Peek-a-Boo

I suppose we must all start at the bottom and work our way up. So I expect that before I build benchwork I'll need to know where to put my Hidden Staging Yard and incorporate it into the design. So I've again been doodling and this time about hidden staging.

So if you enter from the main deck via "Y" and start downward at say a 2% grade, then eventually you get to "X" which is where you enter into the hidden yard itself.

Let's have some basic calculations. Based on a 2% gradient and a deck layout such as in Drawing D from my previous blog post (Drawing C would give even better results since it has a 9 m straight compared to the 6 m one here) we get this:

.  5 cm drop for the loop at "W".
. 10 cm drop along the left hand wall.
. 7 cm drop around the loop at "Z"  (a modification to this one would be to go to "V", which adds about 12 cm or even go to "T" which adds 12 cms).
. 10 cm drop coming back along the left hand wall.
. 7 cm drop for the loop at "W".
. We now enter the staging yard at "X".

This gives a height drop from the main deck of about 39 cm, or if I go with option for "V" or "T", we get a total of about 51 cm - Now you can get you head into a gap like that !  :o)

I expect that the option of going to "T" will be out as far as the dropping of height, as to do the turn around based on 60 cm radius will take it way into the people space in the aisle. But nothing is stopping me using up to "T" for the staging yard itself - dead ended of course.

Now the next decision is whether the yard will be drive through or dead end.

Dead end gives maximum length of each siding, but the locos will be stuck at the dead end as well - unless of course I put points in for run arounds on each and every siding (makes it pretty complex - hey).

A run through yard makes the loco issue go away. But of course I take a hit in the length of the sidings. As for a drive throught, there are two type - one is where there is only room for the locos to come out of the siding and then run back around the whole train. The other drive through is where the whole train can keep driving forward and eventually turns around and come back out of the staging yard.

So what is the length hit will I take by having a drive through? I think I'll go away and doodle some more.

So until next time...