Mike, my opinion is you can stick with HO scale and still have a nice layout with a good deal of operational possibilities. I would have the coal mine at one end of the layout and a classification yard with a small engine servicing area at the other. Now the key here is to have a staging area, which would be, say about 10 to 12 inches under the classification yard.
This staging area is accessed by the mainline track (or is it a branchline?) running into a tunnel behind/beneath the mountains/coal mine. The entire train must be able to fit into the tunnel. The mainline track approaching and inside the tunnel will have about a 2% downgrade. The end of this track (ending at a wall I presume) is mounted on a train-length piece of hinged roadbed, which you can then "swing" or rotate downward so that it connects with the lower level and the staging yard. The hinge is obviously mounted at the end of the layout. This idea of a hinged track to get from one level to the next eliminating any sort of helix or very long run of track.
This tunnel not only gives the appearance of the line continuing on for miles, but gives you access to the staging area. This woould give you a great deal more operating possiblities and you can also have many other freight car types to classify, not just hoppers.
With a plan like this, you can simulate trains coming into the yard from great distances, reclassify them and of course you will have plenty of solid coal train leaving with empties arriving. Good luck however you decide to do this.
Mike
cudaken wrote: With it being only 2 feet wide I would all so say look at N-scale. Reason unless you want to turn the engines with turn tables there will be no way to turns around. Some people like to run point to point, my self I like loops. There are 15" radius turns for HO but you would need 34" wide sections at each end. 15" would limt you to smaller engines but they could turn around. Buy small real cars! Cuda Ken
With it being only 2 feet wide I would all so say look at N-scale. Reason unless you want to turn the engines with turn tables there will be no way to turns around. Some people like to run point to point, my self I like loops.
There are 15" radius turns for HO but you would need 34" wide sections at each end. 15" would limt you to smaller engines but they could turn around.
Buy small real cars!
Cuda Ken
I agree with Ken I have a limited space too (12'x24' room) especially living in Europe and my thoughts for a new layout are to go with N, by the time you take in to account all the aisle widths and turn around it's getting tight in HO.
Shaun
cudaken wrote: With it being only 2 feet wide I would all so say look at N-scale. Reason unless you want to turn the engines with turn tables there will be no way to turns around. Some people like to run point to point, my self I like loops.
With N Scale, a 2'x29' layout would be close to 4'x58' in HO Scale. It would be possible to have dogbones on each end for continuous running options, and surrounding more than one (and perhaps overlapping) point-to-point operations.
Long shelf N Scale track planning ideas may be found at NTrak http://www.ntrak.org/
NTrak resembles the "Domino Plans" promoted in HO Scale by David Barrow http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&cmdtext=%22BARROW%2C+DAVID%22&MAG=ANY&output=5&sort=2
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
pedfly60 wrote:I am wanting to buil a layout utilizing a wall above my garage which measures 29' long. I want the layout to be no more than 24" wide. I am wanting to model coal operations in the 60's/70's. I also want a lot of switching with maybe a middle sized yard and some loco servicing such as engine house etc. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mike Pedri
You should be able to do that. Your era gives you an advantage, since you won't be running steam you don't really need to turn engines, you can just have several sets of diesels running back to back with a "squarehouse" engine house (like the one on the cover of the current MR). Two feet gives you plenty of room in HO. I would suggest maybe a yard with engine facilities at one end, and at the other end either a mine or an industry using coal like a power plant. A "mine run" train would be much shorter than a mainline train running say to a port city for shipping. 10-15 cars with a caboose pulled by back to back GP's for example. Just have a small yard with enough room to run around the train and run back. If the mine/industry is large enough, they could have their own co. owned switcher to do the actual plant switching.
My layout-in-planning is basically going to be a "L" shaped layout built on 2' wide shelves approx. 25' x 35', but I do have enough room to widen out to a allow loops at the end for a dogbone or waterwings for continuous running.
Take a look at several coal hauling prototypes, the Clinchfield, C&O with is many coal branches, Interstate and the Southern all have locations off the top of my head that can be modeled in a space like that.
If you want to go freelance, I suggest you study the way the prototype handles coal, coal operations are a very interesting thing, theres a lot more that goes into it then "Empties In/Loads Out". In th 60's or 70's big six axles or monster four axle lashups would be your power, modern 100t hoppers mixed with the older 55t ones. A coal marshaling yard with an engine terminal linked to a staging yard then have the branch going away from that what you could model.
jt burke
Marion, OH
C&O and Chessie System Modeler
www.marionmodelrailroadclub.org
You might want to play with an iron ore theme. The shorty cars plus say a GP9 will fit around a 18" radius curve. Probably also a 15" radius curve (never tried that when I was a kid). The mine on one end, some steel mills or ore refineries along the way, an oceanside ore dock at the other end. See books about the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range RR for what I have in mind. If you don't like that, then look for stuff about the anthracite roads of northwest Pennsylvania, which may be more to your liking.
You could build a point-to-point layout in your space easily, or an out-and-back. In the latter case, the mine hides the turnaround loop and you need a little wider benchwork balloon at one end.
Do not overlook the possibility of having the main line drift from back to front as you travel from end to end; the scenery will make the trip look longer. Some quiet forest will be a nice break from all the civilized industrial zones that make the railroad its money. (Or it could hide a small tape recorder and not be so quiet. ;-) )
SpaceMouse wrote: IRONROOSTER wrote: "101 Track Plans" has a 1x16 layout that you might want to look at. It is the best long shelf layout I have seen. It's a bit crowded with track and making it 2' deep as well as 29' long would really improve it. It included a fair sized yard, coal mine, and waterfront among other things.EnjoyPaul Paul,I know that plan and overall, I like it. You should know that I tried to layout it with software and using currently availible track. I could not fit it in in less than 18 inches by 18 feet. This is the point I found out that the track designs in MR are graphic representations and not scale drawings. Moral. Layout it out with software before you build the benchwork.
IRONROOSTER wrote: "101 Track Plans" has a 1x16 layout that you might want to look at. It is the best long shelf layout I have seen. It's a bit crowded with track and making it 2' deep as well as 29' long would really improve it. It included a fair sized yard, coal mine, and waterfront among other things.EnjoyPaul
"101 Track Plans" has a 1x16 layout that you might want to look at. It is the best long shelf layout I have seen. It's a bit crowded with track and making it 2' deep as well as 29' long would really improve it. It included a fair sized yard, coal mine, and waterfront among other things.
Enjoy
Paul
Paul,
I know that plan and overall, I like it. You should know that I tried to layout it with software and using currently availible track. I could not fit it in in less than 18 inches by 18 feet. This is the point I found out that the track designs in MR are graphic representations and not scale drawings.
Moral. Layout it out with software before you build the benchwork.
Chip,
I'm not surprised. A lot of those older plans were designed with scratchbuilding and custom fitting of trackwork in mind.
The best implementation of that track plan was probably by Bob Hegge and his Crooked Mountain Lines. It was an O gauge electric interurban line that ran around 3 sides of an 11'x24' room. While not an exact match it was very similar. Hegge had several articles/pictures in the 70's, the one in the October 1977 RMC included a layout drawing.
I hate Rust
Bear "It's all about having fun."
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Is there space for peninsulas jutting out from the wall? I'm thinking of something like an E shape where the left side of the E is the 29ft wall. The peninsulas (could be more than 3 in your space) could have nice wide aisles between them (where the layout is 24" deep), and could be anything from 12" to 60" wide. The peninsulas (even just 3) would break up the monotony of the straight layout down the wall with visually separate scenes. One or some of them - depending on width - could enable continuous running. Another could be branch with a wye.
Without the peninsulas you have the opposite problem of most of us - a long, straight, uobstructed section of layout.
just some thoughts
Fred W
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
You might look at this thread for some raw data
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1190722/ShowPost.aspx
Have fun
IF it were me I would pick a part of the country in the road name and terrain I was wanting to mode. then I would look at satellite photos until I got a prototype that matched the general idea of what I was looking for. Then I would find Sandborn Insurance maps to identify the buildings and create the layout. And that's what I did do for my Indiana PRR layout. It half the size of your proposed layout
If you are going to have a switching layout then staging is critical.
If this is too specific or seems like too much work, then I suggest you start by reading my Beginner's Guide to Layout Design, clickable from my signature.