Well, now instead of fitting into a nook in the living room my layout will be in the spare bedroom. Unfortunately my 24 x 126 plan won’t work in this space because I’d have no way to lead off staging. Sooo, I redesigned the whole thing, inspired by what was done with the Cat Mountain & Santa Fe plan that was in Model Railroad Planning 1996:
The room is 119 x 132 with a window on the short wall and the door and closet opposite. The bench is 18 wide except where I relieved it to give window access. It will be about 50 inches high, freestanding, wood framed, with 1/4 plywood topped by foam.
The layout (in HO) represents a PRR branch running through Beaver Falls PA in 1961. One end connects with the PRR main line about 30 miles west of Pittsburgh while the other end connects with the P&LE RR at their COLLEGE yard. Trains will be short local freights coming out of CONWAY, pulled by a SW7 or similar switcher. They will switch local industries, drop off some cars for the P&LE, pick up any interchanges, and return home. The real Marginal Branch was a single track with double tracks for siding leads and no way to turn the loco.
The minimum center spacing on tangent tracks is 2-1/4. On curves it is 2-3/8. The minimum radius is 24, except for the outermost siding in the lower left (22) and the team track lead (18). Curves with have easments via the “flexible stick” method. I want to maintain a 12 inch tangent between switches to avoid S-curves. (I see one that is short by the building supply siding.) Switches are a mix of Atlas #4 and #6. Track will be code 83 flextrack. Switch ontrol will be manual/mechanical on the fascia board
The bottom TO on the lefthand side may be creating a small S-curve for you. It looks acceptable but you might consider a left hand TO instead or (better yet) a curved TO.
1/4 ply under foam is fine if you keep the girders 16" apart (or closer) I use 3/8 cdx with 24" OC girders and have no problems.
You can use building flats or the backdrop to simulate industrial buildings in shallow areas.
Can you add some hidden staging inside the closet?
Thanks for the comments. When I put that in there I was thinking it actually was following the curve but turning the page over I can see it’s just the opposite. I think I’m going re-arrange that corner anyway to have the “industry option” spur go down side parallel to the wall with the window. I also figured there wasn’t much to be gained by including the spur shown dashed in the lower right but having varying building depth will be more appealling.
I’m not going to bother with hidden staging here. Although neat (and we would always like more track), I’m going to start with the train from CONWAY where shown at the upper right. It will also end there. Moving the end point four feet to the right - which is all staging would do - doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. I’ve made space on the board without sacrificing any industries or impeding operations, so it seems OK. At the lower right the interchange yard is fine. The track labeled “Interchange Track” is sort of just cosmetic anyway. If I get ambitious I can use it to run cars onto cassettes for storage underneath the layout.
I forgot to mention that the perimeter will be a scenicked backdrop and that only the buildings that affect track layout have be shown at this stage. Also, the dotted line around the perimeter is a 2 inch offset “yard limit” that sets a safety boundary for trackage.
I came up with a rather novel (and actually close to prototypical) solution to the S-curve in the lower left, but I’m not convinced it’s the best solution. I might have to move the Sinclair refining plant somewhere else.
