I model th BNSF’s Pikes Peak Sub. It is 120 miles long and runs from Denver, Colorado up over the divide and down to Pueblo Colorado/
Caldreamer
My plan has about 110 feet of mainline run, so just under two miles, I guess? It is supposed to represent something that would be about four miles.
I’m modeling an industrial belt line in Sacramento, CA. The prototype length of the area I’m modeling (from the American River to the Sacramento River around downtown Sacramento) is six miles. My HO point to point layout goes around about two-thirds of a 24x11 room, with a mainline run of about 50 feet, or maybe 3/4 or 4/5 of a mile? So the ratio of miles of real railroad to miles modeled is perhaps 6 or 8 to one, but I selectively compressed the right of way to exclude about two-thirds of the trackage where there are no industries or yards. I figure using a 6:1 or 10:1 fast clock to simulate operations (6:1 if I want to be more leisurely) would be about right to simulate a switching turn on my belt line, if I bother using operation more structured than “let’s move this boxcar over there”
I’m modeling the CNW Madison Sub in the 1950’s from Elroy, WI to Harvard, IL which is about 150 miles. I would guess my N scale mainline to be about 170 feet or so, which is only a little over 5 scale miles.
Scott
With every layout of mine, the distance from one fake town to the other fake town is supposed to be about 25 miles.
With the current layout that is located in two rooms, the 4 inch thick wall that has a hole punched in it for the trains represents about 23 of those miles.
The towns themselves take up a good amount of the space. A 15 foot section of rural HO scale track separates each town. One town is 17 feet long and the other about 25 feet long in a U shaped layout.
Hi Douglas,
Let’s see, 23 miles of track compressed into 4". That’s pretty amazing modelling!
Seriously, I’m betting that it works quite nicely. It is a prime example of how well a view block can work.
Dave
Yep, it works well since there is no good way to view the other room while standing in one room. The train leaves interchange/staging and as it approaches the hole, I step over to the other room. The eyes see the train entering the new room and the mind sees it as being a 24 mile journey, especially since the scenery is a bit different.
View blocks are a good thing.
I have no idea how many miles my layout will represent, but the way it has been designed, there will essentially be separate scenes to give more illusion of distance since most of us can’t afford an aircraft hanger for a layout with real distance.
I plan on scene dividers using hardboard that will create corridors of sorts to isoloate scenes and parts of the layout from other parts. I am not sure how I will mount them yet - still have to work that out.
I have designed a New York Central layout for the up and coming 20th Century Limited. No the train doesn’t stop in Ephraim, NY along the Water Level Route within the New York State Thruway system.
In reality I don’t really know how many miles I’m modeling since I got the switch tower, semi downtown train station with a warehouse and transfer maybe a REA building. A train yard as it’s own add on section. Which can modeled by itself. The only thing is missing abandoned textile mill next to a river.
In conclusion I’ll be guessing around 20-30 miles.
Yes sir. No better way to represent distance in a compressed space than different scenic elements seperated from view from one another.
This works well enough for me.
-Kevin
My current layout doesn’t really have any compression as it’s a little hard to compress a railyard. The whole thing is a backwards “G”. The top of the “G” is about 12’. The side is about 24’ (two corner pieces and two old 80" hollow-core closet doors) and the bottom of the “G” is about 8’. I have in the detached garage of my house. (My one requirement when I went house hunting was somewhere to put the railroad and the garage fit the bill.)
The visible track on my layout represents 42 miles of CNW track between Sheboygan and Fondu Lac WI with staging going to Marshfield WI. With about 110’ of CNW mainline and 20’ of MILW mainline on 2 levels it’s a little more than 2 scale miles.
Scott Sonntag
My railroad models the entire PRR Buffalo line about 300 miles. Mainline length is 1425’ in a multi deck 32 by 80 ’ room. Even with multiple levels there is a bunch of compression here and there.
My layout has about 130 metres of track on it, not sure how many TOs. The mainline is maybe 70 metres and represents the CPR Rocky Mountain railroading through British Columbia and Alberta.
About 150 ft representing about 60 miles. Will finish in a couple years with about 150 turnouts.