Hi I'm working on a new layout. Just got back into model railroads for my little 2 year old who is obcessed with trains (well that's the excuse anyway, hahahaha). I don't have any space for it though so i am building it into the base of my desk. I have already installed a surface inside the table, it has 1.3 meters by 0.8 meters of usable space. There is 12 centimeters of clearance. The area is very small, so it is necessarily going to be very busy. I am using up to 4% slope but that should be ok because I am only going to be using around 3 carriages on each train so they should make it up the inclines. There isn't the space for long trains anyway. The plan is to have what amounts to 2 loops. The inner loop is tight and on the base level. Off the inner loop there are spurs into the middle of the layout. The outer loop uses track that is all at least 315mm curves because I want to run a short shinkansen bullet train on the outer loop and that is the minimum radius for the shinkansen. The outer loop will have one half loop that goes up to the second level and that upper section has a spur that goes into a passenger train station. The inner and outer loops swap between each other, but of course the shinkansen can't go onto the inside loop. The plan is to have 2 trains going on the outer loop at the same time, then one can be switched up onto the upper part to go into the upper passenger terminal. On the inner loop trains can go into either the industrial spur or the lower passenger terminal. The incline will get to 4.5cm on the right hand side. It is a very steep incline at 4%, right on the outer limit of possible, but I think it will hold up .... just. The upper passenger station will link to the lower passenger station in one big station complex. I am going to scratch build it out of styrene and similar. The middle of the layout is going to have a town with a park, all scratch built. There will be ligting throughout the town, cars, and other buildings. The fire station at the end is because my 2 year old loves fire engines. Where it says "cliffs and tunnels" on the right hand side, that loop will be inside a tunnel, behind a cliff. The upper level will be on top of the cliff, with a duck pond, then will drop down behind the passenger terminal. Will be all DCC switches at the rear of the setup, with servos mounted below, but a couple of the front switches will need to be mounted above the board because I have to be able to sit under it and my legs need to go somewhere. It's going to take a while, damn complicated plan ... I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, I thought I would post the plans I drew up in Anyrail and see what people think, or what suggestions people have. What do you think of the plan? I have drawn most of it out on the board and it seems to fit (including building footprints etc), though of course there will be plenty of jiggling once it comes to laying the track. Here is a picture of the table This is the plan with both the lower and the upper sections displayed. Note the lower and upper passenger stations join into one big complex. This is the plan for the bottom level, note the two loops and the lower spurs. The outer loop raises up 1cm on 2% inclines on the bottom level. The loop on the right hand side, behind where it says "cliffs and tunnels" will be a tunnel and the upper level will rest on the top of the tunnel's cliff. This is the plan for the top level with the inclines and the spur into the upper passenger terminal. The switch at the top is flat and is 4.5cm high. The rest is incline up or down.
Would love to hear if anyone has any comments on the layout, if it's viable or not. Would be great to get some input before ordering the track!
It's hard to tell, but it does not look like you have allowed for transitions from level to grade. This is a gradually increasing grade that should ideally extend one car length for each per cent of grade. So for N scale with full-length passenger cars, the transition into a 4% grade from level (and back) should be about 50 - 60 cm. So if you are planning shorter transitions than that, you should mock it up and be sure that it works. Even if a train can climb the grade, if the transition is too abrupt, couplers may drag or cars may come uncoupled. Also note that it is a bad idea to change grade within a turnout (track switch). A turnout may be on a grade, but you don't want to change grade within the length of a turnout or for (ideally) a car length on either side. The effects of grade are significantly increased by the friction of curves, so where you have a 4% grade through a 315 mm curve, for example, the effective grade will be significantly higher than you expect. Do you have enough clearance from track-to-track vertically and horizontally? The thickness of Unitrack works against you here in the vertical dimension. Finally, where you have three or four tracks crowded close to each other at different elevations, you may find that there is no way to support the upper tracks without impinging on the clearance you need beside lower tracks. Good luck.
Awesome, thanks Bryon. The switches are on level ground but I certainly have not left enough flat space at the top of the main grade, there was only the flat space of one turnout length. Hmmm, will have to keep working on it, thanks!
Actually, I think I could change it so that the upper spur is tighter cornering, which would give me space for the transitions, however the shinkansen wouldn't be able to run up there then. Still, should work. I'll give it a try now to buy an assload of track, haha
Just a thought but given its location I'd make it as simple as possible. Re-railing trains could get to be a chore.
Maybe build first a simplified version (just a passing track)of the lower loop first and run that for a while to see how that works out before going on to a more complicated set-up. I assume the top of the drawer will not be covered?
nah the top won't be covered. It will live packed away in the table for most of the time only being opened when in use. I will be building the bottom level first and running that for a few weeks while I work out the bugs, and then I will test out the upper level with a couple of different radius options and stuff. Then will test that for a while before making the tunneling permanent. fingers crossed! will keep you all posted
