@PRR1950 posted:Sorry I didn't see this sooner, but just some food for thought. As currently designed, your trains can only run in one direction after leaving the yard, and I mean always in one direction because there is no provision for turning locomotives other than "the hand of God" (YOU in this case). In addition, there is no way for any train to service the industry off the inner main line unless it pushes those cars out of the yard, and even then, it looks like you will have to push those cars all the way around the loop before crossing over to the inner loop.
Please take the time to do some reading about model railroad operations before you start laying track. It can be a lot of fun and helps prevent boredom from setting in while watching trains just run around the same circles/ovals.
Chuck
I would have replied to this sooner, but haven't spent a whole lot of time on the forum since my last update. I certainly thought through these concerns you raise while I was planning my layout, as they are also important to me and how I would like to operate.
Trains will be running clockwise on the inner loop and counterclockwise on the outer loop. This means that the industrial sidings are designed for a train to back in from their respective direction of travel.
In the case of the yard, a switcher will pull cars in and out of the spurs to build trains. To build a train for the inner main, the train would be built by a switcher in the yard, and brought to the inner main over the double cross-over. I have seen friends layout with similar yard setups (accessible from only one direction on one of several mainlines), and it works for them and I see no reason it shouldn't work for me.
Given the size of my layout and the surrounding space, there is no space for a reverse loop.
