I’ve been looking over nemerous track plans. So far I have about 12 books and counting. I’ve also visited five seperate layouts.
I’ve noticed one thing, there are a number of layouts that violate the 30" deep shelving reach rule. Even the latest MRR book (Great Model Railroads 2006) now on shelves has a layout which is backed up against a wall that is ~40" deep.
So I’m wondering, how do these layouts fix derailed trains? Is there access holes we just aren’t seeing in the layout plans?
I’m planning a city scene and I really want more than 60" (30" each side) to pull off a “deep” city block. (Yeah I’m getting greedy)
Robotics, Vacuums, Friends with long arms, leaving it a wreckage, pool cube, sending in junior with fall restraint gear and light strapped to fore head.
All Standard Operating procedures on most railroads.
Two other solutions: 1. I have mechanical arms that I can use to reach high things in my kitchen. They cost about 10 bucks in “As Seen on TV stores” or Boscov’s. Also, I designed my layout with Coke bottle straightaways. and 2: Instead of allowing the track to hug the wall of the room, the center portion of the track pulls away from the wall to permit access to the tracks from the exterior of the layout. It also permits me access to the window and room air conditioner.
Oh, it’s a piece of cake if a car derails and you can’t reach it.
What’s so inconvenient about not being able to reach some track?
First, you grab some guys to help you setup some scaffolding.
Second, you set it up.
Third, you lay some 2 by X material accross it.
Fourth, you climb on, fourth, you rerail the car.
Repeat steps 3 through 1 in reverse to fini***he process.
(Somewhat of an adaptation of a saturday night fake commercial about the convenience of a disposable toilet for your home bathroom - not quite convenient at all!)
As a kid, in all seriousness, it was often times my job to climb onto our layout to give an engine a “boost”. What a hassle!
This being a “fun” pursuit all rules are to be regarded as suggestions. The major determinant of the validity of the 30" rule is the hieght of the RR in regards to the operator. If the table is hip high you can reach farther than if it’s chin high. I’ve got some tracks that are over 4 ft from the aisle of my (chin high) RR. the solution is a bunch of short (3 or 4 steps) step ladders stashed at convenient locations.
Hi all
30" rule cannot obey that one my arms are not long enough[:(]
I find the best thing is not to have track where I cannot reach it.
scenery Well that can be as high, low and deep as you want you only need to reach that
a few times times.
Once to build it once to clean it and once to repair the damage you did cleaning it[:D]
regards John
I would say, it’s one thing to have scenery beyond your reach, it’s another to have track beyond your reach. The latter clearly being the more troublesome.
If you do find it necessary to violate your reach limit with trackwork, try not to have any switches in that area.
I have a few places on my layout where the track is more than 48" in from the edge, but it is all straight track, and causes no problems.
With a 5-foot wide free-standing table, the center of my layout is exactly 30 inches from the edge. Right now, I’m trying to re-mount some uncoupler ramps right in the center of the layout. Even though my layout is lower than most (to accomodate the 45-degree roofline) and my arms are average length, I find that 30 inches is a difficult stretch for doing any work. It’s no problem to reach a derailment, but doing anything that requires pressure is tough.
I wasn’t around when they passed the 30" rule so I don’t feel bound to obey it. Seriously, it is a good rule of thumb but I bend the rule a little. First of all my benchwork is 36" not 30". I like deep scenes and 30" is too restrictive for me. I get away with this because the track is on the front half of the benchwork. The exception is my yard where the yard tracks are on the front and the double track main runs behind the yard tracks. The furthest of the two mains is 30" from the front of the benchwork. because the yard has no structures or scenery to reach over, this is not a problem. Besides the track is long and straight there so derailments are unlikely. My longest trains are the freight trains which pull into the yard. The only trains that run on the main are passenger trains which aren’t that long making derailments even unliklier. As for dust and spider webs, I have one of those as-seen-on-TV feather dusters that use static electricity to collect dust. They give me plenty of reach. The potential problem areas are the corners, so I have installed access holes for emergencies. I have 36" curves so derailments are not a problem here. The access hatches are used primarily for periodic track cleaning.
Now here’s the real kicker. I have one section where the benchwork is 4’ deep. This is going to be a downtown area when scenicked. The track all runs on the front 2’ and the back 2’ is basically a 3 dimensional backdrop. It will be on a 2’ X 8’ sheet of foam which can be lifted out if necessary. I will complete the structures on this piece before I build any of the foreground scenery. Will this work. I thinks so but I won’t know until I try.
What’s wrong with a popup? Is it to old fashion or are we getting to lazy to crawl under a layout? Golly guys I seen 70 years olds at the club crawl under the layout so the age myth is busted as far as I am concerned unless a old man is in real bad shape.
Well, I do not think there ever was a ‘30" Rule’, but I have built my current layout with a 24" reach in mind. I do have a tail of a wye that is about a 30" reach, but I really have to do no uncoupling there(and have a Tortoise installed). I also have a sort of hidden pop-up between a curve and a ridge that provides access in a far corner. With ‘walk-around’ control/operation, I think layout design has changed. The large ‘deep’ layout with access hatches or pop-up seems to be less prevelant now. And ‘Brakie’; I can still get down to crawl under the layout, but I prefer to have a ‘walk-around’ design! Sometimes we get smarter with age!
