There are additional GIVENS in the GIVENS & DRUTHERS for consideration in designing a layout:
There are three types of horizontal space in a layout room:

1]   layout including right-of-way, scenery, buildings.
2]   people space – the “average” adult is an oval 21” wide [width with hands as side] by 14” deep [this is the dimension of greatest variability depending on weight and gender].  These are minimum dimensions as operators passing each other may want/need a greater space [hopefully it is just “cheek-to-cheek” vs “belly-to-belly” or “elephant style”]. 

3]   “administrative” space along the edge of the layout which includes waybill boxes, throttle cradles, electronic push buttons and “amazing” colored knobs, shelf for beverages, paperwork, etc.


For consideration in ongoing planning, below is an update of the Bottom Level with the people [colored ovals] and administrative space [3" wide "ruler"] added.  With this additional information, the aisle in the closet and between the north wall and the blob in the main room need to be well over 3 feet wide, at least 3 1/2 or 4 feet in some areas.  It also shows that the shelf for the main yard on the west wall can be up to 2 feet wide.  The green boxes are the areas where significant amount of track such as yards, industry groupings, interchanges which have more than one turnout, etc.  These areas can be against every wall except the long walls of the closet.  There will be no area where one switching area is above another switching area, hopefully.  It appears that with two operators at the main yard [west wall], three additional operators in the main room, and one in the closet, the layout can reasonably comfortably accommodate up to six operators running at the same time.

Also to aid in planning, a 1”=12” model has been made using foam core walls with mat board for the layout surface/shelves.  Straight pins are pushed through the foam core wall into the edge of mat board shelf.  Interchanging different width shelves and relocating the pins provides flexibly to visualize the changing layout design as changes are made to the shelf width and location/elevation and impact of the operator and administrative spaces.  In the model of the room there is one long wall and three wall pairs at 90 degrees to each other [one wall pair has just a 6 inch wall at the door].  In the photo below, two adjacent wall pairs have been moved to show the "blob" in the main room.  If you look closely, you might see the straight pins going in from the outside of the walls.

At this stage of planning, the yard against the west wall will be between the highest and lowest point in the around the room/closet helix.  There will be a single track above the yard [about the 60" level] and another single track below [about the 42" level].  This is to accommodate a 58" duck-under and a 42" swing/drop bridge at the door entrance while maintaining less than no grade greater than 3% grade.  For a 2.5% grade, it takes 40 inches of run to change elevation of one inch, not counting the transition in and out of level.

Configuration shown in figure "E" could be a real problem, especially if there are operators on the side of the "blob" facing the door and someone is trying to enter or exit the room.  Consequently, this option has been eliminated.

Below are some sketches of the two levels and the "around the room helix".  The benchwork is 1 1/2 ft wide in the room and closet [this makes a 3 ft aisle in the closet which is barley enough, or maybe not enough].  There are three eight inch wide shelves in the storage room, one above another, which feed the top level, the bottom level and the helix [this provides various interchanges].  The number of operators would be 4-5. 

The "crude" software for the diagram is sufficient to scale out space.  Templates have been generated for curves, parallel tracks and switches.  Minimum radius is 24 " and the switches are scaled out to 12" which is just barely adequate for a number 6 switch providing a 2 inch space between parallel tracks.

The top level has a 56" inch "nod under" at the door and the bottom level has a drop track, or a swing track, crossing the door [in operation the drop/swing track would be used VERY little and the normal position is to have it out of the way].  The light gray 3/4 circle on the bottom level was a thought about a single turn helix going to a staging area under the yard or a single turn helix along the 13 1/2 ' wall but with the 24 " min radius, it doesn't seem like a good idea.

Yard location - it needs to be on either the top or bottom, not within the helix, with the bottom level being a preferred level.  That said, to maximize the distance between the bottom and top levels, it needs to be on either side of the door to give the greatest possible length of run to get to the 56" inch "nod under" at the door.  There is more wall to the left of the door than to the right so it was located to the left.  Should it all be against the 10 1/2' wall or curved around onto the 14 1/2' wall with at least a foot of straight beyond the curve before reaching the fowling point of the yard switches?  The way it is drawn, there could be some industrial area immediately to the left of the door and the line crossing the door on the drop track would come in behind the industrial area to feed the yard with a couple of interchange trains.

Estimated length of helix is 52 ft and an average grade of 2 1/2 percent gives an elevation of about 15.6 inches.

 

Shortly after my last post [yes, about 9 months ago] a good number of you provided some valuable suggestions, ranging from software to use for planning [using “PAINT” here] to moving/removing walls to a specific plan.  Though some of the suggestions are not readily doable in my lifetime, all of the feedback was helpful and very much appreciated!! and has opened up my thinking.  The only actual “progress” has been the removal of the doors from the room and the closet entrance.  One of the uphill battles is to clean up the TV room area, the train room and the closet as well as the storage room.  When moving up from Lynchburg years ago, STUFF was just dumped wherever so its going to take some time to thin, discard and organize all of that STUFF to make room to begin building and there has been some slow headway made there also.

Knowing that my “druthers” are more than can be achieved in the available space, as a starting point I decided to see might be the maximum size layout in the space utilizing approximately 18 inch benchwork against the walls and approximately 4 ft. aisles in the room and 3 ft. aisle in the closet.  The red semi-circle "blob" is nominal 24" radius so track would have to be 22" radius.                  

                                                                                                                                  

     


Another consideration is for the “around the room helix” to take the lower track up to the 56” nod-under at the room entrance on the upper level.  In the diagram below, each wall is conservatively marked with the length of run [in feet] against that wall.  Going clockwise, if there is a yard on the 12 foot wall, there is 11 + 10 + 4 + 10 + 6.5 = 41.5 feet [or 498 inches] of run to go from the lower level to the nod-under at the door.  If the grade is 3% that would mean 15 inches separation in the run.                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                   

The idea would to have a lower level around the walls of the train room and the closet, an upper level above, and an around the room helix connecting the two.  

Diagram E below shows a bit closer [but exaggerated] to what I am thinking with the track coming out of the closet having some room to make the curve into the train room.  The yellow area just above the dashed line are two potential 6-8" wide staging areas [one for the lower level and one for the upper level] connecting into the closet for the top and bottom levels and at mid elevation maybe a 10" wide switching area/branch that would connect with the around the room helix approximately at its midpoint in the closet.

It has taken me HOURS to learn how to get the correct size of the figures, add dimensions, and assemble them so will post before going much further to make sure I don't loose it. 

 ALL feedback is gratefully encouraged.