Hi All,
I am totally new to model railways. Although I am itching to get started, from what I have read, it is planning, planning and planning. So I have been fiddling around with a number of designs on the Atlas RTS software (so cool! Talk about keeping me up at night). I have adapted a design that I saw on the Thortrains website and will be looking at implementing it. However I would at first like some comments from more experienced people as to where I may be making errors or could improve on the layout. I have based the layout on the 1m x 1m (approximately 40 inches x 40 inches) that I have available for a base board. Again due to space constraints, it will be modelled in N-Scale
Any comments will be appreciated.
Cheers, Justin
I have a couple of observations (aside from the obvious one that the purpose of the hobby is to have fun, and the best way to have fun is to try stuff, see what works for you, learn from it, and try again – a layout plan is not carved in stone).
The first observations is more of a question – how many trains do you think will run at one time? Given the size of this layout I would think one, maybe two. Given that, do you really need the double oval in the middle of the plan? A lot of good space for buildings, roads and scenery (all of which are fun to do) is taken up with track – but it is not easy to see what the purpose of all the track is. Notice the annual project layout in Model Railroader and how they have just a few turnouts and sidings, usually a run around track or two, but leave plenty of room for scenery and roads and buildings. They do not fill the space with tracks.
Second observation is that given how many turnouts you have on this plan – and turnouts are not cheap – the opportunities for local switching are not that many. Once the layout is in place, just running the train around and around gets a bit old and local switching is one way to spend a busy hour or two running trains where otherwise you might stop after 20 minutes.
So you want to look for (meaning, create) situations where your train starts out, and can back into a turnout to switch that industry, then move on and switch the next industry, with room for buildings to represent the factories or whatever. Room for buildings seems a bit cramped in this plan. To plan right you need to really know sizes of buildings etc. Part of the reason why things seem cramped is that some of the sidings look rather long to me. This is OK if there are multiple industries on each siding – that can increase the challenge of local switching because if you move just one car you have to put the rest back where you found them – but I did not
Hi and welcome.
You are right to plan, plan, plan. But you also have to learn a little as well. A good place to start is my Beginner’s Guide–the link is in my signature. It takes about 5 minutes. After that come back and tell us what you like about model railroads and where your interests lie.
If you can get to all sides of the layout, then reach is no problem. However, if this layout is more-or-less permanently placed against a wall, then getting to the back side will be difficult.
The general rule is that 30 inches is the maximum useful reaching distance. Since my layout is 60 inches wide and I can get to both sides, I can say that this is a pretty good number. It’s awkward, but you can do it.
Your plan does have a big open space in the middle. You might consider a “liftoff” section there so that you can get to the interior without too much of a reach.
Hey, welcome to the forum!
40"x40", huh? That’s tight indeed, even in N. You’ve got a lot going on in the 40 inches though. I’m guessing you’re going to be using a lot of building flats to save space. even with that though, you need to have some room for scenery and there’s not a lot of that on this plan. Thats not a deal breaker though.
I’m curious what your plan is for the siding at the top just to the left of the center. There’s no room for a building or even an unloading ramp there. Come to think of it, you might think about losing that siding. It may very well cause sideswipes with the cars on either of the adjacent curves. Speaking of sideswipes, you may have that issue on both sides of the plan as well. Eliminating that one siding I talked about before might make it possible to tighten things up on the outside loop just a bit to eleviate that problem.
The others make some excellent points as well. And the John Armstrong book…get it, really. It’s worth every penny you pay for it.
You might check out this site as well. It’s loaded with small plans that you can get ideas from. http://carendt.com/microplans/intro.html
One last thing…aks questions. Ask lots of them. Not only do we like to answer them, you get to tap into the knowledge of some truely great modelers that hang out here. It’s a win / win situation!
Hi all,
Thanks for the feed back, I will go back to the drawing board and simplify the design a bit. I may be trying to cram too much into a small space and do too much with my first layout, better to keep it simple then?
Sorry for what may be a stupid question, but what is the difference between a siding and a turnout?
Cheers,
Justin
Not a stupid question at all!
A turnout is the piece of track that allows a divergent course for the train to follow. Said another way, it’s the diverging angle of a turnout is measured in numbers. For example, a no. 6 turnout, (sharp in prototype use, but common on model railroads,) spreads one foot for each six feet of forward travel measured from the frog (The portion of a switch which is grooved for the wheel flanges named for its resemblance to a frog. Frogs guide wheels from one track structure to another. Also a type of rail crossing allowing two sets of running rails to cross each other at grade level at an angle of less than 90 degrees.). A siding can be configured several ways, but it’s basically an auxiliary track for storage, servicing of industries and lineside customers, or for trains to meet each other. A parallel siding that diverges from the main and rejoins it one train length or greater is called a Passing Siding. Single ended sidings are also called Spurs.
Clear as mud, right?
Here’s a demo of what I’m talking about. (click to enlarge)
Here’s the parts of a turnout.
Now let’s try something a little more advanced. This is a Lapped Siding. It allows trains to pass in two different directions at the same time, all while switching the siding takes place. Only busy lines would likely use this setup.
Philip, Thanks for the explanation. Will have to go and read it slooowly, but I more or less get the gist of it. And I thought trains just went from point A to point B1 Cheers, Justin