For my layout that I will start building real soon, I have planned it to be a scenic shortline in a part of Canada that has few communities close together, so there would be lots of scenic area between the towns, just the way I like it. How far apart should my for small towns be, as like I said, I’d like it to be a scenic railway, but not a tourist railway.
The towns don’t have to be on the layout for them to exist. If you are interested in the space between them, then why not just model that?
Much of that IMHO depends on how long your trains are as you don’t want them to be in two towns at once if you can help it. With shorter trains you can also use scenic blocks like tunnels, overpasses, a poke trough a backdrop etc., to disguise the short distance btw towns typical of model railroads with limited space.
I run long trains on my HO layout, anywhere from 15 to 20 feet long and I also use long passing sidings. I have gone to great pains to keep them out of two LDSIGS at the same time. For example, on the end of one double-deck peninsula on the top level I have a 1-1/2 turn helix to get more length and on the bottom level I am going to have the track cross over itself at grade behind the backdrop (but accessable). I hate 180 degree turns anyway so much of that on the ends of the peninsula is hidden.
Model railroads use “selective compression” anyway. In HO Scale, a mile is a little less than 61 feet, so even a huge layout has towns that are less than a scale mile apart. This would be really close together for prototypical towns.
So it really depends on how you model it. You might want to consider a “C” shape with a town at either end and some way to turn your trains – either a loop of track, or a “Y” / turntable arrangement. Or just have them run “off the end” into hidden staging and turn them manually. This would allow you to devote the bulk of your layout space to scenery. A “C” shaped layout two feet wide and covering 3 walls of a standard bedroom would give your roughly 28 linear feet (12 along the long wall and 8 along either side). If the towns occupied the 4’ at either end, you would have 20’ of scenery in between, which is a lot by HO standards.
I have a rule of thumb for planing town distances.
I consider each passing siding to be a town area of some type and to have a station. Next I base my passing siding length on the length of my average train. In my case, that is 8 to 9 cars max. I then like to have at least one train length between the turnouts into the passing sidings. I try to have more distance if possible.
My layout is a folded dogbone that if straightened out would be 63’ long. I am only going to have one town of any consequence. This will represent a prairie elevator town. It will be at one end of the bone. At the other will be a yard and engine servicing facility. In between is the Canadian wilderness through the Rogers Pass in the Canadian Rockies.
I like to spend my Real life vacation time at Canyon Hot Springs. It is located on the CPR mainline in the Canadian Rockies. Sitting in front of my trailer with a beer watching those monsters grinding their way up to the Continental Divide is [B][tup]. Then hitting the hot pools to recover from my strenuous day of watching trains is perfect. So I guess my layout lets me go there when there is 40’ of snow at the real one. [(-D]
Brent
If I unfolded my current design it would be about 140 feet from stagging to the only civilized outpost on the layout, the town itself will occupy an area roughly 3 X 60 feet with a focus on serving numerous packing houses and related industries with very little non rail related structures being modeled.
I have no passing sidings in or exposed yards in my design, my prototype operated one train per day-except during packing season whereupon movements were staggered to avoid congestion on this single track branch line.
Dave
If there is a scenic view block – You have between-town separation. It could be as simple as an overhead highway bridge.
Sidings/stations should be at least one train length apart and one train length long. Towns can be anywhere you want.
Which one? I’m in the same boat, the ONR covers a large area but doesn’t really service a large amount of towns. I try to focus on the bigger industries or interesting features each town has. For example the Beer Store in Cochrane, I believe it’s the only one in Canada that is serviced by a Railway. I thought that was kind of cool.
The real question is what do you intend to do with the layout?
If this is to be a railfan layout where you just watch the trains go by, then do one or two towns and the rest scenery.
If you want to operate the layout, then I suggest you have one long stretch (2-3 train lengths) for scenic effect and the rest short (about 1 train length) between towns.
Enjoy
Paul
That’s what I plan to do, and there is a really long section between Tate’s Falls and John’s Mills, but short areas between John’s Mills, Pumfrey, and New Luxembourg.
Also, I intend to have a partial operating layout, there will be sidings, and two smaller yard, so yes operating, But I also want the send lots of work on the scenery, and have little scenes here and there, like two bored boys, resting on the side of a 300 ft maple tree, or a cougar stalking a deer. I also want to spend endless time modeling all the industries/houses that would be found in a smaller town in the mid 30’s.