How many mainlines?

[eastcoast]

[:p]
How many mainlines can you run on an around the room shelf layout without going overboard? I run 3 and have lots of fun, but would like to expand.
Any thoughts.[:p]

[Anonymous]

If you are following a prototype, three is about the limit for long distances. Most places in the real world are limited to two.

Andrew

[detting]

Not so for the mighty PRR in the golden years. Four track mains are the order of the day, 6 tracks if you count the freight cutoffs. And if you want to model the Northeast Corridor, you have the added excitement of building cantenary (overhead wires).

[dehusman]

Side by side 4 is the max, but you only find that in densely populated urban areas. On the east coast, 2 mains was very common.

If you want more, I would suggest ing a river valley/canyon and make the additional mains on the other side of the river and up the valley walls. For example west out of Phillie, up the Schuylkill River, The RDG had a double track freight line on the south bank, a double track passenger route on the north bank and the PRR had a double track route up the hill from the RDG on the North bank. The NYC had separate lines on both sides of the Hudson.

If you don't like that then separate them and make them look like two competeing RR's coming out of a city. Lots of examples of that. There is a stretch out of Granite City IL, that has multiple mains belonging to several RR's all running nearly parallel.

[eastcoast]

thanks all
I am putting this all to thought.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by detting

Not so for the mighty PRR in the golden years. Four track mains are the order of the day, 6 tracks if you count the freight cutoffs. And if you want to model the Northeast Corridor, you have the added excitement of building cantenary (overhead wires).

YEP!!!
The Mighty Pennsy had 4-tracks thru my hometown until the late-'70s/early-'80s.
If that isn't enough for you, the PRR had[ b]5[/b]-tracks for 12+ miles, from 'JD' to 'SG' (3 tracks South of the Conemaugh River, and the 2-track "Sang Hollow Extension" North of the Conemaugh), in the Pittsburgh Division, just West of Johnstown, Pa.
From 'JD' West, the mainline was again 4-tracks, with the freight by-pass 'Conemaugh Division' 2-track main beside it, heading NW, then SW, into Pittsburgh (again, the Conemaugh-line was North of the river thru the 'Pack-Saddle Gap).

[DSchmitt]

Its your railroad, so you can have as many as you want. As stated in the responces 4 is about the protype max for parallel tracks on one railroad, and is very unusual. You could separate the tracks horizontally and/or vertically to represent different railroads. If you want logical scenery have fewer mains. If you like to watch the trains run past each other more is OK like the three tracks on a NTRAK show layout.. (Actually some very nice prototypical or realistic scenes have been built as NTRAK modules)

[AltonFan]

I've seen pictures of an N scale layout with what looked like an eight-track mainline.

BUT...

There was no scenery, apparently no operational potential, and lots of storage tracks with cars an locomotives. I got the idea the owner was a collector who just wanted to display his trains, and run them round and round. (And if that's what he wants, more power to him...)

Have to admit, it did look impressive.

[ndbprr]

The area east of North philadelphia Station to Shore (about 3-4 miles) is 6 tracks and to the unknowing they are not tracks #1-6 they are track #0-5 in Pennsy speak. one other thing - that #0 track isn't the zero track. It is the Ought track. It and the five track were used for local work to keep those four mains flowing. I had to be one of the luckiest kids in the world growing up next to the corridor in NE Philly. I was 12 before I knew there was anything else beside a GG1. You didn't need to wait long for something to appear. I seem to recall 10 minutes being an enternity.

[Hawks05]

don't know if this is going to sound right but i'll ask anyways.

how many tracks do you think would be good for a 4x8 foot layout. i want to run the CSX railway and the Wisconsin Central. maybe the Milwaukee Road if i have any room.

[Wdlgln005]

Hawks that souds like urban switching line. Perhaps Milwaukee Road/ Wisconsin Central bought trackage rights on B&O to reach a downtown terminal or union stockyards. Be sure to have a lot of interchange tracks where the line comes into the scene.

[Hawks05]

huh?

sorry. i'm a newbie so i have no clue what you just said. i'm not trying to recreate thing like in realife. this is just to build up skill. i've never had a model railroad set up in my life. if i did it was maybe for a night. so i have no clue what any of the MR lingo is. hopefully my layout will be a 4 foot by 8 foot layout.

[eastcoast]

hey all, east coast again
I just saw photos of the "broadway" and it appeared to have 4 trains running at peak traffic. Is this the norm for that area?

[ndbprr]

You may have seen a publicity photo or movie. For the most part the Broadway Limited was one section only. While trains were very frequent on the corridor expresees and locals ran side by side in addition to freight traffic. Often a local would be schedudled to make stops at a number of stations say between trenton and North Philadelphia and the Boradway would stop at Trenton and Philadelphia so as to maximixe the speed and reduce the number of stops. The only place I ever saw four trains side by side on the PRR was slogging up and down horseshoe curve outside Altoona and I only saw it once.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hawks05

huh?

sorry. i'm a newbie so i have no clue what you just said. i'm not trying to recreate thing like in realife. this is just to build up skill. i've never had a model railroad set up in my life. if i did it was maybe for a night. so i have no clue what any of the MR lingo is. hopefully my layout will be a 4 foot by 8 foot layout.

Hi, to answer your question without hype, in HO a 4X8 could have as many as three mains, but no more due to clearance between tracks and minium radius on the inner curve. In N I don't know. FRED

[StillGrande]

Through Alexandria VA (the other side of the Potomac from DC) there are places where it is 4 plus mains wide. 2 CSX or Norfolk Southern, 2 VRE (Virginia Railway Express). If you count the Metro line on the other side of the fence, then there are 5. There is a spot where the mains all split and at one point a couple rise up and pass over each other. At a point near the Van Dorn Metro Station, you can stand on the platform and watch the CSX go by on one side and look back across the parking lot at a Norfolk Southern intermodal facility (it is pretty small, but they often have lots of locos parked there. The NS side has 3+ tracks (it looks like an Ntrak module) plus sidings. I always thought the view from the street overpass towards the IM yard would make a great module.

I guess the answer is you can add what you like and find a similar situation somewhere.