Shadowlands and Tellynott

[Mark Dalrymple]

Here is the mocked up helix.


Cheers, Mark.

[jerryrbeach]

Mark,

I'm glad you did some testing and lessened the grade.  Your helix, like everything you do, looks very well designed and executed.  FWIW, I ordered a 24 pack of long shank couplers recently.  I was assembling a resin kit and knew just from how close the coupler knuckle was to the end sill it would not make it around my curves.  I'm sure I'll find similar problems with other cars as I complete them, hence buying extra couplers with the longer shank.   

[deemery]

I'm glad you discovered the issues before you built the helix!

dave

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Mark.....

[ACL1504]

Mark, Cheers,

Greg it, but I'll add "Tommy likes it!" 

Tommy

[Mark Dalrymple]

Mark,

I'm glad you did some testing and lessened the grade.  Your helix, like everything you do, looks very well designed and executed.  FWIW, I ordered a 24 pack of long shank couplers recently.  I was assembling a resin kit and knew just from how close the coupler knuckle was to the end sill it would not make it around my curves.  I'm sure I'll find similar problems with other cars as I complete them, hence buying extra couplers with the longer shank.   

Thanks, Jerry.

Good to know.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

I'm glad you discovered the issues before you built the helix!

dave

Thanks, Dave.

Yep.  Better to do what I can now...

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking good Mark.....

Thanks, Greg.

Lots of progress - although a lot of it has been many, many iterations of designs for my yards/ staging.

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Mark, Cheers,

Greg it, but I'll add "Tommy likes it!" 

Tommy

Thanks Tommy.

Chipping away at things...

Cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

Here is my latest version for the storage/ fiddle yard under Tellynott.  A number of changes here after trying to balance my layout between industry spots and yard space.  This is iteration number 15???  There were many.  I spent most of yesterday trying different designs.  This one gives me a small yard - within reach (!!!) for making up trains at Jamestown/ Neil's Crossing.  The curved turnout at the end of the peninsula was the catalyst.  I had it around the other way, but noticed the code 100 right hand one I was using was quite flat and so my curved track wasn't staying on the baseboard.  I laid a left hand one on top and the difference was noticeable.  So I thought I'd put the wrong one in to mark the curve on the baseboard.  Suddenly, the idea in the plan came to me...  The curved turnout allows enough room for a yard lead and I can fit three decent sized sorting tracks in.  The fourth gives me a run around and caboose track.  I've altered the return cutoff to give room for this design.  I've turned the back track of the four tracks in the front into a staging track and added two more staging tracks in the hidden trackwork under Skippers mine in Shadowlands.  Each track holds 16 wagons - which is a pretty good train length.  The other thing I have done is eliminate the triangle.  The triangle is all laid ATM, but I really can't see when I would use it. 

So in a journey from Tellynott to Shadowlands a train will come in from the north, travel through Neil's Crossing and then leave heading south.  At the end of its journey it will again enter from the North and then terminate at Jamestown.  Trains heading from Jamestown to Tellynott will do things in reverse.  A train coming from Tellynott with wagons to interchange with the South Island main trunk line will terminate at Neil's Crossing and then return to Tellynott.  The only reason the triangle would be used is if trains want to bypass Neil's Crossing.  Like I say - the trackwork is in so we will see what happens.  (Remember - Neil's Crossing and Jamestown share the same space/ trackage on the layout.)


Balance wise, the layout currently has these figures:

Tellynott industry spots = 52
Ellery and Malcolm industry spots = 16
Hope and Wilmot industry spots = 24
Jamestown industry spots = 29
Total industry spots = 121

Tellynott yard = 45 wagons
North Hope yard = 50 wagons
Jamestown yard = 50 wagons
Total yard spots =  145

Staging = 48 wagons (three trains, each 16 wagons in length)

Note:  All spots are counted as 3" (75mm) which is the length of the majority of my rolling stock.
The towns mentioned service the nearby industries - so Jamestown, for example, services Skippers mine, Truth flotation mill, the ore wharf, the lime works and the pulp mill.  This is just a convenient way of counting.

PS - my track has passed through customs, so should arrive in the next day or two.  I also finally managed to track down 4 pieces of code 70 Micro Engineering flex track wooden sleeper bridge track, and that, too, is on its way from Australia.

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hi guys.

A quick post before bed.  I'll no doubt add a second one in the morning and perhaps do some editing on this one...

Well - best laid plans on paper never quite work out in reality.  I got close, but made a few further changes when I started the 1:1 scale design work with the points.  I tried hard, very hard, to get a second track between the staging at Neil's Crossing/ Jamestown and the Jamestown yard as to not 'foul the main', but I just lost too much staging length in order to achieve this.  I also needed to add several more sets of points, and when you add motors and auxiliary switches that's $80 a throw.  I really didn't feel like I was gaining much anyway - its all tucked within the return loop.  It did make me think that keeping those two turnouts that join the main line to the triangle might be worth keeping.  I'll keep pondering this.  In this way any rail traffic between Tellynott and other parts of the layout that do not need to pass through Neil's Crossing - thus adding to the potential congestion, can bypass it.

Photo 1 - So here we are under the peninsula in Tellynott (Inglletown - with all the residential house pictures pinned to polystyrene formers above).  We are starting at the base of the peninsula, against the wall by the door between the two layout rooms.  The inside track is the return cutoff, the outside two tracks are heading into the tracks for Neil's crossing and Jamestown.


Photo 2 - Here we are around the corner.  Two tracks become four.  The back track (fourth track) is staging.  Trains made up in the yard must be pulled past this track on one of the mains and then pushed into the staging track.  I can get a much longer train by extending this way, but it can be done the other way instead - as shown in the last plan.  One of the front two tracks will be staging, and the other two tracks are through tracks representing Neil's Crossing and Jamestown.


Photo 3 - Here we are heading into the corner at the end of the peninsula.  You can see the back staging track going right through as far as it can.  The other three tracks join together just to the left of this shot.  You can just see how the track splits into two at the top right of this image.  The right track is the start of the yard lead, the left is the main line return cutoff.


Photo 4 - Shows the two tracks leaving the curved turnout.  There was only room for one turnout here.  I had to also avoid the table legs.  The leg by the main line had to have a little manipulating with a saw, hammer and chisel to give sufficient clearance.


Photo 5 - Ok - I tried!  Really I did!  But I still glued some cork down and changed my mind the next day.  You can see in this photo how the return cutoff track goes nice and straight diagonally across the benchwork.  This ended up meaning that the break van track - the second track from the left - was pretty short and would only hold three break vans.  I decided that the work involved in redoing the return cutoff track to make room for a longer break van track was worth the reward.


Photo 6 - And so here we see the return cutoff track turning further to the left and then returning back to meet the existing cork roadbed.  The break van track will now hold five vans.  This view also shows the yard throat.  The break van track comes off the yard lead - which was a recommended place for it to come of in the ten yard commandments.


In the morning I'll add the rest of the photos and draw up a revised yard/ storage plan with numbers based on actual measurements!

More in the morning, cheers, Mark.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Morning all...

Photo 7 - This is what the yard looks like while sitting on a computer chair on the far side of the peninsula.  I'm figuring operating the Jamestown yard and staging at Neil's Crossing/ Jamestown will be done from a chair - maybe a small stool.  There shouldn't really be any interference with an operator working Tellynott, as there is no trackwork above the Jamestown yard and staging for Neil's Crossing and Jamestown - with the exception of the spur to Graves elevators and the timber complex I am working on at present.


Photo 8 - The yard throat a little closer.  You can see here how the changes to the return cutoff have allowed the lengthening of the break van track.  The runaround is fairly short, too.  I had it a little longer, but was about to glue down cork when I noticed the turnout was right through the middle of a module joint.  This led to some redesigning and I ended up putting in a curved turnout just to the yard throat side of the join.  The runaround will still hold a few wagons - which is all that is required.


Photo 9 - The yard tracks from the inside of the peninsula.  There is pretty good access for sorting wagons, including a good amount of height.


Photo 10 - Looking from the yard back towards the throat.  It looks a bit up and down - but its actually pretty good.  It's a bit of an optical illusion with my small angled pieces of cork and changes of mind.  I'll give things a sand to be sure.


So - commandments 1-7 of yard design are not really breached, with the exception of commandment 1 being breached when moving a train from the yard to the arrival/ departure tracks.  But like I said earlier - to make this happen in my limited space with unmovable obstacles such as table legs in the way - created more problems than it fixed.  Maybe there is a better solution, but this is the best I could figure out - and I tried, hard!

More soon, cheers, Mark.

[deemery]

Looks like you have plenty of vertical clearance if the 0-5-0 is required to fix a derail.

dave

[ACL1504]

Mark, Cheers,

You have some serious cork and future track work here. I do like the design and even though you are changing it as you go, it still works for me.

My track work on paper, never really fit when I started to put the design on the benchwork. Just part of the hobby I guess.

Great work and ides here my friend.

Cheers, Tom 

[jerryrbeach]

Mark,

I have found that planning as I go works best for me.  As Tom said, what I draw on paper never fits no matter how hard I try to draw to scale.  I also like the plan to operate a specific part of the layout while sitting in a chair.  I think that helps make a multi level layout like yours much more operator friendly.