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mini layout contest

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  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Edegem, Belgium
  • 38 posts
mini layout contest
Posted by marctje on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 1:48 PM

hello,

 i'm Marc and i'm living in Belgium, Antwerp and i'm in fore a mini layout contest in october 2010. my idea is to build a American railroad on 2 meter x 0.45 meter. where aloud 0.9 m². my problem was to find a way to make a railroad with a purpose, to handle freight cars. the contours of the staging yard must be included in the 0.9 m² so i'm planning to make 4 car floats with 2 tracks each. this way i can ship freight cars and stil use the 0.9 m².  

http://s682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/foorfreak/ here you can find the 2 plans i made. please give me some comments (good ore bad)
 
ps: forgive my bad english i usely speak dutch

Union Pacific and Amtrak in Belgium

  • Member since
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  • From: Rimrock, Arizona
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Posted by SpaceMouse on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:11 PM

There are a lot of switch backs in the designs. I think you can simplify things without losing anything.

The one thing I don't like is havivg to make a switchback inside your factory.

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

  • Member since
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  • From: Sorumsand, Norway
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Posted by steinjr on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 11:18 AM

 

marctje

hello,

 i'm Marc and i'm living in Belgium, Antwerp and i'm in fore a mini layout contest in october 2010. my idea is to build a American railroad on 2 meter x 0.45 meter. where aloud 0.9 m². my problem was to find a way to make a railroad with a purpose, to handle freight cars. the contours of the staging yard must be included in the 0.9 m² so i'm planning to make 4 car floats with 2 tracks each. this way i can ship freight cars and stil use the 0.9 m².  

http://s682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/foorfreak/ here you can find the 2 plans i made. please give me some comments (good ore bad)
 
ps: forgive my bad english i usely speak dutch

 Hi Marc -- 

 Adding cassette staging to what looks a lot like a tymesaver layout doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, but it might work for you and your design goals (which you have not stated)

 For a six foot layout, I think I would rather have built something like Scot Osterweil's NYC Highland Terminal RR layout: http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html

 What is your design goal - what are you trying to accomplish?

 Smile,
 Stein

 

 

 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern CA Bay Area
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Posted by cuyama on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:36 PM

steinjr
For a six foot layout, I think I would rather have built something like Scot Osterweil's NYC Highland Terminal RR layout: http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html

And from the "credit where credit is due" perspective, I think it's always worth noting that Osterweil's design is a fairly direct copy of Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare. It's a shame that the web pages on the Highland Terminal do not acknowledge the layout's heritage.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Sorumsand, Norway
  • 3,417 posts
Posted by steinjr on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:03 PM

 

cuyama

steinjr
For a six foot layout, I think I would rather have built something like Scot Osterweil's NYC Highland Terminal RR layout: http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html

And from the "credit where credit is due" perspective, I think it's always worth noting that Osterweil's design is a fairly direct copy of Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare. It's a shame that the web pages on the Highland Terminal do not acknowledge the layout's heritage.

 Bottom of the page linked to above

"Editor's Note: The Highland Terminal plan was one of the first small layouts ever posted on the then-new Internet, in 1994. It's a classic shelf switcher in the same mold as Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare, and it has been admired and imitated for more than 11 years.  We thank Scot Osterweil for allowing us to give this venerable design a new home on the Web at this site dedicated to small layouts with high operating potential.  Carl Arendt, August 2005."

 Osterweil's plan clearly is similar to Linn Westcott's Switchman's Nightmare, but I like Osterweil's version better - in my opinion, axing that rearmost siding with the switchback, and twisting the runaround like Osterweil did improved the plan.

Smile,
Stein

 

 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern CA Bay Area
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Posted by cuyama on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:12 PM

You're right, Stein, I was primarily referring to the original pages where the layout is published ... I should have been clearer.

  • Member since
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  • From: Sorumsand, Norway
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Posted by steinjr on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:32 PM
cuyama

You're right, Stein, I was primarily referring to the original pages where the layout is published.

 Then you would have been right. No attribution there, as far as I recall.

 Btw - I totally agree with you about giving attributions where appropriate, and I try as best I can to give correct attribution both for information and track plan ideas I use when I write something myself - like when I e.g. refer to plans you have made or things you have written.

 Smile,
 Stein

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Sorumsand, Norway
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Posted by steinjr on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 5:16 PM

 Btw - for easier comparison - here is Marc's layout plans:

 "Duluth Urban industries 1":

 

 "Duluth Urban Industries 2":

 

 

 The part I like the least is the length of the tail track on the right hand side (inside the factory) - it looks to be so short that you can only take one car at a time up to or down from the factories/warehouses along the rear end of the layout.

 I would have tried to be able to move at least cuts of 2 and 2 cars, and tried hard to avoid having to use the track in front of one industry as a switchback to reach another industry.

  Couldn't help it - had to make a sketch to see what could be done in 18" x 6 feet. Here is one possible solution to this issue:

 both tail tracks (upper left hand corner and right end below carfloat) hold two cars + loco, runaround hold two cars, there is one holding track in the lower right hand corner (to hold inbound or outbound cars while you are swapping outbounds for inbounds), and each industry can be switched without touching cars in front of other industries:

 

 Smile,
 Stein

 

 

  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Edegem, Belgium
  • 38 posts
Posted by marctje on Thursday, April 30, 2009 1:44 AM

Stein

Thank you for youre remarks and for youre proposel for a different layout. I think that's what a forum is fore: to help eachother. I'm gone try to make a new plan and gone deal with youre remarks.

regards

Marc

Union Pacific and Amtrak in Belgium

  • Member since
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  • From: Edegem, Belgium
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Posted by marctje on Monday, February 20, 2017 4:52 AM

Hi everybody

it's been a long time since i've been here (april 2009) and finaly i have time to put something new here. last year october i partisipated with a mini layout in a concour at the 2 years modeltrainshow in Belgium. I made a small layout (1m80 on 37,5 cm, with a fiddleyard of 50 cm on 1m50) with theme: corn in a small town in Nebraska. view the pictures and please give comment because in october this year where going to participate with the layout on the NMRA convention in Derby UK. IMG_0243 by https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/672/32594056462_e425c39b20_z.jpg[/img]IMG_0111 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr.com/photos/marctje/]Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 IMG_0110 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 IMG_0109 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 IMG_0248 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 IMG_0111 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 IMG_0246 by Marc De Groulard, on Flickr

 

 

Union Pacific and Amtrak in Belgium

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Posted by Choops on Monday, February 20, 2017 7:54 AM
The painted grain silos are a nice space saving detail. Steve
Modeling Union Pacific between Cheyenne and Laramie in 1957 (roughly)
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  • From: Phoenix, AZ
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Posted by bearman on Monday, February 20, 2017 10:39 AM

Dont worry about your English.  There are a lot of Americans who have difficulty with English.

Bear "It's all about having fun."

  • Member since
    August 2013
  • 3,006 posts
Posted by ACY Tom on Monday, February 20, 2017 11:16 AM

 

 
ps: forgive my bad english i usely speak dutch
 

[/quote]

Marc, there is nothing to forgive. Many native Americans (including certain politicians) don't know how to use English properly, and aren't brave enough to even try to learn a second or third language. Your English isn't perfect, but we are able to understand you, and that is what is important. I admire you all the more for your bravery in modeling railroading that is outside your personal experience. You've done a remarkable job!

Tom 

P.S. I recently learned that my Great Grandfather passed through Antwerp when he emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1881.

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