Geoff George said:I really like the effort being made here and the general direction the plan has taken. It's really nice to see people contributing to a very positive venue for LS modeling.
any more ideals or input?
I know I’m late to the party on this, but with the cost of track if your not filling the freight yard at 14’-15’, i.e. running trains of 5 to 6 cars, even the reduced staging are in HJ’s last drawing a bit of overkill.
I’d also reduce the number of sidings and interchange opportunities since you seem to be looking for display characteristics more than operating opportunity. (again cost of trackage issue) It just seems to me that the number of switches in the plan create a significant opportunity for accidents and derailments as your “visitors” check things out and your off busy visiting or collecting for your food bank.
If your looking for unattended operation while creating some multi train operations I’d also look at RailRoad Concepts at www.rr-concepts.com or DCC Bitswitch at www.dccbitswitch.com for some timed stop start and switching capability. Their products seem to be quality and somewhat reasonably priced, though I prefer the Railroad concepts with track power only.
In creating visual interest for the plan via landscaping I think that elevating portions of the railway are essential, but without including some particulars associated with your lighting display design or design goals you could have some conflicts.
A second string of thought is…“what are you going to do in the way of buildings? temporary? permanent?” Either way their placement needs to be considered in the design as well. (My thoughts are permanent close to the house, and temporary closer to the street.)
My preference would be to elevate the portions of the railway that are to the center and right directly in front of the house as HJ seems to show with the placement of trestles or tunnels. However, I think I would also push the central loop farther forward with a slightly longer tunnel allowing the staging area to be hidden view from part of the street (which might enhance the get out of the car factor). Then perhaps a second tunnel of significant length on the outside main (on the right side) to give a stronger perspective of trains moving out of sight and reappearing at different points on the railway (again enhancing the get out of the car factor).
No matter what you decide to build, it looks like a great project and a lot of fun to build and run.
Good luck with it
Mark