I have no need to reread Sheldon’s post since my five loop layouts was operated as out and back branch lines.I still perfer operatiing on point to point layouts where trains terminates in a yard or passenger terminal and needs to be switched…
There’s no experience like operating on a single track point to point layouts with passing sidings for meets and running completely different train on your return trip to your “home” terminal.
I doubt that many model railroaders “prefer” a loop if by loop you mean just one big circle or oval. I think what you are going to find is that most layouts incorporate one or more loops with point to point. If a layout is strictly point to point, it is going to get pretty labor intensive unless the layout is so large that it takes a lot of time for a train to run from Point A to Point B. Otherwise, it is all about starting and stopping.
My current layout is a continuous loop double mainline with point to point incorporated within the continuous loop. And the continuous loop is formed in a P-shape, if you will, so that the loop formation is not obvious. From start to finish, the double mainline is 168 linear feet, so the time to complete one loop is fairly long, virtually eliminating the thought of ‘here we go loopty loo’.
While trains are running in both directions on the double mainline, I can conduct operations on the point to point throught the use of a 10-track downtown passenger station, an 8-track passenger coach yard, a 9-track freight yard, and an engine servicing facility with turntable and roundhouse.
Rich
I prefer to have a loop of track on which to do “continuous running”. I can actually watch the trains just go round-n-round fro at least an hour before I get itchy to do some “operations”.
With a small “yard” inside my ovals, I can “play” with assembling/disassembing a train, for instance.
And assemblng, round-n-round and disassembling, I can easiy get about 2-3 hours of “play” out of my mini HO scale layout {3.5’ x 5.1’ !!}.
I can also play point-to-point, If I have the desire to, just don’t let them go all the way around…
But that is just me.
[8-|]
My design criteria calls for a point to point for operations but incorporating a loop de loop on the off chance that Larry should visit.[:-^][;)]
Cheers, the Bear.
After you get the layout built I’ll see if the board of directors of CDBI will let me use the company’s Lear jet… [:-^] [swg]
Yup. even on a 14 mile system runing the local train agfainst the wall is rather boring. This is why I automated the trains, and instead, run the railroad.
ROAR
I have incorporated loops in most layouts, actually took it out in my last layout since I never used it. I operated point to point on the last 4 layouts I’ve built. I don’ t reuse trains in an operating session. I do point to point because it matches my prototype and provides the feeling of actually running a train, more of a sense of going someplace.
Maybe I should offer a few more thoughts:
Again, my layout operates as point to point for operating sessions.
Only passenger trains are “recycled” in the same session - I model an era when passenger service was making its last big push.
My main visable yard is BIG, to handle long trains - I like long mainline trains - the yard is 20’ long - 1740 scale feet…
Even in my 960 sq foot layout room I don’t have space for two visable yards that size on each “end” of the main line - so I only model one yard/citiy/industrial area and model the traffic in and out of that “one place”.
BUT the main line sections leading from the staging to that “place” are long enough to give a sense of going somewhere else - just that somewhere else is not modeled.
Actually it is a bunch of “somewhere else places” because different diverging routes and interchanges leave the visable portion of the layout at different places.
So there is a sense that when you leave the modeled portion, you are connected to the rest of the world - not just one destination…
Others will make different compromises, I will not compromise the abiltiy to run long trains, I will not compromise the ability to have display running for visitors.
I don’t really want to model every functional feature twice…
What I do works for me.
I have friend who models the PRR - his layout fills a 1200 sq ft basement and has three decks - but his trains never leave the Baltimore metro area of the PRR in 1946. He has a 10 foot long model of Baltimore’s Penn station complex - its all in what your interests are. His layout is great fun to operate - his mainlines all go off stage to loop staging.
Sheldon
I am contemplating a new layout that would model Dearborn Station in downtown Chicago with its stub end 10-track stub configuration. Leading out of the station would be the C&WI 4-track mainline to Alton Junction and beyond.
Alton Junction is a mere 13 blocks from Dearborn Station, and it would require 42 feet of layout space to reflect the prototype. So, like Sheldon’s example, I would need 42 feet to represent only 13 blocks, a little more than 1 1/2 miles to scale.
But, trains would disappear from the main layout into a hidden reverse loop so that the illusion of time and space would be there before the departing trains reappear. The reverse loop would also be used to re-route the trains to the C&WI coach yard off to the side of the main layout, so that they need not immediately return to Dearborn Station.
Completing the layout would be a continuous loop around the periphery to accommodate non-Dearborn trains, mainly freight. That continuous loop would not be obvious when viewing the main layout which would be devoted to the prototype run from Alton Junction to Dearborn Station.
As Sheldon said, it’s all in what your interests are.
Rich
Rich,
That sounds like a great layout concept - go for it!
She
Sheldon,Staging to staging with a large center yard isn’t a bad idea-you can have run through trains stop for crew change(in theory) and you can have trains to originate or terminate in that yard.
I was a member of a club that had two small yards with two staging yards and the end results was the visitors never had to watch the same trains since the trains could disappear into staging or terminate in one of the yards.
The biggest crowd pleaser was watching switching operations or watching a steam or diesel engine take a spin on the turntable.Kids love watching that!
Ever watch one train enter the yard while another was leaving? Quite the crowd pleaser. There was always train movement on the main lines or in the yards.
BTW…The staging yards was connected by a hidden track so loads always went North to either a off layout lake port or power plant (aka North staging) and the empties South to the off layout mines(aka South staging).
I prefer a single track mainline with return loop to return return loop and staging on both ends. The return loops can be automated if I want to just watch a train run. On the layout I am currently building, at a scale 40mph it will take a train 12 1/2 minutes to get from the lower return loop to the upper return loop (and 12 1/2 minutes to return back to the lower return loop) so it’s not like it will be a very fast repetitive back/forth. 
I am modeling the UP single track main from Ogden to the north so the lower return loop represents east headed to Cheyenne and the upper return loop represents north to Pocatello.
The layout also has several fairly long branchlines that end in stub ‘points’.
Exactly Larry - my layout plan allows all that same kind of action. So why do all those features twice on a small scale, when you can do them once on a less compressed and more prototypical scale?
Sheldon
I like the loop. That way the train well always comes back, sometimes.
I did to point to point designs for my HO trains because there’s no more to add the curve track to make a loop. I got frustrated getting up and down to see where the engine must be. Technically it would be fun, but it’s not.
I played with both styles or versions and I prefer the loop. You know what’s weird I have HO Scale turnouts but not in N.
My layout is being designed point to point, but I am designing in “cheats” that let me divert a train into a loop to kick back and just run. Important for testing engines/breakins whatever. The design is thicker than the explanation is but thats the basic -it-.
What some people are describing is what I think is the best layout design, point to point operation where the two points are connected, allowing for continuous running when you want it. There only needs to be a convincing scenic break at the area where the two points connect if the connection is not totally concealed from the main layout.
My next layout will follow that approach. My interest is modern short lines with short trains. Trains are made up and originate at the interchange yard (about three tracks) for delivery to a major industry several miles away, spotting cars at industries along the way. The interchange acts as staging for cars entering and leaving the layout and will be connected to the major industry’s spurs, with concealment of the connection facilitated by backdrop, scenery, and the large building itself.
Mine is a double track main with 2 loops and 2 reversing loops inside of the inner main. Aso there are two cross overs, With this set up the trains can go from one main to the other as well as reverse direction. Leads off the outer main go to the yard and a spur.
Keeping MINEFULL of how the turnouts are thrown in the biggest problem. I have indicators but still forget.
Bob
My current layout is two loops each through hidden staging. The staging allows the illusion of point-to-point but the continuity of the loops allow continuous running. Continuous running is enjoyable when I simply want to watch and listen.
D
My latest, in the early stages of construction, is a walk-in, around-the-room design shaped as a bent capital E. It has a single track main that forms a loop by each end connecting to double end staging which is hidden at the lower level of the middle peninsula. The staging also has reversing loops for each direction and separate loop tracks that serve as the loads-in, emptys-out feature for the coal colliery-coal dock traffic.
This allows me to operate a train in a continous loop, or retrace its steps as a turn, or to magically re-appear as another train at either terminal.
Jim
I’ll toss this in for fun…At the aforementioned club the staging connecting track ran along the South wall of the meeting room since that was the only place we could put it…
I suggested that location as a joke but,the thought stuck.