The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[davefoxx]

What's the radius on those wyes? They look almost trolley-esque.

I don't know exactly, but they're short, so I don't foresee any operational problems.  I'll see if I can find or determine the radius dimension, out of curiosity.

DFF

[Rich_S]

I don't know exactly, but they're short, so I don't foresee any operational problems.  I'll see if I can find or determine the radius dimension, out of curiosity.

DFF

Dave, Are those #5 wye's? Back when I was still in HO, I had a couple of #5 wye's and had zero issues.

[davefoxx]

What's the radius on those wyes? They look almost trolley-esque.

@C855B,

I took a close look at that wye last night.  It's marketed as a #2 wye (which would compare to the diverging route of a #4 turnout), but the radius of the diverging track almost exactly matches the diverging route of a #5 turnout.  I actually laid the wye track on top of a #5 turnout for comparison.  The wye turnout just looks more "trolley-esque" because the two diverging route really shorten the turnout.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I received six more freight cars for the fleet today, after taking advantage of MBK's Memorial Day sale.  @Ed Kapuscinski and @Dr Hotballs should like that Tangent Scale Models gondola decorated for the Penn Central , and @wm3798 will like the ExactRail Western Maryland covered hopper .  Somehow, in all of my years of model railroading, that B&O car is my first high cube box car!  Anyhow, these are some really nice 1970s cars for my '83-'86 era.



Not pictured here are three Walther's Amfleet cars that I also bought in the sale that were already on clearance.  I had no intention of buying passenger cars yet, because I don't have an F40PH yet.  But, I got these cars, which retail for $75.00, and MBK usually sells for about $60.00, for a whopping $28.50 each!  Since I only want a three car passenger train (unless a find a similar deal on Heritage Fleet sleeper cars- I might add two . . . maybe), I'm done building the passenger car fleet . . . except for that F40PH.

DFF

[Dave V]

Love it.

You need to weather that stuff now!   

[davefoxx]

Love it.

You need to weather that stuff now!   

I can't argue your point, but I'm kinda busy with the layout.  I really want to get trains running, and I still haven't finalized the track plan to allow me to figure out where to cut the table edges back.  That, in turn, is holding up gluing the foam to the table, which is holding up the cork, track, wiring, switch machines, etc.  I have much work to do.

Psst.  A little secret.  The truth is that I suck at weathering, and I'm not ready to screw up my new freight cars.   

DFF

[Dave V]

I can't argue your point, but I'm kinda busy with the layout.  I really want to get trains running, and I still haven't finalized the track plan to allow me to figure out where to cut the table edges back.  That, in turn, is holding up gluing the foam to the table, which is holding up the cork, track, wiring, switch machines, etc.  I have much work to do.

Psst.  A little secret.  The truth is that I suck at weathering, and I'm not ready to screw up my new freight cars.   

DFF

That's why I use acrylic craft paints and water mostly.  It's pretty forgiving, goes on in very thin layers, and can be stripped off with a little alcohol.

[crrcoal]

Exactrail is currently having a sale; cars for 19.99 and 26.99  https://exactrail.com/collections/exactrail-monthly-specials

[davefoxx]

Hmm.  Interesting.  I wasn't intending to buy anymore ExactRail A&R covered hoppers, but . . .

Thanks,
DFF

[davefoxx]

I have laid out the entire roundy-round loop, wye, and yard.  In the first picture, you can see what will be a 9" straight section that will prevent that s-curve at the wye turnout.  I also expanded the minimum mainline radius to 22".  This means that I won't be cutting the table down as much as I had hoped.  The passing sidings will have a 20" minimum radius, and the branchline will have an 18" minimum radius:



The yard and wye.  I moved the crossover to the other side of the turnout to the wye.



I also added a yard lead.  The turnout at bottom center that heads off in a one-o'clock direction is the new yard lead.  I will be able to switch cars without disturbing the mainline:



All that's left to design is the two sidings on the rural side of the table and the branchline.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Psst.  A little secret.  The truth is that I suck at weathering, and I'm not ready to screw up my new freight cars.   

DFF

Come on down. We'll get you goin.

[Philip H]

Come on down. We'll get you goin.

TWSS

 

[pdx1955]

I always like the "Sharpie" level of track planning as it really shows how things go together, how much space a switch actually takes, etc. Widening the radii is a good idea, however, are you really going to like the appearance of those Amfleet cars on 22" radius curves? Eighty-five foot HO cars can track thru curves that sharp but they won't look all that good as you really need 24" and higher. The cars would have to have truck-mounted (Talgo) couplers or pivoting drawbars (like the Walthers 85' autoracks) to make it around the sharper curves (based on my HO experiences around the turn of the century) . Nowadays body-mounts are much more common which I think will create a lot of problems. Long cars on sharp curves like these will have a lot more overhang, so you should create some mockups to test the track spacings for your sidings (you may have to limit the Amtrak to the main). The previously mentioned S-curve that you've tried to mitigate with the 9" straight is really only good for 70' cars or so, which for this layout keeping car lengths generally under 60' will give the best operation and appearance. As long as you don't take the passenger train through the wye (and I don't know why would you) you'll prevent issues with those that location.

Some other things to think about at this stage:

You may have to do some trimming on some of these cars anyways as the more detailed cars (lower bolsters, air hoses, etc) could have tracking issues with these sharper turns. This is another good reason for some curve mockups. Version 3.0 is physically larger than v2.0, but proportionally it is actually smaller (especially in length and potentially in curves). You may inadvertently shoehorn more stuff in there than you should as you've been in a smaller scale for a while (aka "eyeball re- calibration").

Also, this is a good time to check your industry spots vs yard capacities. If you add up all of the industry spots (including interchange tracks) based on a typical 50' car length they should about equal the yard capacity. Summing the two together equals the maximum car capacity of the layout but you need to divide this in half to determine the operating capacity so you can switch cars instead of "holes" which will keep everything a bit less than 50% full.

Since you'll won't be trimming the layout sides as much and this layout is about 6' wide this will equal about the maximum 36" reach. If you are not that tall, you should look for reaches under 30", as trackwork outside of this (by the law of Murphy) tends to gives problems. Just be aware of it, and even though you can reach it, you also have to be aware of what is in the way (trees, poles, buildings, etc).

[pdx1955]

Come on down. We'll get you goin.

You can always try weathering powders - they go on easy and you don't have the heavy-handedness that can go along with paint (and the permanence) when starting out weathering. A bit of streaking, fading on the lettering, dirt on the trucks and lower body sides really adds to appearance. You can try this on the newer cars first before you tackle things like that PC gon...in 1983 it is gonna need to look pretty grimy and gnarly  . 

[Chris333]

There is always a way to get a car to go around a curve, trust me