Responding to my post about a track plan, Kevin Strong said to check out the switching puzzle track plans on the Home page. I just went there and didn’t see anything like that. Plus the top of the page was kinda garbled with multiple images on top of each other. In one of the posts I tracked, there was mention of Inglenook, which to me was the name of a California winery, which is now Coppola Vineyards–as in “The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola, uncle of actor Nicholas Cage and ??? of Sophia. Yeah, I read the film credits.
I connect a full size Inglenook at one end and a small industrial switching area at the other, on a 30 foot long stretch of 32" wide benchwork. The mainline is double tracked, & runs along the front edge connecting the two setups. In three years of working this I’ve never ran out of the fun factor on this. I use two sets of eight freightcars (box, reefer, tank, cattle, flat, gon, ballast, hopper) and card orders to select them at the Inglenook. The switcher creates a train at the Inglenook, then a road engine takes it down the track and swaps cars at the industries. This setup can keep two guys amused for over an hour, or one guy all morning… And the next day it’ll be a completely different challenge. Inglenook takes two turnouts. The mainling with a couple crossovers, say four to six switches, and the industrial area, three or four will do it. You can have two industries on a single spur. Make sure you include a passing siding ( a section of double track main will serve).
This setup is at table height (30"). The newest additions to my main backyard railroad are 39" high. I’m 6’2"; your mileage may vary…
There’s no way on earth I’d set up something like this at ground level, though. I agree with Todd’s comments on the other thread, and do the same kinds of things, patio pads and no ballast, or track well above the weeds, plants to hide the benchwork from the wife’s friends if necessary, etc.
Cheers!
John Le Forestier said:
plants to hide the benchwork from the wife’s friends if necessary, etc.
I prefer trains that hide her friends, but what do I know.
Joe, if you want a switching puzzle, these are great, but if you want a functioning yard, these are the worst things imaginable, Run, don’t walk, in the other direction.
They are called puzzles for a reason.
Yeah, I know, Steve. I was just using the term generically. I’m not a puzzle guy either, prolly because I have no patience and I hate to lose, which is why I never took up gambling. And not to start something (see Bob, I’m putting up a spolier alert), but I also don’t care for mimes, clowns and magicians, although I’m sure they’re very nice people who always speak highly of me.
That said, I just linked to Andy’s “shunting” and found it interesting.
Steve Featherkile said:
Joe, if you want a switching puzzle, these are great, but if you want a functioning yard, these are the worst things imaginable, Run, don’t walk, in the other direction.
They are called puzzles for a reason.
Steve’s right - a puzzle is a puzzle, a functioning yard better darn well be something else entirely! Smooth functioning and logical is what you want. The Inglenook, by the way, is a small, two track yard plus a make up track, so, three tracks. You can have something like this anywhere on a railroad. It becomes a puzzle only when you decide to play the Inglenook Puzzle on those tracks. This means limiting their length, possibly with a barrier, to increase the challenge, and no, you wouldn’t ordinarily do that on a railroad. The vards or dice function like a randomizer to give you some variety in the train orders. I think every model railroader would get a kick out of the Inglenook. I think the Timesaver would drive me right off my nut. Some guys enjoy it enormously though. My own industrial area is nothing like a Timesaver - it’s pretty smooth running. I enjoy a clever magic illusion.
Oh, and I own a rubber nose. Doesn’t everyone?
Cheers!
Oh, a rubber nose! Fer a minute there I thought you wrote “rubber hose.” ("Okay, I confess. Jes don’t hit me again!