WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[wm3798]

There's still a transition, but I concentrated about 1/4" of the slope at the yard throat, so there's a bit of a grade going down from the main into the class bowls.  Since the approaches to the class tracks are all curved, a little gravity will probably be useful when backing in cuts of cars.  Since shorter cuts will be getting pulled out, then assembled on the A/D track, I've kept the grade on that steady with the main.  Also, I'll be assigning BL-2 81 and slug 138-T to the west throat, so there will be plenty of a$$ to handle longer cuts when required.

This will make the majority of the yard on a slope of about 3/16" over about 5', which shouldn't have cuts rolling around on their own.



At right, you see the main lines on the cork roadbed.  The caboose is on the A/D track, which is at the same grade as the mains, and the C&O car is on the level of the class bowls.  It should work out pretty well, I think.  I've just got to cut the last couple of bits of plywood, and the whole thing is closed up.

Next, I'm working with click pens and bicycle brake cables to make some turnout linkages for the switches at the rear of the yard.  Once that riddle is solved, then I can do the final installation with real screws!

Lee

[sirenwerks]

Looking great, Lee. I'm eager to run some trains.

[sizemore]

For those of you who remember the Hagerstown Roundhouse and shops, I hope this view has you reaching for your hanky.

Lee

YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. That was my initial thought from looking at the image. The wood coaling tower from Walthers would make a great stand-in, if this was going to be Hagersbum.

The S.

[davefoxx]

As The S. suggests, a coaling tower would add a nice vertical element to the locomotive facilities and, at least from this angle, do something to camouflage Lee's mug on the wall.   ;D

DF²

[davefoxx]

Lee,

In the picture above, why do you have a left hand turnout at the far right foreground?  It would appear from the lines that you have drawn on the Homasote that the tracks will continue to curve to the right (as you proceed through the turnout into the yard tracks), so a right hand turnout would eliminate an s-curve or two at this location.  In addition, all of the other trackwork really appears to flow nicely through here, and this doesn't match the geometry of the other yard tracks, e.g., the turnout leading to the two tracks to the left (in the picture above) of this lefty turnout.

DF²

[wm3798]

Silly Dave.  That's the entrance to the A/D track, and inbound trains from the east should keep right.  Thus, the "main" route is on the flat, while exiting west bound trains will negotiate the little S as they leave the yard slowly and methodically.  Also, bear in mind that these are all #7's, and the camera angle is making the bends look a lot more pronounced.

I didn't get as far as I would have liked today, but I accomplished two critical tasks.  First, I salvaged a couple of old 4' flourescent fixtures to hang over the yard... this will serve the dual purpose of improving visibility in that area, as well as freeing up the track lights to fill in the corners and the peninsula. 

I also made the final cuts to finish the deck of the yard, and I now have everything tacked into place...


So, the last thing I need to buy is the curved right switch for the west throat, and collect some more track to finish out the yard.  There's still some technical issues to work out, but I'll have plenty of time to fool with that stuff.

Lee

[wm3798]

Took a break from power tools to work on detailing the car shop building while watching the Civil War and James May's Road Trip last night...  I hope to have it finished (more or less) and ready to photograph tonight.

Lee

[davefoxx]

Silly Dave. 

This is true.

Now to harrass you about another issue: The body tracks of the yard don't look as long as I had hoped.  What do you expect the capacity to be, especially on the A/D tracks?  Can you tighten up/shorten the ladders at each end?

DFF

[DKS]

Now to harrass you about another issue: The body tracks of the yard don't look as long as I had hoped.  What do you expect the capacity to be, especially on the A/D tracks?  Can you tighten up/shorten the ladders at each end?

Careful. That's a touchy subject. I've been hammering him about that since the start of the project. The east end took a hit from the shops, and the west end has an aesthetic bone of contention thing going on with switch geometry. Best to leave this dog snoring, methinks.

(With appropriate winks.)

[davefoxx]

Careful. That's a touchy subject. I've been hammering him about that since the start of the project. The east end took a hit from the shops, and the west end has an aesthetic bone of contention thing going on with switch geometry. Best to leave this dog snoring, methinks.

(With appropriate winks.)

I hear you, but he called me "silly" first...  ;D

Seriously, I would hate to see sacrifices made for a few bucks in turnouts.  In other words, get the right track pieces to do the job.  If that's curved turnouts (custom or Atlas) or #5s, then do it.  Personally, I have had no problem with #5 yard ladders and they can really save space, especially when you cut a couple of inches off of the tail.  Another thing is that the turnouts at the west end do not have to be placed end-to-end, and I see gaps between the turnouts at the east end, eating up further car capacity.  I really think that this version needs serious reconsideration before permanently installing anything.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm with my esteemed colleague, Mr. Foxx. Lee, I think before you glue anything down, it'd be really beneficial to tack it all down using double sided tape or something, then "try it out" a bit first.

[wm3798]

First the good news.
There are two more bowl tracks than were drawn in by Mr. Smith (Total of 10, plus an 11th I'm toying with adding for a RIP track)  Track spacing is a generous 1-3/8", which contributes to the "air" between turnouts on the east end, since it approaches at an angle.  At the west end, I'm not ruling out compound ladders, I just haven't spent time monkeying with that yet.  I guess at first glance, I want to keep the west throat as non complex as possible given the curved turnout that will make the whole thing possible in the first place.

Regarding the geometry, when you look at the picture:


The older looking piece of plywood is 54" long, and the smaller new looking piece at the west end is another 21".  That's a hair over 6 feet from throat to throat.  If you can't figure out how to block cars in 50' of track, and a double ended yard, you're fired.

(The longer tracks in the middle of the bowls will be at least 5' long by themselves) 

Remember, you're not building whole trains in the class tracks, you're blocking cars.  You're building trains on the A/D tracks, which begin at the west end about where the old red car shop building is at the far left, all the way around to main yard lead, about where the grey screw driver is at the lower right.  25 cars will easily fit there, which is the demonstrated length limit based on running the helix with three diesels and no helper or string-lining cars.

My roster presently includes about 350 pieces of rolling stock.  If there are 9 trains of 25 cars each in the staging yards, that makes up for more than half of them.  If there are 40 cars spotted around the layout, that leaves about 75 unaccounted for.  Put 30 of them in the yard at Elkins, or elsewhere on the layout in random locals, and you're down to 45 cars to classify in the yard.  So, you have one car per foot of track in the yard.  I think you're going to be fine. ;D

Lee

[davefoxx]

Remember, you're not building whole trains in the class tracks, you're blocking cars.  You're building trains on the A/D tracks, which begin at the west end about where the old red car shop building is at the far left, all the way around to main yard lead, about where the grey screw driver is at the lower right.  25 cars will easily fit there, which is the demonstrated length limit based on running the helix with three diesels and no helper or string-lining cars.

If you go back to my earlier post, you'll see it was the A/D tracks I was mostly concerned with, because they need to be as long as the trains entering/leaving the yard.  If these tracks are long enough for 25-car trains plus motive power, then, yeah, you're probably good.  That said, the longer those classification tracks are the more efficient the yard can be.  Each time that Ed has to see-saw his power or cuts of cars costs the railroad time, and, let's face it, a fast clock doesn't work well in the yard.

DFF

[wm3798]

Y'all need to go back to building your door layouts...

Look, you're getting 10 class tracks, thirty inch plus drill tracks at both ends of the yard, #7 turnouts throughout, and an overall yard length of about 6'.  I defy you to present another model railroad in our operating circle that offers as much in the same space, plus a fully functional engine terminal.  John has two good sized yards, but they're not as tuned in to ops, at least not yet, and Eric will have more once he gets it all built, but they have a lot more real estate to work with.

We were able to pump 20 plus trains through back when you had a crappy five track yard to work with.  This will be quite luxurious for you, I assure you.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, I just enjoy the armchair engineering!

This is gonna be awesome Lee. I can't wait.

Except, it looks like we're moving the CRHS's Camp Car May 1 & 2, so the OPS might have to wait.