advice on first track plan

[Hinerakatauri1979]

Hi, when I was young I had the model train hobby with my grandpa. But when he was unable to use his hands we decided to stop. In my old house I did not have the space. But 1 year ago I moved and now I am ready to start over.

I recently started using Any rail to make my plan, so I have something to work to and to know what I still need to buy.

When I was younger We did not have a plan, we just played with it and it grew organically. But being older I do need the planning.

Attached is my first try.  I still need to think about contactrails for the block system I want. Any advice on the plan is appreciated.
Its based on Marklin M and C rails.  But I am also open to use plastic for the straight parts.

the issues I have is that for some parts I am not able to figure out what rails to use to make them fit. Would be nice if I could select 2 rails and the program would give me options how to close the gap.

[Hinerakatauri1979]

No One with some advice?

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

Sorry, must have missed this!

I must say, from the outset, that I don't often get involved with other people's plans, as I'm not all that clever about how things should look. But I have to say that that is a huge and complcated plan for a first attempt!

I model in N, British outline, so I know very little about Marklin; do they produce flexible track? If so, you will find it very useful to eliminate all those little pieces.

Also, I am assuming that you are NOT using DCC, therefore you will need to be very careful about placing isolators. I've only ever used insulfrog (Peco) turnouts, and the use of insulators is quite specific in some cases. I know very little about the use of electrofrog turnouts. But, if you are using insulfrogs, the two pairs of turnouts at top left of Layer 00 need isolators between them, as will any similar combinations. Conversely, you don't need them at both ends of the three loops in the middle of 00; you feed the power in from one end and let the turnouts do the switching for you (so only the route set is "live".

One very important thing about this layout is that by the time you have finished, Layer 00 will be almost entirely hidden by Layers 01 and 02, and Layer 01 won't have much to see that isn't hidden by Layer 02.

Hope this helps,

Nick the Cabin Boy

[BadBanana]

I would add, that to improve clarity, you should be sure to set all of the heights and any gradients to be correct.  IN the plan that  you uploaded, some of the tracks on Layer 1 seem to jump between two different levels in the length of a single piece of track.  This is easy to see in the 3D view. 

I also am not familiar with the track that you are using, so it is very difficult to make detailed recommendations, but the closure of small gaps either requires the use of flex track as suggested, or a number of shorter pieces of fixed length, or adjustment of some of the curve radii, or even cutting a standard piece of track to reduce its length.  Also, while AnyRail calculates with angles and lengths very accurately, there is often some room for slight adjustment in the placement of track when building a real layout.  Just take care to avoid large gaps or excessive misalignment of track pieces.

[David]

To be honest, I'm not very enthousiastic about this plan.
It is a lot of rails with not much purpose. Unless you just want to run a lot of trains around, I think you'll be bored quickly, while it is very costly to build it.

Of course, with Marklin 3-rail, reverse loops are no problem.


Is the space you've now indicated (306cm x 280cm) the size of the room, or can you walk around it? And where is the door?
Starting from that, I recommend you first think of what you want to model. An old German passenger line, or perhaps long modern freight trains throught Dutch polders?


Once you have that, think of at least two points, A and B, that the train need to operate between. From there, think how that would work in a logical way.

I truly hope you're not disappointed with my feedback, and remember, it's just my personal opinion!

[Hinerakatauri1979]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. 

The Idea is that Layer 00 will have openings in the middle so I can reach the trains and do the maintenance.
On the frontside Between layer 00 and 01 will be plexiglas, behind it will be a metro like station so you can see the trains passing by.

306cm is the back wall of my attic, table uses the whole wall and 4\6 of the room.

I am not sure yet what I want, when I was younger and building the train with my grandpa I liked when I had many trains running, but I do see how this can become a bit dull eventually.  Not sure yet how much I want to change the plan in my head.  But the planning and building phase is also fascinating. I have many ideas how it could look like, but I never finished a plan before. With my grandpa it was more experimenting and playing it together when I had vacations.  Now I am much older and alone and on the one hand it is really long time ago I just played and experimented, but also work so my time is limited to do something without a basic plan.

I will be correcting the hight and slopes.  and maybe add a end staging area on the right so I have a point A and B, just need to think about a way to branch off to it without it costing to much length of the station stop length.
 



 

[ErieAW]

Welcome,
A few tips on using AnyRail to achieve your goals.

Check that your slopes are practical for the trains. Slopes 3% or flatter are generally recommended for most trains. If you select multiple tracks on a line you can use the smooth slope command to have a uniform rise from one end to the other. Make use of the 3D view or the show slope setting to see the grades and any problem areas.

Check that you have enough vertical clearance for the avoid hitting upper baseboard and tracks. 10cm or more maybe a good starting point. You measure the vertical clearance from the top of the rails on one level to the next; so it needs to have room for the tallest wagon, track and baseboard. You can select multiple track and use the set height command to move them quickly to one level.

Keep working on your plan in AnyRail, make improvements and visualize what you are creating.

Best wishes
Eric

[ErieAW]

I modified the elevations and slopes but not the track plan. I was not sure which level was supposed to be on top as two of the had basically the same elevation.

Best Wishes

[Hinerakatauri1979]

Thanks for the advice on hight and elevation, I had 9,5 but without taking into account the hight of the rails.