Stumped on layout design and need some ideas/help...

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Ok - so I’m stumped. Every time I sit down to start doodling some ideas I realize that I’m just overwhelmed and not really sure of what I’m doing – so I’m hoping to get some starting points and ideas from the more experienced folks here. Any ideas are welcome and I’ll happily answer any/all questions I can.

ROOM:

8’10" X 10’6", finished basement area as follows:

One side is open to the rest of the basement. Overhead lighting is great, with dropped ceiling @ 8 feet (e.g. plenty of space).

The workbench is the size of a desk I’m planning on putting in there. Lower deck won’t extend past the workbench but the upper deck can.

I model N scale and planned on a double-decker on this one to maximize the space.

So the “fun” stuff:

Era: Modern
Prototype: One of two - either the Reading & Northern regional or a “what-if” scenario where the Reading didn’t go bankrupt and merge into Conrail but instead survived and thrived (e.g. anthracite coal experienced a comeback for industrial purposes).
Location: Reading/St.Clair/Tamaqua/Shamokin

I had planned on 24" benchwork for the lower deck and 18" benchwork for the upper. My thought was to have staging on the lower deck near the workbench (so I can extend a track to the bench) and have that staging yard be Reading, PA’s main yard at Spring Street.

Druthers:

One decent working yard (either St. Clair or Tamaqua or Cressona), definitely COAL (anthracite of course) and would love to model the Yuengling brewery near Pottsville/St. Claire – I think that’d be a hoot. Most of the loco power would be 4 axle with a couple of 6 axles, no steam.

Basically I’m stuck on how to take all this stuff rolling around in my head and maki

2

Tamaqua had a wye on either side. On the west side was a wy to the Little Schyulkill branch and to the east was the LNE. I think the mine is the Greenwood mine and it was still in production as of a several years ago. Once you leave Tamaqua going west (timetable) you start going up grade. There is a tunnel then Mintzer’s Siding then Mahanoy then Mahanoy tunnels and then the coal regions.

I would put Tamaqua on the lower level toward the right hand end of the space. I would have a wye on the back side to the Greenwood mine and LNE (a reverse loop) and then a wye on the front side that would along the front edge and connect to the LNE completing the reverse loop. As the main goes to the left it would go into Tamaqua tunnel (the helix) at some point it would come out of the helix in a “herniated” loop for Mintzer’s Siding or make a couple loops of the helix then run along the backdrop for Mintzer’s siding and then have the rest of the helix on the right side of the layout. When it exits the helix it will come into Mahanoy Jct with a small interchange, then through a tunnel and into the coal regions on the upper level.

Dave H.

3

It so happens I’m sucking on a Black and Tan right now.

You really have about three jumps on most people who have planner’s block. Start by breaking your layout plan into scenes. You have at least 3 scenes worked out. You know you want staging on each or your layout so that makes 5 layout design elements. Take them as larger chunks and see how they fit into your space. then start looking for other scenes that fit your vision.

Maybe get on the satellite and look at some overheads of the areas you are proposing. Maybe you can use the prototype for ideas.

4

I am putting together a two-level N Scale layout with apx. 9’ x 9’ usable space.

Here are a couple “what if(s)” I have discovered that may be transferrable to your situation…

[1] You can have the Upper Level of your around-the-walls layout located above your worktable, and build worktable lighting underneath the Upper Level, just as you would if you have trackage everywhere else on the Lower Level.

[2] Determine which corner you will locate your Helix. You should probably plan for a 2-track Helix. That way, with DCC electronics, you can safely have a “train meet” in the Helix as one train consist descends to the Lower Level, and the other train consist rises to the Upper Level.

Be sure that your inner track radius, assuming a 2-track Helix, does not go below a 12" radius, meaning that you will devote no less than 4 square feet (2’ x 2’), and preferably up to 9 square feet (3’ x 3’), of real estate to the Helix.

You can even double up on Helix real estate using an “Extended Helix” concept. For example, you can have a dogbone, or a reverse loop extending from your Lower Level. As to the Helix, your trains would enter & exit the actual Helix onto the Lower Level a few inches above your dogbone or reverse loop. Remember, your Helix can also be an oval, with some straight track, instead of just a circular Helix.

I am currently tinkering with the idea of placing my worktable beside my Helix corner with a piece of plexiglass beside that worktable to have a neat little observation of the trains winding up and down inside the Helix. There would also be a special light switch to observe this feature more closely.

[3] Do you want to add a “duckunder bridge” at the doorway? This would add another continuous running option to just the Upper Level.

[4] Is there a small track plan that you can place either on the Upper Level, or the Lower

5

Tgindy, do you have a website where you’re tracking your progress? I’d love to compare notes since we’re working in a similar amount of space.

Thanks,

-Greg

6

HO_Greg:

I am still preparing the layout room as well as the layout plan, but documenting things with a website would be a worthy endeavor.

This time around, the layout will be taking advantage of the modeling experience of the past few decades, as well as combining two prototypes (Pennsy and interurban traction). Staging and operations is the next “thinking hurdle” to overcome and part of the fun.

As you are aware, while 10’ x 10’ of usable space sounds small, it can be an empire in N Scale, and especially if it is a two-level layout. The real estate sacrifice of a Helix is not much especially if you double-up that 3’ x 3’ space with an Extended Helix. The Upper Level above the Helix actually gives a triple-use of the same real estate.

Example #1: Traction lends itself to a tighter radius, which stretches the possibilities in N Scale much further in a tight space, than HO Scale could ever provide. Traction requires scratchbuilding, soldering, and engine conversions regardless of the scale to be modeled. If you find the right “how-to” resources, which has been done with NCat standards, why not N Scale?

Example #2: I have found an MR HO Scale plan, “The Chippewa Central,” now being adopted to the fictional of City of Conemaugh, and instead of cattle stockyards, with one half of that layout plan, there will be traction carbarns with a power substation. This section takes up only one wall side, and; the rest of the CR&T on the Lower Level will be extended from both ends of this plan.

Example #3: While the CR&T uses a prototypical live overhead single wire, through some research, I have recently uncovered working template plans to construct live overhead N Scale catenary, which could allow the addition of a Pennsy GG1 to operations. Union Station’s interchange with the CR&T and the PRR could potentially feature a s

7

I’m at a loss – “extended helix”? I found an article in N Scale magazine that refers to it but just in the index, I can’t google anything on what they are.

8

take a helix (think a coil spring) and make it an oval (like a racetrack) by seperating the left side from the right side by a set distance. you can maintain the same radius on the curved part but by adding additional inclined straight peices between the curves you reduce the grade.

9

Rich Weyand’s “Technique - Extended Helix” is on pages 24-28, of the January/February N Scale Magazine. The article’s figures and pictures are quite good. Rich Weyand actually uses the Helx for staging. The double track is key to easily and more correctly model in & out passenger traffic, and to eliminate bottlenecks.

While, the confines of a small room does not allow for too much of the Helix to be “extended” - even a 9"-12" straight stretch into the oval is not that much, but it does relieve coupler stress, and; the space below (a “sub-level” if you will) the Helix entrance can be used for a reversing loop, or; a dogbone, meaning there is no track-connection forming a reverse loop.

There are those who also use rerailers in that Helix straight stretch as a derailment safeguard. In any event, the Helix real estate can have more than a use only for the Helix.