This is my latest incarnation of the PRR Marginal Branch:
The green line is the main track of the branch. A through F are industries. The right end connects to the PRR main, the left is more of the branch. The tail on the lower right will be hinged or removable, possibly even a cassette. The trains will start the sessions here. As it stands I can only hold a switcher plus 3 or 4 cars on it, which is too few. (I’d like to have the capability for a switcher + cabin car + 6 cars, which will require almost 5 feet of staging.) I’d like to have a similar capability on the left, but I’m really stuck there as the layout is in an alcove about 18 inches deep so any length there will be a miracle. So. . .
Any ideas as to what I can do on the right?
How 'bout the left?
I can probably visually block the left exit with a building but the right tail will just be “out there” but scenicked if possible. Any opinions if that’ll look cheesy?
Am I expecting too much staging (You can never have enough, right?) or is a switch run with three cars in/three cars out reasonable?
BTW, the plan is still flexible if you have an idea that will solve everything, “if only. . .”
I don’t thing I saw this version of the plan. It’s come a long way and I really like it.
My opinion on staging is that it is what it is. Of course, the more staging the better and on a layout like yours, the more staging, the more varied your ops. But you have what you have in terms of space.
As to how it looks, if you can increase your ops by hanging out a car, hang out the car. Who’s to say what’s cheesy?
While ideally, you would want your staging out of site, what is really more important is out of mind. When you pull your train off, you want to know it is gone. So, maybe all you need is a scenic divide or a stand of trees. As to 3 car-staging on the right, can you add a turnout and get 5 if you break the train?
As to the left, any chance of penetrating the wall? Repairing drywall would be a snap for a master railroader like yourself.
I checked and this is the 37th plan I put on photobucket for comments - I’m sure I actually did about three times that. I’ve learned a lot from you guys.
Eh, that’s good point Mr. Mouse.
I probably could split the tail, and given that it is “just staging” there’d be no loss of realism. The negative is that move #1 would be making up the switch job.
I might be able to put something along the fillet there to act as a view block.
Naah, it’s actually sort of a bay window where the front of the house sticks out. A hole would give me plenty of space, i.e., I’d be outdoors! Originally the lower runaround was to be a storage track for the cars heading north (left), so maybe I can work with that.
Okay… assuming that you have some storage space elsewhere…
You’re clearly going to need to swing that LH end down so that you don’t have to go out through the wall/window and back in.
You can use “cassette” storage that plugs on to either end. A cassette is simply a channel of whatever rigid material you have available - can be ply, plain lumber (not so good as tends to need to be thicker) or a metal channel section. The best ones I’ve seen were Alluminium I girders laid flat. the shape gave rigidity and strength for the handling and they were really light even at about 5’long. The lower (inverted) channel gave the maker somewhere to fit the connecting mechainism which, in that case, included bi-pin plugs so that as soon as the cassette mated to the layout there was a power feed to run the train on or off the cassette.
You can have as many cassettes as you have trains and/or storage space for. Whether you keep locos and/or cabooses on the cassette is up to you.
It’s easier if you can arrange for the cassette to be plugged in and supported with the layout with a fixed frame that preferably stays in place all the time. That way you don’t have to worry about a lot of adjustment each time you start up.
You can possibly arrange to run through an empty cassette to a fixed storage (e.g. for locos if not whole trains). OR you can have a fan of storage tracks with either a feed through to a cassette at the end OR the switch that would lead to a front track. can lead to the cassette.
Where anyone has a small layout and so the cassette doesn’t need to be too long this system is good because your stock at least can sit in the cassettes and doesn’t need constant handling.
Clearly you need somewhere to store the cassettes in some sort of rack. This can be end fed… maybe behind a cupboard…
To stop things rolling out the end of a cassette you need end plugs, drop in gates or gates that drop like a
How about a hinged drop down with multiple staging tracks on the tail track on the right? You’d still need a storage method though unless you load up your tracks with cars at the end of a session.
Thanks Mr. The Train. I was thinking about cassettes and have saved a few articles on constructing them. As for storage, the layout will be about 50 inches high. I was already planning on storing thr cars on shelves (or something) underneath. I want to have a dust cover over the layout so removing the cars was already in the cards.
