So I've hit a road block - I've basically figured out the reversing section of my layout, its at the end of a 12x60 section, and ended up being a 14.5' radius curve. I've already put in a lead to a possible switching area, but i'm at a loss as to what type of industry to realistically put there. Due to the passing tracks made for the reversing section, I had considered putting a coaling operating here, and allowing the mountain to conceal the reverse of a train, but I'm now leaning away from that just because I would rather the door open to the room (which is at the right of the picture, and opens up to exactly the end of the reversing section. I'm currently planning to put a long board to hold about 3-4 tracks worth of car storage there. It might even be something for me to consider to put a crossover at that curved section (hand lay it in) and then let that lead into that as well. What are the thoughts of the forum?
hi, my question would also be "how to divide your loop into different scenes". And how to divide these scenes from each other. If you want a mine, like on the current MR project layout, a ridge, or even a double sided backdrop, comes into my mind. If i was "in love" with a mill building I might choose for a river to divide my scenes. Just a road lined with buildings, creating an urban scene, or a low crest lined with trees are great scenic dividers. I do not quite understand what you mean by "passing tracks for the reversing section", nor where you plan to have your 3 or 4 storage (staging??)tracks. Do you mean LEFT of the reversing loop and on a narrow board between the loop and the entrance of the room? You might even consider to open the door to the outside of your room, into a hallway. Anyway I would try to choose a package, an industry and the appropriate scenic divider. Not to forget the era and locale as well. A Virginia mountain scene in the 50's or a New England scene in the 40's will have different kind of industries then can be found in Salt Lake in the 80's. Or a Bay Area urban scene along the West Coast. Smile Paul
The lamp doesn't do much for me, but maybe if you hid it behind a vase of cut flowers? On a more serious note, I'm not sure I understand the objection to the mountain. Those storage tracks (I assume they're off the roadbed in the back along the wall) can be used for staging and need not really be scenicked, although getting to any problem inside the mountain against the wall would be a difficult to get to. Plan B, depending on how you see the scenery flowing, might be to envision a town or city with some flats of taller buildings as view blocks, or even having the track disappear under/behind a small bluff that was removable in case of a derailment or other problem. I have to admit that, in general , I'm not a fan of visible reverse loops, so I'd do anything possible to hide it. BTW, if coal isn't your thing, I'm pushing quarries this week. Cut into the side of a hill, they provide a legitimate was to quickly gain scenery elevation, if against a wall or hiding track behind them.
I agree with using some kind of view block. You could insert a industry such as grain silos, coal mine (with hill of course), or a mini-intermodal facility and use either the structure (silos or hill for the first 2 options) to hide the back half of the loop, or use a piece of board with a printed backdrop on it such as for the intermodal... make it look like there's a port behind the tracks/lift/containers. imho it's not going to look realistic with a circle of track like that without breaking up the scene...
So i'm perhaps leaning toward putting a ridge over the left side to keep access to the turnout, but then forming a bit of a mountain around the back of the area. I'll play with it here in a bit and sculpt out a bit of foam to see how things look -- pictures to come in the relative near future i hope!
Yard? City? Lake? Staging? - semi hidden Mountain taller than the lamp? The old, mine on this side and power plant on the other
I've got two reverse loops like that on my new layout. I'm considering a boat load of trees to hide the back of the loop. There are a couple of railfan sites locally where the track curves behind a wooded area. On the other loop I'm considering raising the center of the loop just a bit (1" at most) and putting some buildings and trees on the raised part to hide the back side of the loop. I'm modeling upstate western NY so mountains with tunnels are not on the menu. Looking forward to seeing what you do. Dave
WHY is the track curving? I know, I know, it is actually curving so you can make a reverse loop and turn trains. But what scenic reason is for a railroad to lay a curve like that. Suppose the railroad is running along the bank of a curving river. Of course, what you are really doing is laying the RIVER to fit inside the track. A river might run all the way inside the right end of the curve,disappear somewhere in back. Then it could come up and curve under the track in the middle of the "S" on left side of the loop to run off the front of the layout. There could be a slight hill on the inside of the river that gets high enough to hide the track as is goes around to the back. That could be a SWEET scene. Yiou would have to cut into your table top. A bluff on the inside of the track would work too but nit has been done so much...
Thanks so much for the advice thus far guys! I'm thinking what I'd like to do is have two scenes there... instead of just hiding the track on the back side and have an un-scenicked 'yard' there, I'm leaning toward more of a small town feel crammed in there... at least it'll give folks something to look at when they first come into the room, which has been admittedly a huge problem i've been dealing with. It also creates the ability for the back-side of the tunnel to be accessed. I think having the appearance of a small ridge with a river that flows into a tunnel to show how/why the track is curving is a great idea, and cutting into the benchwork doesn't bother me at all (might bother the misses... so i'll wait till she goes to the store later ). I think that breaking this up into two scenes will provide for a good chunk of realism an give me a sense that my train is 'going somewhere'...
OK the right side of the table faces the rest of the room...This is a perfect place for something spectacular . I would put a curving backdrop around the inside of the loop. then reframe the table to allow a tall curving tressel . let the track exit from a tunnel at the rear of the layout.and add some high mountains along the backdrop. This would leave the other side open for your town scene....Mike
I would go up and down. Cut a hole in it for a lake being fed by a stream maybe. Build a small ridge and put a town leading up away from the tracks with the town on it. you could go with a tighter radius and have a small branch to a logging camp or a mine. (maybe have the mine be private company that gets interchanged with your mainline.) I tested my Atlas diesels down to 7" radius, and it looks like you have more than that there. Trees are great view blockers in N scale. So no matter what once you add a lot of trees they will help the scene tremendously.
I have a longer reversing loop on my lower level and (using your loop as an example), along the wall and about 1/3rd from the wall out I will be building a city, that is raised up (many places like this, e.g. Chicago)
I love the idea of a logging line... I could use the straight track that was to be staging as a switchback area to get up to a significantly higher level, pick up an atlas shay or something like that and do some true logging runs while i'm at it
I bought some 2% risers, which i'll likely double up to 4% since the actual grade of a lot of logging roads is up around 6-8% from what I've researched, and a small switcher with some logging cars *should* work just fine. (no more than 5 cars, max) I've also considered adding a bit of a 'gump stump and snowshoe' layout feel to the layout since i'm going to have a bit of that staging off to the side... and could easily be on top of the staging that I've got, helping keep it hidden. http://www.thegumstump.co.uk/gumstumptop.html I'm open to any thoughts you guys have on this attack on the plan.. and I'll try to get a diagram of my plan up here soon.
Updates... I've messed around with this and I feel like having my coal mine here is still kinda the 'way to go'... I'm leaning toward a scenic divider, and having there be a small 'excursion line' style look out to help hide some of my car storage. Please see the attached file for any thoughts/comments. The radius of the curve to the lookout point is horrible, but i'm quite bad at drawing in these types of things. Grade to get above the line shouldn't have to be much more than 3%, which is large, but I figure if the excursion is run by a shay, then thats not all that bad I've had to use a mix of turnouts/track, but I think I can get the point across. I was also toying with using a stream of some form to run alone the back side of the mountain area that might start at the excursion point to help 'tie' things together.
Looking good. As we talked about earlier maybe there's a way to work that secondary track coming off the helix into the excursion line so that you can actually have some running room? Either that, or perhaps rework some track there to where it could be a live interchange with another railroad. Could run interchange traffic up the helix from staging. If I get some time this weekend I'll muddle around with the file some more. Anyone else have any suggestions? Mike
Could always drop a paper mill inside the loop. Lee Weldon has one kinda like this on his layout, though not a reversing loop, but same idea in my mind. http://www.wmrywesternlines.net/layoutconstruction.php
hi, so many idea's, though it depends too on what you are really looking for. The first plans have a different location (New England or....) or theme, on the last plan grades are added. Hopefully you might get some inspiration to go back to the drawing board. Paul
All I have to say is that those are some GREAT ideas. The *only* thing I'm not thrilled over is having to cut into my plywood in a spare bedroom... the mess alone would be less than pleasing to explain to the wifey... The Virginian Coal is more along the lines of what I'm thinking about doing now, and I really am leaning toward that Idea. If I could re-do my benchwork I'd probably look more at the final plan you have listed there, and may actually have the opportunity to do exactly that, as I've still got another reversing loop to design! Thank you very much for your input, I'll try to create a new example in mocked up track work and see what it comes to.
Very interesting question... hadn't thought through the issue 'till this thread... My plan (above) has the reverse loop on a 2'x2' extension to 2'x8' passenger service layout, and populate the interior with either tank farm or container services. Either activity is typical of Seattle downtown. But the good commentators to your plan suggest that hiding the loopy trackage might be good to do. So it seems. Downtown Seattle trains all see some tunnel time as they pass through N/S. So, foam platforms around the service activity, cityscape structures on the platforms, and tunnel rail through the platforms. Voila, good idea made better. (Now just do it.)
