Hi All, It's been a while and some of you have already given me so much help with getting back into the Hobby. I'm embarking on a new Rail project that I'm hoping will keep me busy of the next few years and provide opportunities for skills and knowledge growth of the hobby. Wombat Railway will be based on Transition Era (1955-1975) NSWGR operation drawing inspiration from Australian Iron and coal work prototype to allow for use of a variety of Steam and Deisel operations focusing mostly on Freight hauling through NSW countryside. Link to current/further Design Info. https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/designing-a-new-layout.5872/ I'm currently in the planning stages and working my way (top down) on a 3 deck layout that ill occupy the rear of the garage, I'm currently playing with AnyRail6 to aid with the planning and development of the layout plan. Current Top Deck (draft): - Above - This is currently the plans i'm developing for the top deck of the layout, the Turntable is currently a placeholder (using the 130' as the 110' (currently own) does not appear in the Anyrail object Library). I'm pretty happy with the top and the bottom of this section but am struggling what to do with the middle space (siding's) Current Goals spend next few months planning/designing and working out floor space. review design of track layout for smooth operation and BoM prep workspace research Era specific Operations (books/internet etc). Its good to be getting invested/excited in the hobby again after a long absence and as always, the wisdom and advice of all is welcome. Cheers, Wombat.
Hi Wombat An Anyrail tip for when you create shapes, I always found it looked a bit untidy to have those little circles at vertices of the shapes, but they can be hidden. If you use the Group/ungroup feature they will disappear while grouped, to group you need to select two or more items which can include text and then the option will be available. When you want to change them, select the grouped items and Ungroup. Grouping can be nested, allowing features such as complex buildings to be built in stages and then moved as single objects, unfortunately grouping does not appear to include track (AnyRail 5). Jim
Thanks Jim that's SO much better! Here is an updated shot on the Upper Deck - I'm happy enough to leave this for now (not to say I wouldn't apprecaite input more just moving on to the Middle deck now ) Cheers - Wombat
Hi, Wombat Not sure whether you are aware of this or not, apologies if you already know. You probably noticed that objects changed how they are overlaid when grouped, like the landscape is now behind the helix track, well that can be changed to as you want it by using other options from the main menu. Just select the hillside group and these options should appear on the menu, "Send to back", "Send backward", "Bring to front" and "Bring forward" just select "Bring to front" and hey presto it shows as it was before grouping, i.e the helix is hidden. The same would apply to your loco depot buildings now overlaid by track. The backward and forward step through priority levels. Just as you can design in seperate layers, within each layer you can prioritise an object's visibility priority over another in that layer. What the rules are when grouping I am not sure, it seems to vary, generally grouped items are brought to the front by default, but track seems to have the priority over all, but anyway you can change it at will using those options. A bit of juggling is required at times. Jim
Huh, I'll have to have a play around and try and work out the rules. At the moment, i'm trying to figure out if there is away to select the end of the helix without having to cut/dig through all the layers - I want to try and have the helix off-ramp on the middle level come off towards the blue arrow rather then 1/8th of a turn further along. Cheers, Wombat.
One approach would be to delete the piece of what looks like set track you are using and connect a piece of flexible track to peal off from the helix, but if this is an intermediate layer how will you peal both tracks off of the helix, wouldn't you need a curved crossing to allow access to the inner helix track? Unless you are going to export to a train simulator then it does not matter if the helix is absolutely complete or is just represented by a pair of track circles, it just needs to be in the correct position relative to each layer. Different sections of track can be set to be on different layers, so as the helix is under the hillside on the top layer just transfer it to the next layer down from where it enters the tunnel onwards. Do make sure you leave a good height between layers especially as the top layer is quite deep to reach across, I have found that strips of 12V LED type lighting is very useful between layers, easy to mount, runs cool and no hazardous mains voltage to accidentally drill through from above. P.S. you can actually set the vertical heights of any tracks in AnyRail so that if two tracks are far enough apart vertically they will not connect, much like when working on one layer, you just place a track section near the end of another for them to connect. Admittedly I did not take this approach as my tracks run around the room to ascend and descend, a helix did not appeal to me. Jim
Evening Everyone, Hope your all doing well and keeping safe. After about a month+ or bashing my head against planning the Layout I reached out to a planning service (to say I was impressed is/was an understatement). I can't recall the rules on advertising but a huge Thanks to Graeme from Trackplanning services, I was blown away by the time he took talking be through the entire process (we may have spent more time talking about toys then the layout! haha). Happy to Pass on his details in a PM if anyone is intrested. So here are the plans for the High Plains & Williamsville seaport Rail Road! Bottom Deck Top Deck The layout is using the avaiable space of 4x3.7m (providing 14.8m2), the overall space of the layout is nearly 30m2 with a total track (in design) of 117.75m. The main operating area is 1.4m by 1m allowing free movement to all four sides of the layout. Having sorted out the planning of the layout, Cleanout of the garrage is top priority! Cheers, Wombat
Kicking back into my layout now that the whirlwind of 2023 is done and gone! Update: - I've managed to get the frames all setup and ready for benchwork to commence for the bottom deck of the layout with intial placement of points being messured up, the challange here for me, learning how to setup tortoise points (powering them, controlling them and installing them!) Challange 2: - The Helix I'm looking to start work on the Helix that connects the bottom and top decks of the layout (see picture below), having never built a helix and the pressures of getting it right this presents the largest challange as a hobbiysts of the whole project, my current thoughts - do I build the helix boards myself or explore an existing product, some of these prodocuts are made of wood and I'm unsure of import implications. Well, that's a small update on a very slow burning project haha, hope your all keeping well and keep on rolling! Cheers.
Hi Wombat, the biggest challenges I faced when considering a helix included Rate of climb Tightness of radius Accessibilty for track cleaning The first two are very much interelated and also depend on your traction, whether it be 6 wheel steamers or 8 wheel drive diesels, the latter handle steep gradients much better than most steamers. Test running with a simple mockup of a part of a helix would be advised before commiting to either an expensive prefabricated helix or building your own from scratch. May I suggest that you may find these articles of interest, the first has links to YouTube videos :- https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/realising-a-dream-13-a-multiple-level-railway.5558/ https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/realising-a-dream-14-gradients.5569/ Jim
Lucky for us, 90% our Australian (New South Wales) diesels are 12 wheel units and every axle is powered (model form) ! The only 8 wheel units are the 41 Class (British built and wasn't successful, always caught fire...), the 73 Class (switching/shunting engine) and the 79 Class (GE 44 Tonner designed for NSWGR). We did have a 6 wheel unit, the 70 Class (small switcher/shunter). Although you are right about radius, grade percentage and cleaning. Cheers, Gary.
From the Track Plan:- The helix separates the decks by 425mm, as in the initial design. There are 4.5 turns anticlockwise with a similar vertical track separation of 94mm. The length of track in the helix is marginally reduced to 18.75m for a slightly increased grade of 2.3%. I've gotten some ply laser cut to coming in soon that will have enough sections to do more then 4.5 turns If i need to, my only concern from this is Gary's point about the NSW Diesels, as I'll be running more steam then Diesels to begin with. Most of my loco's are C35, C35 and some C38 class, worse case scneario, I'll have some 'shunting loco's for helping smaller engines up the hill (unless this won't work). Cheers, Wombat
My grade to the lowest level mineral docks is steep enough to need a banker to get old heavy but re-wheeled Tri-ang hoppers back up the hill, for which I equipped an old container wagon ex-GWR, (my railway is UK steam era) with larger buffers and no couplings so it can drop back in true banker style when the push is done. To me that is one of the advantages of DCC loco control, realistic banking. Made it look like a local lash up rather than a BR specified wagon, so it fits the scenario. Jim
Nice selection of steam locomotives and boy, they always look good with a banker engine. 2.3% isn't a really step grade and I'm sure your selection of locomotives will pull a train up that ! Cheers, Gary.
