clover leaf... good idea or madness? (pic)

[cuyama]

I believe the article others were mentioning was:

"Trefoil (triangle) trackplans, 'three-leaf clover'" by "The Layout Doctor" in the August 1969 RailModel Craftsman. These designs were also reprinted in the Carstens book Track Design.

The designs in this article are pretty dated by today's best practices. (The same can be said for most of what's in the book, unfortunately.)

In the original poster's large space, there are a lot of interesting options that would be more engaging to operate and more pleasing from a scenic standpoint.

Regards,

Byron
http://www.modelrail.us

[mgruber]

Install scenic dividers thru the middle to give you 4 seperate views. This way you could model spring, summer, fall and winter . Not that bad of an idea.

[West Coast S]

I can see potential in the concept if you were into layout design elements as I am, extend the leafs where possible to extend the run in your allowable space, eliminate the S curves by all means possible. Towns could be laid out on the indvidule cloves if so desired.
Use dividers to break up the transations between leafs and terrain features where dividers would be impraticable. You could terminate to stagging yards for a point-to-point design or add continous run to the design.

I see the potential for scenery being the highlight on such a layout. I think we should keep an open mind on new ideas and not dismiss them out of hand.

I think i'm going to explore this further as a possible solution to my design delima.

Dave

[Texas Zepher]

Similar 4 leaf clover design has been done before. Right now the only reference I can find is:

The Double Crossing RR
Model Railroader, July 1974 page 45
"WEGNER, ROBERT", HO

I've got scanned pictures of this but can't post them because they are MR copyrighted of course. But perhaps some MR editor, moderator, or ? person reading this could post them though!

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by geoeisele

Try this same idea with four 90 degree crossing tracks in the middle of the layout, with straight sections to connect the corner "circles". Of course, they're not circles, but only 3/4 circles. The crossings would give the train four straight sections of track to get rid of the "S" curves.

Sort of like driving through an old interstate highway cloverleaf always taking the curve instead of getting on either highway. Similarly you could use grades and bridges instead of the 90 degree crossings.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Texas Zepher, you've got it! The plan is like an interstate cloverleaf, with the train always using the loops! Crazy! The grades on curves might be more of a problem than the crossing tracks, or diamonds, but then again, if you ran really short trains, the grades would be much more interesting. The whole thing totally lacks any sense of realism, of course, but it would be fun.

[pcarrell]

Not really much of a switching layout, is it? [:p]

[IRONROOSTER]

It's a little repetitious. If you can find it, look at the trefoil layout refered to above. The real problem with this layout and the trefoil is that they don't make good use of the space. you have a 19x19 area - 361 sq ft, of which 174 sq ft is layout. This is less than half your space. You appear to have 86' of mainline of which 8' is straight, the rest is curved.

An around the wall layout 3' deep and a 6' wide penisula would leave you aisles of 3 1/2 ft which take up 112 sq ft - this leaves 249 sq ft of layout over two thirds of your space. You would also have a much better straight to curve ratio.

On the other hand if you just want a display loop, you could scenic each lobe a different season and let a train wend its way around. (Double track it for twice as much fun).

I always enjoy reading about the trefoil layout, but I am never tempted to build one.

Enjoy
Paul

[robengland]

ironrooster has got it right. The trefoil or the cloverleaf might have novelty and so are fun to think about, but if you are going to invest all the time and money in building a layout, it is better to build something that makes optimal use of the space available, gives you maximum length of run, can be accessed easily, can have some straight track for yards etc, and will allow satisfying operations once built.
Current thinking, based on the experience of many great layout builders, is that the best configuration for that is walkaround, around the walls and on peninsulars. Put simply, it is better to put the aisles in the middle not the track.