New layout ideas?

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, it seems the more space you have for a layout, the harder it is to design something ;)

 

Attached is a first test of what I have in mind for the main station.

 

The red tracks are shinkansen tracks. 4 of them are through tracks, and those should be able to hold full, 16-car shinkansen. The 5th is a terminal track, long enough for the shorter shinkansen (Kyushu n700's and the like). I might change this to a track that can hold 16 cars instead though.

 

The grey tracks are express tracks. Again, 4 full length tracks (still need to check how long they should be, not sure how long my longest express is). The 5th track (furthest away from the shinkansen tracks) is a freight track. I still need to add some local tracks, but I'm not sure where exactly.

 

On the left end, the brown thing is a road that crosses the tracks 1 level up. This hides the tracks going into the helix. The top half of the helix will have 4 tracks going down, and somewhere halfway down they'll be combined into 2 tracks. This allows for some more interesting movements to and from the station.

 

On the right end, the shinkansen tracks split up. 2 of them will go straight ahead into a mountain, while the other 2 will follow the mountainside for a while. All 4 tracks will be recombined somewhere under a mountain, which means it looks like there's 2 shinkansen lines going to different parts of Japan. I may change this a bit so that there's 4 shinkansen tracks heading out of the station instead of 2.

 

Also need to figure out where to go with my tram line :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Bit of an update... The tracks/platforms are now long enough to hold full shinkansen, apart form the terminating track, which is for shorter shinkansen.

 

Changed it around so that there's 4 tracks leaving the station, with 2 of them going downward, alongside a mountainside. I'm planning on painting a mount fuji background somewhere at the back of the blue section. The only problem is that the wall on the right side is slanted, which means I may need to shorten the whole thing a centimeter or 20.

 

The 2 dark red tracks are hidden. I'm probably going to add some passing tracks/small hidden storage there as well for some more variation. The change from visible to hidden I'll probably just do with buildings rather than a tunnel entrance.

 

I'll likely also change where the orange and dark red tracks come together in the bottom right, moving the turnouts after the curve so that those lines have some more length. Makes it easier to add a couple of storage tracks.

 

Seeing how much space it really takes to build a full length station, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just shorten everything and either not run full length trains, or make it so that the full length trains just don't stop at the station. I should probably try laying some track to see how it looks in reality rather than just on paper.

 

(I've also noticed that working with flex track in Railmodeller is absolutely terrible =))

[The_Ghan]

Martijn,

 

I like where this is heading.  If I can suggest a few things?

 

1. Delete the yellow board;

2. Add a triangular board between the red and blue to create a larger area for a loop;

3. Do the same between the grey and green boards.

 

This provides decent "dog bone" ends to loop around, if that's what you were hoping to do.  The end with the red board looks large enough to create a decent mountain scene too. 

 

Also, while gentle sweeping bends modelled in flex are seductive and compelling to look at, consider the implications of maintaining those bends after cutting the track to create slow-down and stop sections.  If you're living in an upper-floor apartment I'd suggest nailing the windows shut before you start !!!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

Ghan, thanks for the comments :)

 

1. I'm not sure about the yellow board myself. I was considering doing a tram station/service terminal/yard on it, but I've also been considering removing it and use that space for the ECoS and such.

 

2. That's something I need to check. The initial ideas for the red area were either a large-ish loco servicing terminal with turntable etc, but I've also been considering something like a container terminal. The container terminal would probably end up being too small though (length wise), and I don't really have that many container trains yet anyway :)

 

3. The grey bit will have a helix. All 4 tracks leaving the station on the left side will go to the helix, so all trains will go to the hidden yard and loop around there. If I need to loop, I can do it just on the green board, because it'd be a tram line or local line.

 

 

As for the curves and blocks/sections, I'm taking all sections into consideration before putting down any track. Once I know where the sections should be, I'll cut the track to length, and use Peco's insulating rail joiners. What also works, if you need to cut a rail in a curve where the track is already mounted, is to use some superglue to glue the rails to the sleepers around where you want to make the cut.

 

 

Keep the suggestions/comments coming, otherwise I'll never get a design done =)

[Martijn Meerts]

Some small changes..

 

I wasn't quite happy with the fact that all trains leaving the station on the left side had to go to the helix/hidden yard. So I added some turnouts/double slips in the blue line. That means the shinkansen station will be 1 level above the regular station, and 2 levels above ground level. That means I can do some interesting things with the blue track that's partially underneath the orange shinkansen track.

 

The problem is of course the helix. The blue line only has to go down 1 level, which is easily doable, but the orange shinkansen track will have to go down 2 levels in 1 loop. I've measured the innermost orange line in the helix, and it turns out I'll need a grade of about 3.3 - 3.5% to get the orange shinkansen line at the same level as the blue line. 3.5% just so happens to be the maximum that Tomix and Kato recommend, so it might work.

 

Not sure what I want to do with the new brown track yet, I was thinking of having it go down a level so it's a tunnel underneath the city. Since it's at the edge of the layout I could make a window and model a tunnel interior or something along those lines.

 

I'm actually pretty much stuck with where I want to go with this track plan. I'm considering moving the entire station to the right, so it sits in a large curve in the top right, which means I'll have more space on the left. Would also make it easier to get a loop going.

 

I've also been thinking about a walk around layout instead of along the walls, but I don't think that'll work. I won't be able to get a good length station in, and because the roof is slanted on the right side in the image, it'd be annoying working on that end ;)

 

 

Maybe I should just get rid of all trains except steamers and some really old electrics, and go for a full steam era layout. Would make things a lot easier =) 

 

 

 

 

 

..

 

.. Well, not a LOT easier, but a bit easier maybe .. Than again, maybe not ;)

[Martijn Meerts]

Wondering if a setup like in this overview picture might be more interesting. The red line would be a backdrop that basically splits the layout in two. The top part with the large station would then be a city setting with lots of buildings and a small tram setup. The bottom part would be a more rural scene with several small stations and a bigger part-terminal station. The bigger station will then also have a servicing terminal. The shinkansen and express lines could go through a tunnel and the the divider, and show up briefly in the rural part as well.

 

Bloody difficult coming up with a track plan ;)

[Sir Madog]

Martijn,

 

I understand that you would like to have a shinkansen line as well as a "conventional" line on your layout, both "coming together" at one station - is that right?

 

I found the following plan in the internet, which could act as a basis for further planning, providing you are not yet fixed with your benchwork.

 

[Mudkip Orange]

That's a swell track plan.

[Martijn Meerts]

Ulrich, that's about what I want yes. Benchwork isn't built yes, and I won't really build it until I have a track plan. The only benchwork I've been building is for the hidden yard, but that will be underneath the layout, and doesn't really have any impact on the rest of the layout design wise.

 

Hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit this weekend, so I can get most/all of the hidden yard benchwork done, so I can start laying the tracks. The yard along is going to be quite a project with it's 24 full shinkansen sized tracks and 33 turnouts :)