yet another newbie!

[LondonFlat]

If you want to rip up the track each time, just buy 4 wallpapering tables and erect when neededFour paste tables.jpg

maybe Bingo, I was assuming wallpaper tables flimsy, but they do exist with center bracing- could be just the thing to start with- and the fold up so slim.

[TimberSurf]

Yes the diagonal ones are infinitely more stable and not a bad price
http://www.screwfix.com/p/professional- ... 80mm/75185
Join the ends together with a 6mm roofing bolt and the whole structure will be rigid

[Emettman]

I am musing that in OO and with modern steam locos one probably needs 10 foot by 5 foot to have a double oval and some sidings to play with.

That does rather depend on how many carriages you want behind the locos!

Again I'm looking at sketches I've already done.

This is 8x4, gives, yes, two main lines, and a means of changing and turning trains, and goods shunting.



Yes, R2 curves and Hornby standard points, but a foot wider would lose all the R2 curves and, I think, allow the shorterof the Peco electrofrog points.
(quick look I think I can do that in Kato HO, too, though I don't think there's a diamond)
4 full length coaches for a train.

The key "trick" is the inner platform on the left, which acts as a bidirectional terminal Its corresponding half-oval on the right is not intended for running trains, but to permit locos to move on and off either end of a rake of coaches standing at the inner platform.
Apart from that, all the green siding arrangements are purely to taste. The return loop was meant just to turn tender locos. that may or may not be possible with an R3 curve minimum

Chris

[TimberSurf]

A more robust temporary solution (albeit more expensive)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HARTLEYS-6FT- ... 1714224541

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HARTLEYS-4FT- ... SwYHxWFiBN

Here is 2nd and 3rd radii shown on some plastic table plans 6x7ft,10x4ft and 6x5ft

London Flat 2.jpg (59.34 KiB) Viewed 2090 times

[LondonFlat]

thanks so much for the continued interest! those tables are brilliant and I love that compact plan

end to end with loco spurs and continuous run.jpg (96.38 KiB) Viewed 2082 times

[/img]

the attached plan is sort of what I had in mind- the inspiration is from the hornby trackmat layout. the dimensions are ten foot by five foot, the minimum radius is 20 inches- a tad more than hornby R3, and the points are 43 inch radius. This was done in pre balasted trix track. It doesnt quite work with kato ho- it needs an extra half foot in each dimension.

Kato track doesn't lend itself so well to the mild kidney shape (the lengths needed seem to only be sold with points- and they are needed almost every time a point is laid so not enough extras)

There are 2 two track terminus stations each platform is long enough for a tender steam loco and 3 coaches, a loco spur for each station, and two extras, along with a double track mainline going between them. Its crammed a lot into the space I know.

There are 11 points on the layout, but that could be reduced to 8 if I lose the two extra loco spurs and the headshunt needed for them

I'm discovering very quickly why trainsets are a big compromise. Its not the wide radius that is problematic with kato ho or trix c track, its the massive radius of the points, there is either hornby/peco/trix small that are R2 17 inch or kato/trix 32/43 respectively- kato does have 21.5 inch points- I shall rejig the layout to see how it could work with them.

[Emettman]

I think I may be tuning in to your preferences.
Let's see.

Kato track (they have some peculiar geometries, or I'm trying to do things they've not thought of)
21.65" minimum.
Your size of board



Setting up your two termini as one double ended one makes it much easier to handle tender engines, especially with the inner "loco track" on the other side giving access to both ends of a rake of carriages (just room for 4, I think) at either platform face.

I'm pretty sure I could do better (from my perspective)
Curved platforms at one end save invaluable space, especially on width.
If I can get just a foot off the length and width that's a heck of a lot less baseboard (15 sq. ft: a 3 x 5 layout!)

[LondonFlat]

thats very clever actually, its ticked most of the boxes- and adds a few more boxes that it ticks.

as you can probably tell, the operations I am most interested in are those that involve a train arriving, the loco is decoupled, another loco reverses up to the other end of the coaches and is the train is then hauled in the opposite direction to which it came.

ok so we lose the two pretend terminii, but what sort of express service runs between two small terminii anyway? (i might be wrong maybe that sort of thing does/did happen) maybe better a pretend through station with plenty of trains that terminate there from either direction.

also lost is a train, in my original design we could start with 5. i e the station full and one on the oval- so one departs, one enters, then another departs from the other station, the original departure enters and so on and so on.

the biggest gain of course is no need anymore for the hand of god turntable, i could have enough locos facing different ways. In my design, each station would get clogged with backwards locos, unless it went all the way round the oval - ridiculous - or the hand of god picks it up and turns it round- not so ridiculus..

[LondonFlat]

I think I shall start a thread in the planning section.

[Emettman]

Here is the same idea for operation, but based on the earlier 8x4 expanded to 9x5. This keeps the 21.65" minimum radius as shown on the 10x6 sketch,
but there is now room for three platform faces all comfortably long enough for trains of 4 coaches +tender loco.
The inner platform does the direction changing and loco exchange. Compared to the 8x4, the inner platform doesn't have to be the goods headshunt as well.

.

I've cut the pointwork down to 2 loco sidings and 3 for goods/storage but there's clearly room for more, if preferred.
The possible inside operating area is shown as a 3ft diameter circle.

It's not been mentioned: do you have high ceilings?
A hoisted-up layout needs thought to be safe, but at this sort of size it would be a tidy answer.

Chris

[Emettman]

I took your point about train capacity (numbers rather than size, and found I could get in an extra platform and track, just.

[URL=http://s644.photobucket.com/user/Emettm ... y.jpg.html][/URL

The platform widths can be tweaked with little difficulty.
Crowded, but with room for that extra train.

Still thinking.
Some days that's my limnit of activity.
Chris