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This view is of the entire Yard. It was
completely rebuilt in 1996 in preparations for the 1997 Lakes
Junction NMRA meet in Madison, WI. Now it has twice the capacity of
the yard in the "Mall setup" photos. (B&W top of page)
It can hold sixteen trains averaging 35 fifty foot cars each plus
the power, that's
about 600 cars! The engine terminal can hold close to 60
diesel locomotives. The yard measures 16' long, 46" wide at the balloon
end, and 29" wide in the middle. The yard can be dismantled
into four 8' sections for ease of transportation. There are over 150
pieces of Atlas flex track, 52 turnouts and about 400' of single
conductor wire. The turnouts
leading to and on the ladder of the right sub yard (in the bottom right
quarter of photo) are powered by a diode matrix, we found it difficult to reach over the engine house
to throw them manually while in the setup of the
home layout.
The yard is a large loop with two separate sub
yards divided down the middle by two tracks which are the reverse/bypass
block. We use these for turning whole trains or locos before
returning to the mainlines. They also double for switch leads for
each of the sub yards. The far end of the yard is still made
up of a
compound ladder for both sub yards. Each sub yard is made up
of eight tracks each.
In Operation, the left eight tracks are used for
arrival and classification, the right eight tracks are used for
layover and fueling tracks for though freights and unit trains.
Block/track #18 allows us to turn VERY large trains if necessary
without having to enter either of the sub yards. Also, trains can
enter or depart either sub yard from either direction by making use of
the reverse/bypass track.
For public shows this yard allows us to have up to
sixteen different trains on the layout, allowing frequent exchanges
which prevents monotony on the mainlines! An unexpected benefit
was that we often had larger groups of people watching the action on
the Inlet and Yard as we did on the mainlines. There is also plenty
of room for members to make and break their trains without tying up
the mains!
Before DCC, while waiting for clearance, the
"KILL" block (which is
a leftover from the old yard) in the diagram below was used to
hold the locos of a departing train so the rest of the reverse/bypass could still serve as a switch lead for either sub yard. |
