Hello All,
This is an extension of a discussion of the thread, “Who Runs DC Only?”
In that discussion it deteriorated into not the hows (DC vs. DCC) but the What’s…
What’s your particular preference on layout design and operation.
My question is…“Loop vs. Point to Point…What’s your preference?”
And, here’s the kicker…don’t tell us why others fall short but rather why you enjoy your particular operation.
Looking forward to any and all civil answers.
Loop to loop works very well for me.
I have a long double track main line with a loop at each end. So, it is possible to have continuous running.
However, when operating, I can treat either end or both ends as points if I choose to do so.
OK,
I prefer continious routes with hidden staging because:
I subcribe to the theory of only modeling each feature once. One main yard, one sizable citiy, one big passenger terminal, one engine terminal, etc.
And then simulating the traffice in and out of this “city” or division point.
I also prefer double track mainlines.
So it runs like point to point for operation - but the two “points” are hidden and connected by staging.
So one staging yard does the job, not two.
And it is good for display operation when not being run for “operation”.
The balance of yard work and mainline running is better.
I also like to include seperate “belt lines” for most of the industries, keeping them off the mainline and generating even more diverse operation. The belt line becomes almost a seperate “ISL” (industrial switching layout) within the main layout.
Sheldon
i take a very similar approach, only with two loops that double back on themselves. This allows me to model the fourt-track Pennsy main line. I enjoy how this gives me the feel of pain to point and a train actually traveling from point a to point b, but still lets me just watch the trains and be a railfan.
Ditto.
I prefer a loop with a double main. That is what I worked with through three different plans in three different locations in my house before I actually built. In all three cases the two loops do tend to seperate as on went through a mountain and the other went over it. I have added a branch line that is to a point but it also has a return loop.
Staging to point…just like my prototype.
YES!
That is to say that the LION has BOTH. There are TWO Express loops, trains go round and round and round, and I never touch them. Oc course the layout is so convoluted, nobody knows that this is happening.
Then there is the poin to point. or tather a point to loop, that is the local track, it leaves 242nd street terminal, travels 4.5 miles to south ferry on the southbound track, turns the loop at the ferry and then return 4.5 miles on the northbound track. The round trip on this line is 20 minutes, and I ren many trains at once abour 4 minutes apart.
ROAR
Great news for you. BLI N Scale M1 is coming soon. I got to see it at a train show recently.
Point to point with some way of running it as a loop for visitors watching.
CZ
Mine is point to point with each end connected by a hidden return with staging tracks. My thoughts were that I could operate it, but be able to just let a train do loops when I just felt like watching. Do not know how it will work for me, because I ran one train upon track completion, then put tape over the track while I am doing plaster and rock casting.
Both.
Because variety is fun.
I don’t really have a preference.
My 3 rail O gauge is a loop eventually 2 loops with staging so I can have several trains set up even though only 2 run at a time.
My under construction S scale layout is point to point. But I plan to have a drop in bridge across the end points that will allow loop operation when I want it.
Enjoy
Paul
Point to Point…
Makes you feel like your going some where instead of (if I may) here it comes,there it goes,here it comes again and there it goes again and again and again…That’s what I saw and thought during this week’s county fair run a thon.After 3 days of that I was singing “Here we go loopy loo”. [:O]
I am in the process of completting my double track layout. It will feature a ten track staging yard that will be accessed from both ends of the layout so it will point to point, but track 10 (the nearest to the wall can be used for continuous running as well.
My track plan has both, simply because I want to have trains running “in the background” as it were, which I will have to dodge occasionally when I am doing my back and forth stuff.
Sounds like a good recipe for a cornfield meet actually![(-D]
Dave
Reread Sheldon’s post.
You can have a continuous design without around the Christmas tree style operation. A particular train would only run through the visable portion of the layout once. When it’s run is over, it is staged for the next session. This scheme is particularly useful when you’re running open top cars. Empty hoppers going in both directions is at least as disturbing as a train running laps.
If I had the space, my layout would be done in the same style as Sheldon’s. Since I’m building a multi-deck layout and have space to go up but not to get back down, I’m building loop to loop. I’ll just have to manually stage loads and empties between sessions.
I Run a loop layout with 7 track yard for doing switching. No room for staging. I do hide some track with a tunnel and buildings I am using as a view block.
My last two layouts were larger shelf types which naturally favor point to point, but I always put a loop in somehow. It can be hidden, of course or a larger natural turn around loop at each end.
I don’t like big yards a two or three line ladder track with no more than 5-8 cars at most. Most cars are spotted at loading and unloading points. Narrow gauge short lines have no need for large yards. Very few cars just sitting around in a yard.
Either or, makes no difference to me.
Well I am a DC 3 cab control user and have a elongated double track continuous main-line with industries in and out of both mains. One end of layout is a ISL 15ft long, that You only see one of the double track lines, the other is behind the industry background buildings, that leads into a 6 track double ended staging, that will hold 4 complete trains. I run a East/West arrangement, so one train can pull in and another will take it’s place. I know eactly how long it takes for a train to complete a transverse and when 1 train gets the furthest away, I can jump on one of the mains and go to an industry and clear the main before the train comes by…usually in the opposite direction. I did it that way so three operators can continuously run, without interferance from any other train. All industries, are well off the mains. I don’t need passing sidings…I use the Mains for that with eight crossovers. I can even pass a train with that set up. My only problem I have…is that I’m getting old…(73) and I’ll probably never complete, all the scenery. 8 1/2x 30x 6 1/2 and I took 20ft off of it…It was built in sections, bolted together 30 yrs ago. Time just went by too fast. I use 3 MRC 20’s, trains only…not used for anything else…everything else, has it’s own power supply.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank