I a new modeler so I hope I get some easy to understand replies. I’m building an N scale layout appox. 13x15 (so far) but it seems I have to much open space. great for scenery, yes but the I have aready laid a moutain in the middle. Its a figure eight layout with an L shape. I could put in a tunnel through the mountain but when it comes out it lands in a yard. It also looks as if my trains run in a circle with no destanation. Any advice??? |
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For a realistic looking railroad with a loop (circle) style layout you need to hide one side of the loop or put a backdrop (vertical board) between the sides. The idea is to not be able to see where the train goes after leaving the scene in front of you. This should be combined with staging tracks (hidden tracks connected to the mainline out of sight) so that you have a variety of trains appear in the visible scene instead of the same one over and over.
A figure 8 layout is usually not a good choice for scenic realism because the mainline looping back on itself is not realistic.
Enjoy
Paul
Having a considerable space for a layout has its dangers,in my mind.The worst one being to not pay enough attention to careful planning,ending with huge amounts of track that don’t really mean much in terms of operational value.I really believe that you should visit other layouts and/or join a club to have a real feel of what opartions feel like.There are also many track plans in books and on Internet that you could study and identify the points you like and don’t in order to draw yourself a plan that will be most interesting and worthy of the effort and investment.
Real wonders have been created on much smaller layouts thanks to careful planning,but the opposite exists too.And don’t forget that the bigger the layout,the bigger the task so having to tear down to begin all over because one isn’t pleased with the results is most painful and costly.
My club’s N scale layout isn’t much larger than the space you have and we have two main lines and a lot of action with sidings and spurs,so you obviously have enough space to do more than a figutre eight.My two cents…
Wyonate, agonizing over a track plan has probably put more gray hair atop my head than anything else I’ve ever done; with the possible exception of hand-wringing over my novel which doesn’t seem to ever get done. I have literally expended reems of paper sketching curves, and switches, and making scenery notations. In some instances it has taken less time getting the track down than deciding where that track is going to go.
There is a model rail on this forum with the handle of SpaceMouse and he currently has an active topic titled SpaceMouse’s Beginners Guide to Track Planning. As of the time of this post that posted topic is found over on page 5. It’s worth taking a gander at.
Thirteen by fifteen feet for a layout, particularly in N-Scale - my scale also, by the way - is a space a lot of people would kill for, and let me tell you somethig, you can squeeze a lot of N-Scale railroading into 195 square feet. That equates to just about 19.5 X 22 in HO and any HO-Scaler can tell you, that’s a space to kill for. I would take exception with SpaceMouse and recommend that you buy a couple of trackplan books - they can give you some good ideas on theme and layout. You want to avoid what is usually referred to as either a “pail of snakes” or a “bowl of spaghetti” - track running wildly and aimlessly in all directions.
Checked out your profile and, reading one of your posts, I see you hail from northern Wyoming; gonna guess somewhere around Gillette or Newcastle since you stated you lived at the entrance to the Powder River Basin - I have a certain acquaintance with the country thereabouts. I hail from eastern Idaho myself. Almost 50 years ago now I cowhanded on a spread above and a turn west of Forsyth, Montana. As ole’ Walter P. Chrysler used to say, “They took this boy outta Kansas but they never took Kansas outta this boy!” I feel the same way; those northern plains are still in my blood. My novel,
If you’re new, you may not want to fill that whole space right away. It may be overwhelming. I know the temptation is there to build in every square inch of free space, but you may want to take on something a little smaller. Like has been said above, you can fit a LOT of N scale railroading in that space. Think about what kind of time you’ll be able to devote to the layout and determine the size from there.
If you’re already underway with construction, the racetrack problem of having your trains go nowhere in a figure eight is not so tough. Again, like above, using scenic elements to block part of the loop from view is the quickest way. From and operations standpoint, you can turn one part of a loop into a double-ended staging yard. A westbound departs the yard, representing the eastern portion of the unmodeled part of your railroad. It travels timetable west once through your layout. When it arrives at the staging yard again, the yard now represents the western portion of your unmodeled part of the railroad. The train is now done for the session. Eastbounds do the same. With some creative yard design you can turn the engines and run back the other way, or wait until the next session. You can still run through the yard as many times as you like if you just want to watch 'em run.
Howdy Podnah!
Congratulations on your decision to model in N-scale! And you have LOTS of space to do so, which is really good.
Here are a few suggestions that you may or may not heed, but which have assisted me in determining my track plans for my own layout construction.
First, the foundation for any model railroad is the benchwork. In today’s mobile society, we tend to move a lot, so I decided that I’d build my layout in six foot portable sections which could be removed (with minimum effort) if I were required to move (I just moved to a new home last month and my layout is in the layout room, each section on its side, legs still folded up). I suggest, if you’re not too far along that you give this concept some consideration.
Secondly, the easiest way to make a functional model railroad that is fairly realistic (if this is what you’re after) is to choose prototype scenes that you’d like to model and incorporate them into your layout. These scenes are commonly referred to as Layout Design Elements or LDE’s. For instance, if you’d like to have tunnels on your layout, or mountains, or bridges, or engine servicing facilities, or industries, get out of the layout room, take your digital camera and go look for those things that a real railroad runs through and document them. There are lots of books availabe for many railroads both past and present that document many aspects of those railroads. So, if you can’t actually go to the place you like, there may be a book somewhere with plenty of pictures, trackplans and all sorts of information about what you want to model.
Thirdly, get some track planning software and learn how to use it. There are free ones available for your computer and some that you have to pay for. I chose CadRail and I’m very happy with it but I’m sure there are other programs that are equally as good. CadRail allows me to visualize what I want to build, and try out various co