Hello everybody,
Looking for some constructive criticism to perfect a very, very small layout. The layout is almost completed. I like the way the industrial branchlines work well together and make switching interesting, however, I’m a little bit confused about the location of my plants and industries.
For the moment, I think I should swap the lumber yard with the stone crusher. It would match the prototype bette rand also would blend with the scenery better.
I’m actually working on a micro-layout inspired by Quebec Railway Light & Power Co Prototype in Beauport, Québec. The exact location is Giffard, that was a small hamlet located around a old French stone mill that was converted in a brewery around 1895 (6 years after the railroad was built). The hamlet was made of two streets, the old one with old french stone building from the late XVIIIth century called Chemin du Roy (King’s Road) and the new one called Rue de la Station (Depot Street). I would like to depict this in an interesting switching micro-layout. With 4’ x 6’ (or maybe 5-1/2’)? Because I don’t have place for a shelf layout and I still like to see trains running in a loop.
The original area had many industries concentrated around the station which itself was a junction with industrial spur line and a suburban scenic railway climbing an important grade there. I will model the 1910 to 1920 era with little steamers (0-6-0T, 2-6-0 and 4-4-0 with 36’ and 40’ cars maximum) and will try to get the old French Canadian feeling about it by scratbuilding a few distinctive stones houses and the brewery buildings.
Existing industries that I want to depict :
1. Limestone quarry (stone crusher, architectural stone : hopper cars, flat cars)
2. Brewery with in and out track if possible (box cars, reefer cars, anything else needed for a brewery?)
3. Passenger Station
4. Freight Depot
5. Lumber yard (box cars, flat cars)
6. Slaughter house & Stock pen (stock cars, reefer cars)
7. SICO Paint Plant (Do not know where to put it on the layout)
I put on the structures I already own and that could help doing something.
And for sure, I need to place a water stream beside the brewery.
I was wondering if a coal tower was necessary. There was no one there back then, however, maybe just a coal pit for the local 0-6-0T switcher would be nice
.
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
I guess my question wasn't clear enough. I continued working on the layout, adding an extra 6 inches in lenght that made things look better. In some way, I ask my self if there is an other way of doing it on the same footprint. I know it's a little bit "toy train", but don't forget I already have a big layout. I would like to make a smaller layout because I like to make scenery but can't on the big one. The basic idea is a operation-oriented diorama with a belt line to feed it.
One of my early thought was to put the loop under the table, running in a tunnel and connect in with a small staging to make operation more interesting. Also, that would resolve the toyish aspect and reduce the risk on accident on the descending grade at the left (I know it from experience!!!). That would free a lot of space for the industries and maybe make it more interesting. And make tricky and unrealistic bridge design dissapear.
Any suggestion on improving it? I think the brewery, the lumber yard and the quarrry could be improved a lot (in and out tracks (malt & beer), logs vs finished wood products, building stone (flat, gondola) and gravel pit (hoppers).
Matt
OK. Now I got the name, I got the concept and I started to clean up things after going back to basic with the original G&D.
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Name: Forsaken Lake and Salaberry Junction Railway (FL&SJ)
Seeing no reply, I was full of doubt and almost abandonned the idea of a 4X4 layout. I decided to add an extra feet to get more room and concentrate on operating scenarios that could have be possible on my prototype. I almost went with a 8'x2' setting, but still wanted a real main line. The thread about layout name inspired me enough to get a more clear operation concept around a logging branchline junction with a busy main line.
First of all, kept it simple. Kicked out the annoying switchbacks, except one long enough to make it an interesting exception. Eliminated some industries that didn't fit the size and configuration (paint plant, meat packing plant). I will keep them for a future expansion. Too much is confusion. In an other part, I optimized the freight station siding with a team track on the wharf (the wharf existed in the prototype about 100' from the station).
Second, I kept the twice-around track for mainline, but hidden under the layout level 0. I will probably expand it more to make the grade go down to a maximum of 3% (don’t know how much a kitbashed IHC 2-6-0 can take!). I will also check for a staging possibility under the layout to feed the main line.
In a future expansion, Forsaken Lake will be deplaced further on the new layout and it’s former place will be merged with the quarry.
Finally, there is a small engine facility for the switcher (probably a 0-6-0T as you may guess). Have any ideas about a very small industrial engine facility? I imagined a small wood shed, a pile of coal and a water crane.
I think there is still too much trackage. I will probably eliminate the siding beside the station (wanted to use it for the snow plow and MoW). What do you think about it?
The trackplan gives me vertigo. That's my problem.
For the tiny engine terminal, I would look at an article by E. L. Moore in Model Railroader entitled "Turn Backward, Oh Time...." Don't know what issue it was (you can probably find it in the periodical index), but it discussed the tiny terminal on Moore's Elizabeth Valley RR. The terminal featured a bucket for loading coal, a tiny ashpit, a small engine house, and so on.
Carl Arendt's Micro Layout web site contains a track plan based on Moore's entire terminal. The whole layout was 4x6ft, IIRC.
If the buildings on the second drawing are to scale, and you have left enough horizontal clearance between structures and track, you have a masterful job in creating a good micro-layout. Continuing to minimize the amount of track while still maintaining good operational capabilities is a tough balancing act. Probably the hardest part of building the layout will be disguising how crowded the track really is. Detailed micro-scenes can help take away from tracks that are really too close to each other. Dense trees also make an excellent view break. Charlie Comstock's 1st Bear Creek and Jackson layout (a twice-around 4x8) is a great example of detailed micro-scenes disguising how crowded the layout really is. Putting the layout up very close to eye level also helps a lot.
Right now, I'm working on a 48" x 70.5" layout that encompasses a standard gauge oval with a passing siding on one side of the oval (visible staging/depot), and a single spur on the other. The single spur services a trans-loading point at one terminal of a very simple HOn3 point-to point that is folded 180 degrees inside the standard gauge oval. Operationally, there are 2 short standard gauge trains - one freight, and one passenger. The freight pulls and spots cars at the transfer platform spur. The HOn3 line brings freight up and down from the transfer platform to the "town" above the passing siding/depot.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
...modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900...