I'm trying to come up with a good functional layout with long term enjoyment potential. For space, I can go 10' in length, and up to 36" in depth. Scale: HO Era: 1970s northeast. Conrail and Amtrak. Scene: Small passenger station on one end of layout, rail-served brewery on the other. Passenger equipment: single RDC (whenever Rapido's release is). Freight equipment: SW1500, or GP9, or U23B. Freight cars: 50' box cars (cardboard, kegs, bottles coming in); 50' insulated cars (beer going out); covered hoppers (grain coming in); tankers (corn syrup coming in). Maybe a rare flat with heavy machinery for some variety. Buildings: Station and platform, main brewery complex, separate grain silos, pump house. Or other options if you think of them. For the station I'm taking inspiration from Amtrak's location in Rome, NY. I already have the Pella depot, which is close enough for me, to serve as the main station. I need to find some sort of platform for between the tracks. Now for the brewery, I want to avoid the visual of having a building the size of one grain hopper being served by three cars. I'm thinking about building a kit or making a flat to get something that has a three-boxcar-length loading dock plus the rest of the complex. I'd also like another spur or two to unload at a grain silo (or silos) and possibly a pump house for unloading corn syrup. In my head, I'm imagining something like the track plan included, with the passenger main line disappearing behind the flat (for the RDC to go away for fifteen minutes or so) but it doesn't feel right to have what looks like the second main line deadend into the brewery complex. Right now I've got an Inglenook 5-3-3 style layout on a hollow core door, so you can see the influence of that in this design. For this layout I'd like to try flex track, although I'm a little nervous about it.
Maybe a nice tree block in the middle will hide the "main" before it gets to the brewery? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
36" is a fair amount of depth in HO. Make the main curve a short distance from the station and angle right to the back of the layout. This makes the main line look longer because, with a curve, it is, makes the brewery spur look more like a spur, and gives you a deeper space for three dimensional buildings close to the viewer, with the backdrop behind them and farther from the eye. Use the full 36". The RDC then goes around the building, and if the building is tall enough, disappears even before it gets behind the backdrop.
Try this on for size: The two track main serves as a runaround track, the town industries are near the station, and there's plenty of room for an impressive brewery which hides the RDC when it leaves. And the only S-curves are in the brewery trackage. You'd need switches with shorter curved legs than the ones you have on hand for the crossovers. Run a wide radius for the main line and this could actually serve as the nucleus for a much larger layout in the future.
Another take on the idea, this time liberally borrowing from English style layouts where a train comes on-scene, does work, and then leaves the scene. Station is switched from a through station to an end of line. The second non-scenery version (sorry for the rough chop, free version of Anyrail only allows 50 pieces) puts in a runaround for the loco. If I want to avoid the 0-5-0, I guess I need to incorporate a runaround up top too, don't I?
That switchback on bottom is a waste of track. Have the spur on right go thru a crossing of the one on the left. That way there can be industries on both spurs. Also the spur on left could also extend into upper left corner by another spur or two off it.
I want to comment on this at some length, but I need to go out and do some yardwork with the little daylight left. Maybe posting here will kick it up where I can find it again after supper.
Please feel free to comment when you have time. I spent a few hours this morning moving things around between various rooms and have negotiated an L-shaped space in our bonus room. I have one wall 8' in usable length, and the other wall 7' 6" in usable length.
I started working wrestling with your space originally stated as 10 feet by “up to 36 inches deep.” But you also specified “good functional layout with long term enjoyment potential.” You want to run 8-wheel diesel loco(s), such as switcher or GEEP, and short to medium freight equipment. But you mention RDC for passenger. I think that’s a full-length passenger car, something like 80’. Can squeeze around 18 inch radius but doesn’t look too good doing it. I have heard of some shorter passenger alternatives. Athearn or others made 60-foot shorty cars that gave an impression of more typical passenger cars. And some railroads actually had some cars that length for some commuter runs. But if you are modeling a scene where RDC was what you remember and like, don’t know any way to find a shorter car that fits the bill. Unless you specifically want to model an “end-of-the-line” town, or an inner city or port switching district, I favor a plan that allows continuous running so a train can come from “somewhere else” (staging) run through my modeled scene and then continue to another “somewhere else.” Acptulsa said ‘36" is a fair amount of depth in HO.” It is for a shelf layout with a linear run, but not for continuous operation UNLESS you model only special shorty stuff like trolley or 44-tonner. I would try to avoid EVER going under what I think of as “train set minimum radius” which would be 18” for HO. That is 36” diameter from track center to track center. But the ties extend another inch beyond center line on each side of a loop. Add two more inches each side for clearance between background or front edge of layout. 36” + (2 x 1”) = (2 x 2”) = 42 inch minimum table. One of your plans showed a turnback end curve to run around to the back of the layout, and you allowed 4 foot depth there. So I am thinking of more than 36” but trying to stay back as close to that as possible. Going with the 36” radius turnback curves on each end to allow continuous operation THROUGH the one-town scene, I get it to fit on a 10 foot by 3’6” table. Allows runaround in town, allows trains to run in either direction (but not turn locos end-for-end), staging for 2 or 3 trains. I drew an alternative IN BLUE for the staging- 2 double-ended tracks plus single dead-end spur. That would allow 2 trains of loco plus 3 or 4 cars to come and go, plus one train that runs from dead-end to visible station, switches, makes runaround and returns. Other alternative, all three tracks double-ended. Would shorten two of the trains. Another alternative: 85-foot RDC may not look so good on 18” radius curves but sharp curves are more noticeable on FRONT of layout. IN GREEN, I showed making FRONT HALF ONLY of end curves with 22-inch radius. This would make layout 4 inches deeper- 3 foot 10 inches AND would reduce the length of the passing sidings and straight tracks along the front by 8 inches. That would make the front too short to connect the team track/ freight track that runs behind the depot and still get all the depot, brewery etc. But it could be eliminated and an alternative place to switch a car or two put in at the left end of the inside track of the passing siding/ runaround, shown IN GOLD.
Very interesting. With the RDC, if I went that route I wouldn't be too worried about the length of it since RDCs were frequently used on small branch lines. Since I don't even know if I'll have one (preordered a Rapido Amtrak but they may not make that paint scheme) I'm not going to worry about it too much right now.
The L-shaped space 2 feet deep along 2 walls, 96 inches and 92 inches, opens up some new possibilities for a non-“roundy-round” layout, perhaps one that could be somewhat more than a switching puzzle. To explore what might be done, I studied the prototype railroad layout in Rome, New York on GoogleEarth satellite, ground views and other sources. The double track mainline runs almost straight east and west, with very broad and gradual curves a couple miles on each side of the depot. If there is a way to fit generous or even broad curves on these tracks, they would both accommodate an 85’ RDC readily AND help set the visual look of the mainline. The line follows a grade somewhat above the depot and the local road that parallels it, and even higher above the Erie Canal which runs alongside. Note: the Erie Canal is such an important historical and geographic feature that it would add greatly to the appeal of a layout if it can be included somehow. The stone portals that carry a local road under the mainline through single-lane arches add another appealing feature. Is it enough to go to the trouble of building the layout with scenic areas UNDER the track level? Could well be. Another feature of the prototype- more modern highway overpasses over the rail lines and the canal in a little way each direction from the depot. Those could be used to hide staging areas on both ends of the scene. The country character of the mainline scene is quite different from the industrial switching area in town, half a mile away. A switch lead that connects to the main about 2 miles east of the depot has fairly tight curves, and runs jammed against town buildings. 18” radius curves would be suitable here both for short switchers and cars, and for the appearance of the scene. A small shelf layout cannot make the connection 2 miles down the line, but pulling those switching tracks a foot away from the mainline can help the separation of the scenes... I am thinking of trying to design a layout of the scene as viewed from the north, with the double track main at the back. At each end, it would run against the back of the layout where it could be hidden at one of both ends, but a gentle curve at the L intersection of the sides would bring the tracks away from the back, and give room to locate a depot at the back. I’ll play with that...
Oh yes, I looked for a brewery in Rome. Found Matt Brewing Co in Utica 17 miles away. Gorgeous building that reminds me of something I have seen in model kit form. I'll have to look up what I remember. From a kit that was not CALLED "brewery".
I’m experimenting on “digital paper” to see how a double track mainline would fit towards the back of a 24-inch-deep L layout, 92 inches across the top and 96 across left side. I aligned the edge of the double track 2 ½ inches from the background. Track on 2-inch spacing center-to-center, which is what my Atlas layout plan says you get with a crossover made from their switches. Okay for tangent, not so much on sharp curves. HOWEVER (here is a trick): If both tracks are laid with the same radius curve, the center-to-center spacing increases in the curve, where it is needed more. It is commonly thought that a sharper radius is needed on inner track of double track curve, larger radius on outer curve. But SAME radius increases spacing where needed. Furthermore, the sharper the curve, the greater the increase in spacing, just where it is needed most! It may look like this is not right, because the spacing between tracks does not stay uniform through the curve. But this is what is needed- more clearance to get cars from sideswiping on curves. I laid out that mainline double-track curve showing what happens with three different radius standards- 18” radius (I call it “train set radius”) in RED, 24” radius in ORANGE, 30” radius (pretty broad, smooth, gentle) in GREEN. 30” radius is usually thought of as only for very large layouts. A table to accommodate a loop of this radius would have to be SIX FEET DEEP! But it doesn’t take all that much more on a shelf layout. Also it “automatically” stays toward the back on the ends where we may want to have some hidden or inconspicuous staging, but brings it forward at the curve. This gives some space to place a depot and a little scenery behind the double track. The red curve, 18´ radius, yields 10 inches of space from track to corner. Would allow squeezing in a depot but not gracefully. The green curve, 30´ radius, yields 15 inches space track to corner, enough for the depot, a road behind the depot and then tree line behind that, a good representation of the depot scene as viewed on GoogleEarth satellite. I also drew in a representation of the Erie Canal paralleling the mainline, some 3 inches across in front of the station and narrowing to nothing toward the ends where it could be hidden by vegetation and buildings. Much of the mainline at top can be used to stage a short local freight train on one track and an RDC or short passenger train on another. If there is a little over a foot of staging at the far end of the left side, it would allow operation of an RDC from the right end (east) to depot and continue to west (left end). And then later it could make the opposite direction run. A through operation. Double-track mainlines often have crossovers every few miles, and often in pairs: right-running-to-left and left-running-to-right. Crossovers can be located on double-track for appearance but also to be used as a runaround there. (I will have some hints about crossovers another time...) The left side of the mainline should be long enough to allow a short local freight to clear a switch (not sketched) onto the sharp curve shown in black to go into town to switch. 18” adequate for switching, and LOOKS sharper, distinctive from mainline. The switching spur runs across front, making it seem more separate from mainline. Should be long enough on top side for short train to clear switch onto “switching line”. Then a runaround track would be located of left side of layout.
