Helpful Hints for Operating Model Railroads: Part 3, Yard Arrival and Movement Practices 

It is on my to do list Todd. I am so busy with other priorities in the hobby. Now summer is here I should get to it.

man these videos are perfect! the layout is great, realistic operations, great video man! wish i had someone like you guys near me! no one around here takes their model railroading to this standard:/

Great videos ! Nice to see how you operate over in the states and you seem like some very nice people. Tim

Mike Hamer, allways a nice guy to know. Greetings from the trainnut in Sweden :-) BTW. Nice layout too.

Well if your 6X2 has all the switching elements it can be as much joy to run as a large layout. Industrial switching is a blast.

In North America train speeds for freights in yards are about 5 miles an hour. This is for safety reasons. Not like the high speed on the cross country runs. In scale it is difficult to operate close to others at high speeds. I am glad you have a mute button. The video really makes the sound noticeable. However I do have the sound turned down so when you are 6 ft away you cannot hear it. You may notice that as the train gets farther from the camera. Glad you enjoyed the videos

I really like how you used pictures on the wall for your hills and mountains scenery.

You mentioned switching with big road power. It's not as uncommon as you may think. I worked in a yard in adams, wisconsin that always used the inbound road power for switching chores.(their assigned switch engine was a VERY tired GP7...they RARELY used it and when they did it was a dog. didn't pull worth a crap) The obvious advantage is that you can take HUGE chunks of track and switch it no matter how heavy. The disadvantage is that high horse power units take forever to load. So if you're kicking cars with road power, it takes a long time to get up enough speed to make kicking worth while.

nice video and layout i wish i had a layout that big i only have a 6'x 2' industrial layout but still a lot of fun to operate

when parking an engine always make sure that the engine is in idol before you shut it down. the final step is to turn off all lights and shut the engine down by sending the deselect command on the throttle,pressing F8,or press Run Stop. this is so you know your engine is parked and not moving when you move the throttle. also close all switches when the engine is parked so other units don't hit your train.

I used cork carpet underlay. Either cut in strips for the mainline or laid in broack sections for yards.

Naeem Iqbal. The trackplan is available on my video channel. LYON VALLEY NORTHERN TRACK PLAN

Thanks very much. We are actually from Canada.

I love yard and industrial switching action.

Thanks guys. We are actually in Canada's Capital.

Thanks so much for this channel!

Some of the comments are treated as spam. Not sure why. However to answer the question about adding ties under joints I cut the tie plates off and slide them under the track joiner into place.

I want a layout like this. Very nice

Thanks. Time to start building. You can see how I put it together in the 10 LVN build videos

Great educational videos guys!! I've learned a lot. Can you further my knowledge by explaining how cars are classified for the yard or how the rails in the yard are classified? Many thanks! Rusty.

Very awesome layout, you guys have inspired my to do my layout, I do have ? When reinstalling the ties that you took out to put your rail jointers in and solder, what do you do to your ties to reinstall them so that the track doesn't have a bump in it do to the rail jointer? I have filed the plastic piece that hold the rail in place, but the tie is still to thick. Thanks

when a train arrives at the yard all cars need to be unhooked and the switches behind the train need to be lined to the passing siding this is so engines do not hit the train (and in real life the blue flags need to be raised) the engine can now use the siding to get to diesel service. when you get to diesel service park the engine, set the throttle to idle, set the brakes, turn off the light, and shut the engine down this is so it does not move when some one hooks on. the last step is line the switches back to the siding and off the engine track.

Can you make a trackplan of this layout? I need help designing a yard on mine.

I'm just glad for the MUTE button. I can't stand the sounds from the engines anymore. Adding sounds to HO scale was a huge mistake. DCC is not for me. But you do have a wonderful layout.

Hi, why you say the motor can be damaged at slow speed ?, cause I think you are mistaken. Cheers, John from Chile.

I can't get enogh of this layout and video thanks Chris

what do you use for a road bed ?

how do you guys manually decouple the cars? can you do a video on that and on how you guys set up your switches? thanks!

How about weathering those cars? Nice layout!

Hello all, Your model train the speed is too slowly about 30km. i feel really train is so great at about 80km up.if your locomotive under speed the motor is very damaged. too plastics,i played the trix ho scale fully metal and good power. 16/01/2013