I have one tunnel. It is 4" long and located between the layout and the staging which is in an another room.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
I have one large tunnel. Through the mountain. Its about 6 ft long. I like having the train dissapear just like on the Moffat Line near the continental divide. Snow on one side and spring on the other. Just like the prototype.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
When the scenery gets "done", I'll have 2 visible tunnel portals and 9 places where trains appear or disappear behind or beneath various scenic view blocks. In one instance on the main line an 'offstage' section is more than a train length, and there is a similar length 'offstage' on a branch line (both are 1.25 - 1.5 loop helixes to gain elevation).
Grinnell
No tunnels on my layout. I model an industrial area on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie, where everything is generally flat. No mountains, but lots of tall industrial structures.
If I ever decide to model the region I am currently living in (central MD), my layout will definitely have at least one tunnel - probably more.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
My prototype had only one very short tunnel, under one of the hills that ring Cincinnati. That will be the only tunnel as such on my layout. However, I have two more functional tunnels. One links the main layout to a separate section representing the end of a branch line (most of this run is exposed to an access aisle, and the entrance will be disguised by a road overpass). The other leads behind the backdrop to north-end staging (entrance hidden by trees and track accessible behind removable backdrop building flats).
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Tunnels?? I had quite an expensive learning experience from them...especially the helix type. Make sure you use guards around the trackwork. Old 1960 photo of my three level layout in my parents basement....I was 18 at the time and had a all Brass 2-8-2 Balboa take a nose dive to the concrete floor below....It was and still is a basket case, bent all too heck, only thing that wasn't damaged was the cab and tender, which was also all brass.
Take Care!
Frank
I have four tunnels on my 4x8 layout. The tunnel portals are purple in this image (black represents bridges).
At times, I had second thoughts about how much of the outer loop is hidden in a tunnel, especially on the right side, but I'm OK with it. With such a small, simple layout, it would feel much smaller to just watch the two trains go around and around. Each side of the figure 8 track has movement; one side is a point-to-point reversing trolley/streetcar and the other is (will be someday) an incline going up the mountain. Both of these will run constantly (with brief pauses at the ends). When a train goes into a tunnel, your eye will focus on one of those moving elements, then go back to a train as it leaves a tunnel. This will break things up and make the layout much more interesting than just watching two trains go around in circles.
I have three and the longest is about 5 feet long. Then I have 2 others that look like tunnels. One actually leads to Staging and the other is a double, short and leads through a view block and from one scene to another.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Thanks all, I have enjoyed learning more about what each of us is up to in the tunnel dept. I must admit I was a little surprised by the number of people that have no tunnels. I always thought a tunnel was a requirement on a model railway, as I think back to my childhood when my first important addition to the layout was a shoebox with the ends cut out of it.
A lot of us model what we were(are) familiar with and I suppose if dear old Dad had not moved us out to the rugged West Coast from Winnipeg in 1959, I might not have a tunnel either.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Currently, 0 tunnels.
Previously I had a 2 tunnels that were both about 12" long - one for each loop.
And before that, I had a helix in a tunnel, and another 4' tunnel where a train passed through a 4x8 table unseen. That layout shouldn't have existed, and too in retrospect, too much was hidden.
I have two tunnels; one leading onto a triple bridge is about 8' long, the second one is about 18' long. They allow me to have more scenery along the long climb up to the second level. So far no problems, easy access from below.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!