I have been planning an HOn3 layout and have chosen an L-shaped design made from two 4×8 sections, but I have not been satisfied with my track plans and would like to know what factors should be considered when creating a fun and effective track plan.
I think some of the best advice I was given was to consider what you like. Do you want to have continuous running, do you want to do switching or a combination. What elements do you think are important in your layout.
Al
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thats kinda were my problem starts i like continuous running but i also like doing point to point operations and then try to fit a yard and it all ends up a mess
I get you. The club I belong to has a modular layout. Each module is 2 foot wide by 4, 6, or 8 feet long. There are no large yards, but plenty of switching opportunities. All put together it also offers a large loop for continuous running. I’ll see if I have a few pics to give you some ideas.
Al
Hello All,
What you are experiencing is commonly referred to as “analysis paralysis.”
Some advice from John Allen, the “Wizzard Of Monterey" on planning:
“A model railroad should probably start with a concept.
Why?
Because much knowledge about railroading, experience in model railroading, and thought are required before a proper concept for a model railroad can be formed.
These requirements are seldom possible on a first pike.
Mine was no exception.”- -John Allen; Gorre & Daphetid Railroad.
There are many ways to create a track plan, from using a commercially available one from a track manufacturer or publication to pure “imagineering.”
The good news is you have your footprint.
As has been asked, continuous running, point-to-point, or a combination?
Time frame (era)- -steam, transition era; steam and diesel, first generation diesel, or modern?
Location- -an urban switching layout, mountainous logging, or coal, a busy harbor scene, or wide open desert?
Freigit, passenger, or both?
If freight, a specialty like logging, mining, auto racks, or modern container?
DC or DCC?
Once you narrow down your choices, it’s time to put your thoughts down on paper or CAD.
I began this process with a mechanical pencil, a pad of graph paper and a large eraser.
The space limitations of my 4’x8’ HO pike were imposed by “She Who Must Be Obeyed.”
I wanted a pike that reflected my surroundings. We live at 10,430’ (3.179m) in a historic mining town in Colorado.
The era I chose was based on the motive power.
Realizing I would have to utilize curves as tight as 15-inch radius, I was limited to four (4) axle diesels manufactured in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I’m bad at scenery- -especially trees- -despite the fact that I wanted a mountainous pike.
While on a road trip in western Colorado, I came upon a large coal mining operation that was rail-served, which has since been converted to truck traffic.
Looking at the coal mining site, the trees had been denuded from the slopes, leaving bare earth. This was not an open-pit operation.
I’m good at modeling dirt!
When I began my first foray into this great hobby in the early 1970s, I was gifted the Tyco Operating hopper set.
I decided I wanted to utilize these live-load cars on my new pike.
Because of the opening mechanism on each car and the specialized track required, the cars need to be shoved over the unloading platform.
I didn’t want to just have the cars discharge their loads into a bin underneath the unloading platform.
I devised a track plan that had a curved 3% grade up to the unloading platform.
A siding off the “main line” passes under the unloading platform to receive the live loads from the hoppers above.
A historic spiral trestle (helix) returns the empties back to the mainline.
The pike sits on the bed in the spare bedroom/computer/train room, there is limited under-pike access and not enough air flow for proper heat dissipation of DCC system components.
The coal-fired power plant, that serves the mine, hides the NCE PowerPro booster/command station.
Occasionally, an “Olde Tyme” excursion train runs while the mining operations are suspended.
This train is pulled by a USRA 0-6-0 with a Vanderbilt tender.
A 0-6-0 Side Tank Porter is used as a “helper” up the 3% grade for the three 32’ passenger cars, a 24’ open-topped gondola, and a “bobber” caboose.
It is turned on the Wye in the center of the pike.
Because of the location in the Rockies, an MOW snow train with two (2) plows clears snow in the winter.
Mixed freight trains arrive and depart with supplies for the mining operations and the power plant, along with shipping out dilapidated equipment.
Some of this traffic are “special runs” of depressed-center flat cars with oversized loads.
The upper mine loading house has no road access, so a “doodle bug” and a combine car run the miners and small loads up to the unloading complex and mine entrance.
On a separate spur, vintage, Tyco 34’ Operating, Covered (OEM), hoppers supply rock dust to line the mine.
When needed, an operating Roco ED 750 Slewing Crane and a converted Märklin to Trix Class G 2000 BB Vossloh locomotive is used to clear any wrecks.
Yes- -this violates the era, but they are amazing pieces of equipment (kit)!
Consider what interests you in modeling, and pursue that.
Hope this helps.
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yeah ive been inspired by the D&RGW monarch branch and durango to chama. i plan to haul lime stone and cattle and maybe lumber if i have space ive been learning cad to try to design and 3d print a rotary transfer unit similar to the one at salida. thank you for the advice much appreciated
thats a nice layout is it based of any real world examples
Modeling the Monarch branch gives you the opportunity to use switchbacks to extend the run.
I picked a few 101 plans books for ideas. That really helped. I chose an industry (logging and mining, in my case), then I worked from there. I have an HO/HOn3 layout and I managed to draw a plan with continuous running. Never regretted it. I can’t imagine doing complicated switching in HOn3. Not with my equipment anyway.
Simon
Not sure how you could do continuous run unless you put the two 2x4 sheets into a square for a 4x4 layout. Even in HOn3, I would think 2’ wouldn’t be near wide enough for a loop of track - it would only allow around 10" radius curves. I know the Blackstone HOn3 engines require 18" minimum radius.
Lance Mindheim emphasises the # of spots for cars rather than the # of spurs. For example, an industry the receives tank cars may have different locations on a spur to off load tanks cars carrying diffrerent materials.
spurs serviing multiple industries, each with its own spot may require re-spotting a car which is not ready to be picked-up but in the way of reaching other cars or spots
so a relatively simple switching layout, without even a run-around, may be interesting to operate
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i was thinking about a switch back but im not sure how i would model it but its a pretty cool idea
if you dont mind me asking whats the size of your layout?
ill keep this in mind next time i design the spurs. thank you for the advice much appreciated
This gets back to John Armstrong’s Givens and Druthers. An out and back plan might give you what you want. This is basically a loop with a wye entry from a yard. I could see one aspect of your L as a Division Point Yard that heads out to a loop that has a reversing track. I am working on a similar plan for an N-scale layout that would fit on hollow core door. Armstrong’s Wolf Creek Central, as several other plans, is a good example for the loop, and then just place the yard on the L.
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thank you for the recommendation my last track plan i had a yard build in a middle of a loop with a mainline that would divert from it this seems like a much better design. i wish you the best of luck on your layout
To answer your question, my layout is in a 7x11 room, around the walls, with a switching area, and a liftout. The HOn3 track is a loop with one siding, and an access to a dual gauge turntable. Sorry, I never digitized the plan. The curves are 18" radius. It’s a bit tight for my MDC Shay. My other locos run fine.
Simon
If you want realistic operation, you really only need to understand one idea.
Real railroads are built to make money. Money is made by hauling something from Point A to Point B.
So to get beyond running trains in circles, you need a Point A and a Point B. You can have many interwoven multiples of this idea on a larger layout, just like the prototype, but in the end, you’re basically moving people or freight from one point to another. The freight can vary, the type of passenger traffic can vary, it’s always going to be from one point or another.
That’s peculiar, because the prototype Shay was designed to get around curves that other locomotives couldn’t.