Hello! Im getting back into the hobby for the first time in 25 years, and this will be my first permanent layout ever, so I am prepared to make a lot of mistakes. Being space-starved as I am, the whole layout must fit on one shelf in a Billy bookcase (26 x 76 cm), so switching layout it is! I have been playing around a lot in SCARM (if you haven't tried it yet, you should, it is a blast) and this is what I got so far: Red tracks are part of the Inglenook puzzle, black tracks are more for decorative purposes. Operations Trains will arrive from the tunnel to the right. The main-loco can then decouple from the train and use the left middle track to top up on coal and water while a switcher reassembles the the train for next delivery. Once a new train is assembled, main loco can back up from coal and water, connect to the new train, and exit towards the mainline trough the tunnel in the top left corner. Object Description The overall setting is a small dock area in a larger urban environment. The brown box with tracks is a small rail-barge. The Tunnel on the right side exits trough a large brick wall and the buildings are supposed to be tall warehouses. The buildings to the right are coal and water supplies. The tracks to the right will have some sort of harbour crane. Era and general aesthetics I am not attempting to model any specific time and place in the world, but I want to keep things roughly in line with how things could look in the 1940s. I also want the entire layout to convey a sort of gloomy, industrial and 'gothic' atmosphere. The french movie "city of lost children" is a big inspiration, and I plan to work a lot with small light source to produce the right effect. Thoughts and questions - It would be nice to have a small engine shed for the switcher loco, but I am not sure how to add it it ain a way that makes sense. - Apart from the barge, I have no idea what to do with the rest of the waterfront (or even how I want the coastline to look), ideas for this is more than welcome. - the same goes for almost the entire "left" part of the layout. Coal and water is a given but what more? should I leave it bare and desolate? add some industries? add a dense forest? -Any additional feedback on everything form aesthetics to operations is more than welcome. -Also would like to receive tips on good producers of buildings that you think would fit the vibe I am going for. I already have discovered MBZ but more is always welcome. Especially if there are any good models of coaling towers in z scale, preferably with that doom-imposing brutalist look:
You could move your coal and water to the upper side of the track and put a small one switcher shed on the black track to the left. The track plan appears to be a good way to fit it into your available space. I have an N scale Inglenook that I built. Mine is 1 ft. X 4 ft. (30.48 cm x 121.92 cm.) Tad
Thanks for the encouragement! I have started to place out real tracks on the available space and I am very happy that the drawing matches reality. I have also started the project to get the ancient 3-pole locomotive to run at a decent slow speed. It is going somewhat decent, but switches are my main enemy. I also found out that the old brown power supplies are terrible for low speed running.
After some extensive testing, I realized that three pole motors and ancient märkling track from the 80-s with crumbling plastic are not the best precondition for running things at slow switching speeds. As some of you probably expected, the switches themselves where causing the most trouble, and after inspecting them closer I wasn't that convinced by their overall design. So I have decided to sell of all the old märklin track and replace it with Rokuhan. While investigating rokuhan track, I realized that their tighter radii's opens up a lot of new possibilities, and that I even could fit both an inglenook yard and a tight oval in my allocated space. This is how my current track plan looks: Now I just need to wait for the tracks to arrive from Japan and see exactly how badly my locos and rolling stock handles 90 mm radius.
Hi, with these tight radii you are restricted to short rolling stock. Ok for an UK-based layout, perhaps difficult if you want to model an US-theme. For some micro layout ideas the website of Carl Arendt is a great source: https://www.carendt.com/category/micro-layout-design-gallery/ Also the design ideas by Lance Mindheim: https://www.shelflayouts.com/blog I would prefer an industrial shortline, just making the same planning process like you, but in G scale : http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/ plenty of first hand informations (modeling and operation) from a railroader http://dawson-station.blogspot.com/2009/10/welcome-to-dawson-station.html a nice inglenook saw mill layout As for the rolling stock I made good experiences with Rokuhan track and controller and AZL locomotives, switching is just fun. Without this I would have not built my Z scale layout.
Hello Steffen I have seen Arendt's page before but the other three pages where new for me, thanks for the tips I am modeling some sort of europeanish 30-40's so short rolling stock is in already part of the plan. As for the setting, I aiming for some kind of small urban harbour (blue is water, dark grey a gantry crane, one of the building is storage house while the other is some kind of industry.)
