Hopefully my mistakes can help others avoid repeating the same thing! The photo above shows some straight track sections between the leads/turnouts for the freight yard and the passenger terminal / locomotive facility. These straight track sections are
new, as they replace a couple of switches that I previously had installed between the curves. Knowledgeable track-planners and layout builders will have spotted my error where the previously installed turnouts were located in the image of my original track plan below....
The problem with the above alignment has to do with physics or something. It doesn't matter though, what does matter is that the placement of the left hand turnout was a
derailment magnet for many locomotives that
should have been going straight through. Diverging was better, but a switch needs to be reliable in both directions. Fortunately, this switch was redundant and unnecessary so I
could remove it. It did require that I re-ballast and repair the area (also means I have to patch my brand new
control panel already!). Ahhh....such are the joys of layout building. I remembered reading about this type of placement
after a curve following the 10th derailment (and checking the alignment of the points, etc...), even though it was mainly my Class 03 and
Class 44 that were derailing, my
Tee and
Class 66 also had problems.
Speaking of the passenger terminal...here's a shot of the stub end itself with a few members of the fleet lined up....
The 'platform' in the above folder is just a sintra template until I can build - or buy - real 'platforms. I'm thinking of building most of them myself, although I expect I may buy some butterfly platform covers. This is fun stuff!
The locomotive facility is basically a two track stub...haven't decided if I'll add a 'shed' yet...that can wait. For now its just nice to have a place to park locomotives 'out of the way'! The area behind these two locomotives is plain....lots of scenery still needs to be done of course!
And finally- after over a year- cars have returned to the streets of Quinntopia! People haven't made it yet...I'm still concerned that I need
one more final vacuum with the shop-vac before I start applying people! Although I had the streets lettered and decal-ed since the Holidays, I needed to add some 'weathering' to the streets to give them a more realistic look. It turned out okay, but its good enough for now....sometimes its nice to stop a project at a certain point and move on to something else....I can always do more street weathering at a later time.
Just a quick update today! Happy Training!
I'm by no means an expert in track design, but based on Armstrong it looks like a classic example of an S curve. That short area of straight track between the start of the curve and the turnout is probably making it worse too; he seems to say that if you have to position a turnout like this, have the least amount of distance between it and the curve, or have a passenger car length, not something in between.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that it was easy to fix though!
Yes, that's the advice I had read at some point...and then completely forgot in my enthusiasm with my track planning software!
ReplyDeleteIt happens - if this is the worst of your problems with the new set up I think you are in great shape!
ReplyDelete