Hello everyone. So a long time ago, circa 2009/10 I posted in this forum about building a 7 x 10 layout in On30 which became HO eventually. I was very green with this hobby back then, very young and very naive. After the tables were built I just kind of continued without a real plan until the layout became an unfocused mess and I just let it sit. After tinkering on and off with it for the past year I've finally gotten tired of looking at it and decided it was time to start fresh, with a proper design and a focus in mind. I'm limited to a small corner of my garage, and the island design seems most suited to my needs both now and in the future. My idea is for a 5 x 8 table, maybe mounted on wheels so I can easily move it around and access all the important areas. I want to model a scene that would probably be in the mid 50s and I've found that I've been drawn toward Union Pacific motive power; my current roster consists of two gas turbines and a challenger. These are big engines and I knew I'd need larger curves for them to be happy. I also knew I wanted a basic yard to move things in and out of as well as a turntable and engine facility, all things I couldn't make work with the current layout. After spending a solid few hours last night XtrkCad I came up with this neat looking design that I'm very happy with but that I know could probably be expanded upon a bit more. Some basics on what you're seeing here: Outter track (main): 26 inch radius Inner track (yard loop): 23 inch radius Turnouts: Atlas #4 for the yards and #6 for the two crossovers. On my current layout I have some Peco #4 or 5s which I'll likely recycle on the new layout, I'm still figuring that out. All structures (what little there are) are Walthers, with the turntable being the 150 foot version. As you can see it's still very barren, and that's why I'm here; I'd love to hear from you guys on how I might be able to make this better scenically, track-wise, etc. Thank you in advance for anyone who takes a look, I look forward to chatting with everyone!
Are you going for mountain type area? If so you can throw in forest and mountain sides to divide up the layout and there for making it look bigger and towns apart.
Hmm. Well, if you can come up with a way to provide some sort of scenic divider, it might help make the layout seem a bit larger. If you can do so at present, you might think about storing the big motive power and getting smaller units. Try to stay with smaller cars as well, such as forty foot box cars.
Thank you for replying! @J911, I was debating doing some mountain type scenery. I had an idea for a tunnel covering that lower left corner of the layout, ending right about where the yard tracks are. @Boxcab As for a scenic divider I did consider doing one in conjunction with tunnels, like maybe it starts at one tunnel portal, goes down the layout and ends at another. The only thing is it'd have to go on a pretty steep angle from one corner to the next. I did think about operating smaller units but I definitely wanted something that would give me room to run the bigger engines at least once in a while. My goal is mainly just to have something to watch my trains run, and use the yard and roundhouse for very basic ops.
I'm the same way. Got 30 degree radius BUT its a room eater. I save my big power for the club and home for my small stuff. Boxcab couldn't of said it better.
This is a good concept. No argument there. Just thinking that if you have a feeling the railroad goes somewhere, there might be a bit more long lasting interest in it for you. When you can see everything in one glance, it can feel small. Could lend itself to eventually being a bit boring.
I get that too, and I definitely would want to get the most out of it since I don't see having the room for much more then a table layout for quite a while. If I might ask then, looking at this plan where might you put a divider? Or maybe how would you re-work it to include one and help give it that feeling of going somewhere? That goes for anyone else who'd want to answer, too. I've been scratching my head over it and see one, MAYBE two places I could put one but it's a tight fit.
Your round table eats alot of room. Usually a facia board down the middle of the layout can seperate the 2. Another way is heavy foilage or mountainscape.
It does eat up some room but it's a feature I've always wanted to have. I do see a way I could fit a divider in diagonally down the layout if I lose one or two of the whisker tracks on the left side of the roundhouse. I'll try my best to illustrate what I mean once I'm back near my home computer. I'm thinking if I can make it work I have utilize some light mountain scenery on either side of the layout to flesh the scenes out.
I agree with this observation. Being a smaller layout, you'd probably not have a lot of engines in use at any one time. And they'd likely not all be at the roundhouse at once. (Not that it was uncommon in reality. Just here on a smaller sized model RR.) If you would consider dropping those three tracks pointing mostly downward in the drawing, a good amount of real estate could be available for the two following points. Yup. Whenever possible, it usually is beneficial to not parallel the long sides of a layout. An angle, even a slight one, helps break up potential visual monotony. Yup. In this instance a tight fit with the roundhouse. But my suggestion for that, above.
AF, I don't believe anyone has mentioned grades. It looks as if your pike is completely flat. Was thinking : What if you skipped the 2 track main and built a branch dedicated to hauling coal down from a mine which you must spiral one or two times up to ? This would make an excuse for a small trestle somewhere, lots of rock, a stream and other pertinent structures along the way up and down. A spur off this somewhere mid way could serve another small industry such as a small oil dealer. and hold a couple of tank cars. Your desire for a yard could now be a 2-3 track coal loading yard. Somewhere on the bottom you could have a smaller turntable than you show, which might fit in a front corner an have 2-3 tracks into the engine shed. On a small RR it's not wrong at all to back down as your conductor watches from the caboose (phone to cab). Finally, leave some room along the front for a track which enters the scene from the west or east (right at side bench edge) and connects to 'your' line from the outside world , a means of getting the coal or empties to and from the mine and onto or from this 'other' rail line. This line will have serious ballast height representing a heavy, class 1 RR line doing commerce with/for you...It will then be a 'point to point' MRR instead of a circle, which I too agree, can get boring. My idea I believe will give the layout breathing room and a sense of purpose.
@j911, Ive thought of modules and would be more open to it if I had the room. The reason for a tabletop is because I'm severely limited to a very small section of my garage, a 7 x 10 area to be exact. I thought a tabletop would be easiest especially if I ever moved; just mount it on wheels and roll it into a u-haul. I'm not sure where to begin with modules. It's honestly a tough project because I love the bigger UP motive power and they need broader curves but I have such little space. On that note @MarklnLA I do like that idea, but again I'd have to shelve the units I have in favor of smaller ones and I'm just really torn on doing that right now. My original thinking was to just have something at home to run and display my engines on, and if I ever wanted to really take them for a spin I have my model railroad club. Was that thinking off base? I did like the idea of a scenic divider and came up with this, following Boxcabs suggestion for losing some of the roundhouse tracks: the "L" shaped lines on the left curve indicate possible tunnel portals as I'd do mountain scenery on that side of the divider. I just oust want to say that I do appreciate everyone's advice so far, I guess I'm just torn on running what I want versus dealing with the room I have.
I have a thought, but will take a bit more room- 6 or 8 inches longer, and at one end only 6 or 8 inches wider. The thing that bothers me is the little "yard." It is so short, it doesn't look or feel much like the kind of yard where a train would originate. It is more like a yard for a few express cars or team tracks. I don't know how absolutely limited your space is, but I see you absolutely need broad radius curves to run the big long motive power you like. And that should be on trains that give an impression of a Train- at least 8 or 10 or 12 cars even on a small layout. What can be do about the yard? Could you possibly keep it outside the main oval loop. Maybe only two tracks coming off the top of the track plan, then going around the right end curve, parallel and concentric with the main tracks. Actually only two would be usable as yard tracks, but for a short distance, a viewer would see four parallel track side by side, giving some impression of a yard. This would look more like a "yard" than four tracks inside a loop which are only a couple cars long apiece. The two actual yard tracks could come out to end at the lower right corner of the layout-- or could extend another foot or two on a shelf just a foot or less deep. This does not mean the whole yard housed on an extension, but just the tail end of it. You could put two 8 foot or even longer trains on the two yard tracks. I would have this two-track "yard simulation" on the same end as the turntable/roundhouse so that it gives the impression of a railroad terminal area. It would take me a couple hours to try to redraw your plan, so I am going to throw up some different things to illustrate the principle. You just have to concentrate on the feature I am pointing out and ignore the rest. This layout in N scale, only slightly above a minimum oval, has one "yard" track which parallels a passing siding around the end of the layout. Only one train at a time can run on this layout, but the passing siding allows a through train and a local peddler switcher both to be on layout at same time, and the 3 parallel track around the end suggest a yard. Another layout where two outside parallel tracks alongside a passing siding "suggest" a yard as seen from one side. On the other side of the divider, the line seems to disappear under a highway overpass just as it enters a passing siding, an entirely different look from the "yard look" which suggests a "different place." And finally, a layout I actually built. N-scale 27 inches by 34 inches. Two car storage tracks alongside double track main suggests 4-track-wide "yard area."
@Kenneth, thank you for the reply and feedback! I took your ideas to the drawing board last night and did a redesign, following the examples you provided and came up with this: I dropped the main line radius to 24 inches and dropped in a passing track and lone yard track, but it's much longer and as you said it'll make that area of the layout seem busy. Coming off the yard is a spur that would connect me to the "real world" and one I can also use for staging. I kept the turntable, though I might shift it to the other side of the table to fill up that empty space and be able to use a divider. I actually like this design much better, what do you guys think? I'm happy for all the advice as it's really helping me nail down what I want to do before I build, unlike my past layout. Thanks guys!
Rather than having that switchback, have two spurs going off to the right. Or better yet have the two spurs cross each other so a train doesn't have to move cars out of 1st leg to get cars out of 2nd leg.
@cajon, when you say cross each other how would you do it? I'm having trouble visualizing it. I did re-work the track plan again, taking everyone's feedback for the most part and coming up with I feel is the best use of the space for what I want to do: Main line radius is still 24, but the outer most yard track now goes out to 30 inches. Boxcabs idea for a scenic divider is going in for sure, I'm thinking about doing city type scenery for the two scenes with maybe an highway overpass going over the yard. The "yard" itself looks great, I added another spur and moved my connection to the "real world" up to the top of the layout to remove the switchback as cajon suggested. I think it's getting close to being done, I'm curious to hear anymore thoughts though. Thank you so much for all the input so far, it's been immensely helpful!
Here's a revision of your previous plan w/ a "crossing at grade". At grade means the tracks cross each other vs one going over the other. Through the years these have come to be called just crossings. And it's not a crossover which is two switches allowing a train to go between two parallel tracks. Personally like crossings because they make a layout more railroad like. See my LAJ plan in the post just below yours for other kinds of crossings. Do like your new plan because it has alot more operating potential. Is there any way you can go around the wall in your residence.
Ah, I see it now, that's actually pretty neat and it would make operations fun. Thanks for the comments, unfortunately I don't have the ability to go around the walls as I'm stuck with only a small area in my parents garage. In the future I could see going around the walls once I get my own permanent home, but for now I just wanted something that I could have fun with and that could move with me when I eventually move out.
If you don't already have the layout built think about making it modular by making four 2.5' x 4' modules. You'll have to redesign the plan a little to keep the switches off the joints. There's alot of stuff on the internet about modular layouts And if there's a local module club nearby visit them to see them "up close & personal". ~} Modules can be bolted or clamped together. The legs can also be fold up. to make it easier for moving them.
