Some of you fellas have switching or shelf layouts. I am thinking of going this route. Please show us some of your switching layouts. Also if you could give a short description of your layout and how it operates.
Kirk
I have a shelf layout it’s an L shape with a 16" “mainline” (soon to be extended to 20") with 4 industries, Fuel and oil, Cement Plant, and two warehouses. It’s set in the 90s to present day. I have two run through freights which drop cars in the yard for the local to switch out. theres 1-2 hours of operation time roughly. I also have 3 Small EMD and ALCO switchers and a H16-44 if I want to turn back time to the 50s [:)]
I’ll post some pics tonight, as i’m at work.
I am in the early stages of building an N scale shelf layout that will be 1’ wide running part way around a 14’ by 14’ room. It will start in a hidden staging yard and dead end in a small town. The line will depict the BN Genesee Branch in the Palouse. The real Genesee Branch was a dead end line and I wanted my depiction to be the same. A train will run out on the line dropping off empties at the grain elevators along the way. Once at the end of the line, the locomotives run around the train to begin the return trip stopping at those same elevators to pick up the loaded cars. Basically the line will be operated like a large switching layout. Sorry, no photos at this time. Eric
The Atlas “Needham Junction” switching layout looks interesting to me. Has anyone built it?
Mark
Take a look at the “Time Saver” Layout. I havn’t built it, but it looks like a nice layout. I’m sure someone here has built one at one time.
I’m going with the bottom one, more or less. This is probably the 25th plan, with about four major redirects along the way. If they ever get the old searches working, you can see the process as it happened. (I posted as ‘aardvark’ then.)
It’s set in Beaver Falls PA in 1961 on a branch of the PRR. Likely industries (five) are secondary steel processing/steel fab, public track, meat/fruit distributor, oil distributor, coal/building supplies, and cork/insulation/ceiling tile production. There will be about 50 freight cars and two locos, a BS10a (DS-4-4-1000) and an ES12 (SW7) .
KL
Check out this page on the NMRA’s site http://www.nmra.org/beginner/vandalia.html
Enjoy
Paul
My Los Angeles & San Fernando Valley RR is a shelf layout. On thing I can say about a shelf layout, they really don’t take up much room and floor space. See the webpage link below.
In the interim before I start the next layout - I literally threw together this 1 foot x 8 foot ‘timesaver’ together with a couple changes. It’s a good distraction to tinker and get a train out with. Which reminds me I have to update with a more recent shot. It will also serve as a practice ground for experimentation.The only problem is that when I sneak down for a couple minutes of switching I end up losing a half hour or so of time.
There are a few shelf layouts posted on this page
Hey, thanks for the post, building one in thesame vain but have some new ideas now, in my case it is to be part of a modular set up.
Jay,The “Time waster” eh ah SAVER is meant to be a switching puzzle and NOT a true shelf layout design like a industrial switching layout.
My shelf layout has two main sections–both six feet wide, one (the yard) is 1 foot deep, the other (industry trackage) is L-shaped, mostly 1 foot deep but with a 2x2 foot “peninsula” that holds additional industry. Here are some photos:
This shows the main switching area: a small runaround track, using Peco sharp-radius “Setrack” switches–about the equivalent of a #3 turnout, with a capacity of two 40-50 foot cars. From here, four industries are served: two small industries with a capacity of one car each (a dairy and a beverage company)on the spur to the left, and two larger industries with a capacity of 2 cars (an almond processing plant, with 2 reefers spotted) and 3 cars (out of the shot) respectively to the right. On the far end of the layout is a small three-track yard, used primarily for locomotive storage but it also has a freight house with a capacity of 2 cars.
Here’s the three-car industry–a large fruit and vegetable cannery. Technically only two cars fit in front of the cannery proper, a third car fits on the 12" radius curve but blocks the street, so it can only be spotted there during switching moves.
An overhead view of the switching area.
Here is Haggin Yard, the other module. Four-track yard with a runaround/escape track and a small RIP track on the upper right. Cabeese are stored at lower left.
I have another section under construction, an even larger cannery complex with two spurs that hold three cars each. My long-term plan is to run completely around my garage with various modules. Operation is by “wheel report,” a series of cards that is shuffled randomly before operation. Each card specifies a number of cars