"Well instead of changing the track height with grades, consider an open grid construction or L-Girder construction." - Agreed, most of table is built but I can play around with it to show valleys. Benchwork is 48" high so I definitely have room.
First I would move the siding for the warehouse across from the yard to be next to the wall and pull the "passing track" or runaround as near to the other through track as possible. Great idea, I will adjust this
And putting the warehouse against the wall outside the curve will allow the track to be longer and run into the corner. Love it!! Low relief, more scenery or another industry in the opposite corner is a win.
I would change the yard ladder a little too. S-curves tend to cause more derailments than straights. I would change the switch to the track next to the yard office from an RH to an LH switch and make the ladder straight. It would give a little more length to those tracks too. Excellent idea, I have not built the peninsula yet so I can make some adjustments there.
I think I might try to move the engine house track into an area closer to they yard but that may not be very easy. Let me try that too.
I just noticed that all of your industries have sidings facing the same ie trailing point as is the yard. I would consider making a couple of them facing the other way, so to switch the cars you have to do a run-around move using the passing track to run around your train to push it the other way into a siding. That new industry across from warehouse I think fits this category and I can reverse the scrap dealer too to make it more challenging.
Around the walls layouts or layouts against walls are very nice because they let you simulate large structues as flats against the wall and avoid using up valuable real estate for building footprints. The team track/scrap dealer track could also go on the outside of the loop you like. I tried to keep this spur inside the main so I could switch while loop running but since its such a small layout representing one town I could get out on the main to do some switching. Will have to consider this one.
Thank you very much, this was so valuable. I will update the file over the next 24 hours and repost.
