MODEL RAILROAD TRACK PLAN HELP. See Real Life Examples from Engineer. 

Thank you to Ridge for sponsoring this video! Check them out here: ridge.com/djstrains

Another great vid. Using the drone footage, and proto pictures was a very nice addition. Helped the visualization, and made it easier to take in. PRR pops in my head anytime I hear 4 main lines.

That's the first I have seen someone wanting a manufacturer of military equipment. Usually people model the destination point.

Thank You, my Grand Father was engineer on B &O in West Virginia .. I am modeling the Denver and Rio Grande over Tennessee Pass sort of .. I am doing my own thing. Your videos are very much appreciated.

I would add a siding where the military track leads off to the base. Then he can have an Army or Air Fore switcher that comes out to the siding to pick up the loads and drop empties. A little more operation.

I *really* like this track plan. All that open room for sweeping vistas. And having the producers and consumers on opposite corners of the layout. So simple but makes total sense. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and for explaining your thought process. It really helps!

Didn't watch this video I did the washing up but listened to you talking. Then went back and watched it as it sounded interesting, Great lay out plan

Nice Video

Great video. I like hearing your ideas on track planning.

@djtrains awesome video of the layout keep up the good work my friend

Wonderful video and tips! Thanks for sharing!

Great ideas. The reach over in the bottom left is a bit much though - maybe narrow the benchwork?

Thank you DJ. Your opinions are highly valued by myself and many others. Be well.

As always you have put things together to make sence....:-]

👍👍Nicely done video DJ! Some great tips and ideas. 🚂🚂

Nicely done DJ

I'm thinkin' about getting back into trains and modeling the DM&E (Dakota Minnasota & Eastern for the non-CP folks) I use to see as a kid (22 now btw). Just something for simple ops and running trains in the background as I'm primarily a warship person. Something I like about my selection too is that I don't have to spend money on a vast amount of rolling-stock, and I can buy from a handful of road names such as DM&E, Milwaukee, CNW, UTLX, TTX, and CP. I'm gonna have 2 customers (a furniture manufacture, and a feed mill), a long storage track, an interchange, 2 or 3 locomotives, and maybe 10-15 cars as I don't want a huge collection again, and I need space for my 1:700, 1:350, 1:300, and 1:200 scale warships, let alone the various 1:72 & 1:35 scale tanks & planes, the 1:50 scale construction equipment & trucks, and the 1:14 scale Scania truck. I've also talked about power with my grandfather, my layout will be DC while he gets my old DCC controller for his Conrail layout. BTW for those in the know, or those into the CP or G&W, the layout is roughly based on the Rapid City, SD area.

If you don’t want the power plant to be too close to the loader, the why not put the power plant where the military base is?

You're layout is fastly more interesting and believable ✅

This one is over the top. That old coal loader is great, but the old roundhouse (and it's even model railroad sized as a bonus) is just an excellent subject for a model. Both of them absolutely reek of old time railroad atmossphere. A lttle imagination brings to mind a mental picture of how they would have looked in the steam era. Inspiring at the very least.

I agree with the impracticality of reversing loops on a model layout. But just as an interesting bit of trivia, there’s a giant reversing loop at Green Plains-Mt. Vernon in Mt. Vernon, Indiana. You’d need a gymnasium to model it all.

Good content, DJ. I especially love the drone. what kind of engine was that 3073? I lost track (ahem!) of what's running these days.

Thanks DJ, it was another great review.

how many folks get track plan advice that includes flyover videos of matching prototype locations? what's in your wallet?

outstanding advice. I must admit I am inclined to the huge spaghetti bowl layout but don't have the space or budget. this video gives me some very practical solutions. Can't wait for the piece on locomotives!

I’d love to build a functional hump yard but I’d have to buy an old grocery store to have enough space!

You do know the saying, that there is a prototype for everything. Within 50kms of where I live, there was a railway line from a mine to the power station which was later replaced by a conveyor belt it was 3 feet gauge approx really it was 900mm gauge. Now there is a passenger train stabling facility, which is surround by a loop of track, that is connected to the main line which is 5'3" gauge and the facility itself, which was constructed to be used as a test track. So, yes there is a prototype for everything. By the way if the gauges appear unusual it is because I live in Victoria, Australia.

Great video DJ - swap out that coal loading tower for a stockyard and you have exactly the same track layout all over New Zealand in the 1950s & 60s The same economic forces drove railroad development way back then and all over the world

I enjoyed not watching this video. :) With my current layout, I decided losing the ability to run continuously was worth having more operating interest. And in going from my last loop layout to a switching pike, I actually have more useable floor space in my layout /music/computer room.

1:40 - Cheswick and Harmarville would like a word with you, lol.

DJ, thank you for the wisdom you share with fellow model railroaders--it helps us a lot to avoid mistakes. I do have a railfan question about CSX. Yesterday my son and I followed a northbound CSX loaded coal train going through our area in KY. It was a blast being a foamer. Train was going around 40mph. While watching we noticed that most of the CSX coal cars had a similar ghost figure drawn in the same upper left corner of each CSX coal car. The ghost wasn't fancy, just an outline about two feet in width. To us that seemed odd to be just radom graffiti on almost ever car. My question to you is does CSX ever draw pictures on its cars to mark them? Or were we just seeing some organized graffiti. Thanks again!

I like your comments and thoughts on things and as a person looking for new track plans etc.. I would really appreciate it if you and other people would show the direction of travel of trains when they are showing track plans.. what would be the normal direction as much as in the design.. like this .. @3:35.... what direction would the train be going?? I'm not so much into prototypical layouts but this one makes me think... hmmm not too bad.. I want a layout where I can run trains ..... I'm not into scenery or any of that other stuff... I just want track to store and run trains.. and I am into steam trains more than diesels etc.. so I'm aiming more towards older style stuff.. My biggest issue is the room, it is 3mtr x 5mtr and I am doing HO/OO scale..I am also thinking of doing 2 or 3 levels, a lower level for staging and fiddle yard then coming up to the main track layout and then maybe another level on top....so do I make a helix, or just slowly grade it to the next level but that also takes up space to run trains... I am still in the thought design part.. and I am in Melbourne Australa and I don't want to run new stuff, I have no intrest in that and no sound stuff..

Hi DJ! Great video!

Cool video, ideas and, advise DJ! (Dave).

hello jd its is randy and i like yours video is cool thanks friends randy

all main line track switches will be electrical locked like CSX does and the siding switches will be manually and imma try to control my main line switches on my phone like the CSX dispatcher would on a table

Awesome video

Great plan 👍 dj

I have been to power plants and steel mills that have balloon tracks around their facilities that could be used as a reverse loop.

I promise not to watch!!! But I just gotta watch!!

1:13 Four main lines? Is the layout designer modeling the PRR?? Four tracks makes me think of the Pennsy

Great info as always (but now I am re-thinking my design....) A couple of questions for modern diesel-era - first, you mention point-to-point not having a return loop. What do RRs do when there is no way to turn around at the end of a long line to a distant locale? Second, how common (or uncommon) are double-slip switches? Where might they be located in the real world?

Cool wallet 🙌

Hey brother . I found an article about CSX , LOOK up ,I have worked for the rail road for 17 years corporate greed has ruined the rail road,😮

Yet another great video. I ain't going to lie though, the Ridge wallet doesn't seem like my thing. I like my wallets with a little more heft to them. Metal slso feels wrong to me. A wallet that's small doesn't remind me that it's there.

Dj, Have you seen the FRA announcement today 4/27/23 of a Safety advisory covering long trains ? Would you comment a little something on this. Thanks

DJ is trying to PSR a model railroad 🤣

Although I have 3 roundy round layouts, I have a shelf switching layout. So I just qualify to watch this😅

Smaller round house leaves room for a RIP track and a two or three track backshop....

Is this in N-scale? If it's HO, the boards are going to have to be very deep to accommodate the 180-degree turns on the mainline, and it's going to be very hard to reach across and switch anything.

Nice re-work of an overcrowded track plan….so, did he build it????

👍👍👍

would you like a better example how about modules and it even gets better it isn't that wide and he can still have his yards and go protypical I think again modules around the room easy peasy I can not express it enough MODULES

I'm going to watch it anyways

Wallet won't work for me. Seems the older you get the thicker your wallet. Credit card, drivers license,union card, second form of ID , cards with numbers for my Doctor's, heart, eyes, cards for my pacemaker, cards for cataracts ,both eyes, covid cards-- soon to be gone, list of all the cars and engines I have for TP&W RR so I don't buy doubles, Insurance cards, health , dental . No money , my wife has that , if she didn't, I'd have more trains but really no money🥴

That wallet will not work for me. I have to have several ID's from drivers license, insurance card, 5 credit cards, hunting and fishing license, conceal carry, Military ID, VA ID, VFW Card, American Legion and the list goes on.