Back from real life stuff with a new plan

A while ago I had plans to build a layout on a 36x80 HCD but with life getting in the way and moving soon to a studio apartment, i had to abandon that idea. Now I looking to build a 24x48 ish studio apartment sized layout. This time around I think I have a much better idea of what I want and how to make it happen.

Since this layout is so small I just wanted to get some feedback on it. I looked around everywhere for a 2x4 plan, but nothing really caught my attention. So I took ideas from a lot of them and tried to fit them in how I want it. I'm not really worried about the radius, because I plan on mostly running smaller engines such as my mp15 and possibly some gp 35s or 40s.

track wise I am going to use atlas code 55 simply because i have a good pile of turnouts and other bits and pieces and I can save money there. smallest radius is 10" and largest is 11.5" the 10" is smaller than I wanted but it was the only way I could get this plan to work.

Basically what it is going to be: A small town that has freight storage and transfer or something along those lines and an engine service facility. then on the other side of a scenic divider I want to have a coal mine setup. I've already got the walthers new river mine built and painted it just needs a good coat of weathering. I also want to try scratchbuilding a curved bridge that goes over the river. figure this is a good chance to test out those skills and see if i can do it.

sorry for the looooong description here is a picture of what I've got planned



Edit: forgot to add im going to add an inch or two on each side so the track is not right against the edge. dont want anything falling on the floor.

 

Looks good. May I suggest you run a mock up to make sure your engines can take a 10" curve with and without pulling other cars behind them before you lay down the track permanently.

 

Very nice start. May I suggest trying your layout design using XTrack Cad? It's free, open-source, shows the track in it's actual width (so you can make sure not to have it too close to the edges), and (this is the best part) it lets you actually run trains on it, which is GREAT for finding and fixing potential operational issues before starting construction (that and it's fun to run trains... er, perform intense design testing, that is).

 

Only change I'd make would be to add a runaround track.

Granted, a 2x4 is small enough you can use the entire oval as a runaround track, but having it out in the open with turnouts as way more realistik.

 

You have no way to go around a cut of cars that have been taken to the coal mine. That means you will have to push them. With the tight radius you may have difficulties.

 

I think I'll try and add that runaround in, I really like that.

Right now I'm trying to get the hang of xtrackcad, I never really tried it because I have a mac and could never get the mac version to run very well. So I'm over in windows trying it out.

 

I agree with Mudkip about the turnout set up on the town side, and I think adding a runaround / siding (purple) on the mine side will help ops considerably:



Yes, a small layout can use the whole track as a runaround, but that gets tedious (learned from experience) and just looks / feels wrong.

Here would give you another runaround for the mine, or a passing siding, or both!
Curved turnouts (on the far right and from mine spur to siding on left) would allow you to max out the siding and reduce s-curves.

I like the angled & partial scenic divider.
Have fun!

 

wow, a lot of comments and ideas! I really appreciate it! I think what I may do is order a couple packs of curved sections and get the basic oval laid out to run on. that would let me see how well everything will run on the 10" radius, and then go from there. I tend to get a better idea of actually laying it out than drawing it in a track program.

I should have mentioned I'm not huge on operations, but i still want it so I can interact with my layout when I want to. What I might do is pick one side either the town or coal mine side to focus the operations on. With this layout I'm really looking more for building modeling skills and that sort of thing.


EDIT

ok so I figure if i make it 32x54 inches, i can bump the curves out to 12.5 and 13.75, this way i can still slide the whole thing under a bed when i need to put it away. or just build it over the crate my dog sleeps in at night because thats wasted space anyways (the crate not the dog)

 

I like the initial plan with suggested changes.:thumbs_up::thumbs_up:

One last thing I would consider is making the engine service facility a one stall shop using the longest spur and making the other spur a set out (interchange) track. This will provide a destination and give purpose to your operations.

N-joy,

Jerry

 

If you're down to expand beyond a 2x4, can you go longer? Of course I have no idea how much space you have. But if you're going to be cutting out of a 4x8 or splicing multiple pieces anyway, you could do 32x66 or 32x72 and still fit it under a bed. That would give you more space for the runarounds/siding tracks/etc.

 

After sleeping on it, I think what I'll do is come up with 2 or 3 plans of different sizes, and then once I am finished moving I'll make a final decision based on how much space I have.