getting back into it - first o guage

Welcome back to "O" Gauge and Welcome to this great Forum.

Welcome to our forum!!

 

Alan

Welcome to O gauge and the Forum. Like the overall design concept. If you can, you might want to widen the right-hand turn-around slot to support slightly larger curves and provide a reverse-loop on the left side.

thanks guys. this comunity seems like a bunch of good people.  ive grown up in and out of nyc all my life and have always been influnced by the incredible rail infrastructure that is all around us in this area. as a kid , i remember looking at the what is now the highline , the hoboken / jersey city terminals / croxton yards by port elizabeth and always the nyc subway system. now my challenge is to incorporate hints of all this major pieces in my layout. ive been kicking this around for a while and ive decided to jump off the cliff now!

regarding the right hand turn around , please excuse the drawings as they are far from scale , but that turnaround will be almost as wide as the left. im hoping to be able to use at least o-72 radius as minimum s0 i can safely run some streamliner passenger trains which i am a huge fan of , but of course what actually fits may differ greatly from my concept. i hope im not being too aggressive for the actual space i have.

i was leaning towards making it a majority fast track layout, but looking at the grades and easements, should i consider use of more flextrack?  i would lke to make this realistic, but without the built in roadbed ballast of the fast track , i fear i wold be ballasting untl next year. im trying not to get ahead of myself and realize i have much benchwork to get started on!

Welcome to your first lesson

 

3-rail "o" folks usually talk of curve trackage in terms of diameter rather than radius. If you had room for 72" radius in the above track plan then long passenger trains would be a no-brainer (indeed, you might not even have to need a back-in passenger terminal), but seeing as your drawings indicate the layout occupies a space of 14'x17', I suspect you really meant 72" diameter.

 

Let the learning ensue

Based upon the dimensions you gave, here is what your baseboard will look like. A couple of measurements were missing, so please take a look at the drawing and let me know what needs to be fixed.

 

 

stewart, the ??  im looking to be 4' and the ??? dimension is 6'

domer94,

   Welcome to the OGR forum the best forum on the Net, and back into the greatest hobby in the world.

PCRR/Dave

 

Welcome to the forum domer94,

I used similar dimensions as Stewart with a table height of 42". I used Atlas 090 for the outer mainline and the Atlas 40" truss bridge would cross the duck-under. The grade to the bridge at 48.5" is 2% and the drop into the river tunnel and climb out is 4.7% and 4.2%. at 38". I think you would to have put some work into the grades and the river tunnel for clearance as there is only 4" and a steep grade. There is 1 1/2" clearance to the edge of the table from the ties. Increasing this would shorten the straights and increase the slopes. 081 would be the inner mainline.

Here's an update to your layout based on the new dimensions given. Unless you move the turnouts to a new position, you will lose the tunnel. Going from the tunnel to the viaduct mainlines will mean climbing 5" ~ 6" in a very short stretch.

 

What I did was set the upper right corner around the turnouts at 3". The viaduct mainlines climb 3" off of the turnouts and the lower tracks descend 3". This will give you 6" between levels to run under the mainlines. The viaduct mainlines climb to 6" to clear the lower tracks and then continue to climb to 9" at the bridge. The final height can be adjusted.

 

The curves leading from the three track yard up to the turnouts is O-72. This will allow you to run on the viaduct mainlines and then back into the sidings.

 

I'm running short on time, but the pictures should give you an idea of what you can do. Post any thoughts you have and I'll get back in a day or two.

 

thats very cool. thanks for your time. my design has of course been tweaked from the original , i fear if i post a photo of it , it will be too confusing to look at. basically same concept , but IMO simplified a little. i will try to clean it up.

Being a mariner, does your screen name happen to reference Ft. Schuyler?

Welcome to the forum! I like the plan.

indeed it does...    i was waiting until i shook this tree enough to get another "domer" out. i knew they were lurking in this hobby.  i know you are up north by your signature, but there is a class of 78 guy in pt pleasant here that owns "the train room".

Good to know! I'll have to check it out next time I'm through there. I'm class of 08 living up in NH. I figured there had to be a few of us out there.