Hi All, Once again I’m in another Perdicament. I’m trying to figure out the Aisle widths for my layout. Right now I could have a Penninsula 2 foot wide wouldn’t take long to do it either, Just chop off an end of one of my previous layouts chunk to make it short enough. Anyways, the Aisle would be roughly 2 foot 6 inches, give or take a 1/2 or so. My Other option would be to take the width to 1 foot 6 inches, that would give my an Aisle that is 2 foot 8 inches. I know big is better, but In the case it could severly hamper the operation of the yard. I want to dedicate atleast 12 inches wide area to the yard and i want at least another 6 for the other side of the penninsula, Stub ended yards are out of the question becuase i want continous running through the yard, and its avoiding a duckunder(thank god, its about time i removed it!!) So, what would be the best width to have, The wider the penninsula, the better Operations, or the Wider the better comfort for people. I’m not too incredibly worried about the Aisle width as the operations, Becuase I’m going to be alone with my layout most of the time. I might occasionaly have a friend over to run, or have family over for a Holiday or something.
You can go down to 24" if it is for a small area and not where there is a lot of passing of bodies, otherwise 30" is the min. Of course if you have an operator on your layout that looks like Haystack Calhoun, then you have another problem to consider.
Dont know about you but I like to have about 3ft to move around in, so I would get as close to it as I could. If you have ppl over there is no way to get someone else through if it’s less. If you get a chance upload a pic so we could better understand.
My rule is 75% of the largest operator’s girth.
Yeah. What Chip said. It all depends on how fat you are.
Something to keep in mind, especially if you are close to the narrow end of possible aisle widths, is to cut off the 90 degree protruding corners of the peninsula. Even if you only knock an inch or 2 off with a 45 degree straight for the corner, your body and everybody else’s will thank you. Avoidance of snaggin and impaling oneself on the corner is worth the loss of a couple of inches on a yard track or spur IMHO.
yours in modeling the OF&S (Old, Fat, and Slow - that’s what my adult soccer team mates call me).
Fred W
I have redesigned my layout and increased the aisle width from 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches…
If you are by yourself, 24 inches is OK. If you want to operate with “bottom buddies”, 36 inches will do. If you want to be “proper”, then go for 48". Pays your money and takes your choice. (Yes, I know. It is a difficult choice.)
On his personal layout, John Armstrong used mostly 24 inch aisles, with one choke point only 19 inches wide.
For solo operation, I’m leaning toward 24 inches and wider - but, then, I’m built like a barrel. People who resemble stick drawings can probably get away with less.
Chuck
I’m not exactly svelt either, but 24 inches works for me on my Layout, just me no OP sessions. Maximum train room that way.
I shoot for 36" (or larger) in my plans, and compromise very stubbornly.
There was a thread several months ago from people who were lucky enough to attend the final showing of John Armstrong’s Canadaigua Southern before it was dismantled. The word “cramped” was used.
Of course, I wish I could have been cramped that day, too.
I could fit through a 12 inch aisle, Since I don’t have people over often I think it would be fine to use either. The sides of the penninsula would be 2 foot X inches, and the end would be 3 foot. I’d like to post a picture, but as of currently the only peice of benchwork thats happen is a peice that has to come down, but it has everything that doesn’t have a home on it, so I have to get another side built before i can take down that side.
I was there and cramped is right. Some places you had to go sideways. It was a good lesson in tradeoffs - in this case long mainline for narrow aisles and narrow benchwork.
My aisles are 24" and 30". These work, but I would like to have 36". The 24" is too narrow. OTH more layout is tempting too. Ever the tradeoffs.
Enjoy
Paul
Be sure to leave room for your own future expansion–and I don’t mean expanding your layout, but the inevitable expansion of one’s midsection! Besides, you might want to show an overweight friend the layout and wouldn’t want to cause earthquakes when your pie-loving friend wedges himself into a too-narrow aisle!
A presentation at a conference I attended last year showed 36"-48" aisles, demonstrated by showing two typically-shaped model railroaders fitting comfortably into a 48" aisle.
Personally I’m shooting for 36" minimum clearance, and then only at one choke point, just because I don’t want the layout taking over the whole room.
I would have to say it depends if its a high viewing layout or if just for yourself , as well if your planning on having structures near the edges . Some areas of my isle way are as narrow as 21 inches but I’m not going to have anything fragile in that small area. Basiclly its what will work for you.[:)]
The latest (Aug, '06) MR has a JA track plan with 18" aisles but JA does state in his narrative that this is a compromise based upon the fact that this particular layout is designed as a “lone-wolf” operation. This narrow-aisles-for-short-distances concept showed up in a number of his trackplan concepts over the years. He (prosaically, at least) advocated wide aisles; if he had one failing - and this is only my opinion - it was that he advocated one thing (wide aisleways) but his designs tended, at least for me, to be just a little bit on the narrow side. I am not a big man either in height or girth.
As an aside, the subject of JA’s Canandaigua Southern came up during a bull session at our club in the Azores when I was stationed there with the Air Force in the '70s; one of the club members had been stationed at the Pentagon a few years before and had had the pleasure of visiting JA’s pike; he too had found the access to be (more than just a little) on the cramped side. As impressive as JA’s layout was, he said, after just a short while he became anxious to leave because it was so uncomfortable to move around in the restricted space.
I, as I am certain many others do, have that ideal “wish” space - that basement or, as in my case, dedicated building where we retire to “dream” of what will be in the future when we have unlimited resources. Mine, as I am sure others are, is far too big to be practical, but I will win the Powerball one of these days and I will construct this enormous building and I will put that if-I-had-a-million layout inside. Mine, as I envision things, will have 42-54 inch aisleways to facilitate operation and visitor access; my advice, for what its worth, is to sacrifice a little bit of layout space in the interest of keeping it easy to access that space.
After I had submitted my post I reread the prior postings and encountered the one about trimming off the corners at the end of peninsulas; good idea. I carried around a
Yes, it comes down to space and compromise (like so much of what we do). If you had a huge space, agonizing over these kinds of issues wouldn’t be there. But most of us don’t, so you decide… which is more important TO ME? More trains or more comfort? I’m a lone operator too and find I choose More Trains every time.
The Layout Design Special Interest Group of the NMRA published an aisle width study a few years ago and the findings showed the minimum aisle width that two “typical” middle-aged modelers could pass each other in was 27".
The article went through considerable length to justify its ergonomics-based conclusions, and pointed out that 24" aisles are less-than-optimum if two people need to pass each other.
Myself, I start with 36" aisles as a minumum. If I am running out of space, I will first keep the aisle widths in place, and narrow the layout benchwork first. In HO, I’ve found I can have benchwork as narrow as 6-12" in a pinch point and it still looks fine, especially if the benchwork is high, as in 50" or more off the floor.
If I do need to narrow the aisles (after I’ve already narrowed the benchwork to it’s limit), I’ll drop as low as 21" for an aisle at a short pinch point if it gets everything to fit. But I don’t want a pinch point like this to be more than 2-3 feet long or it really starts to clog up things. [swg]
Chip,
Does that mean that 25% of him gets stuck?
Bob K.
My aisles are going to be 36 to 42 inches, with some limited 30 inch sections. Even if I lose some railroad, comfort was most important.
You might want to keep in mind that since this is a yard area, you might typically have more operators there than other places, and therefore require wider aisles. If you are going solo, this won’t matter.