKinley Explorer passenger cars are named after a different Alaska river, both on the model RR and in Alaska.

The monorail is elevated and passes over all other tracks and roads.  The Mountain Passenger rail (green) will go through the mountain areas via grades and tunnels, but pass over the town using a 4" high continuous trestle system, passing over the coal mine rail (dark blue) and the freight rail (light blue-grey).

The red rails are single Monorail tracks, while the orange rails are double monorail tracks, all elevated about 6" above the base level and the elevation varies in the mountain areas.

The black trail is where I would really like to incorporate David's bicycle trail.  It passes under the Monorails and under the Mountain Passenger Rail, and doesn't cross any tracks. 

There will be a coal mine, with coal conveyors coming out of the mountain side to the hopper fill structure.  The lower center is a town.  The light green areas are foothills, while the dark green areas are mountain areas.  Yes, I'm big into creating scenery that breaks up the visual flow of the railroads, so it doesn't look like a round-e-round, but can run as one.

The lower Level consists of a yard area, an electric power plant with a substation, my Tropicana Orange Juice plant, an orange orchard with picking and transport equipment, a farm with a corn field and silos, a lake with small lakeside cottages, a forest area and a sawmill/lumber mill (not outfitted on the plan yet) and two main rails, one for the Tropicana "Juice Train" and the other for a freight line.  These have double cross-overs so they can switch tracks.

There are two yard areas, one for freight staging and the other for the Juice Train staging.  I wanted an industry and I had purchased the entire Walthers Ethanol Series of structures, and after that, realized how much I hate ethanol.  So , I bought lots of Tropicana decals in N scale for trucks, HO scale for buildings and O scale for Silos, tanks and building roofs and I am converting the Ethanol plant into a Tropicana plant.  I need to paint the structures white with green roofs to go along with the Tropicana scheme.  There is a pair of sidings with ramps for loading the Juice Train cars and I have been collecting LOTS of Bachmann, Athearn, Lifelike, Con-cor and Red Caboose Tropicana refer cars.  Finally, there is 1 siding with an engine maintenance building for the 2 70 ton switchers I have purchased and colored and decaled them as Tropicana diesels.  Yes, Tropicana does have a pair of their own switchers!  I also bought 2 AC6000 CSX diesels to pull the Juice Train.

The other yard is just a lot of staging sidings, a Bachmann DCC motorized turn table and roundhouse, and all the junk that goes with an engine yard.

I'm sure you as well as I know things will change, be added or moved, but so far, this is a workable layout, as I have already once printed this entire puppy in 1:1 scale, laid it out in sections and verified all the stuff, tracks, roads and buildings will actually fit without clearance problems.  One GREAT benefit of the Anyrail software.

Hope you like it, and if you see any problems stairing me in the face, please mention them.

[Bob Bryce]

Due to some really good suggestions from another member of my model railroad club, I made some changes to the lower level, mostly roads and buildings, but also changes siding spurs to get better main line access and train assembly.  Here is the revised lower level plan.

[Bob Bryce]

Added an Oil Field with derricks, an Oil Refinery, Oil Storage Tanks, a Gas/Diesel Loading Facility for tank cars and a small spur for the facilities 70 ton switcher to handle the tank cars.

[Bob Bryce]

I need some opinions here.

I made another revision to the Tropicana yard, in an attempt to get some better thru-yard flow, but it also incorporates an auto-reversing loop into the picture.  Here are the two plans.  The one with the Auto reversing loop will work, but once the train's direction has been reversed, there doesn't seem to be any way to re-reverse the direction of the train.  What that looks like to me is I would have to back into the yard from that point on.

But then again, the one with 3 sidings must be backed into as well.

I am leaning towards the one with the reversing loop. 

Opinions?

[PaulB]

Bob,
   The turntable can also be used to reverse the direction of your locomotives.

When i was designing my layout, I ended up putting in two reversing loops thanks to HJ & Jeff.

[Bob Bryce]

Actually, reversing the locos are not a problem, as I am using 2 AC6000 diesels as a consist, with one front facing and the other rear facing.  I can simply move it from one end to the other and re-connect.  It's the direction of travel (clockwise or counter-clockwise around the layout that is reversed.  I can't find anywhere to add a second reversing loop without destroying some other part of the plan.  Seems I will just have to be content with clockwise movement of the train on the main line and backing into the yard.

[Bob Bryce]

I made several changes to the Tropicana yard after viewing the actual plant, and still have more to go.  They have their own power relay station which I incorporated and I changed the location of several buildings.  It is really impressive the way they offload oranges from the trucks.  They are not dump trucks, but dump platforms which raise the entire truck, tractor and trailer, up in the air and dump the cargo into a receiving bin.  The conveyors move the oranges into the plant.  I have the buildings and started getting the conveyors, but they will need to be hand built for the most part.  I also again changed the rail pattern through the Trop yard to allow for smoother train passage.  Next month I hope to start buiilding the lower level framework.  I will be making the entire upper level frame work from 1" box aluminum.  Very strong in relation to it's thickness.  Must be welded together, but that is no problem.


 

[Jeff]

Bob,

Well, there is a way to turn a plain turning loop into a bidirectional turnaround. I don't have AnyRail installed, so I can't show you, but have patience- I will soon. I just didn't want you to think that no-one cares.

[RhB_HJ]

Well, having an AR file instead of the JPEG would allow people to analyze "things" a bit more at the present stage and even assign different tracks to different layers for different purposes, as discussed in the Wish section.

[Jeff]

True. If you want layout help, posting the any file is a must.

[RhB_HJ]

I looked at one of the older versions which has 14" aisles in some places. It also had CtC distances on double track (in curves) which are too small. Would be interesting to see the latest AR file.

[Jeff]

H-J - Of course, if you look closely, you'll notice that there ARE .any files scattered here and there in the postings.

Bob - There are ways of getting your reversers in, IF you don't mind getting fancy with the trackwork. I can see one space where I think a 3-way turnout will fit and I'm sure there must be other spots that could stand some creative effort. (and please post the any file for this last post of yours :^) ).

[RhB_HJ]

Jeff,

When I'm saying AR file I mean the newest version of many versions. I'm not interested in what was, I'm interested in the present stage of things.   

[Jeff]

And at the moment, neither of us knows what that might be :^)

[RhB_HJ]

Right you are, my crystal ball is a bit cloudy today. Never mind that I seemed to be in the right places at the right time yesterday.