Yard Ladders - How To Do

[rgarber]

The question came up of how to do a Yard Ladder.

Track laying in RS is very easy to do. You can lay miles in minutes. But when you get to yard ladders, the issue of parallel track can be daunting. With no sectional pieces, just how do you do it?

It's very easy!

Start off by...

First, lay a small length of track in the direction you want the ladder to go. Just a small section because right here the two different methods are apparent.

Parallel Tracks (one way)

In the third dialogue in the editor change the number of tracks you want to lay and multiply it. So if you want a 8 track ladder, choose 16. Lay the track extending from that small section you just created. You'll get 16 tracks across! You can move the track gudie (that yellow arrow thing) left or right so you lay the track to whichever kind of ladder you want.) I mean, what I just included in parathesis, let's say you want a ladder where the ladder tracks extend on both side of the middle track. So if I wanted 8 tracks, I would push my yellow guide so there's (using my 16 track to get an 8 track ladder example) 8 on each side of the guide. Okay in that example I would need 17 tracks, but you get the idea. Once the tracks are laid, click on every other track and delete it. Now you got your ladder spacing, all you have to do is lay the switches and connecting tracks to finish up the ladder.

Parallel Tracks (a different way)

The first way is the easiest but has one drawback. Depending on the track rules the spacing maybe farther apart than you care for. If you want a real tight yard ladder like those in the Cajon route, you'll need to use this second method. It is also very easy but there's a lot more steps. But it's just as easy to learn.

From your initial piece extend the track as long as the shortest track of the ladder. Once that is done, splice the track where you added the track using the splice tool. Click on the piece you just laid. Are you ready? Just copy (ctrl+c) and then paste it (ctrl+v) with the spacing you prefer. Wholla! You're done! Well, not quite. The problem is if there is any deviation in the ground terrain, your tracks may not all be at the same level. What I do is move each piece of the ladder to the original track to get and look at the height. Just move those rails right up against each other, ain't gonna hurt anything. Use the keys F & B to adjust the height. A tiny bit of difference won't hurt anything. Now, to move the piece back in to its position, use the red or green arrows after clicking on the piece to move. The height will stay set. I can't recall if you just grab it and move the piece if it will remain at the same height. If it does, great! If it doesn't, don't do that. Oh, after you are done with the ladder, use the join tool to rejoin the piece you spliced.

To do the connecting tracks:

With your parallel tracks in place now you are ready to do the connecting pieces. But first, except for last of the ladder pieces, extend the tracks a bit. This wil be your excess you'll need to get rid of but for now, just do it.

Now... lay your switches that start the yard ladder. Don't make them so steep! You'll need enough straight section in between the parallel tracks to complete the connecting switches. Now this is key. Did you pay attention to what the curve gradient or whatever that thing is called when you did it? Go back and do it again because you want to repeat the curve on the other end of the ladder. Note the curve and store it away in memory. It doesn't have to be exact but you want it close. Now that you got that right, extend from the switch so it crosses over all the parallel tracks including the last one. Do this for both sides of the ladder.

You're almost done!

Right now you got a bunch of overlapping tracks. That's good. Now, set your track setting to "auto connect". Start connecting the parallel ladder track to the crossing track. If you're not proficient at laying switches, this will get you proficient! Once you're done, trim the excess track pieces you don't need.

The most critical aspect of this is making sure your tracks are all the same height. Once you get used to copying/pasting or using multiple track placement any parallel configuration of track is a breeze.

Rich

[kin3]

Thanks Rich,

I learned when connecting the switches that when I connect the track to make a switch if the piece of track that I'm connecting to turns red then the switch will make and the track will connect and everything is good. But if it doesn't turn red then the tracks will never connect and make a good switch. I hope this make sense. I'm not a good communicator so bear with me. I just keep trying and learning. The most important thing is don't give up, I almost did but now have a nice ladder.

[rgarber]

Hi Kinnie,

Yes. And to add to that, for starting out, it's best to always try and connect from the curve to the straight portion of a track when connecting to to track pieces. In the ladder example above, by setting the tracks in parallel and then doing the connecting side tracks, it's easier to make the switches happen and then trim the excess. We're all beginners here. This singular issue of parallel track configurations drove me crazy when I first tried RS in Nov 2007. I gave up on it and RS. Then some 8 months later I'm doing it again and it all seemed so simple. Switches when you first start doing them in RS seem an iffy thing. But then after doing a bunch, it's easy.

Rich

[RS-adam]

Incidentally my latest blog shows some images of a small yard ladder consisting of just 3 sidings.

Check out Stage 3 of constructing a small UK station with yard: http://gaugeirregularities.blogspot.com/