Due to recent devellopments in family, more in the Diner in the general forum, I may have to relieve from plans of a 15x30 to a 2 or 3.5x7. Still staying in HO. All of this situation is a sudden wrench, but tips or direction to threads on switching shelfs would be appreciated. I'm not sure I could regear myslef for a switch layout, but it may be what I have to do. Ideally, I won't need it, but it isn;t heading that way.
-Morgan
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
steemtrayn wrote:Have you considered joining a modular club?
Nun close round here. thought of that. Thought of just building modules to take to shows too, but there isn't room to store them.
Sorry to hear about the impending loss of space. Have a similar problem, when the house was being rebuilt after a fire (loss of some nice Lionel and related stuff) in '97. She said, as she looked at the studding around a 13x22 space, "that's the train room!" Whow, wonderful! OOps! Taken over for mother-in-law (moved her into a trailer), son (married him off again and moved him next door), lots of stuff had accumulated in the space, then other son needed storage space. Had hoped to get the taping and painting done this summer, but the fellow that was going to do it has cancer, so don't know how he will fair.
I hear getting things running sooths, I had a 4x6 running, but am in the process of making it more finished, so track is torn up, sub-roadbed in place, holding due to summer farm work. Will be nice to run a train again, whenever that is.
My suggestion would be to come up with something possibly based on the Timesaver design. Make it such that if you do not loose the bigger space or if you get it back later, you could incorperate it into the larger layout as a town or industrial area.
Good luck,
pcarrell wrote:http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/shelf-layout.htm
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Good thought though,
cowman wrote: Sorry to hear about the impending loss of space. Have a similar problem, when the house was being rebuilt after a fire (loss of some nice Lionel and related stuff) in '97. She said, as she looked at the studding around a 13x22 space, "that's the train room!" Whow, wonderful! OOps! Taken over for mother-in-law (moved her into a trailer), son (married him off again and moved him next door), lots of stuff had accumulated in the space, then other son needed storage space. Had hoped to get the taping and painting done this summer, but the fellow that was going to do it has cancer, so don't know how he will fair.I hear getting things running sooths, I had a 4x6 running, but am in the process of making it more finished, so track is torn up, sub-roadbed in place, holding due to summer farm work. Will be nice to run a train again, whenever that is.My suggestion would be to come up with something possibly based on the Timesaver design. Make it such that if you do not loose the bigger space or if you get it back later, you could incorperate it into the larger layout as a town or industrial area.Good luck,
yeah, running is a good way to unwind. Interesting you mention cancer... I;m not familiar with the Timesaver beyond it's a game to switch fastest. One of the designs involves a Transfer table, so I suspect the Timsaver get's pitched.
Just went to the General discussion part to the MR forums, there is a thread on a 2x7 timesaver layout with pictures. Looks good.
Have fun,
I plopped a old unneeded closet door on top of two walmart 2x4 card tables. Built a run around with two switches and enough room for engine and two cars more or less.
Several sidings on one end and a short interchange track along the bottom to start the switching game.
Pull inbound cars and swap with with outbound cars. You would be surprised at how much it takes in terms of time, upkeep of rolling stock and good engines for enjoyment.
Later on I added the other three sides and inserted a loop for test tracking.
Flashwave wrote: pcarrell wrote:http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/shelf-layout.htmInternet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Works for me. Try it again. Maybe their server was having issues?
I'm starting what should be a fairly large layout in two levels around the walls of the basement. The upper level is going to be point to point (one end a staging yard, the other end a working yard with turntable/roundhouse etc.) with the lower level continous running.
To get things rolling I started on the upper level which is about 55" hig Using John Sterling's shelving system I pretty quickly put up an L shaped "layout" that is 12' x 13' using 16" wide shelves. Basically I put in the staging yard and am temporarily using it as a working yard, with a couple of industries (including some flats) and a team track to do some switching.
As someone who for 30+ years always had a continuous run type layout, I thought this wasn't going to be very interesting and was only a 'bare bones' thing until I could get enough layout done to really run trains...but in fact, I find it quite fun to operate. I generally use one engine, sometimes two smaller diesels back-to-back, and switch out 8 cars per 'session' which takes about a half hour to 45 minutes running at slow speeds.
I figure I won't expand the layout for a while, and will do some scenery work to give the section I have a more finished look. I still want to do the layout as planned with continous running on the lower level, but if for some reason I never get that done, I think I'll be fine running on the shelf on the upper level.
I'm leaning towards doing something similar to wjstix - starting with a smaller shelf layout that can grow into filling the basement layout room later, when more time, money and energy/motivation surfaces. I have a finished room ~12ftx27ft but don't wish to start on the whole enchilada right now (work, kids, school, etc.).
If I begin from the entry doorway and move clockwise, I have a clear 20ft wall to the first corner, then about 12ft6in to the next corner. I'm thinking this will make for a nice L-shaped shelf layout as a "phase one" start to the larger plan when I'm ready to tackle it. I could also use a portion of the adjoining 27ft wall for temporary staging using a pair of 24inx6ft modules I already have framed.
Prototype is mid-1990s WC - I'm thinking of a design along the lines of Bob Warren's NH shelf layout (Sept. '04 MR) or Iain Rice's L&HR Leamington yard plan (Oct. '99 MR). Locale is Wisconsin's agricultural heartland, just a bit south of where the North Woods begin, so I can feature grain and milling traffic along with some mixed industrial shippers like an LPG dealer or lumber distributor and the like.
Ops would be the ability to run a local in from staging, switch the industries in town and return back to staging. Perhaps including an interchange with the C&NW would liven things up a bit too. Either way, it would be enough to get out of the armchair and running a train or two without the commitment required by a room-filling plan.
What do y'all think?
Flashwave wrote:Due to recent devellopments in family, more in the Diner in the general forum, I may have to relieve from plans of a 15x30 to a 2 or 3.5x7. Still staying in HO. All of this situation is a sudden wrench, but tips or direction to threads on switching shelfs would be appreciated. I'm not sure I could regear myslef for a switch layout, but it may be what I have to do. Ideally, I won't need it, but it isn;t heading that way.
Take a look at some of these suggestions. After you look through several, you'll start to pick up a general trackage theme/schematic that applies to most of them. You can then use those concepts to manipulate the trackage into your own design. The trick is arranging the trackage in various shapes to get an interesting setup that works for you.
http://andrews-trains.fotopic.net/
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
The best switching shelf layout I have ever seen is Lance Mindheim's East Rail layout. It is only 9.5' x 9.5' and 16" deep, but you would never know it if you saw the pictures. In fact, look at the pictures link first and then check out the track plan:
Photos of Lance Mindheim's East Rail layout:http://www.lancemindheim.com/toppage1.htm
Track Planhttp://www.lancemindheim.com/track_plan.htm
I always look at Lance's website whenever I think my layout is not "complex" enough--it sure does lend credence to the thought that keeping things simple is usually better. It is amazing that all this realistic scenery fits in such a small space. If you have ever spent any time in the industrial areas around Miami, you would swear you have driven through these scenes before! Jamie
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Pasadena Sub wrote: The best switching shelf layout I have ever seen is Lance Mindheim's East Rail layout. It is only 9.5' x 9.5' and 16" deep, but you would never know it if you saw the pictures. In fact, look at the pictures link first and then check out the track plan:Photos of Lance Mindheim's East Rail layout:http://www.lancemindheim.com/toppage1.htmTrack Planhttp://www.lancemindheim.com/track_plan.htmI always look at Lance's website whenever I think my layout is not "complex" enough--it sure does lend credence to the thought that keeping things simple is usually better. It is amazing that all this realistic scenery fits in such a small space. If you have ever spent any time in the industrial areas around Miami, you would swear you have driven through these scenes before! Jamie
<sarcasm> Egads! Not even a single runaround track! How utterly BOOORING! </sarcasm>
I was amazed by Lance's work when I first saw it in MR recently. His layout is a perfect testament to the philosophy that sometimes less is more. It goes to show you that if you do a good job with the scenery, you don't need a sophisticated and overly-complex track design. However, there are some who favor complex and challenging switching operations over scenery. The trick is to find the balance that makes you happy.
For a comprehensive look at various designs and configurations for small switching layouts, see http://carendt.com/. Carl is usually open to an e-mail discussion on the pros and cons of specific designs, too.
just a thought
Fred W