I don’t have room in my house for all the rolling stock and locomotives I have, plus I don’t have the patience to painstakingly one-by-one put together consists every time I want to run a train. Soooooooooo…I came up with this idea to use the area underneath of my freight yard for storage and staging trains.

Here’s a general kind of shot of the yard above:

And here’s what’s below now !

You can see the underside of the yard in the picture above. Now all I need to do is get all the switches working properly, which is mostly accomplished (get that Dremel baby out), but the trains have to come in and out very, very slowly because crawling around under there is no fun!

Great use of the space, John. I do have one itty bitty question, though, how do the trains get from that level up to the top level? Oh and btw, I’ve not seen that part of your layout before, that’s a great shot. Freight yard looks very realistic.

John Passaro said:

I don’t have room in my house for all the rolling stock and locomotives I have, plus I don’t have the patience to painstakingly one-by-one put together consists every time I want to run a train. Soooooooooo…I came up with this idea to use the area underneath of my freight yard for storage and staging trains.

Love it !

In the same boat myself and been planning/thinking about the same.

Me too, good idea!

Greg Elmassian said:

Me too, good idea!

Dan Hilyer said:

Great use of the space, John. I do have one itty bitty question, though, how do the trains get from that level up to the top level? Oh and btw, I’ve not seen that part of your layout before, that’s a great shot. Freight yard looks very realistic.

Thank you, Dan. These trains all run on the two loops in the yard, as in the back yard, not the freight yard.

I have grandiose plans for hooking up the upper mining district loop, the freight yard, and the lower tracks, but it ain’t happening any time soon.

Splendid idea! (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

John Passaro said:
…

I have grandiose plans for hooking up the upper mining district loop, the freight yard, and the lower tracks, …

oh, oh…

by the pics it looks like you have a height difference of three or four foot.

if you use 2% grades that would be a stretch of track of 150ft length, … at least.

do you have that much space avayable?

That’s a good question, Korm. I’m thinking I can eventually raise the tracks some, and then I’m thinking maybe a modified version of a helix, but that would be quite an undertaking.

i’d love to see that helix!

They take a lot more space than you think. I tried once to make one in 10’ diameter, and stringlining and clearance were issues.

We have many of the same concerns, and do stage several trains, even in a fully OPERATING situation, on the IPP&W.

We use the RailOps program and set out 150+ cars, every Saturday morning (Weather permitting)

If anyone is interested; join the link to “Mike’s Blog” on our web page at www.ovgrs.org/

We have been operating the railroad for close to 20 years…Visitors are always welcome.

Fred Mills

Thanks, Fred. I’m not finding Mike’s Blog. Can you point me in the right direction.

Also, I was sitting out back watching trains run around and had a crazy idea…I could turn one entire loop (of the two loops on the ground) into what would amount to a very long helix, kind of like the Georgetown Loop up there in Idaho Springs. Again, it would be quite an undertaking.

John Passaro said:

Thanks, Fred. I’m not finding Mike’s Blog. Can you point me in the right direction.

He cannot …but here it is for Fred

http://gardenrailroadottawa.blogspot.com/

This post has been edited by Freds Secretary " ROOSTER" : which is his real name and not a nickname whom speaks nothing but barnyard language and has noting to add but fowl comments and ONLY posts on LSC as he does NO OTHER LARGE SCALE hobby websites.

Greg Elmassian said:

They take a lot more space than you think. I tried once to make one in 10’ diameter, and stringlining and clearance were issues.

Amazing!

Seems like you are breaking all the rules “that you preach to others with that helix” if that’s what you call it. A bit more than clearance issues Greg ?

" Rooster " said:

Seems like you are breaking all the rules “that you preach to others with that helix” if that’s what you call it. A bit more than clearance issues Greg ?

Don’t be so cantankerous, David…it WOULD be workable for an eggliner.

John Passaro said:

Thanks, Fred. I’m not finding Mike’s Blog. Can you point me in the right direction.

Also, I was sitting out back watching trains run around and had a crazy idea…I could turn one entire loop (of the two loops on the ground) into what would amount to a very long helix, kind of like the Georgetown Loop up there in Idaho Springs. Again, it would be quite an undertaking.

I am not sure you should use the word “undertaking” with the health issues some folks here have been having lately. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)

Just a thought.

No double track shown, John; so there would not be any “Overtaking”…as in overtaking a train on the parallel track…!!

Fred Mills

John Passaro said:

…I could turn one entire loop (of the two loops on the ground) into what would amount to a very long helix, kind of like the Georgetown Loop up there in Idaho Springs. Again, it would be quite an undertaking.

yes! that’s the right spirit!

that will be a mountain of work, (pun intended) but in the end you will not only have your levels connected, but a lot of additional points of interest for viewing.

Landscape, viaducts, bridges, trestles… you name it.

i have two grades of about 13 or 14 yards, that connect two levels.(about 2 ft height difference)

Ya know, you don’t have to cross over or fool with a helix. Down in the SW you have another solution:

The Ophir Loop;

See, you don’t even need a box canyon, throw up a couple of spectacular trestles and touch a foreign wall…