Subject:
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Switching yards that actually work
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Nov 2002 22:14:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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450 times
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I've been dabbling with track designer, making switching yards. The
latest thread on diagonal track layouts has given me some more tricks
to get it to actually line up at the beginning and end with 8- or
16-stud intervals.
The following issues make it hard to design a reasonable switching
yard:
* Diagonal tracks are hard to line up
* ...Especially when a switch is used to produce the diagonal
* ...Especially when you want to make it possible to enter AND exit
the yard from the mainline...
So here is the trick I figured out...
For directions, I'm using the old style compass marks: N,S,E,W are the
cardinal directions, NE,SE,SW,NW are the 45 degree diagonals, and NNE,
ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, and NNW are the 22.5 degree diagonals.
The terms "left-switch" and "right-switch" here refer to switches
where if the straight line is facing upward, then the branch line is
facing NNW (left) or NNE (right).
From the main line, moving left to right (to the east)...
1. Curve right. Track is now running ESE
2. Left-switch (branching E with straight part facing ESE)
3. Continue ESE with 10 straights, then curve left (east), then 5
straights, then a left-switch and curve forming two parallel
tracks continuing east.
4. Rewind to that first switch. From the east-facing branch, curve
right (ESE), and then 4 left switches, all branching E while
parallelling the ESE straights in step 3.
5. From the straight end of the last switch in step 4, curve left,
with several (I use 7) straights, and then a dead-end.
6. From each of the E-facing branches, continue E with 10 straights.
7. Join up the branches in in step 6 with left-switches, forming a
straight track heading ESE on the east side of the yard.
8. Continue ESE with 1 straight, and then connect to the stub end of a
right-switch, with the straight part running E-W. (this is the
cool part)
9. Connect the E-W track in 8 with the E-W branch line formed at the
end of step 3. You can then rejoin to the main line, and/or to
another parallel line that runs around the north end of the yard
(left as an exercise to the reader).
Note that the tracks before (step 1) and after (step 9) are almost
exactly lined up with the baseplates under them. This setup will fit
nicely on two 60"x45" wide tables with a 60"x30" table leading in on
the left.
Does this make sense to you? Any comments?
--Bill.
--
William R Ward bill@wards.net http://www.wards.net/~bill/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consistency is not really a human trait.
--Maude (from the film "Harold & Maude")
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Switching yards that actually work
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| (...) <snip the very good text-list description> (...) Bill, You got me curious. I couldn't visualize the text description, so I built it up in Track Designer. Thanks for the very good construction description. Here's what I ended up with following (...) (22 years ago, 14-Nov-02, to lugnet.trains)
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