Back to the Drawing Board
So, despite my canny idea to slant the higher-level staging yard, the design still limited access to the lower staging to a degree that I was simply not happy with. The space in between staging tracks had always been an issue. I had been specifically looking at N-gauge staging yards at various exhibitions, making enquiries with the exhibitors. Opinions were many and varied but all seemed to follow a similar theme; stagings on one level, sharing one board with the scenic section. None of the yard I had seen met my two main criteria:
1 - Easy access to all of the lower staging area.
2 - Ample room between sidings for my clumsy fingers.
The answer was obvious. I reverted back to the old familiar 4mm oval with an operating well in the middle. This would form the lower-level loops. The high-level loop and staging would be self contained on the scenic boards. It would also enable me to space out the sidings and of course the biggest single benefit is that the larger 12 road staging can be used for different layouts - most economical in terms both time and economics.
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The final plan (is there such a thing?) The low-level double track goes around the back where the staging is located on separate bench work. |
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The plan closely follows the original concept (see Initial Plans) except that the lower staging yard now has 12 roads rather than eight and is now located on bench work which is separate to the main scenic sections. I can't believe the amount of work that went into such a simple design, But I guess that's what I personally consider to be the beauty of it. In software programming speak it is called elegance - going back to the original concept and working hard to simplify the final program.
Again, much work was put in to playing with different radii.
Back to the Drawing Board - Again!After all of this planning, I really wanted to get something up and running. I therefore decided to build the layout in phases where Phase 2 would be a temporary layout to give me something to play with whilst I was building Phase 3 and importantly, would give me a chance to test out my various ideas and skills (it's been over 25 years since I last built a layout). So... Phase 1: 12 road staging yard. Phase 2 : a temporary double track scenic board to provide something to play with and test out my ideas and skills. Phase 3 : the scenic section as shown on the 'final plan' above consisting of a low-level double track / siding, a high-level single track junction complete with integral high-level 6 road staging yard.
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