All of my previous railroads have been essentially very large loops with a hidden double ended staging yard on one end. I have been modeling eastern coalroads with loads going one way, mtys the other. They have been very suited for keeping 3-5 operators busy for an evening.
Now that I am contemplating a move to a smaller railroad room I have been looking at some pure point to point designs, pehaps in narrow gauge or turn of century standard gauge Nevada mining type roads.
I would like to hear comments from those of you with experience with pure point to point designs, especially smaller or short line designs. Is the lack of continuous running a major drawback? Can a small pt to pt design ie: in a 12x12 room be a satisfying operating railroad for experienced operators and visitors? Over the years I have come to the conclusion that no matter how beautiful and detailed a model railroad is, if it is no fun to operate, it sits unused. Opinions? Thanks in advance. - Nevin
I had plans for a staging point to terminal for the space I’m putting the Rock Ridge and Train City layout. But since I didn’t have a place to watch trains run. I went with the current layout. It is still point to point (staging to staging,) but the staging loops for a continuous run when I want.
Setting a train in motion and looking at and planning the next construction move on the layout is probably the most therapeutic part of MR.
The Old Dog would suggest that you operate the pike as point to point, but if at all possible include a hidden cutoff to allow continous running. There are times when you might want to break in a new engine. And let’s face it, there may be times when you just want to watch a train run or display the layout to non-model railroaders.
Point-to-point model railroads are a lot more interesting than watching trains go around in circles. A point-to-point railroad operates like a real RR. You switch cars in and out of industries and move them to a yard to be re-classified.
I have a N-Scale “L” shaped layout with a small yard on the left side and a town with several industries that have to be switched. My shortline interchanges cars with a class 1 RR that has the yard where all of the cars either originate and terminate. I use Atlas switchers for my shortline and I’m eagerly awaiting a new Kato NW-2. The class 1 RR uses either GP-7’s and a GP-38.
It all depends on what you enjoy doing with your model RR.
Tiny point to points can be fascinating to design and run. If one considers a bit, a shelf switching layout is a type of point to point. There is more genuine operation per square foot in a point to point than any loop design. If one doesn’t like the switching elements of operation than this is not a good plan.
It is if one just wants to get a loco and/or train out to stretch its legs or show it off. It can become quite annoying to be constantly making an breaking up a train instead of getting some quality throttle time on the open road. It is also annoying when one is trying to break in a loco and would prefer to just leave it run for a while. Are those things major - only you can answer that.
I would say more so than a roundy-round in the same amount of space. I find the loops get interesting around 30x20 size where one can get into dispatching problems of keeping many trains running and moving with minimal delay.
One can’t get much smaller than this one I designed for Gryphon’s small “L”-space a couple weeks ago.
Definitely find a way to get a continuous run. I have a 2 level (with helix in the closet) in a 9 x 11 room. I operate it as a point to point with a daily schedule. Especially when operating alone, I make up one train in the yard and then send it out on the continuous run and then leave it going while I make up the 2nd and 3rd trains. Then I work them all up and back. The continuous run can be used to run laps to give you time to do the switching on the point to point operations.
I’ve got one end of the continuous loop hidden in a tunnel along with the helix, so it doesn’t look like running round and round in a circle.
Also, I suggest having a wye or loop at each end of the point to point. In my main yard, I only have a turntable and it is a real pain to turn the observation car on the passenger train as well as have to rearrange the baggage car every time. I just couldn’t find the room.
To a very significant degree it depends on what your specific interest in the hobby is. No more than a quarter of all hobbyists report actually indulging in any serious form of “operations”, in spite of the impression you’ll get from reading the magazines and hearing the opinions of some forum members. Over many years I’ve seen more than a few small point-to-point layouts built where their creator’s quickly grew tired of just shuffling cars back and forth over a run of just a few feet and pulled the layout down to make room for something that did not always need to be under constant operator control.
So, unless you are a die-hard operator, I think you’ll be sorry in the long run if you don’t include trackage for continuous running somewhere in your design.
The special supplement that comes with the 2007 issue of Model Railroad Planning has a good concise summary of the features and advantages of the various layout plan types. One important factor is, how much equipment do you have that you want to run. Another factor is, how many folks will be helping you out at operating sessions and what interests them – running trains, local switching, being yardmasters, or being dispatchers? Do you just randomly switch cars around or do you use some kind of organized forwarding system? All those factors enter into the decision.
One option that nobody has mentioned here is point to loop which is very likely what my layout will be once I reach the far end with tracklaying. It is double track mainline. My thought is that the westbound passenger trains would go into the loop so they would be ready to head eastbound again. Freights however would go into a stub ended staging yard to be broken up with new freights being assembled at both ends of the layout.
On the other hand since I will have several scale miles of length between them, I might go point to point – that makes both staging yardmasters busy people. Not many people have point to point of that length however. I am modeling just one city, no engine terminals, fed from staging at either end.
I think the best true point to point type layouts, at least those that are small, are those that really focus on local switching, pehaps with staging or a carferry to provide a way to keep circulating cars on and off the layout – otherwise it seems like you are having the same operating session over and over again because the same cars are involved. For the local switching to be fun I really think you need some kind of car forwarding system – no matter how simple, such as the classic old Doug Smith card system, or Jim Hediger’s wheel report system – so that you aren’t just randomly moving stuff around.&n
