Taking some of the new suggestions especially David’s elimination of the turnouts and making the turntable functional. I like it.
Oh yea. that’s better.
That switch at the town on the lower right, what if it was on the other side of the curve? Then you could access that switch, the turntable and the 2 switches to the right of the turntable all while standing in one spot.
Now you really have me thinking. All this time I hadn’t really give to much thought to how I would operate it. I totally get your point that almost all of the operating in the White Zone will take place from that center walkway. So good point. As before I can’t say that is the location of that particular turnout that one is highly fluid. But moving it to center walk way is smart.
Edit: I made the move and I like it much better. I even moved the station to the resulting new long straight stretch in town. This created and empty spot where it used to be. So now I think there is a better flow there will now the yard and I can have a little industrial area between yard and the mill. So that cool. I wont post a pic but it is a good move.
That is what I love about this site. The power of many minds and tons of experience.
Hey, there ya go!
That looks great so far. Love the track plan so far. I would use the areas where the track runs close to the edge of the table to my advantage. Perfect places to add some fences or some cribbing. Perfect way to add detail that serves a purpose. Look at my Micro. That’s how I dealt with the track being close to the edge.
Devon Sinsley said:
That is what I love about this site. The power of many minds and tons of experience.
Devon, but remember, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Speaking of track planning, are there any programs out there that will run on a Mac computer. Oh and it has to be free.
Well we are back to the drawing board. I decided to show my wife what I came u with and share the vision. Well she says that looks OK but it wont work. She says what about this, there’s a problem with that, this door wont open all the way. She noticed some fatal flaws that my wishful thinking was not allowing me to see. So I had to start over by sitting down and measuring the exact floor space with out any notion of what might go where. This included things like the steps sticking out into the room farther than I presumed, and the stupid door that needs to open. With that actual free floor space I added my work bench. BTW it is there and pretty much has to stay there because of a egress window that I both want to look out while at the bench plus one needs to have it relatively clear so they can use it. The biggest problem is it compressed the available space left to right causing major conflicts with that whole lower white section. I will rework the new space and let you guys have at it again.
What’s that famous line about the best laid plans of mice, men, and model railroaders?
Good to see these problems before you build the benchwork . . . . . 
Narrow Gauge Lover said:
Good to see these problems before you build the benchwork . . . . .
Yes. That is precisely why I should her because she objectively could care less. She doesn’t have grandiose ideas that I can fit an empire in the basement in 1:24. Her observations were critical and it is far better now then to put a cabinet in and then realize my fat butt doesn’t fit between the stair post and the layout.
As I am reworking it I am taking most of the main ideas people shared and moving them over to the new plan. I think I will have something acceptable to let the hounds loose on.
Devon Sinsley said:
Narrow Gauge Lover said:
Good to see these problems before you build the benchwork . . . . .
Yes. That is precisely why I should her because she objectively could care less. She doesn’t have grandiose ideas that I can fit an empire in the basement in 1:24. Her observations were critical and it is far better now then to put a cabinet in and then realize my fat butt doesn’t fit between the stair post and the layout.
As I am reworking it I am taking most of the main ideas people shared and moving them over to the new plan. I think I will have something acceptable to let the hounds loose on.
Good … . .
Devon Sinsley said:
Narrow Gauge Lover said:
Good to see these problems before you build the benchwork . . . . .
Yes. That is precisely why I should her because she objectively could care less. She doesn’t have grandiose ideas that I can fit an empire in the basement in 1:24. Her observations were critical and it is far better now then to put a cabinet in and then realize my fat butt doesn’t fit between the stair post and the layout.
As I am reworking it I am taking most of the main ideas people shared and moving them over to the new plan. I think I will have something acceptable to let the hounds loose on.
Good … . .
OK Sinsley Mtn Logging and Mining Company 5.0
This plan shows the entire layout of the room instead of just workable space like last time. The light grey rectangle on the lower right is the bottom stair. It juts into the room 15 Inches (it actually more than one step). The light grey in the upper right is a unmovable cabinet that hides some duct work. The darker grey is walkway or other wise open floor space. The orange represents the base cabinets or other layout supporting feature. The black is the work bench. On other thing of importance is the weird notch in the upper right by the cabinet. The aforementioned stupid door is on the right side wall and opens toward the cabinet and needs 32 inches of clearance the cabinet is only 24 wide hence the weird notch to allow the door to open.
All the overlapping stuff at the mine will be separated by grade and be a network of tunnels or bridges. The straighter section being the lowest, the loop being 12 inches above it (The little locos only need 8" or 9" of clearance) and the mine and its track will be a foot or so above the loop. Unlike last time I did not start my grade climb until it leaves the bench. From there it is about 3.5% up to the upper loop which is then flat.
The last feature to note will be the lift up bridge at the mine mill for access for the long reach. All the tunnels will have cut outs in the bench work underneath for rescue.
Alot of this track is kinda caddy whompis because I am only allowed 50 pieces of track on the free version so stuff is stretched weird. In reality things will be smoother and more pleasing to the eye. Same with areas where i will need to fudge track around to make it fit right. This gives the basic notion.
So have at it guys. You did so well last time I look forward to revisions and suggestions
I got everything back in that was on the last version. The saw mill complex is totally relocated and wont be as sprawling, it will now be a backwoods affair. Same with the logging operation will be smaller. All of that is actually pretty fair compromise not to upset about that. The mine and mill are basically the same. The dock area got expanded which is actually more in keeping with what I originally wanted. That whole area is now more of a nice yard. Up by the docks will be an industrial area transitioning into town.
Unless you REALLY want a lift out bridge, I would get away from that if I could.
Extending the sawmill siding and coming from the other direction, gives you a longer siding and could double as the mine siding, with a tramway coming down to track level. It also makes switching a little more interesting. Or if you want move the siding back closer to the mainline and add a switch at the mine mill side and have a passing siding. But to my eye, this looks “cleaner”.
This was just off the top of my head, with what stood out.
Ken, I wouldn’t say I had my heart set on it but thought it would be cool. But in that location not so much because it would interfere with switching. Eliminating it is not something I will loose sleep over.
I like your idea for a couple reasons, neither siding was achieving what I wanted, to short, so I think your idea would free up a lot of space. Second the mine and the mill are owned by the same company so they can share a siding. Finally the stamp mill I am loosely basing my mill on does use a tramway to take finished product to the railroad so that would be a cool detail to reproduce. I will work on that revision. I might make it a passing siding for more easier switching.
On another note I have come up with another idea. Since there are docks and the idea is that this is on a lake I was thinking about how logs would get to the mill. Originally it was going to be by rail car because I want log cars. But being next to a lake I was thinking it would be way cooler to have a log flume from the logging area over or under the tracks and into the lake. Then model the chain mechanism that takes them out of the lake to the head rig. Then the logs can either be fed into the saw or loaded onto rail cars and then they can be taken to the docks for shipping to other mills. I would eliminate that upper spur and install the flume instead.
Version 5.2 I like this I can see a nice overhead tram from the mine mill to the siding and a little ore bunker where it can be dumped and then load a string of gondolas. The saw mill can either have box of flat cars for hauling finished lumber or skeleton cars for piking up logs for delivery to the docks and loaded onto barges for shipment. I can already see a log deck behind the engine house. And a flume fromthe logging area down to the lake.
OK, is it done yet?..(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Yes, V5.2 looks real nice.
yes, it looks nice, but i doubt, if it will be very comfortable.
the loops need about five foot diameter each.
logging = about 5’ to reach every point.
mine = about 6’.
station/enginehouse/town = about 4’.
if i am not missunderstanding something, there are too much “out-of-reach” areas.