I’ve been working on my layout design and it seems that my plans keep looking like mainline prototypes. That is the kind of modeler that I am: I want to model the fast freights pulling long trains. But I second guess building a layout without switching in fear that over time it would get boring. Would a layout with no switching get old after a while?(Trust me this hobby will never get boring) I need help trying to figure this out. Does anyone have any input on this subject?
Not sure as I still have to finish building my table before I lay track. But, the more I think about it, since I’m going to start small (a ‘L’ shaped layout in a corner of my apartmentabout 4’ long each way), I’d say more like a ‘Local’ operation with several industries to switch and a yard for sorting/interchanging.
JP
I model the KCS (1981) from Kansas City to the Ozarks. The Kansas City area has lots of switching and interchange with the other railroads that also serve KC. Also KCS’ Knoche Yard (Joint Agency Terminal) is the southern terminus for the MILW RR with both railroads sharing the yard. The MILW is represented by a staging yard.
The prototype KCS main is just for hauling freright with very few branch lines and on line industry, at least at the north end of the line. This lets me put together long trains and watch them roll through the countryside. Right now the layout is a free standing two track modular (12’ x 20’) oval “plywood pacific” . My layout (dominoes) will eventuly run around the walls of a 25’ x 60’ basement. The modular layout has allowed me to run trains when I lived for many years in a rental home which did not have room for a layout. The plywood pacific has allowed me to expirment with benchwork construction, track laying and wiring.
The plywood pacific also has some switching and has allowed me to expirment with switch lists and car cards on a small scale to determing what might be best for the larger layout.
I do both. My layout is built for Continous run for the days i just want to watch them go by. I run long trains that are through freights. I mostly run locals.
Double track main line with several industries plus mountain line with several more.
There is a shared medium sized yard, and three (fake) interchanges with other lines.
Running trains in a circle (even a 100 foot one) gets old once in a while.
So does local switching. I like the variety.
I will have a 10 ft. local that will have continues run. Then there is the 24 ft mainline and there is a small switching yard connecting to the main line.
The track to the center is the local.
The track that is still taped in the mainline.
My layout is about 1/3 complete. Thats the reason for a lot of tape. But I can run on the 10 ft. track.
Later
Neal
Would you believe a long- and short-hauling mainline freighter with both heavy (unit coal train) and light (single car) local/industrial switching - all subordinate to passenger service ranging from commuter MU to limited express? If it ran in Japan in 1964, it probably has a place on my layout and in my operating scheme.
One exception - no bullet trains. The original Shinkansen ran through the coastal plains, and my layout is set in the inland mountains.
A loop of track with a town and some industries. I recently acquired a very small amount of extra right of way in the one room. Construction on the new area begins early 2007.
