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V1 – Dover Yard Track Plan

Below is a closer look at the portion of the XTrackCAD track plan for the Dover, NH portion of the layout.  South is to the right, and north is to the left.

From the right side, the two curving approach tracks come up from staging.  The right hand of those tracks that becomes the center track of the triple tracks at the left is the mainline.  The first departure from the prototype is the reversed direction of curvature of those tracks as they head south from the yard.  In the actual yard, the curve that would still be within yard limits would be in the opposite direction. As built, the left of the two tracks curving back towards staging offers plenty of length for long stopped trains and switching without fouling the main.  The short track closest to the scenic divider about in the center was old track that approached the identified location where the water tower had previously been during the steam era.

I separately represent that potential prototype mainline direction with a single curved spur to the right that may someday be used to extend the main level to the old station and tracks in the former town of Rockingham, NH (now part of Newfields) as well as to Exeter, NH.  Addition of that extension would simply shift which track I consider the true mainline to be the closest of the triple tracks that head north under Oak street.  I also added an industry spur straight to the right to add more operations potential.

The bulk of the tracks of the yard itself do match the prototype, albeit horizontally compressed. One other variation is at the bottom closest to the layout edge.  It was unclear from photos of the period whether the closest shown siding would have still existed in the 1960s, and if so it was probably abandoned and fairly buried track by then. Yet again for the sake of operations, I made it operational track and added the additional industry spur at the bottom right.  That spur was made longer than depicted on the plan and includes an electrically isolated section that is wired as my programming track because of the convenience of its location at the front of the layout.

The green areas are road or parking areas.  In the actual layout construction, due to the larger than expected size of the roundhouse, the road up the hill blends into the scenic divider almost immediately rather than running alongside the roundhouse.

To the left is depicted the Oak Street bridge over the triple tracks heading north out of Dover.  On the prototype this section of track is straight.  As is the case on many of my transitions between towns, the tracks curve.  This did force the bridge to be at an angle relative to the tracks and to scratch build the bridge with the north side longer than the south side.