Corn Belt & Western Railway

[mightypurdue22]

I'm planning a new layout to be built in the next several years.  My current layout takes up about half the space of this room, which is 19' x 10.5' with walls on all sides except for a single entrance on the left side of the plan.  This will be N Scale, double track mainline, Chicago & North Western based.  It is freelanced using real town/city and waterway names from the state of Iowa, along with my interpretation of operations for various industries from around Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City.

Customers will include grain, oil refining, cement, scrap metal, steel fab and other industries relying upon these raw materials.  I'll have 3 interchange tracks that allow for inclusion of unit coal trains used to service a power plant and refinery.

On-track staging will be located in Stone City, and includes (4) 8' long staging tracks.  There will be track elevation along the wall, all at 2% grade.  I usually steer clear of grade changes, but this gives me a more interesting mainline considering the double main doubles back on itself.

I've considered many layout footprint versions, and this gives me what I'm most after.  I did not want to have a duckunder or lift out and ample room for myself to work in the layout room and visitors to view trains.  Thanks for letting me share, and please feel free to offer any advice.

Dave

[MichaelWinicki]

I think it's a heck of a nice plan Dave!

-A decent length double-track main line run
-Plenty of industry
-Some staging
-A small yard
-An engine terminal

Have you envisioned a list of trains you intend on running?

Are the trains that switch out the industries going to originate out of the yard or out of staging?
 

[OldEastRR]

I noticed the other RRs you have as being in this plan does not include the Rock Island. Just curious.
As for the plan, be careful about putting important trackage deep in the corners. A good rule is no more than 2' reach in for any spot on the layout.
Wondering about the lower RH corner -- the angled line is on a long trestle from one crossing of the lower line to the next crossing? Long trestles would be only over the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, right?
Of course, it's your layout to do what you wish.

[mightypurdue22]

Thanks for the replies.  Some of this is fluid, but I plan to have trains that switch out the industries around Grand Junction and West Grove go to the yard.  From the yard, they would go west to staging or east to the interchange tracks, Marble Rock or Stockport.  I'm highly likely to employ a locomotive in Marble Rock, maybe Stockport.  If so, I'll want to add a small spur with an engine shed.

As for reach, I'm 6-2 and can comfortably span 27" to reach a turnout.  Of course, said turnouts could be remote operated as well.  I've tried to keep all turnouts within 24" reach, and I believe all are within an inch or so.  Great point about the Rock!  I know there are other railroads I'd like to add that come out of Chicago and come from the west.  That said, many of the videos I watch of the C&NW include trains loaded with their rolling stock, and only a few others.  With my time frame, I have time to put forth some quality research.  I'm looking to develop the history or story of this railway, which I can say has made me much more excited about this build than any other I've developed.

I'm still kicking around the idea of an around-the-wall layout with a lift out and center peninsula.  Really, the last thing I want to do is build that type of layout and find that my skill level doesn't permit me to build a quality lift out or lift gate.  This is the same reason I haven't considered hidden staging.  My lack of patience gets the better of my quality of railroad building on more complex items such as these.

Thanks
Dave