I’ve got a layout that is 16 feet long X 5 feet wide. When I built it last summer my focus was on getting something up and running quickly…so the end result is a couple of large loops. Now I’m looking at alternative track designs that would make the thing more interesitng to operate. I have a few criteria…1) realism…2) I want to be able to run three or four trains at a time…3) I want to be able to run some longer trains in the 20 to 30 car range…4) I want to be able to run the bigger engines like the AC4400 CWs. Any ideas? I’m looking at maybe an elevated double track figure eight with the loop underneath…
Scale?
Dave H.
Have you by any chance read John Armstrong’s book Track Planning For Realistic Operation? If not, I strongly recommend it. It shows alot of questions a layout builder should be asking before getting started. You’ll learn alot more from that than any one of us could possibly tell you…
This is a concept I’ve stored in my mind for some time:
It’s a folded dog-bone. I envision it as having a town/urban area on one side of the backdrop and rural/mountain scenery on the other, with a transition from urban to rural at the curve on the right end. If I were building it the straight stretches would be more curvy, and I’d add some passing tracks and spurs. At 16’ long the mainline is just about a scale mile long. With my shays that would be an 8 to 10 minute lap time.
A couple of general suggestions for keeping your layout interesting:
Try to keep the track from running parallel with the layout edge
When the track sends the train in a loop, try to disguise the loop by putting it in a tunnel or some other means.
BTW, here’s my own track plan. It’s in two sections: 4X8 and 4X5 with bridge tracks that get the trains past the furnace:
You are welcome to borrow my ideas if you like them.
One last thing - There’s no time lost in planning.
What scale? Have you thought about cutting it down the middle and go to a U ?
What does your room look like? Do you need to be on a table or can you go around the walls?
-John
You may want to sit down and with paper toy out some ideas, do a rough sketch dont worry about exactness, just get the effect down of what you want to do, then with a real layout designer or better graphic tools hone it out better.
Getting some of these layout books as mentioned is a good bounce off point for ideas as there is plenty of ideas out there already like you want to do.
I threw together a loop because I was layoutless, the urge was too strong to get it rolling again, but it had mistakes, but that was on purpose. I have a pretty solid trackplan in the orks and building that now yet I have my loopy do bit to tinker on while I get the real thing going.
You can always add to, modify your currrent layout bit by bit, just have a good plan how to do it and keep things rolling.
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]
The bible of track planning as far as I’m concerned. You can avoid a lot of common mistakes if you read through this and also get a lot of great ideas for interesting operation. I would also second the suggestion of avoiding long stretches of mainline running parallel with the edge of the bench work. A meandering main line is one way to avoid this without a big strain on realism.
The first thing I would suggest is to abandon the big rectangle effect. Unless you can walk all the way around your platform, you’ve probably already figured out that a table that’s 5’ deep isn’t practical, because you can’t reach half of it! If you CAN walk all the way around it, then you have twice as much room for a layout than you thought you had…
I would suggest you look at this month’s layout design contest entries… We came up with the idea of using the same square footage as a sheet of plywood, but not necessarily using it as a solid sheet.
You also have to get away from the notion that in order to have two or three trains running, that all of them have to be running in loopty loops. I can run three trains at one time on my layout… but only one is running a continuous circuit. The second one might be running in the opposite direction, pausing at passing sidings to allow the first train to keep going. The third might be a local, switching an industry, again, having to keep the main clear for the first train. The other option would be using a switcher to work the yard to build the next train while the other two are operating on the main line.
If all you have are loops for continous running, you’ll have too much track jammed into your space, and no room for plausible scenery, and running trains will sooner or later get boring, because all you’ll be watching is a bunch of trains chasing their own tails.
But first, break free from the shackles of a big square table. You’ll thank us later…[;)]
Lee
I would also suggest reading my beginner’s guide to layout design. Click it from my signature. Takes about 5 minutes to read.