Building a yard

[Morgun 30]

Well, I got a table up (yes, it will need some fine tuning) and set up my track to see how it worked. Not too bad for a first attempt.

I'm building a yard and was wondering about the best way to get the most storage out of the least amount of space. I was playing around on anyrail, and it appears that using series of #4 turnouts works best. Is there a better way.

Balrog21, I looked at your update and your yard looks pretty tight. How did you construct it?
Thanks, Morgun 30

[Doneldon]

Morgun-

Designing yards is more complicated than it looks. Just stringing a bunch of turnouts together isn't the most compact or efficient way to do this.

Pick up a book on layout design which includes a section on yards. You'll see that turnout arrangement can significantly alter yard capacity. Also, you'll learn about the desirability of a yard throat so you don't have to use the mainline to assemble or disassemble trains, and the necessity for a runaround track. That said, yes, number four turnouts are the ones which waste the least space. But you can fit in even more if you shorten the diverging legs of the turnouts although that will make it harder to reach between the yard tracks for uncoupling. Also, you need to be aware that tight trackage, like number four turnouts and limited clearance between yard tracks, can be problematic for long rolling stock or for locomotives which must use the yard ladder to reach the engine terminal.

I guess what I'm saying is that yard design is a little too complicated to discuss here. Get yourself a good
layout planning book and you'll be an expert in no time.

                                                                                         -- D

[sd24b]

Well, I got a table up (yes, it will need some fine tuning) and set up my track to see how it worked. Not too bad for a first attempt.

I'm building a yard and was wondering about the best way to get the most storage out of the least amount of space. I was playing around on anyrail, and it appears that using series of #4 turnouts works best. Is there a better way.

Balrog21, I looked at your update and your yard looks pretty tight. How did you construct it?
Thanks, Morgun 30

Doneldon is right.  took me 5 tries to get my yard to operate to my satisfaction.  i would use a #5 as the smallest turnout.   especially if you have a "s" curve coming off the 4 turnout.  also you might look at some of the special space saving turnout.  a lot of modelers shy away from 3 way and curved turnouts.  but if installed carefully they are great.

[jward]

one advantage the ez track 5 has is that it can be used with the 12 degree 35.5r curve to make parallel tracks.

[richd286]

Yards can take up a lot of real estate beyond 2 turnouts and the stub length get short quickly after 2.  You used the word storage as a primary need.  I always like the idea of staging yards that can be out of sight, or on a narrow shelf.  Consider cars here as "away".   You can switch cars off the staging yard as required.    I found it difficult to get the operating complexity I wanted if I tried to fit a prototypical yard in the middle of everything.   

[jward]

define prototypical.

most model railroaders think in terms of major yards with alot of trackage. that isn't always the case on the real thing. one of the yards i regularly visited  consisted of 3 stub end tracks, with no runaround. since the local that originated there always had two locomotives, there was no need to run around cars. the just put a locomotive on each end of their train, and worked  the industries in their territory with either of the locomotives depending on which way the spur faced.

i have also seen many shortline and branchline yards which weren't much bigger than two or three tracks. these examples come to mind: latrobe, pa on conrail; kittanning, pa on pittsburgh & shawmut; clarion, pa on lef&c; bayard, wv on western maryland; elkhorn city, ky where the clinchfield and c&o met; kingwood, wv on west virginia northern; connellsville, pa on p&le......   just to name a few...

[Desertdweller]

I worked on a local that ran from Central City, NE to Palmer, NE.  It was an ex-CB&Q branch line.  At Palmer the branch used to connect with a secondary main line that had been taken up.  Where the branch used to connect with the main there had been a wye, and at one time, an enginehouse and turntable.

The remaining yard at Palmer consisted of a series of short, double-ended sidings that served a fertilizer plant and a feed mill.  While these could be used as run-around tracks, the trains we ran into town were usually too long to fit between the switches.  This resulted in a time-consuming operation that was kind of a pain to do in real life, but could be interesting on a model railroad.

Palmer was located at the top of a steep hill.  You would run the train up to the first switch, then cut the lead loco off and run it into a siding.  Then you would pull the train into the yard with the remaining loco and cut cars off in the sidings until the train was short enough to get the first engine back out.  You would then walk back to the first engine, and switch the train out until you had a clear track to put the two engines back together.  You then built the outbound train, did the air test, and headed back down the hill to Central City.

The two towns were ten miles apart on ten mile per hour track.  It was kind of a relaxing way to spend a Saturday.  The feed mill took in loads of liquid molasses.  Sometimes, they would get solid trains of the stuff.

The power would either tie up at Hordville, on an ex-UP secondary main, or would be run down the UP main line to Grand Island.  If we could not get onto of cross the UP at Central City, we would tie up on the Palmer branch at Central City.

Even if your model railroad is a modern Class One, there are opportunities like this where low-key branch line operations can be a part of it.  Our railroad, Nebraska Central, had trackage rights on the UP main to haul freight between Grand Island and Central City, and to operate light engines as far east as Columbus, NE.  We also operated a daily M-F freight between Grand Island and Ord, on an ex-UP branch.  The line from Central City to Hordville extended east to Brainard NE on a former UP main that had been taken up east of Brainard.  At David City, we had trackage rights on the BNSF to Columbus to serve an ethanol plant there.
That line did not extend through Columbus to connect back with the UP, although we did have a yard there with lines extending north to Norfolk and west through Genoa.

So here you had a shortline operating over two class ones.  We also ran unit grain trains from big elevators like Shelby west to the UP at Central City, and south from Ord to Grand Island.  These unit trains ran with big, modern UP power.  Our own trains usually were pulled by GP-30's and GP-38's.

It was very pretty country to run trains in.  We crossed the Platte River between Central City and Hordville, and ran in beautiful hilly country around Stromsburg, one of the prettiest little towns in the state.

Heck, we even had a caboose!

Les

[Balrog21]

i used only #4's and #5's for my turnouts. they gave me the most room, but make sure it's all workable..that you can get around in the yard to the mainline and branchline without too much trouble.
just have fun with anyrail for a while...you can also download a program ..arrghh i cna think of the name of it..but it lets you import the anyrail program and run actual trains around your layout. Ah yes, Trainplayer...you can get the trial software for free and take the layout for a spin. =) Hope this helps but I highly suggest you take note(s) and heed the others advice above mine...they have many years experienc welll and above me!
Best and thanks!
Bal

[rogertra]

As I have some 30 feet for my main yard, I based it on the Rutland's Alburgh Yard in Vermont, suitably compressed to fit the space available and with an industrial area added for more operational interest.

You can see it here: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf5uj8uSiVM&feature=youtu.be


Excuse the mess.