The Building of Hayville

Looking good. Couple of things I would recommend are :

*Skew the small yard on the right towards the centre, perhaps add another siding.
* Move the cross over on the right down further from the original yellow position to the blue.
* Lay your single slip so that a train cannot access the small yard directly from the station.

This amended plan shows these three points in better detail...

You can see I have drawn a green arrow (route) as the direction a train can take from leaving the station. I feel that the red arrow (route) is too short a run, as you can still access the short yard by running a full loop of the layout, entering the yard from the points at the top left.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Couple of things to think about...

1. The red track... Does it serve a purpose ? You can still access the yard (orange) via the pink and light pink tracks from the top left.
2. Reverse the points high lighted blue. This will create a loop line to pass trains on, using the pink tracks.
3. Think about de-cluttering the layout. The two yards (yellow and orange) are quite busy for the area/space you have. Consider having more 'negative' space in that area which will allow for more scenery. Consider leaving out the yellow yard.
4. Remove the single slip (purple) and replace it with a left hand point.
5. The green siding to the right, what does it serve ? You could leave this out to gain more negative space.
6. A small industrial siding could be built off the track to the left hand side of the layout (gold).

There is an old saying, "less in more".

Cheers, Gary.

 

Hi mate,

I recommend removing the S curves in the two locations shown below.

This is the yellow circled area showing the original alignment to to smoother alignment. You can see the blue line has a awkward S curve built into the plan and this is how I would avoid it. The red line shows a smoother alignment.

The same applies to the blue circled area. Again, the blue line shows the S curve, whereas the red and green show a smoother alignment.

This is a simple fix and it will greatly improve the running qualities too.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Could I suggest taking a look at the link below as it shows diagrams of through stations and branch line teminus stations/yards. This could give you another idea for track planning on that right hand side you are having trouble with.
Something to remember when designing your track plan/layout is that in the real world, the more track the more points the (government) railways laid meant more cost, in laying and maintenance. This is why in the real world the track plans are relatively simple.

http://www.victorianrailways.net/signaling/completedia/sigdialist.html

Cheers, Gary.

 

That plan does look simpler to operate and also offers you the entry/exit as you suggested.

I operate in a slightly different manner depending on the direction of the train. This image shows how I operate opposing switches (points). This is closer to prototypical operations where the only run around is only located on the last siding/industry of the branch line.

Cheers, Gary.