Project Korntal

After years of tought I found a trackplan that fullfilled all my needs: the german station of Korntal. So I started drawing it from Google Earth and an older sketch of the same station from 1981 that still showed some of the track now gone. But with GEarth you can still see very well where and how everything was.

I straightened the station as the original is slightly curved, used #9 and #6 switches from fast-track and #8 double slip. That last is now a big issue as fast-track doesn't provide double slips anymore. So it will have to become scratch build (if that ever works out). Drawing was mede by measuring everything from GEarth, changing the odd dimention to follow the NEM standards. Following those rules put the tracks closer together than using Marklin switches (19/21mm instead of 25mm). Still have to see how that will work out.

Reasons to like it:

- it is a real station close to a large city. And I like the german S-bahn rolling stock. It is on an electrified double line just like I prefer.
- 3 quai tracks and a couple tracks to overtake or store a goods train. With the main quais on the outside, this means I could even let an S-bahn train change direction on the middle quai for added fun.
- quais have a nice lenght, just good for a 6 carriage train.
- some local goods tracks close to the station with good shunting opportunities
- 3 industry connections again with shunting possibilities
- a single line for extra variation. In reality this is a museum line with steam traction. I will probably use it with a cassette and railbusses and an occasional short freight.

Some changes to the original were made:
- industry connections will be done "on the fly" when the station itself is more or less complete. Also when a better idea of what and how large the buildings are.
- I left out the third track at the east side. In reality it leads to a knot of track that has no interest in model.
- the small track where the single line enters the staion was also removed (you can find a few pieces of track in GEarth). It doesn't really add to the possibilities.

Still to do: make it shorter!!! As it is now, it is 6.8 meters long. And that is too much. At least I'll need a fiddle yard both sides to run trains through it. To be ideal I should be able to shorten it to 5 meters. Also take a look how to make the ends fit one or the other common module system. Think how to do the controls.

Now on to the plan:



I hope it is visible. It is rather wide...
EDIT: the view in my browser isn't complete, if you right-click and "open the image" then you see everything.

Johan, very nice station layout, it pretty much has everything. I like how you made considerations to connect to other common modules. I designed a switching/holding yard but encountered the same issues relating to length as I only have 10 foot to play with. I wish you great success with it.

I really like the plan. You have quite a lot of options for passenger service and freight moving through. I have been using Google Earth for research and exploring. I am going to put a small town area on my layout that is based on the view of one of the German rail web cams that I monitor. I have the one view from the web cam, and other photos of the area. I have used Google Earth to layout the track and buildings and terrain.

I also have had some fun exploring the WLE railroad. I followed the line from Lippstadt (also another web cam I monitor) to find the quarries and Warsteiner brewery the line serves. It really put a lot into perspective.

I am looking forward to seeing this layout come to life.

Rob

An excellent plan for traffic variety. You are fortunate in having enough space for it.

You are fortunate in having enough space for it.

Well, not really. That's why I have to shrink it.