Aroostook Northern

[davefoxx]

I think I am going to keep the Passing track/yard lead and extend the inside three tracks into longer stub ended yard tracks rather than double ended tracks as they are here.

VTRG

VTRG,

A good choice.  The passing siding will continue to allow you to get around a cut of cars, so you can make do with the three stub sidings.  While preferred when there is room, the double ended tracks really eat up capacity.

DFF

[vt_railroad_guy]

Now I'm wondering if I should nix the yard all together and just keep the long siding with an industrial spur or two.  How much train building will I REALLY be doing on a layout this small?  It's funny how perspective can change when you finally have things laid out.  What do you all think?

VTRG

[davefoxx]

You will really want storage (i.e., staging).  Otherwise, you will have to pull and replace freight cars from the layout often with the 0-5-0.  Also, if your cars don't have a source and a destination on your layout, where will they go or come from?  The original Carolina Central used a passing siding for staging.  On my Virginia Central, I expanded that with a few stub sidings, as you have done.  Keep the yard but revise it accordingly.

DFF

EDIT: Here's a few pictures to show what I had on the Virginia Central:


And, keep in mind, after I added those tracks, I still needed more staging and added the yard-on-a-shelf.  This really made the layout a lot more fun to operate.

[Bsklarski]

You are gonna want some sort of yard, you will be sick of watching them do nothing but run in circles after about 90 seconds.

[MichaelWinicki]

I think Dave hit the nail on the head.

Staging.

Any amount of staging you can eke out will benefit you more than any industrial spur or even a yard.

Now if you have the space for it, I'd consider at interchange track which will allow more flexibility than most industrial spurs because you can funnel just about any car you have through it.

[vt_railroad_guy]

You will really want storage (i.e., staging).  Otherwise, you will have to pull and replace freight cars from the layout often with the 0-5-0.  Also, if your cars don't have a source and a destination on your layout, where will they go or come from?  The original Carolina Central used a passing siding for staging.  On my Virginia Central, I expanded that with a few stub sidings, as you have done.  Keep the yard but revise it accordingly.

DFF

EDIT: Here's a few pictures to show what I had on the Virginia Central:


And, keep in mind, after I added those tracks, I still needed more staging and added the yard-on-a-shelf.  This really made the layout a lot more fun to operate.

How many cars could you fit in your yard tracks on your original door?  It looks like you had the siding and three yard tracks, correct?

VTRG

[davefoxx]

How many cars could you fit in your yard tracks on your original door?  It looks like you had the siding and three yard tracks, correct?

VTRG

From memory, it was probably ten to twelve cars (depending on car length) on the two stub tracks behind the passing siding and mainline.  I also had that small passing siding out front along the edge that was supposed to be a double-ended caboose track.  I didn't really use the caboose track much, because I never got around to adding a plexiglass "fence" before I gave the layout away.

DFF

[vt_railroad_guy]

It's been a while and I haven't made much progress.  I have mostly been thinking about which direction I want to go with my layout before I glue all the track down.  I want to expand to another HCD eventually, so my question is do I build in the connection now or just reconfigure the track when it comes time to expand?  Building in the connection now would require 1 curved turnout (which I need to purchase) and reducing my minimum radius from 13.75 to 12.5 in one section.  Building the connection later would require removal of 1/2 of a curve and that's about it.  The section that will change is the back half of ths curve.  What do you all think? 



JDB

[Philip H]

I'd do it now as it adds operational interest.

[MVW]

I faced a similar dilemma. I'm building a sectional layout one HCD at a time. The first table had an oval, a couple yard tracks and a fairly large industry. When it was time to expand to the second HCD (about a year after original construction), it was a simple matter to pry up one of the loop's 180-degree curves and extend the tangents onto the new table. I had used caulk to hold down foam roadbed and Code 80 flex track. All of the roadbed and track was re-usable after being pried up.

I'll be repeating the process in about a year when it's time to add the third HCD. It's no big deal. (Just don't ballast any sections you'll be reconfiguring, or you'll have a bit more work on your hands.)

Jim

[Bsklarski]

Build the connection now so you dont have to rip up completeled work and mess up track alignments.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

I would also say it would be best to built the connection now. In the mean time you could maybe add a small industry and have another place to switch.

[vt_railroad_guy]

My plan is to actually build two connections to facilitate continuous running without the trains passing through each scene more than once.  This will allow me to extend the siding down the other door providing a longer lead for switching and allowing for longer trains.  The connections are the easy part, it's preconfiguring my layout for this expansion that's troubling me.  I'm not sure how I'm going to achieve this yet.

The two circles are where the main track will extend onto the other door.  What do you all think?



JDB

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

What about adding in the corners off one end? like the blue lines?

[vt_railroad_guy]

I thought about that.  I'm building a town on that end of the layout, so I don't think I can make that look right.