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Track plan for shelf layout

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  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Winnipeg Canada
  • 1,637 posts
Track plan for shelf layout
Posted by Blind Bruce on Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:45 AM

I have searched all my old MRRs and cannot find a suitable track plan. I have a clear 20 foot wall but the layout cannot be more than 16 inches deep.

FWIW, it would be set in the 1949 era in the midwest.

Any such plans already designed?

73

Bruce in the Peg

  • Member since
    January 2011
  • From: Ft. Wayne, Indiana
  • 142 posts
Posted by Drew4950 on Thursday, June 16, 2011 1:24 PM

Bruce,

    Pardon me for stating the obvious..but have you tried the track plan database here in MRRs website? Another thing you might look at is big plans and see if you can 'cut' a section of one to suit your needs.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Modeling a railroad hypothetically set in time.

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: huizen, 15 miles from Amsterdam
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Posted by Paulus Jas on Thursday, June 16, 2011 1:54 PM

hi,

take a look at L-type switchers as well. Lance Mindheim's East Rail layout, based on Miami, has two sections both 9 feet long; straightened out it would fill your bill.

Paul

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Eastern Shore Virginia
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Posted by gandydancer19 on Sunday, June 19, 2011 1:17 PM

In the original 101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders by Linn Westcott (MR), there is just such a plan that I have been looking at for many years thinking that it would be a good shelf layout to build.  (I didn't build it because I always had more room.)

The plan is called Port Ogden & Northern RR and is on page 6.  It is 16 foot long and 1 foot wide.  It has four different track levels on it, each 2 inches up from the other.  There is also a 3D sketch of in in the book too, that shows it off really well with the suggested industries and bridges.  It uses no.4 turnouts, but if you used no.6's, it would extend to 20 foot long or so.  By making it 16 inches wide, you would have more scenery and deeper industries.  It's HO scale.

Elmer.

The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.

(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.

  • Member since
    July 2005
  • 535 posts
Posted by nucat78 on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:20 PM

Don't know of a 20X1 that's already designed unless Google shows something.  However, you could probably adapt one of LM's CSX South Florida layouts as mentioned above or put together some of David Barrow's Cat Mountain dominoes together.  You could also check some Yahoo groups on specific RRs like the Iowa Interstate for adaptable layouts.  Just make sure you have a couple of runarounds so you don't wind up with trapped engines.  ;-)

I'd strongly suggest building the layout in sections in case you ever need to move it.

  • Member since
    July 2005
  • 535 posts
Posted by nucat78 on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:26 PM

Another thought - prototype RRs tend to be long, linear things.  Maybe if you checked a few proto track charts, you could find a small section to model.  

  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: Westcentral Pennsylvania (Johnstown)
  • 1,496 posts
Posted by tgindy on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:39 PM

PDF-download = Shelf layouts you can build.

Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956

  • Member since
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  • From: Sorumsand, Norway
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Posted by steinjr on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:33 PM

Blind Bruce

I have searched all my old MRRs and cannot find a suitable track plan. I have a clear 20 foot wall but the layout cannot be more than 16 inches deep.

FWIW, it would be set in the 1949 era in the midwest.

Any such plans already designed?

 Just curious - why not just design a track plan from scratch, based on what you want on your layout?

 The midwest covers a lot of ground - from very urban to very rural, from single track branch line with one train a day to fairly busy junction town.

 What is it that you want on your layout?

 If youi just want to copy an existing track plan, why not just cut out a 20-foot length e.g. of Michael Maas' "South Central Minnesota Railroad" from Nov 2005 MR (and 102 track plans): http://mrr.trains.com/How%20To/Track%20Plan%20Database/2007/08/South%20Central%20Minnesota%20RR.aspx

  Or say Walker and Bemidji from the Minnesota & International from the Jan 2006 MR (and 102 track plans): http://mrr.trains.com/How%20To/Track%20Plan%20Database/2007/08/South%20Central%20Minnesota%20RR.aspx

 Or a piece of the Soo Line plan from the June 2008 MR: http://mrr.trains.com/How%20To/Track%20Plan%20Database/2008/04/Soo%20Line.aspx

Or some parts of the Wisconsin and Southern Troy branch expension from the Model Railroader company layout in the Jan 2008 model railroader: http://mrr.trains.com/How%20To/Track%20Plan%20Database/2007/11/Wisconsin%20and%20Southern%20Troy%20Branch.aspx

 Possibilities are endless. Unless you are fixated on finding a plan that exactly fits your available space as originally drawn, and do not dare to modify plans or plan fragments to make it fit the space you have available.

 Smile,
 Stein

 

 

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