There is a nearly 5 minute video of Ellison’s layout on YouTube if you Google ‘the delta lines o gauge’
i don’t believe so.
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I found that video that richhotrain mentioned. My brain is always frelled before I have coffee in the morning. No, it’s likely not the Delta Lines.
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aren’t shelf layouts better suited for long narrow rooms?
look at how Tony Koester built a pennisula with very narrow shelves on his multi-deck layout but needed a wide loop at the end. He was careful to plan flat areas to allow switching
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OK, but I do have several 25’ to 35’ runs of mainline with no/very few turnouts, no other railroad related infrastructure, etc. And those scenes are not 12" -18" deep shelves, they are 2’-3’ deep scenes for the most part.
Sheldon
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My model railroad would be as big as I want it to be. No limits
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Nothing wrong with the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern, but it might be a more realistic goal to model a modern version of The Bloomer Line in Illinois. It would be about 40 scale miles between Kempton and Gibson City.
And you’d also have spectacular grain elevator scenery at Gibson City (Central Soya).
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Re: Shelf Layouts
I think that “hybridized” layouts which use shelves to give some wider aisles and more run distance with minimal scenicking costs between larger “set piece” areas (towns, engine servicing facilities, key industries, etc.) are a good compromise. Some of my favorite layouts to visit have been primarily 18"-24" deep shelves with a few large fully scenicked (no median backdrop) peninsulas.
That said, for my own modeling, I do prefer a poorly maintained single track main heading through cutover land, so my “dream layout” for such a thing would have a good proportion of its run be essentially that. Doing HOn30 and shortline railroading, my max train length is very short, so even passing sidings wouldn’t take up much space, and even a 12" deep shelf gives a lot more real estate for scenery with a single track N gauge main than it would for HO. A double or triple tracked main with passing sidings, industries along the way, and scenicking would probably still need a 2’ shelf to meet my goals, reasonably speaking, but I’d still consider that to be a “shelf” section.
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With trains that are about 10 feet long traveling at 30 to 40 mph if not higher. That seems like a reasonable amount of dead space to convey the effect.
The OPs suggestion of 1000 feet was obviously an exaggeration, but I went with it to make a point. Most layouts work best when they have a sense of negative and positive space (definitions of those vary) in some sort of reasonable balance. Compression is a good thing, not just typically a necessity.
The idea that the layout will be more realistic the more space you have is not really correct, IMO. If you are just repeating the same thing over and over and over it can become boring and then a waste of space, and then a waste of time and money. Balance is the key.
I don’t want the layout to do a lot. I run short trains. The space I need is much less than someone else who might want to do more with his trains. And run longer trains and 85 foot passenger cars. To get balance in those goals, more space is needed, but simply thinking that having gobs of space will make a layout better isn’t really accurate.
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My new layout room is 30 feet by 52 inches. I have no choice but to use shelf style.
I’ve settled on one 15 inch deep shelf and a 9 inch shelf to give myself 28 inch aisle down the middle and a 24 inch radius loop connecting the two shelves at the end. Structures won’t be a problem since I typically build them with three sides and no more 3 inches deep.
Scenery is going to require some thought though.
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Styrene. A lot of kits sliced to stretch out along the backdrop rather than wrap 4 sided. Gotta have some 3 dimension. I don’t like the look of simple flats.
I could change the theme of the layout and make it like OP might make it. NW Indiana is flat with big farm fields taking up gobs of square miles. Little need to have anything along a backdrop. I could model 6 inches of it or three feet of it and it wouldn’t really matter.
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My average freight train is twice that long, 35-45 1950’s era cars, two steam locos or 3-4 1st generation diesels. Occasionally I will no doubt run even longer trains, but the longest trains I can stage will be about 24’.
Passenger trains range from 7 to 12 cars, two E units or PA’s, or FP7 with 2 B units, or 4-8-2 steam. so even many of those are longer than 10’. The passenger platforms are between 10’-11’.
Sheldon
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Neither do I. On my last layout, I made a backdrop on Masonite and painted it, I then added four tall buildings made from Walthers Modular kits, but only the faces of the buildings.
I thought that just the faces of buildings looked too flat, so I added partial sides out of construction paper to give the building fronts some depth and added some full buildings to the side. Much better.
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Great look, richhotrain!
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Thanks, John.
On my current layout, I had the space to convert the building fronts to full buildings.
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I like the forced perspective to the short sides of the buildings diminishing in apparent height.
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