So, I’m in the process of designing my new layout and workshop space in the new house, and I’ve got a design problem, I need help with.

I have 2 sides of the garage to work with for both a staging yard to exit outdoors thru a hole in the wall and a workshop space. The two walls are 90 degrees to each other. The longer wall is about 20’ (depth of a standard garage, minus a exterior door), and the shorts wall is about 12-15’ long. My initial gut reaction was to have the staging along the long wall, thus maximizing the length of available space, but that would require a 90 degree turn from staging to the layout area. That means the shelf that holds the staging yard would have to stick out at least 4’ (so I can have a 4’ radius curve outdoors).

The shorter wall would provide a straight shot from staging to the layout, but that would require reversing (flipping how it opens into the garage) the exterior door (which is fine), but is a much shorter staging yard (12’ vs 20’).

So which wall should the staging yard be on? The shorter wall, or the longer wall?

Personally, I would keep it on the longer wall, although if your curve is to tight then all bets are off…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

My plan is to use old (free) kitchen cabinets as the base for the staging wall, and typically they are about 24" deep. I don’t even know if that’s enough room for more than 2 tracks? At 24" wide, that means its a 2’ radius curve exiting the garage… That’s too tight in my book. So, do I pull the cabinets out 2’ from the wall so I have 4’ of width? But then that eats up 40’ of garage storage that is a waste of space…

See the problem? Also, the long wall has multiple outlets (and panel) that would make it easier for work bench type stuff vs running new power from the electrical panel up and over to the far wall…

I’d keep it on the longer wall, it’s out of your way there. A 4’ R is tight, you’re a modern big freight operator aren’t you? I’d try for a 5’R there.

My 4’R curves hurt my eyes and I only had 1:24 shorties on it!

Remember to add finger space between cars, side to side.

I’m confused; Is that ‘space for 1 car’ a unique measurement?

John,

Yes I run more modern stuff. The longest car I should run is a 50’ box. If I use a magic formula proposed by MRH mag, my min radius should be at least 4’, but 5’ is better.

The space in the middle (and note) is to remind myself that my wife would like to park her car in the garage every night… And I want a covered area in case i have to play car mechanic. Its not a lot of fun playing car mechanic outside in the rain…

So in other words I can’t hog the whole garage with trains…

I hear you Craig, as a navy brat, the concept of a car inside was never realized … and as my own mechanic, I’m envious of a paved driveway!

50 footers aren’t so bad, I was envisioning auto racks as tip toeing elephants.

Since She only has nightly reservations, you might consider putting your staging yard on wheels, or hinged to the wall for stability. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)Swing it out for operations and tucked away when necessary.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Humm that is a possibility. I hadn’t thought of a swing out staging yard. Humm…

Use the long wall and make a removable section with a larger radius that can be put in place when operating. That will allow you to remove it and close the door when the RR is idle.

Here’s a better drawing.

Playing around with sketchup and working out different diameter curves out of staging.

First up is the 10’ diameter (5’ radius)

Next up is a 16’ diameter (8’ radius)

Significant loss of staging from 10’ to 16’ diameter. Haven’t played around yet with the numbers in the middle, but I’m thinking that with body mounted couplers a 10’ diameter is going to have to be the starting point.

This is 6" centerline to centerline spacing of the tracks, and #4 turnouts. Yes, that’s tight…

Go with 5’ R and #6 turnouts. Bring your main into the #2 track and make the ladder for the #3 and 4 tracks, then put the #1 on the opposite side of the main. This will lengthen your #3 and 4 with only costing you minimally on #1

I will try and draw that out tonight…

Taking Chris’ ideas and running with them. So this one has a 5’ radius curve coming off the 2nd track closest to the garage wall. Immediately coming off that curve is a curved #6 turnout. All other turnouts would be #4’s. I think this might give me the most about of staging with the broadest curve without cutting into too much staging track. Thoughts?

Try using a 3 leg WYE to save on multiple switch length, and enter through the wall at an angle.

A comment on MRH was to make the whole thing a transfer table sliding on drawer slides, eliminating all of the turnouts.

Thoughts?

Making the whole “yard” a transfer table would be 20’ or 12’ depending on the wall you use. It’s possible but making it move in and out smoothly and parallel would be the trick. Drawer slides on the ends plus supporting slides in the middle, maybe two or three might work. What I built is only 50" long as it’s only for engines. This is the video, it’s a little fuzzy, please excuse the production as I did it without help and very little knowledge of videoing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3v4CqZMWqM&feature=youtu.be

It slides on the nylon round pieces and is kept aligned with the ball bearing races. The metal “groves” are 1/2" x 1/2" channel, because of the size yours I would use 1" x 1". While writing this I realised it wouldn’t work as the groves do not slide out like drawer slides. I’ll leave this up as maybe you or someone else will get some ideas from it.

John Caughey suggested the yard swing out with it hinged at the far end, I vote for this.

Craig,

Does it need to be one or the other wall or could you use them both?

Paul,

I get those two walls for me… That includes a modeling bench area as well. So by default what ever wall isn’t used for staging gets used for a workbench.

I was talking to my Dad last night about over engineering a transfer table, and he thinks it might be possible to have long transfer table cantilevered out on the far wall. Some sort of support legs would be required, but could be removable. I’m just trying to avoid as many moving parts that need to be set up before trains can be run. The longer it takes to set up, the less likely I will be to run.

Another suggestion on my thread on MRH (Rooster, I hope it’s okay if I’m visiting another site(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif) (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)) suggested this…

I don’t think it leaves enough room to park my wife’s car (depth wise) and the far end of the staging yard would run smack into my hot water heater and furnace (along with the shelves for my kid’s toys).

I have a 5 way “sector” switch for my storage tracks. If you look the construction is relatively simple and you could most likely build one yourself.

Greg

Craig Townsend said:

… my hot water heater and …

Right there is why your utility bills are so high, you are wasting a bunch of energy trying to heat water that’s already hot.