H0 scale Waterfront / Harbor Layout with steam power

[stephanh]

Hello folks,

I am about to start my first separate H0 scale layout.
Yeeeha!

First I needed to find a nice place (well, an available space) for it.
It will have to fit into the room I attached a scheme of to this post.
I am not planning to build the layout on the diagonal running wall.
There has to be found a solution for the balcony-door on the upper wall, too.
It is rarely opened, but it still has to be possible.

Because I like steam engines and switching, my choice was fastly made:
New England, Boston & Maine Railroad, harbor scene with fiddle yard, pier action and a car float.
Time frame around 1930-1945. Maybe Portland, Maine or an other larger harbor.

The available space makes it possible to build the layout "along the wall" in J or maybe G shape.
So it should be a shelf layout, not more then 20 inches deep. I plan to use Walthers Shinohara Code 83 track with #8 turnouts.

Although I read some articles and looked at many pictures and track plans, it is quite hard for me to figure out the track plan.
I thought about the action happening in a mid sized or large town´s harbor and I realized, that I don´t really know much about it...

So I think a train would leave the fiddle with cars. Then it would run to the harbor and there should exist some kind of sorting track and a runaround.
Cars need to be picked up and spotted and the car float needs to be switched, too.
After work is done, the return train is build and heads back into the staging.
Correct so far?

Maybe it would be good to build the water front on only two of the three legs and use the third for staging and other Rail-Customers, before the rails turn to the harbor scene.

I have bought several background building kits from Walthers and the pier kit with add-ons, a car float and a tugboat to set the scene,
along with a few smaller kits to be placed between them and in the front of the layout.

Now I am sitting here at my desk and I am really close to going mad about the track plan.
So I thought you guys may have some ideas for me of where to locate the main items (fiddle, pier, car float) to have some reasonable space left for the other track.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I am looking forward to hear from you and answering them.

[Sumpter250]

While I do not have a "home layout", I do belong to an HO scale, modular group, and take the modules to shows. My newest modules are 4' X 30". This is the setting on the far left of the three modules, the "Cindy's Harbor Seaport Village and Museum", with the two mast Schooner "Wind Rider", and on the right side the bow of a Chesapeake Bay "Skipjack"
   
The building to the far left is the Revell Depot Kit, with the eyebrow dormer removed, and replaced with a standard dormer from an Atlas depot kit. It is now the "Gift Shop"
The building to the right of it is an Atlas "Roadside Inn" kit, now the "Cask and Anchor" Restaurant.
The two "dark things" in the foreground, are two of the four pilings that let a lobster pound rise and fall with the tides.
I'm looking forward to seeing your harbor scene, and hoping there will be something there I can learn.

[stephanh]

Right now I have the tendency to cancel the classic fiddle yard and use the car float as a visible fiddle to save some space for scenery.
In that case, I would locate the car float with tugboat and two sorting tracks on the onshore on the lower left side of the layout.
The pier with crane would be located opposite on the right side with some rail served warehouses behind it.
I guess that would look very coherent.

What do you guys think?

[stephanh]

This is a first scatch of the locations.
A runaround is still missing, it could be placed in the small yard on the left or somewhere else.
What do you think?

[lajry]

The runaround could be put on the yard ladder extending it to the car float spur as shown below. This was done in Picasa so not by a MR CAD program. LOL The top switch could be a 3 way or two separate switches. Or put that switch before the spur in the corner. Don't put the runaround in the yard because that just takes away from yard capacity.
   

[stephanh]

Hello Andy,

that was my first intention, too.
The shortest of the tracks would be great for a locomotive to run around the train.
It would give a length of about 9 cars to be ran around then.

A friend of mine thinks that there is not enough space to the right to pull the cars off the car float.
Waht do you think?

[River Witch 14]

Stephan,don't know if this will help yo with your car float but if you want to check my track plan which has a car float in the upper left and how much track I have for pulling cars it is located in the blogs section under the thread called track plan simplified.

[stephanh]

Thank you Bob.
Right now, I would have enough space to push out with one locomotive and 6 cars.
That´s enough for one string of cars on the Car Float.
I have to admit that I don´t really have a feeling for the dimensions, especially the depth of the layout.
How much will fit there? We´ll see.

[stephanh]

How about this one?
Only two sorting tracks, the car float is moved a bit more to the border of the layout.
The sketch is a bit blotted, but it shows the legths-proportion quite well.

70 cm is about 27.5 Inches.

Addition: The crossover on top needs to be mirrored.

[shortliner]

A car-float needs to remain balanced, otherwise you will be crane-lifting cars out of the water, much to the dis-pleasure of your customers - therefore you should pull cars from alternate tracks - this should mean that your "pull" track doesn't need to hold all the cars from the float - likewise when loading

[stephanh]

Yes, you´re right.
But I guess the Yard is a bit too small, it should hold at least as much cars as can be put on the car float - 17.

Maybe it would make sense to put the pier and the car float along with some warehouses and an additional loading track on one leg of the layout to save some space.

[faraway]

This is a pretty good explanation how the prototype works. The track plan could be derived from the loading and unloading operation.
http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/IndustrialL...#unloading

[stephanh]

This is a pretty good explanation how the prototype works. The track plan could be derived from the loading and unloading operation.
http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/IndustrialL...#unloading

Hi Reinhard,

I know this diagram quite well.
That´s why I try to have space for three cars to be pulled off the float.
I am worrying about the space behind the Y-turnout, so there should be enough space to pull more then just one string of cars.

[lajry]

Stephan
Revised your plan again (blue line). No sawing back & forth to put cars off float into yard. The car float looks like it can only hold 4-6 max. Guess float cars would go to yard then a train would be put together to switch industries on other end. Also looks like there's plenty of room to pull all the cars off the float if you pulled them all at the same time.
You might want to make the car float a "staging tray". That way the tray can be changed for another tray. That way you won't be handling the cars & possibly breaking details on them. And if you put the car float next to room wall modeling only the side of the float putting the trays on the other side of the float wall.

   

[stephanh]

Thank you Andy,

it is a good idea to move the connection where you did.
Although the runaround is shortened, it should still be long enough to do the switching.

I am still thinking about the best locations for the key operational elements.

- sorting tracks

- car float (replacing the staging)

- pier

- runaround


Hard to decide and a thing I might be able to plan 1:1 only.