Well, i have about 9’x9’ of space in my apartment for a model railroad. I have 1 foot wide shelves along two walls with enough room at the end of each for a return loop. I really enjoy mountain mainline railroading in the washington-oregon-montana area but i also enjoy running short locals. I would like to effectively model both local operation and mainline mountain traffic. I am gonna model this area in N scale and I would have enough space to model a small yard and a town or two. This would be plenty to model local operations and obviously have mainline operations as well. The problem is I feel that wouldnt allow me to effectively model the heavy mountain railroading.
I am considering simply modeling a two track mainline with just helper operations and running long trains. My other option is obviously to pretty much just model the locals. Has anyone ever experienced modeling just mainline operations and nothing else(no real yards or industries to serve way up in the mountains)? I dont have a any real experience in formal operations but am very interested in it so would you recommend leaning more towards the local operations? Just trying to get some opinions here and I appreciate any input you can provide.
Years ago I built a long skinny layout like you describe It was a dog-bone continuous running design. I never even got the scenery done, because it was pretty boring to operate. I dismantled it and built a point to point layout in half the space - it was much more fun.
I’m not anti continuous-running, but it is not my thing. I stay engaged when I have to interact with the trains. Sitting idle while the train does laps is not what I want from the hobby.
My current layout track plan could be modified for your situation. It’s a folded loop to point (The gap in the middle is a furnace - there are narrow bridges that connect the sections of the layout):
Starting with the Terminal (Turntable) at one end, a train can run continuously to the other end, where it makes a couple of laps around a semi-exposed helix and then runs the length of the layout to a reversing loop, then it makes the return trip to the terminal. At scale speeds, it takes about 10 minutes so it feels like continuous running, but it doesn’t let me get lazy/bored. I can also pick up and set out cars at the little industries along the way if I’m in the mood for greater participation.
To adapt the track plan, I suggest using just the main line and truncating the center portion to fit your space. Then add sidings and spurs where they make sense for you.
If i was you, i would do the long main line. Also put in a hiddin staging track, somewhat like where the train goes into the mountain, and underneath that mountain is staging track. You could also build a low relief structure that fits your local and give a siding. Hope this helps.
A great article about a free lanced long haul bridge line in Colorado, by Paul Brennecke. Entire layout is 9’ x 13’. Essentially the entire layout is mainline with a single siding at Terror Creek, a helper station. The layout features quite the impressive hidden staging, explained in the article.
This type layout is designed for the railfan and can be operational as well, and with no industry or yards to speak of can be operated solo. Although it is possible to encorporate more operators, the Grande Road is the layout for the lone wolf.
Wish it was digital as there isn’t much else in the issue, an article by Dave Barrow but that’s about it.
What you are trying to do sounds a lot like Mike Danneman’s N-scale Rio Grande layout featured in MR. This would be his previous layout from the mid 1990s; not the current on he has that is featured in the new MR book on painting backdrops. The layout was about the size you describe and was more or less a basic figure eight; although there wasn’t anything basic about the layout if you ever saw it. Lots of mountain scenery in a small space. I could not find a whole lot of information on the layout but found the following video that shows a UP train on the layout:
I wonder if that hobby shop now owns the layout? BTW I think that layout was featured in some of his previous MR scenery books; I seem to remember that rapids scene near the end of the video on the cover of one of the scenery books. Jamie
Well I have been doing some research on the area and I really appreciate everyones help. What I have most certainly decided to model is an old Southern Pacific branch now operated by the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad. U have been able to follow a lot of this railroad using Google Streetview which is pretty handy. The railroad follows Foss Rd. for a good portion of the most interesting part of the railroad. Its actually a very interesting railroad that runs through some awesome scenery. The operate mostly ex-BNSF SD-9sover 88.3 miles of track. Anyway, I will be modeling my own version the Tillamook Bay Railroad relying heavily on many scenes along the POTB but not necessarily in the same geographic order. A 12 mile section of the railroad was destroyed by a large flood in the early winter of 2007 and the estimated cost of rebuilding reaches well beyond $50 million and even though the State offered to pay 3/4 of the cost it doesnt appear that the railroad has been deemed profitable enough to be rebuilt. I am gonna keep it alive in a model anyhow…
Heres a video of a portion of the line if anyone is interested:
Have you considered a double-deck layout in that space? Since the shelves are basically quite narrow, you can have the 2 levels fairly close to each other vertically without too much interference.
I would think of the mainline, continuous loop on the bottom. Then, put some scenery with a series of switchbacks working up to the second level, where you can do logging/mining, and maybe an interchange yard to give you another reason to interact with the main line below.
