Finishing up all the little jobs before moving onto painting the track.

I'm in the process of reworking my small stub yard basically pulling up the #5 turnouts and replacing with #6's. I have very limited space but would like to add as much storage capacity as possible. I try to faithfully follow the recommendations of John Armstrong and in his book Track Planning for Realistic Ops he recommends a minimum of 2 inch track centers in freight yards. I would like to try 1 3/4 inch centers as this would give me 1 more track in my yard. Should I follow the master?

Bill Lane   

Hi everyone,

I am currently refinishing the interior of my garage in Colorado with insulation and new drywall. Thankfully this opens up the opportunity for more layout space!

I am considering putting some of my existing modules on a block of cabinets mounted to casters. Remaining modules would be smaller and shelf mounted. Has this been done or something similar with custom shelves or drawers? I have the tools and ability and was going for a furniture finish level of woodwork. Photos of examples would be appreciated.

I decided to put this in a blog - 3rd plan (Plan check& plan check 2.2) are the earlier versions.

Thank you for the feedback! After mulling over your ideas I decided to get rid of the return loops and go twice around the room. So here are more details

HO scale std gauge California/Nevada desert / mountain mining shortline, late 1950's steam

Continuous running - Single operator

2%-2.5% grade Short trains 6-8(10?) cars

Original idea for branch( based on Tecopa Railroad). 4%+ grade-push empties up, back loads down