I want to build a level of rail on a mountian but the mountian is only about 5 feet long and maybe 2 feet wide in the back of a 4X8 foot layout, moreover it has some tracks going in an out of it in the bottom.
So can anyone suggest some ideas working up the impossible???
I thought about building into the side of the mountian and have it shooting out little coal carts from a mining operation, but would that get old quck seeing the same train and cart zipping back and forth along the same line?
There isn’t anyway to get it down to the other tracks in such a short space, would it make sense to have it deliver to a staging area that dumps the ore into a line below it?
any ideas would be grand here… as I’m trying to work some excitement into the mountain with another train, yet dealing with a rather small area.
I think you have hit upon the solution with your “staging area” idea. Why not have a “dummy” narrow gauge where the ore or coal cars come “down from the mountain” and dump into standard gauge cars for delivery elsewhere on the layout? Sort of a transfer area, rather than a staging area, but would probably work well.
about what era my modeling is, well it’s just getting designed and frankly it seems like the club wants a big fudge factor in the era… I lean toward steam but I think it will be a fantasy layout with what ever anyone brings. We aren’t modeling any protoype that’s for certian. I guess it’s “everything” era
That stuff is just mind blowing! I followed your link and somehow ended up after looking here and there into stuff that fits into a shoe box, key board tray, and in the size of a piece of paper… anyhue I think I found a wonderful idea, HOn30 which I didn’t know what it was until a few minutes ago. With that in the mining operation (which makes sense it would be narrow 2 foot stuff anyways) I can really pull off something wild. Moreover I’m now really tempted to work up something for my own computer desk shelf rather than always just looking forward to the next operating session at the church all the time.
Yup… that site is full of interesting ideas. I am thinking about doing the “Best Railroad by a dam site”, but in standard HO.
I have a docksider that will stand in for a logging tank engine, and will find a couple of short cars, and maybe a 4 wheel “bobber” caboose for it to pull. With no switches to clear the 0-4-0 configuartion of the docksider should be ok.
I plan on replacing the dam with a trestle, and will figure out some other type of bridge - maybe a huge “logging” bridge to stand in for the swiss style stone bridge.
A common solution to working one’s way up steep hillsides was a switchback arrangements–the engine and cars would zig-zag back and forth up and down the side of a hill, often at very steep grades.
It might provide the opportunity to install a small narrow-gauge line, which would take up minimal space–a compact Climax or Shay with a couple of ore jennies could scoot up and down the mountainside at grades far too steep for mainline engines. These cars could dump ore into a loader most of the way down the mountain, and your mainline’s ore cars at the mountain’s base could catch the ore from underneath the loader.
You could even go standard gauge, but would need a little more space–there are plenty of examples of standard gauge geared locomotives out there. By going standard gauge you’d need more width but could theoretically take the cars down to “ground level” where they could be picked up by your main line.
If you’re modeling a more modern operation, you could use a small industrial switcher–a 25 or 44 ton GE diesel switcher is enough to handle a couple of ore cars in a foot or so of HO track.
You could automate it with a series of auto-reverse modules (the California State Railroad Museum has a wonderful example of this as a logging display) or it would provide a challenge for your most steady-handed engineer to set up and run manually–a narrow path requiring some patience and guidance, but with great rewards to one who stays on the path…