Layouts and layout building

Hi everyone,

   I have been looking on here for ideas and found a few but need some more .  I have a couple of boards from a layout design that I didn't use so have been thinking of a HO switching layout.  The total space available is 7' x 16" , yes I know a strange size.  Any ideas and help offered will be greatfully received.

    Andrew

Linn Westcott's "Switchman's Nightmare"

 You want to consider a short run around near the bulk of your switches. And a place to entry the train so you can get to it to and from switching.

You will want dual switch engines so that they will help each other over dead spots in track. The road engine can do it, but you will see that they are not as agile as the switch engines.

Scot Osterweil's Highland Terminal plan (which is a 6 foot by 1 foot variant on the Switchman's Nightmare): http://users.rcn.com/weyand/tractronics/switching_layout/switching_layout.htm

Carl Arendt's Micro Layouts site has quite a few shelf switching layout plans - here are some:
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page71a/index.html
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page57/index.html
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page54/index.html
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page53a/index.html
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page53/index.html

An inspirational 2x4 foot H0 layout ("Brooklyn 3am") - little too wide for your 16", but still:
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page87/index.html

Also, we had a longish forum thread discussing various shelf switching layouts a while back - here: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/153668.aspx

Smile,
Stein

The switchbacks and switching leads on such layouts are invariably quite short so they scream out for short locomotives like six-drivered steam tank types and short four-axled diesel switchers like the HH600, SW7, S-1, etc.

Mark

hi Andrew,

I found in an old Peco publication a couple of small designs by the late CJ Freezer.

Just a simple station, 6 feet long. I added the cassette and some scenery idea's. With the one extra foot you could add two small industries left of the roadcrossing or make the existing plants larger.

Paul

Thanks guys for giving me some more idea's to mullover.  Some very good layouts.

Ponti:

Thanks guys for giving me some more idea's to mullover.  Some very good layouts.

 Probably would be a bit easier to offer advice if it was a bit clearer what kind of switching layout you were looking for - location, era, theme.

 I take it you (being English) are already familiar with the British model railroading web site http://www.rmweb.co.uk ?  Quite a few small shelf switchers inspired by British prototypes there.

 Smile,
 Stein

steinjr:

Probably would be a bit easier to offer advice if it was a bit clearer what kind of switching layout you were looking for - location, era, theme.

 Smile,
 Stein

 Hi Stein,

   Good point.  I had been thinking of a imaginary switching area, based within an industrial or warehouse setting so that the train can appear from behind buildings and spot cars into or infront others.  I had been thinking of doing it roughly 80's/90's with diesel loco's, and I had been thinking of using 1 of the Railroad operators like Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad, Guilford Rail System, Reading & Northern or Southern Railway, as of course these are places over here or in Southern's case was an operator here. I want to run Sound equiped loco's as I already have a DCC system.

   Yes I am familiar with the British model railroading web site http://www.rmweb.co.uk and indeed there are some good idea's there to.

Hmmm - I guess you could make a stretched version of Jack Trollope ("Shortliner Jack")'s 5-foot "Box Street Yard" (available e.g. at Carl Arendt's micro layouts web site: http://www.carendt.com/microplans/pages/shelf/sectorplate/index.html).

 Or Dave Howell's 4 foot 63rd Street Yard (available on Adrian Wymann's Shunting Puzzles website: http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/small-layouts.html)

 Smile,
 Stein

 here is a plan I developed some time ago.

The detachable barge is meant to act as staging, simulating the arrival/departure of new cars/trains.

Food for thought?

Here is an excellent modern Miami railroading layout in the style of Lance Mindheim, by german modeler Kurt on the forum The Gauge (www.the-gauge.net):

  Core module (middle/corner one) is 11 feet long by 14" wide. The two extensions (the one on the left is 5 feet by 9" and the short part of the L is 6 1/2 feet by 2 feet) are detachable, and can be unhooked and stored under the rest of the layout when not in use.

 Obviously too long for you 7 feet by 16" space. But you could convert from H0 scale to N scale and fit the core module into 6-7 feet, with the L-shaped removable extension being a more manageable 3 1/2 feet long.

Smile,
Stein

hi Ponti,

Ponti:

that the train can appear from behind buildings and spot cars into or infront others. 

Does this mean you want a staging track behind a building, long enough to hold a short cut of cars;lets say 2' 6"? A turnout with the rest of the tracks in the middle of your layout so you have some space left for a lead. And must that staging track be in easy reach for fiddling at the same time?

Or can you apply a cassette as is often done by Lance Mindheim? With a cassette it is quite possible to build the right part of the German/Miami layout in HO.

I love to see Stein's input in your thread, as on small yards in another, I am missing a bit what you have come up with. BTW  if I knew you wanted an urban freight scene, I would have never come up with a rural disign by CJ Freezer.

have fun

Paul

 Btw - just to throw a few more designs out there - here are two old (and not very good) 7 foot H0 scale designs of mine, from about 2 years ago.

 First one was inspired by Progressive Rail's Airlake Industrial Park in Lakeville, MN, ca 2001:

Second was inspired by the grain elevators along Hiawatha Avenue in southern Minneapolis in the 1950s:

But I think I managed a design that sounds more like what you are looking for in 8 1/2 feet here: 

Here is another switching layout plan I did that turned out somewhat reasonable. About 12 feet long along longest wall - ie a little under 7 feet in N scale. 2 feet wide in H0 - could be done in about 13-14" in N scale.

 But if all you can fit really is 7 feet, and that is an absolute limit, I would seriously consider N scale.

 Here is an illustration of how much could fit into an 8x1 foot design in N scale - those cars are 60-foot cars, btw. Design of mine, heavily inspired by Jonathan Jones' Mid-Atlantic and Western from the May 2001 Model Railroader Magazine - wouldn't be too hard to pare this one down by a foot:

Byron Henderson has several excellent small N scale switching designs on his web page (the Alameda Belt Line - 1 x 6 feet, collapsible to 1 x 3 feet for transport and the San Jose Switcher - both can be seen here: http://www.layoutvision.com/gallery/) 

Lots of options for switching layouts. Have fun!  

Smile,
Stein

Paulus Jas:

Does this mean you want a staging track behind a building, long enough to hold a short cut of cars;lets say 2' 6"? A turnout with the rest of the tracks in the middle of your layout so you have some space left for a lead. And must that staging track be in easy reach for fiddling at the same time?

Or can you apply a cassette as is often done by Lance Mindheim? With a cassette it is quite possible to build the right part of the German/Miami layout in HO.

I love to see Stein's input in your thread, as on small yards in another, I am missing a bit what you have come up with. BTW  if I knew you wanted an urban freight scene, I would have never come up with a rural disign by CJ Freezer.

have fun

Paul

 Hi Paul,

    I have the space to mount a cassette on the end, I was thinking that having the track disapear behind a building would make hiding the exit line easier, making a change from using a tunnel or bridge for the line to disapear into.

The plan from CJ Freezer is good, it could be adapted to an Urban setting quite easy.