Model Railroading > Staging Yard Design

Initially, the staging yard in the diagram was to be much larger with the Wabash Fort Wayne Station modeled and two basement rooms opened up, but this room, a little less than 11 x 8 feet, is all that I have to work with for now. "Fort Wayne & Points West" Staging is on the west end of a double track mainline. I could have put in a stub-ended staging yard with more and perhaps longer tracks. However, because there is a large junction to the East with a tower operator, I wanted to keep him/her busy by being able to recycle trains, particularly passenger trains.

(I discussed the Detroit-Toledo Staging (with photos) that is on the east end of the mainline with a backward reversing loop in another thread some time ago.)

The stub-ended staging yard under the FWPW staging is for the Fort Wayne Union Railroad that crosses the Wabash mainline at Fort Wayne Union Junction (FWU). There is also a fully functioning wye at FWU Jct. and the Indianapolis branch splits off there. (I scratch-built the tower and it just needs the roof repainted and downspouts added. There will be 40 levers in place at FWU with working semaphore signals. All the interlocking switches are already controlled with miniature Armstrong levers.)

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/15 19:14 by wabash2800.

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Looking north towards Fort Wayne Union Junction. The one leg of the wye near the future Purina Mill goes into another room and eventually parallels the Wabash mainline to the Detroit Toledo Staging and backward reversing loop.

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Looking South where the Fort Wayne Union Railroad and the Wabash Indianapolis Branch split off at almost the same location as the previous photo.


The Fort Wayne Union runs to a large transfer yard but the tail track of the yard will continue into a helix and then to a separate staging yard so I can run NYC, PRR or NKP trains too further keep the tower operator busy.

I've been working on this layout all by myself a few years now and build it as time and money permit. I want to get it into operation before I start any scenery.

There really was a Fort Wayne Union RR owned by key RR's in Fort Wayne, Indiana but it never crossed the Wabash but rather went under it. And the Wabash never had a branch that ran btw Fort Wayne and Indy but it's been fun imagineering it. The Indy Branch will be TT and TO with just a few sections of ABS and run through Marion, Indiana.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 10:19 by wabash2800.

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Those Switches look Awesome, Are they a kit from Fast tracks or something? Or did you hand lay them?
Thanks
Jim

Jim:

The switches are indeed Fastracks. A guy built them and sent them to me. (I hope he is still doing it as I haven't ordered for a while.) He also paints them. That's why the ME flex and the switches are a different color, but eventually everything will be painted a uniform color with weathering.

The reason I don't build the Fastracks myself is that he has a large inventory of jigs for code 55, 70 and 83 and wyes, lefts, rights, etc. Based on what I use, it would not be cost effective for me to purchase all those jigs. No.8's are my minimum on the main tracks with No. 6's elsewhere.

I use Atlas code 100 flex and Peco switches in all the staging yards and the helices. (You will also notice some of it is laying on the layout to test configurations.)

Someone commented about the wiring mess in the second to last photo. It's not really as bad as it looks and there will be backdrop in front of that anyway. The wiring is color coded; I just need to bundle it. I also use Scotch Locks for the track and buss wiring.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 10:20 by wabash2800.

Here's a link to the backwards reversing loop for the other staging yard I built seven years ago. (Yes, seven years ago.) I told you I work alone and with a limited budget. In the one photo you can see the switch for one end of the loop. The trains pull in, back around the wye, and back into the stub ended staging tracks.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,1489247,1489247#msg-1489247


Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 10:42 by wabash2800.