@DoubleDAZ posted:John, I meant no offense. I’ve been assuming you’ve just been filling the space with track, but at some point you have to come back down to earth and work with something more realistic and, more importantly, something that will fit. 🤪 You now know a 4-stall Altoona roundhouse with 34” turntable will fit, so it’s time to build on that to see if a useful yard can be designed around it. Personally, I suspect you don’t need anything larger than the smaller turntables that are in the SCARM libraries. So many want to use the biggest turntable and biggest curves that they miss out on design possibilities smaller curves would allow.
Anyway, when it comes to fit, yes, the tender has to be included, though technically I suppose an engine alone could be pushed/pulled by another engine. Think about it though. If you push an engine onto the turntable, how will you get it into the roundhouse or onto a whisker track? A-B units would be the same, but don’t know if A-B units are even turned on a turntable. Many, if not most, yards have engine houses, not turntables and roundhouses. Also, there’s nothing wrong with having a turntable just to turn engines, it doesn’t have to include a roundhouse.
The yard is another story. You can have a storage yard, like what you have, to store multiple trains ready to be run or you can try to fit in a working yard where a switcher moves cars around to configure different trains. Obviously, a working yard requires more than just storage tracks and I don’t know that you have the space for both a turntable/roundhouse and a working yard, at least not where they are now.
Hi Dave, no offense taken, actually the honest assessment is greatly appreciated. A working yard, rather than a storage yard is preferred. And if it would work a smaller turntable someplace. Looking at some of the layouts, it is becoming more apparent less track with more purposeful/useful track is much better for a working railroad. I was thinking maybe only one main line might lend itself to an overall better design.
please add your thoughts
Many thanks
john
