Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
QUOTE: Originally posted by David Foster ...For a start you have to have all your couplers right PLUS all the coupling ramps working well... if not you will drive yourself nuts with cars not uncoupling when you want them to and uncoupling when you don't.
QUOTE: Originally posted by mack79 I'm very new to the hobby, [br] [#welcome] so any help is appreciated. I'm planning a very small shelf layout, [br] As I said, it would be useful to know just how small. Assuming that you are working in H0 a layout which is absolutely no more than 6'x12" would be possible but you would probably be best to go with modelling a loco facility or a car repair shop. A loco facility gives you lots of locos and all their moves plus hoppers for coal (if steam era) or tanks for diesel. You also get gons for coal ash out. There would be a number of box cars for stores in both cases. You also get departmental stock... cranes and such. A repair shop will get any cars that need maintenance... so it is ideal if your interest is in variety of cars. which will realisticly have room for one industry. [br] The yards and harbour suggested will give you far more scope than a single factory... you just imagine all the factoies nearby that they are serving. As this will be a switching only layout, and i have so little space to work with, I'd like to do as much with as little as possible. Don't make the mistake of trying to put a quart into a pint pot. Look at mags and search picture collections on the net. You will find that you want a good "lead" track to allow cars to be switchedmore than one at a time. With limited space there is an argument for making a through track diagonally across the board and putting the industry in the two triangles each side... whether this is done as two industries or two parts of one is up to you. Another thing to do is split the levels. The upper level can cross the lower if you want. Any suggestions on industries which provide alot of switching of alot of different rolling stock? I want you to be very wary... Many modellers go for an all switching layout with lots of spurs and "endless" putting cars in and out. For a start you have to have all your couplers right PLUS all the coupling ramps working well... if not you will drive yourself nuts with cars not uncoupling when you want them to and uncoupling when you don't. Add to that... how long would you maintain interest in loading and unloading a six-shot revolver? that is exactly what switching can be like. Load one track/chamber, turn to the next, unload that then reload it, turn to the next. Okay... you can make it more interesting by loading alternate chambers/tracks and then going to the ones you skipped. [br] Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! I'm not trying to put you off but to suggest some ideas and warn you of the shortcomings of a purely switching layout. As you are new to the hobby it really would be a good thing to do to take plenty of time to look around and do a good chunk of research. The important thing to do is to have fun[8D]