I’m building my first model railroad layout. It’s 16’ long and 42" (3.5’) deep. I’m debating whether I should make it an island layout so that we can access both sides of the layout. I have a freight yard on one side and several spurs to industries on the other side. It’s a loop layout with 18" curves at the far ends. The spurs are on the wall side but are a stretch to reach. I’m 6’2" with long arms and can do it, but when all the buildings are in place I’m concerned about accurately uncoupling cars, etc. I’m fine with pulling it away from the wall, but would be bummed to lose the ability to have a nice backdrop which I would like.
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Most on the forum would judge your layout to have too narrow a radius given it’s large size.
I worked in my father’s mens store and you measure a man’s arms from the center of his spine to the wrist, with the arm bent 45 degrees held parallel to the floor.
I an 6’-0" and wear a 16" -35 shirt. That’s considered long arms. But I can’t reach anywhere near 35" because my my chest and shoulder uses up almost 1/3 of that 35". Unless you are leaning on the layout, I don’t know how you can possible reach that far, unless I misunderstand your layout or your knuckles touch the ground.
Electronic uncouplers can solve part of the problem, but you will need to scenic the layout possibly deal with a derailement over there.
Micro mark sells a platform that leans over the layout.
Welcome to the forums.
Layout height needs to be considered along with arm length. The higher your layout, the less you can reach. Do a mock up with something to represtnt trees and buildings
I agree that 18" is quite sharp for a larger layout, if you can, go bigger. Can you add 6" or so to the sides of the ends to give you the small blob effect and the ability ot have a wider radius?
You mention losing your planned backdrop. You could put in a backdrop/scenic divider down the center. If you make it high enough you will have to follow your trains, as they go out of sight. Mine is just high enough, so thaat I can’t see the action on the other side, but could communicate with another operator if one was there. My layout is short, so I operate mostly from the end. With a scenic divider you get double the backdrop space.
Have fun,
Richard
Those dimensions will require walk-around access during building, maintaining, and using the layout.
You can keep it that wide at the ends to maintain your curve radii, and narrow it in the middle by pushing the front track(s) toward the back, especially if you have access to both ends (i.e. neither end is in the corner of the room).
For most people, 32 - 36" is the absolute limit of reach with any dexterity, and that’s if the layout (including structures up front) is hip-high or lower so you can bend at the waiste. But that height tends to have you looking down on the layout, as from a helicopter or airplane, which displeasurably shows long cars/locos on short radius curves. At armpit height, 24" is probably the maximum easily-accessible width.
– Andy - Arlington TX
This bench is 18’ x 6’ and it is a little tiring reaching the turnouts in the middle at the top of the yard ladder. That will change when I add a few tortoises to flip the points. A three-foot reach is the absolute furthest I would go and only if it was for scenery. 30" is the most if you have to reach something on a regular basis.
Getting your radiuses up to the maximum you can fit will also make life easier and allow you to run more things. Could you widen the bench at the ends so it looks like a dogbone?
I am much shorter and can reach 30" for scenery work, about 27" to throw a switch but for uncoupleing, try about 20".
Height of the layout comes into play as well. The lower it is, the further you can reach in to a point.
Or a step stool may be needed to work on the back parts if the layout is higher and has some depth.
Before you build, draw. Sounds like maybe you’re halfway built and if so it maybe too late to do the planning in your head. Anyway, I’ve just done this planning part twice in a year, one is built and really works well. It started as a 9x5 table top and grew from there, adding a 22’x 2’ L shaped extension with 5’ return loop to create a walk in U. We used cheater arced “wings” added onto the outside edges of that return loop for extra radius. We used cheater wedges fitted into the inside right angle corners to get broader radius curves than a 90 degree corner would allow.
Doing that again we would not build anything that wide. Fortunately, it’s going to a new location where the table top portion will stick out into the room as a peninsula which will partially solve that reach problem. A 30" reach is too far, 60" is flat out impossible.
Lessons learned from starting with a tabletop converted me to an around the room shelf layout with shelves from 12" to 20" wide built in 3’ foam based modules bolted together. Well, in theory the modules will “all” be 3’ x 1.5’ but one module is 6’ x 20" and another is 4’ x 1’, just to fit the room dimensions efficiently.
18-24" of width is plenty to display most of what a model railroad is about. That happens to be a fairly easy reach from one side. It also facilitates a minimum radius of 22-24" curves which is the minimum you’re going to want to use for any return loops. 18" works but unless it’s hidden in a tunnel it really doesn’t look right.
If you have space for a 42" wide island or peninsula you actually have room for a much wider layout if you turn it inside out.
Think in terms of standing inside your layout looking outwards rather then inwards across a table. “Round the room” is so much more flexible than “Around the table”.
Conceptually, a model railroad goes from here
With an island, you can have a backdrop down the center, so you get TWO backdrops! This also makes the layout seem much bigger because you can’t see the whole thing from one spot.What happens on one side is out of sight from the person running trains on the other side.
However - before building a large island - sketch out your room. If you have room to pull a 16’x42" layout away fromt he wall and have enough room to walk on both sides, you likely have room for something more open and around the walls - again giving you a LOT more backdrop, but now with no reach issue. Doors, closets, and other things that need to remain accessible in the room can interfere witht hat though, which is why it’s important to sketch it all out and plan before starting to slap lumber together. But an around the room type layout gives you more track to run on, the train isn’t chasing its tail constantly, and you can use larger radius curves where your equipment will look and run better.
–Randy
There are pros and cons to an island as opposed to around the walls. As with everything, there are going to be trade offs and you have to decide what is most important to YOU. I do agree with the comment that 42" wide is a little narrow for an oval. It’s going to limit you to 18" radius track which will in turn limit what kind of equipment will run reliably and look good on curves that sharp. A double sided backdrop is a great idea for an island or peninsula. For at least ten years I have had in my mind to build a 4x8 winter layout which I would bring out around Christmas time along with all the other decorations. If I ever get around to it, it’s going to have a double sided back drop. Also, such a back drop doesn’t necessarily have to go down the center of the layout. You could angle it so it is at a diagonal or you can have more room on one side of it than the other and use the narrow side for a small staging yard.
If you go for an island layout, I would try to widen it out to allow bigger curves. Increasingly, new HO products are built with a 22" minimum radius, and many passenger cars need at least 24" radius.
At one time long ago I had an 8’ by 16’ HO layout with one long side up against a wall (with a backdrop). I liked having broad curves, but it required a couple of ‘pop-ups’ - openings where I could get in to work on or fix things. Eventually I rebuilt it to a free-standing layout in sort of a peanut or hourglass shape - six feet at each end, but about 4’-6" (IIRC) in the middle. That allowed for reasonably large curves, but the narrow middle greatly helped reaching the interior of the layout.
If possible, see if you could build the layout 42" wide in the middle but say 54-60" or so wide at each end. Keep in mind the broader curves won’t just allow you to run more equipment - even engines or cars that can take an 18" radius curve will look better on wider curves.
Having a 24" deep layout is prob the most I’d go. I’m 5’8 and have a layout that’s 48" high. Those dimensions enable me to get what I need w/o too much trouble.
I totally agree with Randy, and can’t imagine ever going back to a table-top style of layout, where the curves are often too tight, and the train is usually chasing itself.
Wayne
The around the room layout has (IMO) a lot of advantages and I’ve had two of them (1994-2008, 2008-2020). The main level was about 46 inches (I’m 5-10) and the minimum distance from the wall was 3 feet. If I had a bigger room (mine was 11 1/2 x 15) I could have kept the max width to 3 feet and still work in all the features I wanted. Anyway, I did some things that made the excessive width somewhat tolerable and thought I’d pass them along.
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I made two 1x1x1 ft blocks using 1x12s, and covered them with carpet remnants. They looked good, and made a nice portable step up to allow me to more easily reach further distances. They also gave kids a better view.
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I did my best to make the furthest distance trackage bulletproof. Especially on the second layout, I succeeded.
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When scenicking, I worked from the furthest distance inward. This allowed me to get on the closer areas w/o damaging anything. I also had some thick foam pillows for the ol knees.
Really, if the layout is well designed and built, you shouldn’t have to reach those far areas all that much…
Always the best practice.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who pushed the limits when it comes to layout depth. I like deep scenes although the downside is you are going to spend more time and money scenicking them. A couple years ago Tony Koester wrote an article about the advantages of narrow shelves with minimal scenery.
Most of my around the room layout has 3 foot wide benchwork. Most of the trackwork is near the front of the benchwork which means I don’t need to do a lot of reaching. The exception is where my main classification yard is. I have an industrial beltway on the opposite side of the main in that area and it sometimes requires a little bit of reaching. I could do it while standing on the floor but I find it easier to use a step stool. T
When I built my new layout, I wanted to replicate the entire area around Dearborn Station in Chicago, including the complex of 13 large freight houses. I figured that I needed a length of 30 feet and a width of 5 1/2 feet to do it justice.
I had the necessary 30 feet of length, but I only had 10 1/2 feet of available space for the width due to the location of the furnace. The basement manager demanded a minimum aisle of 4 feet between the layout and the furnace. So, that left me with 6 1/2 feet for the width of the layout.
Obviously, there was no way that I could reach into the layout 6 1/2 feet. So, I decided to create a 2 foot wide aisle on the other side of the layout between the edge of the layout and the basement wall. So, now I was down to 4 1/2 feet (54 inches) of layout width, enough to easily reach in 27 inches from either side but 1 foot short of the width needed to replicate the entire Dearborn Station track work.
My solution was selective compression. Instead of 4 tracks per siding for the freight houses, I went with one track per siding.
Rich
OK… all is good here.
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You are building, not just arm-chairing.
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It sounds like you know it is your first layout, but not your last.
Here is all the advice I will give you…
Just Build It And Have FUN!
All this thinking, drawing, and analyzing will not amount to a small hill of beans compared to how much you will actually learn building your first layout.
Eventually, you will see all the things your wish you would have done differently and the layout will become un-fun.
Then take everything you have learned, including how far you can actually reach, tear the layout down, and build your second one. When you start your second layout you will have the valuable experience it takes to know which questions to ask and what answers are useful.
Have fun! (I know I said it twice, but it is the most important part).
-Kevin
Bear in mind that if you just blaze away and build it you will end up building it at least twice before you’re done. Paper and pencils are cheap. Time invested drawing out your plan pays back many, many times over while you finally build it. Don’t stop drawing just because you’re also building.
I read recently in MRR that the single most important aspect of model railroading is laying track accurately. That means, level across, level in line with vertical easements for grade changes, correct radius curves properly eased, s bends separated by straight easements and, most important, carefully laid turnouts.