Hello, after some cleaning up in our basement I now have a 20"x130" shelf where I want to build an N scale layout upon. As 20" is too narrow for a loop, I will expand the width to 24". Just enough for Kato minimum radius. Basic idea is a loop with a station in the front and a hidden station in the back. Just like the "Carolina Central", and I would also like to create a similar scenery. I am interested in today's railroads, so I need some "longer" sidings and to cover the tight curves by landscape and trees. Of course I cannot run prototypical train lengths, the maximum train length for train crossings is 90" at the hidden station and 60" at the front. But I think e.g. the new Kato Amtrak P42 + 3 Amfleet set will look just fine at the station. At the hidden station I can store 5 trains, at the front station I can do train crossings and some swithing with the grain elevator and the Industry. Tracks will come from Kato (Unitrack), and maybe I will start with DCC from the beginning. If not, it will be definitely an option for later, so DC wiring will be kept simple. What do you think? Regards, jpd
Welcome Jpd to the Trainboard. Nice looking layout, but I must let you know that those curves are going to be slightly narrow to run Amfleet cars around. It will work however they will hang over a bit and will have to be taken slowly over derails will result. Is it possible for you to widen them slightly ? Otherwise I like your plan and the scenery of the Carolina s should make for a nice interesting scene. Don't forget to Njoy it's built right in
Hi, thanks for the welcome and the input. I think I can expand the layout up to 70 cm. As the shelf below the layout is only 50 cm deep, I hesitate to go further because of stability. Apart from that, I only have access to the layout from the front, so it should not be too deep. But with 70 cm, I can use an 11" radius instead of 9 3/4". Costs me a few inches in the station, but i think this is fair trade for safety. Regards, jpd
