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The Ten Commandments of Model Railroad Yard Design
By Craig Bisgeier
If you got here by a direct link, Welcome! I invite you to check out the rest of the website after you've finished with this article. Just click below on the Welcome Page link to go to the main page and the list of contents. Be sure to check out my Construction Journal, which shows the progress we're making on my 19th Century HO Scale model railroad.
Sample Yard Layout
You may find it helpful to print out this diagram before reading the article. Having a hard copy of the diagram to refer to as you are reading will probably be a big help for some of the more difficult concepts. This is definitely a case of a picture being worth a thousand words..
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What kind of yard to model?
1: Thou Shalt Not Foul The Main
2: Thou Shalt Provide A Dedicated Lead Track
Doesn't sound important? If you think about it, any track on a trailing-point switch that has to be served from the lead requires the switcher either to run around a car or cars, or to make a reverse move off of the lead to serve that track, and leave the lead. At the very least, this usually means two additional moves (delay), limited access to the track(s) being worked, and the possibility of fouling moving traffic across other tracks. As an example, see in the diagram below how the yellow switcher would have difficulty serving the trailing-point turnout on the left. The switcher, while classifying railcars or building trains, should never have to leave the lead track under any circumstances and should almost always work railcars from only one end (the front) where possible.