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While a necessity for roundy roundy, I would rather see yards at each end rather than a loop. Especially if you can pull off a rig of 10 scale miles or so. Trains don't run to loops, they run to terminals. If you have a loop, maybe it's at the end of a branch, but wouldn't it be better to have a long siding where you can run around your train?To me, if you want to run loops, you do TTrak or NTrak. if you want to run trains, you're going from terminal to terminal with whatever work there is along the way. That's the beauty of FreemoN. You're connecting stuff to build a railroad, not a display loop.Plus, consider scheduling participants. Run your train, pull into the terminal, and break it down. Got more time? Run the next train. The downside is traffic control and figuring who belongs to what rolling stock at the end of the show...@Ed Kapuscinski , the Ridgeley/Windsor St. Yard, having been cut in half at least twice, could become two "end of run" terminals by simply building a portable benchwork under each end. If you wanted, you could stitch a balloon loop to the main, make it 4 or 6 tracks for staging, and have functioning classification switching as trains "arrive" from staging to the yard, pick up your cut of cars and head onto the layout.Lee
@Ed Kapuscinski , the Ridgeley/Windsor St. Yard, having been cut in half at least twice, could become two "end of run" terminals by simply building a portable benchwork under each end. If you wanted, you could stitch a balloon loop to the main, make it 4 or 6 tracks for staging, and have functioning classification switching as trains "arrive" from staging to the yard, pick up your cut of cars and head onto the layout.Lee
To me, if you want to run loops, you do TTrak or NTrak. if you want to run trains, you're going from terminal to terminal with whatever work there is along the way. That's the beauty of FreemoN. You're connecting stuff to build a railroad, not a display loop.
@Ed Kapuscinski , the Ridgeley/Windsor St. Yard, having been cut in half at least twice, could become two "end of run" terminals by simply building a portable benchwork under each end. If you wanted, you could stitch a balloon loop to the main, make it 4 or 6 tracks for staging, and have functioning classification switching as trains "arrive" from staging to the yard, pick up your cut of cars and head onto the layout.
I agree with your statement to generally operate from terminal to terminal, but why not both? DFF
Well... I did draw this up. It's based off of my aborted idea for Mount Vernon Yard in Baltimore. (Attachment Link) In the layout plan the yard tracks were generally for block swapping and local work. In this case they'd be perfect for staging, setup and tear down of trains. The tracks behind them represent the Mount Vernon Produce Terminal and Flexi-Flow yard. In this case, FINALLY a place for all my damn RBLs... lol.It'd be a BEAST to build and the long loop, which would duck out under this mess of ramps, would represent the never-built but frequently planned tunnel for NCR trains to go south on the NEC. (Attachment Link)
Oh man! When I look at freemoN, I've always seen the return loop as the determining factor on train length. This makes so much sense to me, it acts as a yard, return loop and alternate destination.
I wish I could take credit for the back staging yard idea but it's stolen completely from the Kirkwood Yard that DARN had: there was a yard out front that acted like a super staging yard for metering traffic on the NTRAK lines and then there was a really cool big one that came out the back of the visible yard and ran through the pit. It provided "deep storage" of trains for people who might've gone off for lunch or something and as a place to setup and take down a train without reaching over the layout itself. Here's one of the few photos I have of it. (Attachment Link) I know @Hiroe was involved in construction. I don't know if it was his idea or he just helped out.
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Topic: FreeMo MVP Needs (Read 9100 times)
