I am in the process of putting together my new layout. It will be 10 feet long by 4 feet wide. I want to model the coal ops of BNSF (meant to put that in my name—now someone else has BNSFrailfan) in Nevada or Montana. —But, won’t that kinda limit me to realistically only running coal units. Or can I just have the one side of the layout be the moutains ect. and then run into flat lands. I think 10 feet of space is kinda tight for that. I also want to run other trains; grains, locals, chems and whatever. I also want a diesel facility and a yard in the center. ( I really do think 10 feet is too small for a point to point) With two mainlines running around the outer edge of the layout I have seriously considered cutting out the deck girder bridge. (or cutting the second mainline). The coal mill will (hopefully) be on a 2’ by 3-4’ extension off to the side, not in the middle or on the mainline.
Am I just to obsessed? How do you think it would look, should I just not worry about it.
Might I suggest two tables connected with a big drop-down bridge to give access to the water heater? Say, a small table on the top wall and a larger table on the right wall with a drop-down between them.
The reason I’m thinking like this is that you know as soon as you get most of the scenery done that water heater will need replaced. It’s murphy’s law!
A drop-down, even a very well sceniced one, could help a bunch in this situation.
Anther thought would be to do it like a modular setup. You could do the loop with the open pit like your last drawing and just make the two center sections removable in case of emergency.
You might also think about posting this in the layouts section of the forum as it will probably get a better response there.
How high are your bookcases? Floor to ceiling? Could you possibly put one reverse loop in lower right corner and another reverse loop in upper left corner, with rest of layout being a one-foot deep shelf along two walls, and far enough out or with removable access for heater. Is it a WATER heater or a room heater?
Why would a line serving a coal mine preclude other kinds of traffic? Any model railroad that represents a main line railroad can only represent a shorrt segment of a line that goes on and on. Most of the traffic is coming from somewhere else and going to somewhere else. Why not a coal mine in the mountains that is on a through line?
What kind of yard are you talking about? A division point where crews change-- or one where cars from a number of different routes are shuffled. (I don’t even have a yard on my layout at all, but have staging and wish I had more…)
You could close up the bookcases, build a return loop atop the closet, cross over the door and around toward the heater, over the top and around and down to the wall and away from the heater, curve to kiss the doorway, back toward the heater and a final return loop. Hey! It beats running in circles!
I HAVE AN HO LAYOUT TOWN Date mid 1940’s, in the country, passenger station, non operating wig wags &
Lazor-Activated Operatiing w/sound Crossing Gates & Semaphore signals plus yard-house.
It’s 10’ long x 16" wide ‘Point-to-Point’ and an Overshoot that, not to Scale hill climing in 4.5’ 6" high and curving to the left over my desk extending 4’ to a 20" long-Double-Track Brass-hand-built Truss–bridge along
w/white-capped-mountain & Trees. The curve is inner passing track 19 degrees & outter main 21 degrees.
SD 9 3 truck loco Proto will make the curve thru 2 truck GP’s & Switchers & F-units. Alco PA’ will jump the tracks due to their Large long wheel-base. Steam engines like my Mountain 4-8-2 will Also do the curve.
Small 3 track yard switching into the yard house siding . Passing station yard is several switching tracks
short into a Sizzors-Peco Switch from the Main line to the yard/station house and passenger station.
I’ve added street lites and a tunnel from the yard under the mountain for realism, horses & reindeer plus
shrubs, trees, fencing , car/trucks & People. I also added 3 Background scenes =9 feet long x 3 foot high from ‘INSTANT HORIZONS" company but "FALLER’’ company has them too. REALLY HELPS in Prototype!
Hope that gives you some insite!
I guess i don’t understand your situation do you live in a apartment or do you have a huose. If you live in a house does it have a basement. What i am trying to say is why do you have so little space to work with. Im a BNSF fan to. santaferailroad
Close your eyes and dream about what you want, then build it. It’s your railroad. Start simple, then expand as your needs and skills improve. Just have fun!
oh yeah, forgot to mention that I live in an apt. in NYC. That room is a lot ot real estate to the people around here. Most of the people I know who simply aren’t rich (some are) live in either studios or 1 bedrooms.
I love the idea of a helix, but dont’ have room for a 4x4 thing. I think I will let the grade go up over the whole length of the layout; a larget spiral instead of a small one. —More wood. And that book, by Ian Rice, I will definitly look at that. I did just join a club with a 65’x35’ layout. It’s beatiful and about 80%done. I will post images of that helix if I do build it. thanks for all your help.
You can put a lot of railroad in that space if you plan it right. One thing to remember is that the track does not have to run parallel with the walls! For a compact area, it’s more important (I think) to make use of the available space on a single level than on two levels with a big space-eating helix. Be mindful of air rights: by placing the layout at a height of 48-52" off the ground, could it run above desks, bookshelves, etcetera, on a 1’ or so wide shelf around more of the room? This would give you more room for branch lines or yards or other increases to the mainline run.
One thing to consider if you’re modeling coal hauling is a hidden Loads-In/Empties-Out type operation: essentially, full coal trains come out of the coal mine and empty strings of coal cars go in, while full coal trains enter a powerplant or other coal-using industry and empty strings of coal cars come out–because the two industries are connected via hidden track. A handy trick and a good way to hide a loop.
Then you can go around the walls of the entire room with a narrow shelf over top of the desks and bookshelves. This will give you a much longer mainline run but still leave the center of the room very accessable for other uses such as an office or library. Use removable or drop down sections in front of the closet and doorway.
The only consideration relative to going high that may be a hinderence is your desire for a yard. You generally want yards lower so you can see the cars in multiple tracks. You would either need to somehow lower the track (helix or steep grade) or raise yourself with a step up box or step stool.