hey guy's i finally have pretty much figured out what i want as a layout. my dream of a huge layout with long coal drag's is going to have to remain that a dream. i just aint got the space. so i decided i want a very urban switching layout. in a l shape 12 feet long one way by 2 feet wide then 8 feet the other and 2ft wide. as many industry's as possible in the space a bridge scene, gravel plant and coal loader and whatever else can be thrown in. the road's will be norfolk souther, csx and some interchange with a western road of bnsf. it will be ran with dcc as soon as i get my zepher back from repair and all thank's guy's for any help at it zach.
Your space sounds great IF you can make it wide enough at each end for a turnback loop. Two feet deep is plenty wide for an industry or city scene. Even wide enough for 3 layover staging tracks behind the buildings. You could run looooooonnnng coal trains through your scene. (But NOT "yard" really long trains.) You might have a small yard used ONLY for local traffic, with transfer runs from staging picking up and dropping off cars. Your layout can represent a place somewhere IN the city, but NOT the main classification yard.
Um, was that "I" or "L" shape? I'm thinking the latter. In any case I suggest: ♠ Draw a grid to scale in the shape of the space you have ♠ Sketch, re-sketch, then fine and refine ♠ Then do some more ♠ Take your time and just get a feel for what you want and where Over all yes, as Kenneth mentioned / implied create a continuous running option. If 24"s deep is all you have plan on short cars (50' max), and locos. I suggest the repeated sketching because using free hand followed by "fine and refine" by which I mean putting it to scale you will get a better "feel" for the space. Just my opinion and others may have better ideas.
Not sure how to respond, if the OP wants a L-shaped very urban switching layout 24" wide, turnback curves are impossible in HO; not needed in N-scale. If he wants to keep continuous running possible he has to choose the right scale or the right footprint. BTW what do you mean by a gravelplant? (not a gravelpit I assume) Transloading and processing gravel, mined elsewhere? Lots of HO trackplans are available for the space you mentioned, first be clear about the scale. The space you described is not clear to me, do you have a 8x2 "table" and a 12x2 "table? The size of the L could then be 14x8 or 12x10; or is the size of the joint tables 12x8? Paul
it is going to be ho and i have throw the idea of continuos running out the window. just not possible for the space and it will be 12x8 L shaped and each section will be 24 inche's wide. and basically i want a gravel loading plant something like the glacier grabl plan that the gravel comes from a elsewhere mine. same thing for the coal loader the actual loader itself will be on layout but the mine would be a fictonus one like for the gravel operation. i though can maybe make it 14x8 if that would help any i have this huge wall that all need's doign is a stand alone cabnet moved down a tad. and grey one im not exactly great with a pen and paper so drawing it out isnt' an option for me and i suck at trying to use these track planning program's as well and yes i want this as urban as possible with as much switchign as possible as well. thank you all for any help zach.
hi, two plans that could be done in your space. The first is by Ulrich, only adapted to smooth out switching the ferry: The second was for some-one from Chillicoth, to his great surprise Stein found a very model-able spot dating back to the 50's. The plan, pretty close to the original configuration was done by me. More modern maybe, less is more?? BTW the Patch, you can find it in Great Model Railroads 2012 would be nice to build as well. Smile Paul
thank's man thsoe look aweosme the first and last one's really have me intreged i might have to see if i can work them together somehow. mainly the ferry part from the first plan somhow worked into the last plan thank you it is defintely some good insperation.
