Great Northwestern Railway

 Mesa City has always been a favorite place for crews to work.  Off the main and plenty of switching, it attracts those who enjoy just working a local with some quality throttle time.  Since the expansion of the GNW, on-line industries have been lower priority as the focus was to get the layout running.  Well, now it is running, and I could turn my attention back to creating some industrial spaces. The geometry of Mesa City changed enough that the main did not really run through it anymore.  But... the main TOOK the real estate to go over it, thereby killing the former switching area.  However, the area where the former dispatcher's office was located is now reallocated for a new switching area: Mesa City East. Connecting to it was a bit of a challenge.  There is a set of shelves along the back wall that is more or less permanent.  I integrated the paint booth exhaust duct into the framework, so besides removing all that, I would have to a lot of ...

 Mesa City used to connect the layout across the western wall of the room.  The western wall was, as you may recall, removed to make room for the expansion.  It was ruthlessly demolished... and much sadness ensued.  ( https://greatnorthwesternrailway.blogspot.com/2017/12/and-just-like-that-mesa-city-is-gone.html )  It was one of the nicest areas of scenery, as well as a wonderful switching opportunity.  So I kind of put Mesa City out of my mind as a pleasant and yet sad story.   Fast forward about two and a half years and I realized a fatal flaw in my track plan.  Mesa City was not only a great place to watch and switch trains, it was also the place for handling coal cars for the generating station as well as turning commute engines.  Something had to be done!  Surveying the area, it turns out there WAS enough space for a wye and maybe a lead for switching.  Grabbing a couple pieces of plywood which, ironically, were from the s...

At least 20 versions later, and countless sub-versions, I think I am homing in on a track plan.  Below is what it looks like as of now.  Some industrial areas are still pending detailed design.  But basic arrangement is there.  Some key features: Think of it as an expanded version of previous.  Not a lot of “new” stuff going on – well except a new yard; just ballooning out the tight area… into an area twice as big!  All in, layout is right around 750 sq ft, including old and new space. Staging yard went from dead end to run through.  This will be very nice when restaging the layout for ops.  About 30’ long on each track should easily allow 2 trains per track.  Total of 9 tracks.  Plan is for 8 to be used for ops, and one to be kept open for continuous run.  Elevation is at 35" at the lowest end and 37" at the other. Main deck is at 47”, same as Valley Gate.  Valley Gate becomes an industrial yard, handling “shorts” for War...

So I used 3rd PlanIt to lay out my new yard either with #6 Atlas Custom Line turnouts or ME #5 Yard Ladder System turnouts.  As it turns out (haha), the ME yard ladder system reduced the yard throat by a whopping 38”!  This for 2 A/D tracks and 5 class tracks.  A whole lot of classification space can be had with an extra 3’.   So the question is if I am getting myself into trouble using the ME system.  I run mostly 50-60’ cars with occasional 75’; era 1980.  I have #6’s on the old part of my layout, and they work just fine.  But again, that extra yard capacity is sure tempting.  Thoughts?