The Layouts

The Concept

Trains run continuously around a folded dogbone — up the 12-foot leg, around the corner, out the 8-foot leg and back — while the operator works the railroad: pulling cuts from Timber Falls Yard, spotting cars at the fuel dealer, freight house, and team track, and swapping traffic at the interchange inside the west turnback. The turntable and 3-stall roundhouse anchor the corner as the engine terminal. A 35" passing siding on the long leg lets a second train hold the main while you switch.

Benchwork

Two uncut 4×8 sheets of ply butted in an L — sheet A across the top, sheet B down the left, seam bolted over a shared joist. 2" foam on top, cork roadbed under the main, cork sheet under the yard.

Spec Sheet

Track — the Mixed Fleet

Operating Session

A session runs like the prototype: the road train arrives off the "east" turnback (staging), holds the passing siding, and the yard job breaks it down. Locals work the three industries in turn — facing-point moves at the freight house force runaround work on the passing siding, which is where the layout earns its keep. Power gets serviced at the roundhouse between turns. One operator stays busy; two make it an evening.

The interchange track inside the west loop is the layout's "rest of the world" — every car routed there counts as delivered.

What Changes

The single main becomes a double-track folded dogbone — R481 outside, R448 inside, Kato 1.4" spacing — with crossovers on the top arm and the long leg. Two trains orbit unattended in opposite directions while you switch; that's the BNSF-mainline-in-the-living-room effect. The yard moves to the long leg and grows to four 32" tracks (~24 cars), worked from the inside main. Freight house moves to the top arm beside the engine terminal; team track and interchange stay in the west loop.

A or B?

Honest recommendation: Plan A operates better solo; Plan B is the one that impresses visitors. Both use the same benchwork, engine terminal, and control plan — you could even build A now and add the second main later, since the outer loop is identical.

The Concept

Sheet A is Durango: a three-track double-ended yard along the depot, a RIP/caboose spur, and the engine terminal — 65 ft turntable, 3-stall roundhouse, and the coal–water–sand service row every K-27 visits before the climb. A staging stub off the east end stands in for the rest of the D&RGW.

Sheet B is the show: the main winds down the canyon at 2.2% max, out onto the High Line ledge above the Animas River, across a deck-girder bridge, and into Silverton — runaround, mine tipple, ore dock, depot, water tank. One train, one crew, the whole 45-mile experience in twelve feet.

Power & Control

Blackstone Models K-27 / K-36 Mikados (factory sound) and D&RGW/D&S rolling stock. Same control plan as the N layout: Digitrax DCS52 with the program track on the roundhouse lead — narrow gauge sound locos are exactly where DCC earns it.

Track & Roadbed

Scenery — Woodland Scenics Bill of Materials

Structures

Build order that works: track and wiring proven bare, then terrain shell, rocks, river pour, ground cover, trees — structures last so they sit in the scenery, not on it.

The Concept

Downtown Denver, BNSF's 31st Street Yard — the ex-C&S/Burlington flat yard wedged between the South Platte and the skyline. The 4×8 carries the yard: a full-length drill lead, four class tracks (~44", 8–9 cars each, double-ended on the A/D side), RIP track, and a fuel pad. A staging cassette off the east end is the rest of the railroad — Pueblo, Alliance, the world.

The 16-foot × 24" shelf is the River North lead: Pepsi bottling plant (4 spots, two doors), flour mill working covered hoppers, scrap yard loading gons, a team track, and the UP interchange — with one 34" runaround in the middle to sort out all the facing-point trouble. Track dies at a bumper under the skyline. Nothing runs in circles here; a job comes out of staging, works the district, and goes home when the list is done.

Spec Sheet

The whole automation stack applies as-is — RFID at the yard throat reads every cut that arrives, and the ACS712s watch the shelf blocks.

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit

Arduino Kits & Nodes

Sensor Hookup Sheets

Output Hookup Sheets

The Features You Didn't Ask For

The complete list — everything this stack unlocks beyond signals and sensors:

Build order: block detection first (everything else keys off it), then signals, then servo turnouts, then the toys.