I have been looking all over the internet for a good track plan for an HO Scale switching layout on a closet door, but haven't found what I am looking for. My source of inspiration is Bill Denton's Milwaukee Road N Scale switching layout. Since I am in HO, I can't put much on a door, but I need a good amount of switching. Specifics: Scale: HO (1:87) Track: Atlas Code 83 Switches: whatever, but probably #4's Locale: City switching scene (Pittsburgh, PA) Year: 1966-68 Prototype: None Curve radius isn't a big issue for me, most rolling stock is under 50' and motive power will be a pair of Atlas S2's, and eventually a pair of P2K SW1200's. I plan to add onto the end of the layout with another door that continues the switching scene later, so the layout needs to run off on both ends ("universal" staging will be constructed later, also). I plan to have a printing industry, maybe a Heinz Pickle factory (It's Pittsburgh!). I wanted to have a steel industry but steel mills don't fit in Downtown, very well. (That might go on a door later.) I have several 34' covered hoppers so I need an industry to make use of those. Maybe they could be loaded with hops and barley and could be unloaded at a brewery. Help would be appreciated.
The Pittsburgh Brewing Company at 34th and Liberty would make an interesting prototype to model as part of your switching layout. Another interesting rail customer to model would be the boiler plant of the Carnegie Institute, the "Cloud Factory". Though I normally model in N scale, I've been working on a plan for a small (1x6) HO switching layout. I'll try to get it posted in the near future. It's a little smaller than the space you are looking at, but the length is really the limiting factor anyway.
I would run the main diagonally across the space and have a long street it is on. Then curve your spurs off of this main into side streets and alleys. I know you want a conection on both ends, so maybe just have the long diagonal have cruves at each end so it connects at the front endge on one end, and at the back edge on the other. With small street switching you can just get track and get some markers to mark out your strreets. then yo can do some basic structure mockups with cardboard. Play around with it to get an idea of how the space works for you. also make sure to put actual cars on the mock up to see ho many cars fit into the sidings and spurs.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I did this in photoshop in about ten minutes but you could print it out and go to it with a bottle of white out and a pen if you want to use it as a idea template. hope this gets you closer to your objective [ May 17, 2005, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: traingeekboy ]
Problem is I already glued and nailed down cork as a road bed where the two lines are in my drawing, so I need to work from that. I do have a couple ideas now for track plans, will post an updated image up when i get it ready.
I threw together a plan which I think fits the two tracks you already have down. I used small Peco turnouts and tried to keep the minimum radius around 20". Since you are modeling Pittsburgh, I figured you needed at least one bridge, though obviously that part is optional. I also drew in some possible locations for streets, too, but the streets and most of the spurs could be tweaked somewhat. [ May 18, 2005, 07:19 AM: Message edited by: Greg Barlow ]
Beautiful, Greg! I had a similar plan going along, but it isn't very proportional. I like the complexity, yet cleanliness of the design. I won't have street running on this module, but the next one will probably have some.
Peco switches are more compact, but you can probably make the plan work with Atlas switches. To make things fit I did use a few Peco medium switches (approximately #6) along with the small switches. I make the trackplan in XTrkCad; I can send you the file if you are interested. If I get some time I can try to modify the plan to use Atlas track. Exactly what kind of track and turnouts are you planning to use? I'm not all that familiar with HO track, and it seems like Atlas has a variety of turnout types. One thing you could do, if you don't want lots of street crossings, but you still want streets on the module, is to model overpasses. This is pretty prototypical for Pittsburgh based on my limited experience (I haven't lived here that long).
By the way, there's a decent 1x6 HO switching layout in Model Railroad Planning 2005 that might be worth looking at for ideas. It doesn't offer much room for structures, but could probably be expanded in interesting ways.
Add another foot and you can have a timesaver. heres the plan for mine, I plan on building it sometime before next spring.
I have a time saver on a 10"x 7' plank. Time savers are a great way to do switching in a small place. You might do a temporary set up on your door. http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-timesaver.html
Or throw in an Inglenook, because its easier to hide than a timesaver and can stay clear of your 2 track mainline. 2 3 car sidings into one industry, and the longer 5 car siding into another, with the 5 car lead running alongside the main and merging in... Of course, you could use the mainline as your lead. A bigger industry could use all 3 sidings, 1 for empty storage, one for fulls, and one for loading (just fanciful musing here!).
Matt Curtis is building an HO switching layout in his home. The thread is in the HO forum. He doesn't have a trackplan written up just yet, but it looks like he's testing out where track could go here & there. The thread has pics, so hopefully by looking at them you can get an idea or two for your own switching pike.
Folks, Greg's pass at this is pretty interesting, but both that version and Pat's original two-track sketch seem to have pretty tight S-curves. In other words, there does not appear to be a length of straight track between the s-curves equal to the length of a typical car or engine. (It may just be that I am not interpreting Pat's original sketch correctly) If this is purely to be a switching layout, then that may not be a problem. But if you intend to use it as part of a larger layout someday, the s-curves will limit what you can do on the rest of the layout. Glued-down cork does not seem to me to be such a major investment in time and trouble. It might be worthwhile to consider scraping it off and re-working it before you begin to avoid future problems. Pat, what is the radius of the curves in the cork that is already down? And what is the track-to-track spacing? Sorry to rain on the parade ... again, this wouldn't matter so much if you did not plan to use it as part of a larger layout later. Regards, Byron http://www.modelrail.us
Track to track spacing will be exactly 2 inches. I could go through all the dimensions but here's a picture to show what I have done to date. The cork is actually two layers of 2mm think cork. The lower strips wider than the top strips with are the same width as the ties. The sketch I had posted earlier is pretty inaccurate, as I drew it in paint and excel. The esses are pretty gentle so I don't see how it would cause major problems, although I think I might problems with switches in the esses.
BTW I had considered the Inglenook and Timsaver methods, but this door will be one of 4 or 5 in a large switching layout designed to be fairly mobile. (I'm a college student it will have to mobile over the next 5-10 years) Also i wanted soemthing that could be completed piece by piece in time for the NMRA National Convention in 2006.
