KingstonSub.com - Track Plan. The Kingston Subdivision Model Railroad: Track Plan Sure - I'll just put up this building in the back yard to house my layout. Every model railroader would love to have a 40 by 60 foot basement with no obstructions to build the layout of his dreams. I'm always amazed when I read layout features in Model Railroader or Great Model Railroads and the guy casually mentions that he erected a 40 by 80 foot arena behind his house for his layout and workshop. That's almost as big as my entire lot!

The largest building I could put up in my back yard is a dog house, and if I take any more space for my model railroad that is where I will be sleeping. For those of us living in the city (or its close suburbs), a multi-deck model railroad is the only way to get a decent-length mainline. Even in the case of my Kingston Sub layout, where it could be argued that the mainline is secondary to the yard and terminal operations of Spadina and Union respectively, a long mainline run is still important. It's nice to be able to watch the trains go by, especially if you model long passenger trains like a 1980-vintage Rapido or Lakeshore (stretching to 10 or 15 cars), or the seven-foot-long Turbo. I've taken the unorthodox approach of designing a triple-deck layout, with an additional fourth deck near the ceiling for East Staging. One of the reasons you rarely see triple-deck layouts in the model railroad press is that the track plan takes up too much real estate. One prominent editor complained to me that he has real trouble printing features on triple-deckers for just that reason.

The common complaint about multi-deck layouts is that the lower deck is too low and the upper deck is too high. I disagree with this entirely. I have operated on many layouts, and I think the popular notion today that the ideal height for a layout is around your armpits is a bunch of baloney. It's great to watch trains run that high, but switching is a royal pain in the tush.

Every layout height, from desktop to above your head, has its advantages and disadvantages. If the design is well thought out and the layout is a joy to operate, the height doesn't really matter. Layout Quick Facts. SCALE: HO (1/87.1). MINIMUM RADIUS: 36'.

MAXIMUM GRADE: 2%. SIZE: 12 x 45 feet. TRACK: Peco Code 83; Walthers/Shinohara Code 70; Fast Tracks. TURNOUTS: No. 8 (mainline); No. 6 (locomotive servicing yard and industries). MAINLINE RUN: About 9 scale miles including helix.

CONTROL: DCC Deck One: West Staging, Spadina and Union The Kingston Sub: Deck One (click to enlarge) As I've discussed on the to the model railroad, the bulk of the action takes place on this deck. The layout 'begins' on the top left of the plan (which is actually the southwest corner of the layout room), in the west staging yard. This represents southwestern Ontario, northern Ontario, and western Canada - basically any destination served by trains departing westbound from Union Station. The three southernmost tracks of the staging yard are actually the Spadina coach yard access tracks and switching leads.

The staging yard will be scenicked with urban backdrops, and it most definitely will be out in the open. I am not a fan of any hidden track. We spend so much time and money on our model railroad equipment, yet so many of us squirrel the trains away in hidden yards or in hidden helices. I've seen layouts where the hidden tracks outnumber the visible tracks two to one.

Where's the fun of that? When we all started out with the 4x8 sheet of plywood as kids, we didn't hide two thirds of it under the bed! Spadina Yard is the heart of the layout. The compressed coach yard still has an impressive 64-car capacity, which at any time will likely be at least half full.

In addition, there is room for a Turbo or two and about 18 Tempo and/or LRC cars. The locomotive facility is only 50 scale feet shorter than the real thing, measured from the Spadina Avenue bridge to the roundhouse doors. The four mainline tracks do a very unrealistic dip beneath the roundhouse and 180-degree turn to emerge about 4 inches lower down at the CN Tower. The CN Tower will be modelled until it reaches the ceiling, and will be a neat gimmick at first but will just piss off operators after about 10 minutes. They will have to tough it. The original plan was to model the eastern approach to Union as faithfully as possible due to sentimental reasons, but then I realized that I actually, operationally, require a western approach that reflects the real thing or the trains wouldn't be able to get to and from Union Station. Union Station is reduced from 12 tracks to eight, and the double ladder on the west approach is reduced to one-and-a-half ladders.

Rail Cars For Sale Ontario Remax Train Track Designer For Mac Pro

You can read more about this on the. The eastern tracks basically reduce eight tracks to two as quickly as physically possible.

• A multi-platform, support modern text editor features: - Syntax Highlight - Print Preview - Proportional Font - File Session - Bookmark - Support UTF-8, UTF-16, BIG5, SJIS, GBK, ISO-8859-( 1, 2, 3, 5, 7) - Word Wrap - Snippet - FTP/SFT. Xlifftool 1.2 free download for mac pc. 3 provides a professional, yet free and easy-to-use desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, data integration, Adobe AIR, and a variety of third-party components, effects.

Deck Two: Guildwood, Pickering and Oshawa The Kingston Sub: Deck Two (click to enlarge) There are over 150 different train movements between Spadina and Union every day, plus all of the arrivals and departures into and out of Union Station itself. With such a focus of activity on the bottom deck, there is little switching that can be done above it. There is a real practical reason here: you can't reach the second deck to do any switching.

The lower deck benchwork is too wide, and there will be four or five guys standing in front of it doing their switching. There is no way to have any switching at all on the second deck, so I've pared down the freight activity to virtually nothing. Trains enter the level at Guildwood Station. This was my local station for many years and I first boarded the Turbo to Montreal here in 1977, so having Guildwood on the layout was a must. The Turbos throughout the track plan are platform length gauges: if the Turbo fits, all is well. East of Guildwood on the prototype there are wonderful switching opportunities at Chemical Court, but I've had to leave them out. The benchwork instead is very narrow so it does not intrude upon Spadina below it.

After making the 180-degree turn, the Kingstob Sub is joined by the York Sub at Liverpool Junction. The York Sub crosses over highway 401 and joins the Kingston Sub from the north. Westbound mainline freights leave the Kingston Sub via the York Sub: they tunnel through the wall, head across the hallway in front of the full-size coach, and then go into my workshop where Mac Yard in Vaughan is represented by a small, two-track staging yard. Pickering is the end of the line for GO trains, and there is room here for Dan to park a 6-car train plus power and APU.

Despite the paucity of freight operation on my layout, Oshawa yard actually plays an important role. From Oshawa on the second deck to Kingston on the third deck is 126 miles. But the length of the helix between them is only about a mile and a third. In order to follow some sort of realistic timetable, trains will need to park at Oshawa for over an hour before leaving for Kingston. With some massaging of the timetable, it should be possible for an operator to park his train at Oshawa and then take an earlier train, already parked there, on to Kingston. Deck Three: Kingston and Brockville The Kingston Sub: Deck Three (click to enlarge) The eastbound mainline enters the third deck just west of Kingston Station. In 1980, all VIA trains between Toronto and Montreal/Ottawa stopped at Kingston so it's an important location to model.

As well, Dayliner service (trains 651/655 and 652/656) originated and terminated at Kingston so an RDC could be seen relaxing there overnight. Like Guildwood and Scarborough below it, Kingston and the tracks east of it are directly above Spadina Yard so switching locations have been removed from the plan. Instead, this will be an area for open running through the scenic Kingston Mills bridge over the Cataraqui River and the unique village of Yonge Mills, where the tracks plough through the cemetery (visit the gallery to see a photo). Brockville Yard (possibly still called Manitoba Yard in 1980 - anybody know for sure?) begins on the 180-degree turn, and then Brockville itself is the eastern focus of the Kingston Sub layout. Brockville is located above Union Station, so you would think that would kibosh the switching.

However, Brockville is also located beside the 'guest closet' so I asked Bobby to build three big openings in the wall, through which an operator located in the 'guest closet' can operate Brockville. The Brockville operator will either stand on a stepping stool or I will build fold-down, carpeted steps on the wall. At the west end of Brockville, there is a cubby hole for the Brockville operator. The majority of this comprises a 21-inch-wide platform, 16 inches off the floor. To reach this part, you'll need to squeeze past a post that the builders of the house inconsiderately placed in the way, so the Brockville operator needs to be a smaller guy. I think Dan's just been hired for the job. Brockville is where VIA's Lakeshore/Capital and Bonaventure/Exec (trains to and from Montreal and Ottawa) are split and assembled, so there is a lot of passenger switching action.

As well, there are extensive CP tracks modelled in Brockville, including the switching locations of Phillips Cable, Clarke Transfer, and the interchange yard. Brockville is a busy place for both freight and passenger fans! East of Brockville the tracks branch off for Ottawa (and the continuous run connection) and then both the Ottawa-bound and Montreal-bound tracks enter the helix to go up to the east staging yard.

East staging is located directly above Brockville and is accessible through the wall openings, so the Brockville operator will be responsible for this area as well. Follow the links below to see more. Model Railroad: Track Plan KingstonSub.com ©2013 by Jason Shron. I designed and coded it myself so sorry if your screen blew up. Uncredited prototype photos are either mine or courtesy Bill Morrison, Brian Schuff and the Kaluza-Mueller Collection.

Thanks for actually reading this small print. Must be a slow day, eh?