MVW: A blank slate

[MVW]

After 5 weeks of dickin' around, I'm getting close to a track plan for the upper deck I can live with.

This utilizes one of the tables from my original MVW (the central yard area in the peninsula). It has 15" minimum radius, and broad aisleways everywhere except around the end of the peninsula.



I had to shorten up the run along the bottom wall, but will go through the wall to reach east staging.

I've been fighting the itch to just start building. That time is rapidly approaching. Have to figure out industrial trackage next.

Thoughts?

Jim

[robert3985]

Two thoughts:

(Thought 1) Since passenger traffic is something you mention a number of times, I'd go with at least an 18" visible radius, with larger if you can fit 'em in.  Keep the 15" radii where they're mostly concealed.  Of course passenger equipment will work most of the time on a 15" radius, but it'll work for sure on 18" minimums, and look a helluva lot better.  You might have to give up a bit of isle width, and as important as that is, it's not "all important" and a little sucking in the gut is worth a better looking train.

(Thought 2) You've got some areas with long straights which run parallel to your fascia....b o r i n g.  Although it's strictly cosmetic, putting some extra-large cosmetic curves in those areas or running your fascia at an angle to your mainlines will make the layout more pleasing to the eye.  "Flowing" fascia is also something that improves the layout's ambiance and is easy to do when you're planning your benchwork.  Although it's inevitable that your mainlines will follow the fascia sometimes, it's a good idea to not allow that to happen very much.

[MVW]

Thanks for the feedback, Bob. Two notes:

1) I just increased the minimum radius from 12.5" to 15" before posting the most recent plan. I don't know if I can manage anything larger. The aisle around the peninsula is down to 21.5" at its narrowest point; it's a very short bottleneck, but a bottleneck all the same. And broader curves may start eating into the freight yard and passenger station areas, which are already smaller than I'd like. But I certainly agree with you that broader is better. I will see if I can expand another inch or two on the radius, anyway.

2) Also agree regarding the parallel lines thing. I'm kind of locked in with the freight yard (much of it is already built), but I do plan to be a bit more creative with the rest of the mainline. I've mostly been in a "will it fit?" mode up to this point. As I get the industrial trackage figured out, I'll pay more attention to the cosmetics.

Jim