First 00 Layout - Any Suggestions Welcome

[nevbull]

hi All

So - after many years of my son collecting rolling stock - I need to make him a layout. We have got permissions from the management to use the back bedroom and have created a folding 2000x1100mm table - see attached image.

So - key essentials are a couple of running loops and fiddle space - been playing with software and have come up with the attached. Going for broke!

Can't have multiple levels due to board having to fold up when Mother In Law comes to stay - but thinking of making an end to end addition that can be removed.

Looking to get Peco track - possibly DCC - but looking into Arduino based control too.

Any thoughts??

Nev.

[ChrisGreaves]

... board having to fold up when Mother In Law comes to stay -

Hi Nev,
and thank you for the great idea of mounting a layout above a bed. My guest room (9'x10', maybe) is fully occupied by a queen-size bed - but I have/will have overnight guests here. I had not thought of making the guest room the model-layout room, lifting off a huge baseboard when/if visitors arrive.

Right now I am re-beginning as a 74-year old teenager, which I was sixty years ago, and have only eight loco kits to assemble and place in individual display cases, but longer term plans include running a layout through three holes in three walls, giving me a four-room layout.

Cheers
Chris

[End2end]

Hi nevbull and welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately I see an immediate problem with this layout. Nothing can get into the station nor sidings without using 1st radius curves.
1st radius curves can really restrict what you can run.
Thanks
End2end

[Mountain]

The size of that loco compared to the board.. Is that N gauge or is it my eyes?

The advice below are just some ideas. Feel free to use them or not as you desire.

The plan. It is up to you, but personally I would either make a single or a double track oval design as there is more room for scenery and here are a few hints to decieve the eye which make things look more like a model railway.
The first is to move the track so it runs at an angle to the edge of the baseboard rather then parallel to it. If one can't do that, then add some slight curves to give a similar effect. The reason for this is that lines that run parallel to the edge of a board tend to make one think "Trainset" in ones mind. (I don't know why this is. It is just how the mind thinks).
Another useful idea to decieve the mind into thinking the scene is more then a basic oval and make it seem like the railway "Goes somewhere" is to run a point with a line that comes to the edge of the board somewhere. Obviously one is not to use such a line unless one puts sleepers across it and make it look like a dissused lie that has been shortened into a siding. One does not want ones trains to plummet onto the ground! Such a line can come off a diamond crossing for greater visual effect.
Also consider the use of shunting spurrs and trap/catch points etc., just to make things more prototypical in ones operation of the layout. (I know it sounds technical. The basic idea on the real railways was to avoid accidents if wagons or trains decided to roll down the rrack on their own, and a shunting spurr allowed a loco to shunt without conflicting with thw main running lines, and also added the safety feature that if any wagon did not have its handbrake working, they would not crash into an express full of passengers on the main line.

It is little features like this that in themselves may not seem like much, but can give great visual effect when one gets the scenery done and sees the difference.
And don't forget either a cutting or a tunnel or a hill or tall buildings can hide the eye from seeing an oval of track, but if a tunnel, make it look real by making it rocky as visually it will look like the railway builders of years ago decided it was less work to make a tunnel through the hard rock, then to try to remve the hill. Most lines in Britain they tried to use cuttings instead if they could.
And finally. A backscene does add great visual effect and can really transform the railway scene. I loved the old Brian Sheriff backscenes which are still abailable today, though another small company has taken them over. I don't know why but I find them to look more believeable then an exact scaled photograph of a real scene. I am guessing that it has to do with consistency.
Whatever you decide have fun. Enjoy. You don't have to do any of my suggestions at all, as what really matters is that you yourself enjoy it!

But there is an easy way to alter your trackplan slightly if you are willing to compromize with a double track design instead, which would be interesting and give a realistic "Feel". It will need a little extra elwctrical "Knowhow" to wire it up.

See the left hand point that leads to the locomotive (Or cariage?) depot? If one does away with the right hand point next to it and replaces it with a R606 curve (Or whatever code Peco use if using Peco track), and also take away the straight section of track alone with one or two of the curves that joins it, to make the inner track into a siding area, you have a large shunting spurr for the other sidings which doubles up as a safety for any locos or stock which could accidently roll out of the loco/carriage depot.

[nevbull]

Thank you for the comments - I'm very open to suggestions.

I take on board removing the inner loop so we ran on R2 & R3 curves @End2End - @Mountain, could you mark on my drawing what you meant about removing the point etc - I didn't really understand what you meant! And no - it's a OO loco on the table!

Nev.

[Dad-1]

Hi Nevbull,

Welcome to our world !!
All I'll say as a throw away comment. Packing as much track in as you can isn't
always the best idea. However there are 100 different choices from 100 different
railway modellers..

Geoff T.

[Mountain]

Thank you for the comments - I'm very open to suggestions.

I take on board removing the inner loop so we ran on R2 & R3 curves @End2End - @Mountain, could you mark on my drawing what you meant about removing the point etc - I didn't really understand what you meant! And no - it's a OO loco on the table!

Nev.

I dont know how to draw things on these devices but I found a way to rub out. Take a look at this idea because with just a little alteration it gives you a more prototypical siding area with a headshunt, and it also gives you the engine shed area without obstructing the main running lines. The idea is that if it was a real railway, everything is safety protected should any loco or wagon etc happen to run loose. (Rare but they design it for safety just incase. All I have done is adapted your design a little. The headshunt area would need its own power feed).

Now if you wanted to use another prototype practice the crossover that leads to the whole siding complex has two left hand points. If you use two right hand points instead so trains had to reverse off the main line, it is more prototypical as the idea is that if the points are set wrong, passenger trains are unlikley to plough into a freight train parked in the siding as one has to reverse in. (See second smaller picture).

The large area I have rubbed out could be used for a station platform or even a tunnel.

Question. Are the 4 tracks with the black area a station or an engine shed? If a station you will need the top diagram and the area of teack I removed above it can be used to form a scenic tunnel area over it. If it is an engine shed or carriage shed then you will need the bottom of the two diagrams. Either way they are just ideas based on your design on how to make a few adjustments to attempt to follow prototype practices on Britains standard gauge railways. Feel free to play with ideas as you desire as it is your little railway so you say what goes.

[End2end]

There's a layout in the Hornby Track Plans 10th edition book (Layout number 7 on page 19) that although slightly larger at 2000x2000mm would give give you the main points your after.
2 main running lines - one short and one long loop
Station on a slight curve
8 sidings of varying length

I was even going to build the same layout myself but my available space is much larger now to accommodate a layout.
I assuming I can't take a picture of it and post it due to copyright concerns but I'll try to replicate it for you if you'd like using software and give you the digital file. Scarm or anyrail.

Unless anyone reading this has a digital copy of this plan already??

There are no crossover's (X shape track pieces - not 2 points allowing you to cross from one track to another) in the track plan so the track can be built with better Peco track to the same design.

It can be built with Hornby track but from personal experience even if you do use Peco track, if you need a crossover, it needs to be a Hornby crossover to fit properly

There are 2 curved points in the design which can be replaced by a set of straight points instead close to where the curved points are positioned as printed in the book.
Curved points can be a headache

The sidings are split into 2 groups of 5 and 3 and look like a decent length
Maybe even long enough for including a shunting puzzle part of the layout. http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/ ... enook.html

Here's the actual plans book so you can see the cover art albeit out of stock at the moment.
https://www.hattons.co.uk/488264/hornby ... etail.aspx

Just a word of note. It seems, according to Hattons that both the 9th and 10th edition Hornby Track Plans books have the same cover art. It's definitely the 10th edition.
I have it here in front me.
Let me know if you'd like me to create a digital version of the plan being that it is bigger than previously mentioned.
Thanks
End2end

[nevbull]

Thank you for the comments - @End2End - does the Hornby plan appear on any of the FreeTrackPlans pages? I have a copy of AnyRail which I've been using

Nev.

[End2end]

I don't think so Nev. The 10th edition track plans book is the only place I've seen it.
So here it is anyway.

Thanks
End2end

[Ironduke]

are you sure about the layout dimensions in Anyrail, Nev? In XtrkCad 1200mm seems to show way more clearance around a 3rd radius circle

[Mountain]

It looks like it will be good.

Where does one find those track planning things?

[nevbull]

are you sure about the layout dimensions in Anyrail, Nev? In XtrkCad 1200mm seems to show way more clearance around a 3rd radius circle

nev.png

Typo in first post - 2000x1100

[Chops]

Wow, in North America, such compact designs are but rarely examined. Great stuff.

[Chops]

... board having to fold up when Mother In Law comes to stay -

Hi Nev,
and thank you for the great idea of mounting a layout above a bed. My guest room (9'x10', maybe) is fully occupied by a queen-size bed - but I have/will have overnight guests here. I had not thought of making the guest room the model-layout room, lifting off a huge baseboard when/if visitors arrive.

Right now I am re-beginning as a 74-year old teenager, which i was sixty years ago, and have only eight loco kits to assemble and place in individual display cases, but longer term plans include running a layout through three holes in three walls, giving me a four-room layout.

Cheers
Chris

Fabulous! Hope you will give us some photos to enjoy. I, too, did not give permission for the decades to go by so quickly.