0029 Savannah Central - Finishing Up the Design

Ok, we're coming into the home stretch.  Basement is about ready (except for the light) and the plan is in its final stages.  May take a few nights and some incubation time, but we'll be done soon.  Spoke to Thayne the Viking today and saw the great progress he is making, so I'm even more excited to get track laid.

We changed the backdrops so now we need to finish the design.  Let's start in Savannah and work our way around the layout.

Here at the entrance way into the layout is a sharp corner, call a "hip cruncher."  This things are great for ruining shirts, banging elbows and drawing blood.  We no like.  We get rid of.

 With a little help from the radius tool, we'll make a rounded corner that is less likely to do damage.

 I'm not crazy about the twinterchange and it needs some work.  Really, I'm just short a place to drop a caboose and service a locomotive.  Let's add a track.

 There!  I don't like it.   Hmmm....  Ok, let's leave it for now and work on the loco servicing facility on the other side of the backdrop.

I didn't like the look of the passing siding and I don't think the railroad would have really build such a passing siding, so we'll yank it out.  The turntable is quite large and in the way.  I have moved it several times and don't like it still.   Also, I need a locomotive shed for heavy maintenance.  We have to work that in.

 I tried this but don't like it.  The loco leaving the shed has to get on the turntable first and then out.  While it may have been a prototype practice somewhere, it is not a good model railroad practice.  Turntable are buggy and should be kept to themselves.

 Hey!  I like this a little better, though the turntable and shed are a bit close.  We'll come back to it.

I went back and looked at the twinterchange hard.  Hate it.  This isn't prototypical and we need a lead track for the yard our we'll foul the main all the time.

I'm tired....more tomorrow.

Wizdom:
1.  Always provide a yard lead track when you can, preferably as long as the longest yard track, so that switching maneuvers do not foul the mainline.
2.  Yards and switching districts need a switcher pocket for maintaining and fueling the switching locomotive.
3.  If you are not liking your design, walk away from it and come back to it in a few days.  You may see new things you haven't seen before.