I’ve been amazed at the expertise on these forums and before I drive my first nail or set my first screw, I wanted to run my plan by you guys.
Key facts:
Scale: HO
Minimum givens: 30-inch mainline radius, 22 on the sidings; No. 6 switches on/off the main (or curved No. 8s), No. 5 elsewhere; one No. 4 on a siding that will only see short cars.
The backstory: This is freelanced based on area of northern N.J. where I grew up. This town is serviced by Erie-Lackawanna from the east (Jersey City) and Jersey Central from the west. Era is early 1970s. Industrial/suburban setting. Will run mostly 40- and 50-foot boxcars. But on the main are daily E-L commuter trains (hence the 30-inch minimum).
The top is hidden staging. The industries include small gravel off-loading area; paper products company (Marcal, for anyone who has driven Rt. 80 through Paterson); lumber store (Kuiken Bros.); a printing company; a newspaper (since I work for one); Nabisco plant; team track (this is at the bottom center); and an oil company. I also have an engine servicing facility where the town’s switchers will be posted.
the size of the layout , and the room it’s in , and where in the room it is might be helpful .
i’m not one of the experts whose advice you’re looking for , so take this info as being worth what you paid for it [:D] i don’t see anything wrong with the layout . it’s a nice simple plan with a runaround where it’s needed and a passing track for a second train to run on while you’re switching the industry tracks . the staging yard looks like it can hold one or two trains when you’re not doing continuous running . very nice plan !
you might find the staging tracks a bit short , and switching the industries on the switchbacks might get old after a while , especially since you’ll have to move whatever is parked in the way to do so . having one setup like that on a layout might be ok , but two is probably too much (unless you’re duplicating realworld track arrangements , then i guess it’s ok!)
Looks like something I might design. I think I would try to go for stub staging yards. There’s no real advantange to the double ended except that you don’t have to back the trains in. But you might be able to double to quadruple your staging by going with one or two stub yards.
I was going to say it’s a shame that substantial staging complex isn’t out in front where you can take advantage of all it offers, plus or minus a few niceties, such as a couple of double-slips. I would keep the stagin yard, by all means, but the one you have out front, while purdy, isn’t a great use of space…IMHO.
I would invert the backdrop so that it flares out toward the viewer up front, and thereby diminish all that space that will be unseen (unused). Then, with the gained space, you know you gotta have that turntable…no really, you just gottt tuuuh!!
But, you have done all the hard thinking, and it shows. Well done!
Consider a diamond ladder for the staging, keeps all the tracks closer in length instead of having super long, long, just right, short, and too short. With a dimaond shape to the staging you might not need those extra stub sidings
I presume there is some access along the staging yard side? Still might consider making the space between the beackdrop and the staging open for access.
Not sure what selector means about reversing the backdrop, the way it is maimizes the visible area. Going the other way with it would make a nice giant area up front but most of it would be too deep to be accessible for construction and maintenance.
Point taken, Randy. I should have said to reduce its depth. There is too much lost area for modelling against that backdrop’s back side. Since tracks won’t be creeping up close to it anyway, reach should still be acceptable if the yard is enlarged and can fill in another 10", say, of the space inboard of the current yard. Just my opinion, but …
MY guess it’s a reach issue. Judging by the 30" curves, I’d say that layout is around 6’. If the front of the layout is 30", then the back is 42" with about a foot of no-reach.
You may be right, but if that is the case, how does he get to the staging behind the backdrop?
This is just niggling, I know, but I felt that there was a ton of unused space in the far ground in front of the backdrop, and if the designer’s interests for that space could still be met by squashing the backdrop back a few inches, he’d be able to make a more substantial yard under his nose.
First, thanks everyone for the feedback. I appreciate your time. Great points and questions.
The room is half of our garage and because of its design, I don’t really have enough wall to work with to go the shelf-layout route. All of the layout can be accessed by walking around it. The top of the layout is 30 inches away from the wall and the right side is 30 inches from the garage door. It is open to the left and to the bottom. The overall size of the layout is 6-foot-9 by 13 feet. This is pretty much my max space.
I will try out a diamond ladder or stub-end design in the staging yard. Either should work better than what I cobbled together. I only need at least one run-through track so I can have the continuous running mode option.
And I did try to keep everything within the 30-36-inch reach zone, but I could bump the backdrop back to give more space for buildings/scenery. I agree, there is a lot of unused real estate directly behind the backdrop that I would like to use somehow.
Really, thanks again. What I came up with was a result of reading a bazillion other posts on this forum from you guys.
