TPBO

[steinjr]

Every layout I've ever built (but never got beyond the point that I could start operating it LOL) was based on an actual short line or portion of another railroad. I tend to get really hung up in trying to duplicate actual track arrangements and then get disgusted when I can't make it fit right.

Stop and think about it, a 1/4 mile (1320 ft) in HO scale is just a hair over 15 feet. I've spotted cars at real industries where each track in the industry was 1400 feet in length or longer. To model something like that you really have to compress things unless you're building your layout in a vacant warehouse.

Hmmm - for whatever it may be worth, one observation I have made while working on various track plans is that for H0 scale switching plans, a good ratio when doing selective compression seem to be about 1:4. I.e. a prototype 28 car train will be represented by a 7 car train in H0 scale. A 1400 foot (15 foot in H0 scale) track will be represented by a 3-4 foot long track on the layout.

Not a general rule for all kinds of model railroading, by all means - if you compress something so it gets shorter than 3-4 car lengths, it will tend to look too small. And if you try to model a place where many objects are longer than a half a mile (i.e about 8 feet in compressed H0 scale), it will tend to get too long for most modest sized room layouts. But for H0 scale switching layouts, 1:4 seems to work reasonably well as a quick rule of the thumb.

Also, one neat trick I have seen (e.g. on pictures of Chuck Hitchcock's former Argentine Industrial District Railroad, or on Ralph "car floater"'s layout) for doing those tracks that curve away from the main track is to put those industries on small peninsulas that stick out into the aisle. Ralph in particular got a very neat idea with slanting narrow peninsulas instead of peninsulas located at 90 degrees to the layout.

Not sure if that is applicable to your layout. Looking forward to seeing what you will end up doing!

Grin,
Stein