My designs just don't work

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I’ve been trying for the past several months to come up with a suitable layout design that will fit my available space. But it’s jut not working out. My space is the dinning area of our apartment, and is 8 feet by 12 feet. The boundries of this area are as follows, South side opens into the living room, the West side is taken up by a big window, the North side a bare wall, and the East side is the countertop that seperates the dinning area from the kitchen.

I’m trying to come up with a railroad that is loosly based upon the Sierra Railway and the Virginia and Truckee. It is to be set in the late 1920’s to early 1930’s. I’ve got a good idea of what I want but when I put it down on paper it just seems that I am able to pack more into my space than whats really available.

Here is the list of things I have to have:

Continuous running

A short branch that goes upgrade to an ore mine

Engine servicing (no turntable, not enough space)

Hidden staging

A small yard (I’m trying for three tracks, but I believe that I’ll only be able to fit two)

I think I can do away with the ore mine, and just have a small transfer track to xfer ore from narrow gauge to dual guage. I have to have ore though because I want to use my Westerfield ore cars.

I also want to include a cattle pen or two, some kind of small factory, a team track, a cannery, and a feed mill.

My locomotives are small an old MDC 4-4-0 kit, MDC 2-6-0 kit a Mantua 4-6-0 Rogers, and Spectrum 4-6-0.

Does anyone have an sugestions? I’ve thought about doing an around the walls layout but I would have to keep the height fairly low on the East side because of the counter top sticking out into the room. I’ve scoured the web for ideas but I can’t find any trackplans to inspire me for such a small space. I’ve tried designing a 5x9 foot layout but I would only be able to model one scene (which is fine with me).&n

2

Would help to visualize your problem if you drew a diagram of your space and posted it. I assume from the locomotives you listed that you are trying to come up with an HO layout.

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Yes it is HO scale. here is a rough sketch of my area. You can’t see it very well unless you click on it. The area off to the left is the Living room. At the top is the window, which isn’t a problem, I’m planning on covering it up with a backdrop anyhow. Thanks guys.

Jason

4

Could we back up a bit? Are you alone, or do you share the place with at least one other person? If you are by yourself, and can do as you please without incurring the wrath of a landlord, you may be surprised at what you can do.

Some people would use the counter top to the kitchen as part of the layout. After it is available for your use at some point in the evening, slap down an insert that would fit between two ends of the main that are high enough that the insert meets it levelly when it is resting on the counter. Just a thought…if space is really tight.

Without switchbacks, there is no way to gain elevation if you cannot spiral up to it via a peninsula or some other method. If you simply cannot build a peninsula or a bulge at one end, use switchbacks.

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What are the access requirements? I mean are duckunders OK.

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I live with my wife, and she doesn’t want to give up her counter space. In fact if I use anymore than the 8x12 very bad things are in store for my trains, lol. Duckunders are perfectly fine. I think my biggest problem is not being able to visualize what i’m drawing. The pencil line is actually my track centerline, and I often forget that. And I use a Mac so there’s not too much in the way of track planning software. What I’m thinking about is using an adaptaion of John Allens first Gorre & Daphetid stretched out to 5x9 feet. This is going to be the second layout I’ve ever built so I’m planning on simply using it as a learning curve. Jason

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have you tried XTrkCAD? i know that they have a java-based *nix version… they might have something for a mac as well…

8

Think about this:

The layout will be basically U-shaped, around-the-walls, with the open side to the left of the diagram. If I read this correctly, that’s the opening to the living room. The kitchen counter side (at the bottom of the diagram) will be a few inches lower than the rest of the layout. There will be a removeable bridge connecting the tops of the U, from upper left to lower left in the diagram. Overall, the width of the layout around the walls will be 30 inches. This gives you a 3-foot aisle in the center, which is spanned by the removeable bridge.

The basic height of the top portion will be high enough to give you a lower-deck which can contain some staging. As the tracks leave the low section by the counter, they split, with one branch going up to the other side of the layout, and the other going down into the hidden staging.

This should give you plenty of real estate for mining and industry, staging and reasonable grades. The removeable bridge allows a long loop for continuous running.

I did a quick calculation and came up with 67 1/2 square feet. (Dang! That’s more than my layout!) That counts only the top layer, so any under-table staging gives you even more. The bridge is more, too. You will find that not having tight loops at the ends for continuous running will give you more effective use of your space, too.

As for the bridge, you could make it either single-track or double. On this layout, you could easily have a double-track main line. Operationally, though, I think you’d have a lot more fun with a single-track bridge. You could use a single-track main with long passing sidings, or (my preference) a main line which is parallel double-tracks for part of the layout, but which takes different paths for most of its run. Even with a double main, put in some passing sidings for operational interest.

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Have you check out this month’s MRR (October). There is an around the walls layout with a removable center section. It is an 8 by 14 layout with a removable center section that also permits separate section. Since the author designed the layout with large articulated locomotives in mind and 30" minimum radius curves, your smaller locomotives could tolerate an 18 or 22 inch minimum radius which would allow the same layout to fit into your available space.

10

Try Empire Express for the Mac at http://www.haddonsoftware.com/

11

I want to thank everyone for all the help/suggestions. I finally found a trackplan that I like in an information station download. It is from the Best of John Armstrong Vol II. From the track plan below you are looking at it as if you were standing in the living room looking into the dinning area. The Yard at the bottom left will be on top of our entertainment center (my wife is going to let me use the entire 20 feet!!) so that will set the layout height at 60", well above the counter tops. I am going to redesign it so that the part of the yard nearrest the backdrop will be like an open staging yard. Thanks everyone. Jason

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Here is the plan to which Jason is refering: