25 year break ends with this plan :) HOn3

[Walter D Ford]

Hello everyone.. I've been away from railroading for about 25 years. I have about 12.5'x40" - 6'x40" to work with. I wanted a logging, coal, cattle, based railroad with a little switching and at least 2 loops.  The outer loop can run independently while light switching takes place on the inner loop. For demos I can just run both loops at the same time. This isn't based on any prototype but I like the D&RG around the late 1940's. The outer loop is 17" radius and the inner is 15". Comments are encouraged and welcome....

[Walter D Ford]

Final cut

[Mike from CT]

It's nice and clean, with plenty of room for scenery - but it seems to me that there's very little for the trains to actually do, with only one industry.  It means you can build a train in the yard, run it around the loops a couple of times and return it to the yard.


If you like "railfanning" (just watching trains run), I think I'd look to make it more of a single loop that runs around the layout twice (with some vertical separation - narrow gauge with the fairly short trains you can build in the yard are a natural for steep grades in mountainous regions).


On the other hand, if you want the trains to "do something", I think  you need some more industry and an exchange point (not necessarily an interchange - afterall, this is narrow guage; but at least a small section of dummy standard gauge to represent a place where loads can be transferred - in which case a narrow gauge coal hauler from the mine up in the hills down to the transfer in the valley gives purpose to the layout.  Add a few local industries (e.g., a mine implements/hardware store) for a bit of variety and even a daily 1-2 car mixed miner/mail/small package run up to a community of company houses and a store by the mines and you have an interesting short line that won't get boring.

[Jeff]

I agree with H-J.  HOn3 represents rail lines that were seldom double-tracked. And you do want a layout with a healthy amount of mountain in it and more than one small town. Unless you simply want to freelance the whole thing, but even then, you need some off-layout virtual connection.

[Mike from CT]

I agree with H-J.

Jeff, put your glasses on....

[Jeff]

Aren't you two interchangeable? :*)

Besides, if he hasn't chimed in it just means he's out tossing rocks again, or something...

[Mike from CT]

Besides, if he hasn't chimed in it just means he's out tossing rocks again, or something...

I don't know where he's been the past week or so.... (something about a vacation in Alaska, but I think that's just an alibi - my New England stone fence disappeared).

[Jeff]

He must think we believe that Alaska has no internet access. He is probably so far into collecting local rock samples and snapping pix of every inch of track that he has no time for us. He really gets wrapped up in his railfanning...

[Mike from CT]

Hush up.  I've been scolding him because there haven't been any new videos for a long time....

[glakedylan]

just short note not to take too much space to post off topic:

Jeff, so good to see you back online
Mike, good to see you also, as always
in H-J's absence, will be good to see him back too

sincerely
Gary

[RhB_HJ]

Oh man! We're back (as of 18:00 yesterday).
No, I don't bother with the Internet while on holidays. BTW the weather was good while we were on Canadian soil/water, but about 10miles from the Alaska border it started to rain, it rained while we were on the WP&YR train and ..... we were on the regular train, the steam train left just as we were pulling up to station at Fraser! That had me steamed, especially since it took a while to unload and load the passenegers i.e. the steam train too far ahead to film going down the pass. 
It rained in Skagway, was plenty overcast while we were in Tracy Arm fjord, really rained while we were in Ketchikan and then cleared as we were sailing South into Canadian waters.  But it was a good holiday! More later!

Anyway on the HOn3 project: Fresh off the White Pass & Yukon Route (3ft gauge); there's a lot more to NG in the mountains than what has been included in this plan.
I guess the footprint is all that's available??? Are there any windows etc. in the room???

[Jeff]

H-J,

When you get enough time to read, you'll find all that covered above. Must be the rain in your eyes :*). Anyway, I would say more, but it's off-topic.

[RhB_HJ]

Hmmmm, I don't see any windows mentioned (?), I assume the top RH part fits into a corner. Now apart from that, it is much easier if we get a Any file to modify instead of a JPEG, however ...
Here's the OrigFootPrint.any file with pertinent items to be added.

A few observations straight off the bat:
1 - bringing the perations of the station and yard out to the front (lower part of the plan) would be a splendid idea. 
2 - breaking up the monotony of straight track would be the second item, along with getting away from running tracks and roads parallel or perpendicular to the layout edges.
3 - adding Staging below the RH portion to get the traffic variety, even if it is a HOn3 with less traffic.

And if time permits - remember I'm still building on my garden layout, with lots of rock    - I'll deviate from the original footprint once I know what's what in that room.

[RhB_HJ]

OK, here goes ....
On the existing footprint at 40" above floor is Staging. The assumption is that power is DCC. Dark Blue are the two Storage/Layover tracks and the turnouts to operate the "Scheme" i.e. as arranged one can run in a continuous oval or one can use the reverse loop in a very simple/straight forward manner when the train is Westbound and in a slightly trickier manner when the train is Eastbound. The turnouts in Staging are close enough to the front of the layout, but I would make up a simple panel to indicate the selected route.
The Westbound approach ramp (medium blue) has a 3.7% grade, the Eastbound is 2.9%. The grades lead to the Valley station at 45" above floor.

[Jeff]

H-J,

Nope. No windows are mentioned because there is aisle way around all sides of the layout. I suggested that he could really get a lot more operating room by putting the baseboard around the walls, but I haven't heard back yet if he's willing to consider it.

P.s. where's the rest of the track in your layout plan? I think the track gaps are a little wide... And, could you post the .any file for the most recent version? I'd like to play with it some.