Greetings, everyone! It occurs to me that I haven't ever published the track plan. I designed the whole layout using Winrail, a software I have used for decades. The layout is a dogbone design, meaning it's a double-track railway line with loops at each end. In my case, the loops are one and two levels below the station, so it's what is known as a folded dogbone layout. I also have staging yards on each loop level, allowing me to switch off trains and provide some variance in what runs around the layout. Let's go through the levels one-by-one...
Bottom level:
This is the section I'm currently working on. The three-track staging yard in the upper section of the layout plan above is completed. Trains enter the staging yard from the right and exit to the left. Then they make a half-circle before looping back towards the top of the track plan, completing the dog bone end. The main line proceeds around the circumference of the bottom level while gaining height in a 2% grade. By the time it comes past the front of the layout again (the area in yellow) it is at the same height as the middle level. The area shown in yellow is actually the only part of the track plan here that will be in view. It is the 'Paradestrecke' or 'parade line' and, although the track plan shows it mainly straight, will be built using Marklin's you-build-it flex track.
Now for the middle level:
This level sits about 20 cm above the lower level. Because it has to fit inside the tracks coming up from the lower level and the tracks coming down from the upper level, the staging yard is smaller- only two tracks. Still, it will allow one train to come in and another to go out, providing some variety to the train traffic in the station. This entire end of the dogbone is located out of view of the spectator.
Top level:
Here is the train station, located on the top level. The track plan for the station is provisional- I'll decide exactly how I want the station to look and whether I want to add some stub sidings for freight cars, additional passing sidings in the station, etc. Again, the station itself will be visible, but the track will come out of a tunnel and disappear into a tunnel at both ends. Because of the use of unrealistic 1020mm (the so-called 'Schweineradius' or 'swine radius') and 1176mm curves I have designed the scenery to hide those curves as much as possible. As you can guess, 'A' connects to 'A' and 'B' connects to 'B' on the other levels. The grade down to the lowest level is mostly 2% and the grade down to the middle level is about 3%.
The single biggest comment I can make regarding track plans is this: Don't be afraid of multiple levels. It allows for so much more in a limited space than a single level does. I strongly recommend, however, that you actually lay out some track before construction to see how tracks on multiple levels interact. I did this when designing this layout and discovered a few places where tracks didn't have enough clearance from the level above. This is why the middle level is narrower than the lower level. In the original design the middle and lower levels were identical, but when I laid out the tracks I discovered the interference issues.
I think that, had I made it a New Year's Resolution, "playing more with trains" is a resolution I could have kept! There has been significant work done on the layout in the past couple of months.
The three-track staging yard on the lower level was completed. I cut wood to sit under the tracks on the benchwork instead of just leaving the whole top covered with plywood. Why? First, the cross-braces of the table frame will serve as supports for the risers and track as it ascends / descends from the upper levels. Also, by only putting wood under the tracks, it allows me to reach tracks from under the layout that would otherwise be impossible to access. Finally it allows light to shine up from underneath the layout for troubleshooting. I unboxed several of my F-Zug passenger cars to use for clearance testing as I laid out the track. This is a very important step, and I encourage everyone to find your cars with the longest distance between wheels and those with the longest overhang in front of wheels. Then run them on each track next to each other, moving them by hand to test every possible interaction. It took me a long time to work out the placement of all three tracks to insure minimal interference between cars. I got about 90% there, and have my fingers crossed that I won't regret that last 10%... Anyway, here is how the staging yard looks now that it has been completed:
You'll notice in the picture above that there is something between the track and the plywood. It's actually shelf liner designed for work benches. It's available at Lowe's and Home Depot for those of you in the states. This is not the paper shelf liner for the kitchen, but a foam-like liner a couple of millimeters thick. It isn't cheap, but it does a very nice job of sound deadening. I had a loop of track with half on the mateiral and half just on the wood, and the difference was noticeable. I don't plan to put it under the track that will be visible, but for the hidden areas and staging yards it will help keep the noise down.
Observant visitors may notice there is something else between the ties in the image above. They are cylindrical reed switches, installed to allow automation of the layout once it's finished. I purchased thirty of them and am already convinced that I will need more. Here is a close-up of how they look in the track:
Each track in the staging yard has three such sensors to identify the beginning, middle, and end of the siding. The Carstenbahn One track plan will have the main line broken into a series of blocks to allow the operation of multiple trains on the same line, and each block will have at least two such sensors. They are set at the same height as the top of the rails, and I have placed magnets on the bottom of the locomotives using double-sided adhesive foam pads from 3M. My testing has found that the reed switches are very reliable even when locomotives pass at high speed. This will be my solution for detection throughout the layout when I add computer control.
So far my relationship with computer control has been love/hate. I spent several weekends working with iTrain, a very sophisticated piece of software that had some nifty features at a very affordable price point. Unfortunately I got very frustrated with the manual (the software comes from Holland and the manual was translated into English) trying to set up a very basic control of the staging yard and the loop of track. I abandoned it mid-January and switched to TrainController by Railroad & Co. This software is much more expensive for what I want to be able to do, and I think the resulting switchboard is much less attractive than the iTrain one, but it only took me a day to do everything I wanted to accomplish and more. Not only was I able to have the trains pull out of the staging yard sequentially and take a trip around the loop, but I was also able to make the passenger trains stop at the 'station' for 10 seconds before proceeding while the freight train passed right through without stopping. Plus the manual was much easier to understand. Still, my experience is anecdotal. I encourage anyone who is looking at train control software to consider your options carefully and do your research before committing to one or the other.
The next step is to pull all the plywood sheets off the table tops and begin adding track up to the next level...
