I’m trying to figure out some layout ideas for my steam era ho scale layout, and have some general questions that perhaps you might be able to help me with: My room is about 11.5 x 22 and I’m trying to find layout shapes that might work well in that room size. I’ve many different ideas and this seems to provide a good use of open (people area) to track area. Its basically a wrap around the room with a couple of islands.
Like to haves:
Active yard
Passenger traffic
Heavy Main line run
Baltimore and Ohio and PRR themes.
Waterfront area docks (camden yards equivalent area)
Whoa I admire the ponies you got there. But you might want to reign them back in a bit.
It’s about the quality of the layout, not size.
A 11.5’x22’ is quite large even for a single decked layout. I think you’ll find, unless you are retired, it will take you several years just to do this well and maintain it.
That said, you might try to consider reducing it to 2 decks + staging level. Get the book on “Designing & Building Multi deck layouts” by Tony Koester. I think you’ll find your inter-deck spacing to be too tight to create a visually appealing layout. (Especially after you add faschia and boards which substract from viewable vertical height)
Helix’s are a popular way to elevate between levels. And there are tons of kits, articles and even a book on how to build them. As to hiding them most people just pass through a wall opening (tunnel portal, under a bridge etc…) and have access to the helix on the backside.
Big cities were often end stops for a number of passenger lines. They would then sprawl out into the country as they traveled their routes. For example the B&O’s capital limited really ran from New York to Baltimore and DC and Chicago. Between New York and Baltimore you have PLENTY of Pennsyltucky country there. Farms Farms Farms! Small Towns, Coal country etc.
Decks naturally provide a scenic break here. On one level you could concentrate on switching and city stations. And on the top level you could model the country. If you want continuous running, just put a loop at each end.
My last space was 12x23. I could get an around the room with one peninsula using 24" radius, 18" deep scenes on the benches and 36’ aisles. You would probably have to go to 16" deep benches
I had a single level and did not go to multiple levels by design.
My personal feeling was that multiple levels and narrow aisles, especially with low levels, are difficult to manuever for the operators. Since you want a lot of industries and yards, that means a large portion of the visible layout will be flat. That pretty much means you will have to use helixes to go between levels. 16" between levels, assume a 24" R helix with 4" between turns, that’s 2.6% grade (4 turns per helix, 50 ft of run) in the helix, backing off to 3" per turn, that’s 2% grade (5.3 turns per helix , 66 ft of run). An orbit of the room without a peninsula is a run of 50 ft, with a peninsula its about 80 ft.
Dave has pretty well summed up my thoughts. I am building a triple deck in the same space that you have. My suggestion would be to carefully assess the project and to cut it back by at least ½.
Multi-deck layout construction can be very tedious and is more than twice as complicated to execute. Mine has taken ten years of fairly intense work to get to the ½ way mark. This type of layout has to be planned to nth degree depending on the complexity and many tasks have to be done in sequence. This can make it feel like a job sometimes as you wire the 75th switch machine before you can move to next task….
You might be happier with a single deck in the space……
Gotta agree with what’s been said. I’ll only re-emphasize that if you want a major yard, I assume you mean double-ended and not a stub. A large stub yard can still serve the same purpose, but may not suit what you want visually. If it has to be double-ended, then count an entire long side of the room on one deck for it alone.
You may want to run some numbers. How long do you visualize your trains to be? Heavy mainline action implies 10-car passenger and 20+ car freights. You can do the math on whatever you have planned, then use those lengths to size up yard track length suitable for supporting those. Then move around each side of the room on each deck and pencil in where passing tracks will be. Then look at what’s left for industry, which may be best tucked into the shorter end walls, since they likely aren’t long enough for the necessary passing tracks. Sure, you can slide some of that around the curve to the next wall, but there are only so many places to put 15’ long sidings.
Since you have a very ambitious plan, best to get at least a general idea if it will really work. A 4-decker is considered a monster by most experienced builders. I presume you have at least some hands-on experience building layouts. If not, then re-read all the cautions already noted. You’ll have a tiger by the tail here, so make sure you know where the cage door is…[(-D]
Everyone thanks muchly for your inputs. I’m in the planning stages, and i’ll keep some updates as i progress. This will be my third layout, in the similar area. My past experience suggests that i needed to plan the key points like layout exit entrance and staging as in the past lack of a good plan here ended up reworking the layout a couple of times. So I’m hoping to plan the level transitions and then work the levels one at a time and see how it gos.
OK, that makes this sound a little more feasible, as prior experience is almost a prerequisite to build something on the scale of a multi-deck layout. I think once you’ve penciled in some grades and consider what you’ll have in terms of leval areas, you’ll have a much better idea of what works for you.