New Railway Modellers Forums

Thinking about other people's layouts, and especially where space has been limited,
added to assessing my likelihood of ever building a layout of size again,
and discovering an unexpected product or two...
and playing with both Anyrail and real pieces of track...
I think my thinking has settled on the extremely improbable layout that may be a fast build but keep me entertained for a while.

3ft by 2ft
(I thought I might need an extra 3" in the width or length or both, but I designed down to smaller limit eventually.)

Anyrail sketch.


But Anyrail can't quite cope with how I'm stealing the odd inch and half inch to make things work.
A terminus with a bay platform and sidings, to a turntable fiddle yard with three tracks.



Baseboard is just 1" foil foam. Quite strong and rigid enough, but scenery based on layers or the same will strengthen it,
Three Hornby 4 wheel coaches can be at the main platform and be run-round.
It looks as though an extra siding will go in.
The turntable will be a couple of inches longer than shown.

The tricks involved in this madness, apart from my oft-mentioned 10" radius Fleischman 6020 curves?
A recent discovery of old Playcraft products.


Top, a Hornby R2 point (OK, with added live frog, but that's a separate story) 18" radius, basically
Middle, a Playcraft 15" radius point. About Hornby R1.
Lower, a Playcraft 13" radius point. Very silly, unless one is already using 10" curved track.
The construction of the Playcraft points means that they can be cut back to the frog without much difficulty.



So a crossover, the only one I need, can be further reduced in size compared to a single standard size Hornby point, saving on length and width.

Electrics: non-existent. This is for my battery-powered radio control locos.

Next, the unorthodox turntable. Little to no precision required.

Top remaining issue: scenery and style. Do it conventionally and ignore the impossible track curves?
or associate it with one fantasy world or another?

Chris, who may have finally lost it.

Love it Chris - can't wait for more!

Chris,

I just love what you do....

Mad, but fantastic to see, as it does ACTUALLY give us all the encouragement to try something different.

Never a bad thing,

Thanks for being on here

Peter

What would we all do ... without those Hornby 4 wheel coaches ?
2' x 3' Ehh and you couldn't manage a roundy-roundy !!
Chris I thought you of all people could do better !!

Humour him lads, it's true he's cracked.
I wanna see a video of it working !!

Geoff T.

Dad-1 wrote:What would we all do ... without those Hornby 4 wheel coaches ?

Don't you mean "with"?

2' x 3' Ehh and you couldn't manage a roundy-roundy !!
Chris I thought you of all people could do better !!

I could have an oval and tried sketches, but it was more difficult getting a decent fiddle yard in,
and my battery locos are far more shunters than runners anyway

I did this for track power, standard Hornby/Peco points, 10" curves, with the aim of getting at least four trains in service, five being possible but crowded, doing madcap start and stop suburban services, with a bit of occasional freight. Train length 0-4-0 plus three 4-wheelers.
Raised town in the centre. You can have two trains doing roundy-roundy's while others wait at platforms or a goods in the yard, but the aim is mainly stop-and go rather like a sliding block puzzle, as one train moves to let another move, and...
Fun at the expense of all realism. Definitely "playing trains"






.

You've already done Emett, a cartoon style for stock and scenery might make an acceptable whole. Ivor the Engine might be a suitable theme. Just need to source some miniature dragons. Go for it.

Ahh YES, I used to love watching 'Ivor The Engine', with the kids of course,
as I was in my 30's then ............

Geoff T.

A massive thumbs up from me, having tried out a couple of the battery locos I can confirm that they'd be ideal for something like this.

Mulling, while cutting pieces for the turntable fiddle yard, I suddenly saw how to save an inch or an inch and a half of space that it occupies in length.

That matters at this size. Yes It'll be unconventional Thank goodness it doesn't have to be accurate or tidy.

Chris

Emettman wrote:------------------------------That matters at this size. Yes It'll be unconventional Thank goodness it doesn't have to be accurate or tidy.

Chris

Surely 2ft x 3 ft is enough for Kings Cross.

ParkeNd wrote:

Emettman wrote:------------------------------That matters at this size. Yes It'll be unconventional Thank goodness it doesn't have to be accurate or tidy.

Chris

Surely 2ft x 3 ft is enough for Kings Cross.

Only in HO gauge though...

With real glass in the roof

Chris
Is there a clue, to this space saving turntable, to be had from the first Anyrail clip?

Here we go...

The paired points installed, with rod in tube control. 1 rod for the pair,



The planned track plan did not quite survive contact with reality, but the ideas are all there with a bit of tweaking,






Trying for a curved bay platform to take 3 coaches turned out to leave a very skinny platform, so a short straight bay platform it is.
The short siding alongside the loco run-round header has gone, but a nice big third siding has appeared alongside the planned two.
Four of the already smaller than usual points have been shortened to make this work.

Chris

Hi Chris nothing too dramatic there, I was envisaging something like a raised oval TT with a bridge deck which swung out over the lower level tracks, or had you hoped to have perfected the TARDIS technology in time.
John W

No, not that mad. the KISS principle still applies, even when it leads to curious places.

But cutting up points to make them shorter, that I've pursued here to new lengths(?).
It does help that there's no elastic trickery involved anywhere on the board.

Tackle the turntable alignment today? Maybe.

Worst comes to worst, I'll lose the turntable and the gradient and use cassettes, which is a practical option but not be my first choice.