Following the feedback on my post of a modified West Deerfield Industrial Park track plan, I decided to try and design a plan of my own. My only problem is I am completely stuck as to where to begin. I have some ideas, but I just can’t seem to get them put to a beginning track plan. I am hoping that the community here will help me get started.
The layout must be a wall mounted shelf layout, no more than 16" deep. The space available is rather odd, due to one wall having a 4’9" wide window centered in it that cannot be crossed. This limits my available wall space to an “L” shape of 116" on the west wall and 31" on the north wall. I’m not sure if the 31" “L” is even worth using.
My preference is an industrial switching style with the following givens:
Freelance (or proto-freelance) - I have two Athearn Genesis MP15AC locomotives that I will repaint and use for motive power. The locos will be either owned by the industrial park/industry or be a fictional railroad company.
In addition to the two switchers, I also own (3) Atlas DOWX - Dow Chemical plastic pellet hoppers (20002510), (1) Walthers National 6200 Plastic Pellet hopper (932-7155) and the Walthers Plastic Pellet Transfer Facility (933-3081). Given this, I would like to include some type of plastics industry in the layout. I have a very small amount of Atlas code 83 sectional track also. All of this was purchased about two years ago, but I never got around to building a layout.
I don’t have any specific location in mind, but I am considering western Utah as that is where I grew up. Era is to be modern.
I was thinking about modeling the area of the Peterson Industrial Depot (formally the Utah Industrial Depot) as shown on
Personally, I think the short “L” would be useful, so I’d definitely plan to include it.
This 2’X9’ HO layout was designed for transition-era freight cars and so might be a little tight for longer modern cars. And it was designed around a specific set of structure models that the client wished to incorporate, so it doesn’t match your interests exactly. He also wanted more space dedicated to engine storage than many would need. With the “L” you have more length, which is great and will allow you to spread things out a bit. But it shows some principles that one could include in any small switching layout.
Many real-life switching areas incorporate a pair of tracks with crossovers to allow runarounds and to provide switching leads. I’ve called them “running tracks” here, but they go by various names. This layout also includes a small interchange yard as a place for cars to arrive from and be switched to. This could be imagined to be a connection another railroad or a place where cars are set out for switching by your railroad. (This is the equivalent of the staging yard that is important but was left off the published track plan for some reason.)
While it’s a bit west of Western Utah, the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park just east of Reno, Nevada would make an interesting prototype. Located along UP’s transcontinental mainline it has 10 degree curves (sharpest allowed by UP) and 2.2% grades. BNSF has trackage rights so both serve the industrial park. For scenic interest there are wild horses roaming the area, and the imfamous Mustang Ranch brothel is in the park.
Have you considered using a liftout section to span the window? It only needs to be in place when you are running trains. In fact, if you were to do something like Byron’s plan you could operate without the liftout in place if need be.
That 31" actually adds an additional 26% of length to your 116" layout. One single 31" track could hold three or maybe four modern freight cars. I would definitely make use of the space.
In addition to a one (or maybe two) car spot (assuming a sharp radius curve), like a team track, the short L could be useful as a curved “tail” track at the end of a runaround. No coupling of cars needed, which is sometimes tough to do on a sharp curve. You can have the entire curve be a tail track for the loco and a few cars or you can use a curved turnout at the end of the runaround and use the short tail as an engine escape.
Curving the tail of the runaround would save space along the straight part of the layout.
I’ll talk to my wife about this tonight. That may be doable. My plan was to build this using a set of bi-fold doors. This may change the layout dimensions, but would allow me to build without cutting the doors. As a side question: How many posts do I have to make to get off moderated status? Thanks, Kent
Actually, you can cut the bottom off of hollow core doors but you have to replace the wood strip that forms the bottom of the door slab. If you don’t have the tools needed to cut a proper sized strip you can peel/chisel/grind the door skin off of the original strip and re-glue it inside the door. Nuisance job!
Change of plans. After reviewing our lease agreement, I’m not allowed to mount shelves to the wall. Due to other furniture in the room, this will seriously limit my available space. Because I will now need some type of benchwork, I’ve remeasured and the maximum space I have is just over 80 inches.
Given my new limitations, I am leaning toward building Lance Mindheim’s Palmetto Spur. I’m still thinking of building this on a hollow core door and mounting the door on some sort of benchwork. This will be my first layout, so I’m trying to keep it simple. I would like the benchwork to be removable so the layout can be easily moved. Time to start looking through the digital archives and videos for some benchwork ideas.
Lance does great work, of course. But personally I like the challenge of at least one spur facing in the opposite direction, necessitating the use of a runaround. Some sort of staging/interchange is also a plus for me. Both are possible in 80" of layout length in HO, assuming you have some depth.
Note also that layout legs need not be at the ends of the benchwork (in fact, they shouldn’t be). A bit of overhang works fine – folks with engineering backgrounds suggest placing legs 1/5 of the way in on each end (this helps reduce a tendency to sag). That might allow a bit more length overall, depending on the rest of the room.
If your hollow-core door doesnt perfectly fit your dimensions, you can make a good surface out of 1" XPS foam supported by metal studs. For a shelf sized layout this would be easy and pretty cheap. Metal studs can be cut to size with a simple pair of tin snips and glued/screwed to each other and the foam. This way you can build it to the perfect size, and plus it’d be stronger and stiffer than the door and not be affected by humidity the way wood products are.
For the benchwork I suggest just making a simple table frame out of 1x3s. Since it’s going to be tall and narrow, I would advise tying it to the wall with a drywall anchor. For securing the layout surface to the benchwork, I think I’d just let gravity do it, with a couple vertical protrusions coming up from the benchwork that slide into matching slots on the layout so that it can’t fall off, but it wouldn’t transmit warping/expansion forces from the benchwork to the layout.
The depth is 18 inches maximum. If I put it at the height I was initially planning, I may be able to get some more lenght, I’ll have to check. If I can, and I decide to make it bigger, I may want to do it as some kind of modular layout, to make it easier to move.
If I’m thinking about the same type of metal studs you are, I didn’t know that they could be cut that easily. I’ll have to check that out. The would be used to replace wood studs in walls if used as intended, correct? It is something to consider. Construction won’t begin until spring as I don’t have an insulated/heated garage to work in.
I have, hopefully, attached an image of my floorplan below.
As indicated, wall “A” has a set of French Doors that lead into the living room. These are currently closed and blocked by two folding tables that are 62 inches long. They but up against wall “B”. I am using them as my desk for my computer and printer. I may be able to consolidate this onto a single table.
Wall “B” has a 57 1/2 inch wide window.
Wall “C” is where I am currently planning to place my layout. The available space along wall “C” is 119 inches.
The chair in the corner of walls “B” and “C” measures approximately 38" square.
If I can consolidate everything onto a single folding table, that could possibly be moved to the corner of walls “A” and “B”. It cannot be relocated to another room.
I’m willing to rearrange things if any of you have an idea of a better use of space.
I am also willing to consider switching to N-scale if needed, although that wouldn’t be my preference.
If i were you i would strongly consider the adivice Dave gave a few posts back about a liftout section in front of the window on wall B. When you are not running trains you can set this sction somewhere else. When you are just place it in and go. That would give you another 10 ft on wall B plus what you have on wall C. Whats is in the middle of the room? Could you scoot the chair up to sit in front of the bechwork in that corner?
Or make the entire section along Wall B removable. When not in use it can be stored on brackets above or below the section along Wall A. It might be 8 feet long or so, but shouldn’t weigh much. When attached you’d have a 10-foot by 9-foot L-arrangement. Not bad.
Just to clarify, the chair is from our living room set. When we moved there wasn’t room in the apartment living room for the chair so it was put in my “office”. I could move it to the center of the room when running the railroad, I’m just not sure if it would interfere with benchwork legs, due to its size.
I’m not sure about removable sections. Since this will be my first layout, I would like to keep it fairly simple. Mounting on brackets is not an option. My original plan was a shelf layout on brackets, but after reviewing the apartment lease mounting brackets on the wall is a violation of the lease.
