I recently took down a layout that had been in place for a long time (298 Track Nails), and part of the new layout project was to move my workbench and install some shelving (Workspace Lighting).

Since I will be layout-less for awhile, I'm planning on laying some track on one of the shelves to keep myself entertained and to use as a future RIP track, but need some help on a design that is functional and makes sense.

Givens:
- Shelf is 8' long by ~7 3/4" wide
- Switch tails need to be about 18" to accommodate at least one locomotive and one car (Mikados or 0-6-0's, and 40' cars)

I will be using only #6 switches (recently procured a Fast Tracks fixture as part of the larger project capitalization <g>).

The initial design I came up are in the photo and diagram below. Thoughts?

Placement of turnouts
[attachment=4316]

Plan. Sorry about the sizing - I'll crop and re-upload this tomorrow.<edit: white space cropped>
Notes:
Black lines represent turnouts - most are joined directly together. I suspect that when I build it, I'll be able to trim the ends of the turnouts somewhat to gain a few more inches.
The vertical dashed lines are 18" from the ends of the shelf (reference lines)
The shortest tails (left end of #3 track & right end of #1 track) are about 16". The longest is the left end of #1 at about 33". Others are just over two feet.



Thanks!

Looks good to me - I like it!

Id like to know is there going to be idustrie flats or something to switch cars in to? Also perhaps at one end a dock for in and out bound cars, just my 2 cents. Other wise fluesheet looks good to me.

Mmm - looks a little bit on the track heavy side. I guess it really depends on what you are trying to model on your temporary layout.

How about something with fewer turnouts and more scenery? Here is e.g. a quick sketch of a layout somewhat inspired by Bill Dixon's Tymesaver on Carl Arendt's Micro Layouts site (in scrapbook 53: http://www.carendt.us/scrapbook/page53/index.html):



In the drawing above, green cars are inbound cars, orange cars are cars to be picked up, blue cars are cars to be left where they are or re-spotted after switching. Engine is portrayed by a GP40-2 in the drawing - I don't have any steam engines in my program car library.

Might give you some more ideas about what kind of things you want on your layout (and what kind of things you don't want on your layout, too)

Smile,
Stein

Thanks for the comments guys.

railroader9731, at this point, I hadn't planned any industries. This was initially intended to be a stretch of track to test models (cars or locomotives) on and / or as a "project" track for cars / locomotive that are awaiting work. However, then I got the turnout fixture and a single track with one spur got the steroid treatment; which segues nicely into Stein's comment:

steinjr Wrote:Mmm - looks a little bit on the track heavy side. I guess it really depends on what you are trying to model on your temporary layout.
<snip>
Stein

Yes, I'll admit that it is heavy. If there is such a thing as a spaghetti bowl plan that is perfectly straight, mine would seem to be in (or getting close to) that category! It became an exercise to see how many turnouts I could get into the space and still have room for the minimum length tails. I didn't have a good sense whether it made operational sense though.

This track plan is VERY nice, thanks for taking the time to post it. In spite of having a good amount of track, it has a very usable feel to it - amazing what a little thought and expertise can do for a space.

Incidentally, what software package did you use for your drawing?

Note: I've edited the image I posted to remove the whitespace.

Matt

Fluesheet Wrote:This track plan is VERY nice, thanks for taking the time to post it. In spite of having a good amount of track, but still has a very usable feel to it - amazing what a little thought and expertise can do for a space.

Glad you liked it. It just looked like an interesting challenge to try to fit a standalone H0 scale switching layout into 7" x 8 feet.

Fluesheet Wrote:Incidentally, what software package did you use for your drawing?

Xtrakcad, a freeware track drawing program that can be downloaded from here: http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage

Btw - if you want to try it, be warned that the user interface is pretty idiosyncratic - there is definitely a threshold you have to get over to learn to use it well, but once you master it, it works pretty well - I especially like the option of adding cars and test running things to check on track placement.

Smile,
Stein

steinjr Wrote:Glad you liked it. It just looked like an interesting challenge to try to fit a standalone H0 scale switching layout into 7" x 8 feet.

Xtrakcad, a freeware track drawing program that can be downloaded from here: http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage

Btw - if you want to try it, be warned that the user interface is pretty idiosyncratic - there is definitely a threshold you have to get over to learn to use it well, but once you master it, it works pretty well - I especially like the option of adding cars and test running things to check on track placement.

I didn't initially get that that was a new design for meeting my criteria - I just assumed it was something that you had developed previously. Thanks again Stein!

My drawing was done in Cadrail - so I'm realistic about learning curves. It (Cadrail) is a very good CAD program, but is a little short on the pretty pre-packaged graphics side.

Updated Plan - This is pretty close to being exactly as Stein suggested, with some small tweaks.



Thoughts / comments?

Looks like it'll keep a person entertained for a while, if you like switching. Go for it!

Galen

Now it all comes together i say go for it

Fluesheet Wrote:Updated Plan - This is pretty close to being exactly as Stein suggested, with some small tweaks.



Thoughts / comments?

Track wise, that should work just fine.

Scenically, I am fond of to trying to put partial buildings or overpasses on the front sides, help hide the "end-of-world" effect a little.

Here is e.g. an older plan of mine, called "64th street yard", based based on Dave Howell's "63rd street yard", where I used two warehouses and an overpass to try to hide how small the layout is:




Here is a plan I called "Federal Street Overpass":



"Foulrift industrial park":





See the pattern? Central runaround, spurs branching from the center out towards the sides, small view block on the right and left at front. But of course, it doesn't mean that you have to do it that way - different people like different types of scenery.

Your layout can be urban (which is what I tend to prefer) or rural. If rural, overpasses and tall buildings would probably look out of place. Then a bit more space would probably look better - sacrificing a car length on the two foreground spurs to make room for a little grass at the end of the spur - stuff like that.

Btw - I just saw your post on the model-railroad-hobbyist forum - I hadn't fully grasped that the layout mainly was intended as test track for cars that needed to be fixed (or was just fixed). If you want the entire thing to be a RIP facility, you can. There is a nice plan of a little larger RIP facility on the Carl Arendt micro layouts site (http://www.carendt.com), just search for RIP there.

But for more of a repair facility, a little more depth (at least a foot) would have been nice, allowing you to have tracks branch out some more and to have tracks go into workshops etc.

But if 7" is the depth you can have, it is the depth you can have. Anyways - good luck with your temporary layout!

Grin,
Stein

This one - adapted from an N gauge one by Mike Fischer works well as a small switching layout

shortliner Wrote:This one - adapted from an N gauge one by Mike Fischer works well as a small switching layout

Amazing what a couple of inches extra of depth (9" instead of 7") can do, isn't it?

Of course, it does help that Shortliner Jack is a master designer of switching layouts.

Maestro - I bow my head in respect - that is a more interesting track plan for a general switching layout!

Grin,
Stein

steinjr Wrote:Scenically, I am fond of to trying to put partial buildings or overpasses on the front sides, help hide the "end-of-world" effect a little.

I actually was thinking about that last night after I had posted that most recent plan - I liked the idea, but neglected to incorporate it in some way. Some ideas I'd experimented with, and may go back to is to:
- Making the left end a car shop where the interior of the shop is exposed (i.e. a cutaway building). This would work as a view block, plus make an interesting scenic element
- Similarly, putting a small engine house in the same location.

I'd also thought about staddling a coal dock over the "main" line - this would be a similar transition to a overpass - but rejected it for two reasons: I don't have the vertical space (and depth is iffy), and it would be overkill for the flavor of the remaining part of the layout; it's not a mainline, afterall!

steinjr Wrote:Btw - I just saw your post on the model-railroad-hobbyist forum - I hadn't fully grasped that the layout mainly was intended as test track for cars that needed to be fixed (or was just fixed). If you want the entire thing to be a RIP facility, you can. There is a nice plan of a little larger RIP facility on the Carl Arendt micro layouts site (http://www.carendt.com), just search for RIP there.

But for more of a repair facility, a little more depth (at least a foot) would have been nice, allowing you to have tracks branch out some more and to have tracks go into workshops etc.

But if 7" is the depth you can have, it is the depth you can have. Anyways - good luck with your temporary layout!

Stein

I was lucky enough to have listened to a Modelrail Radio podcast in which the person being interviewed (Chris ?) spoke about small and micro layouts, which got me to thinking about making this a more operational setup. My original inspiration is actually my Dad's "layout" on the back edge of his bench. It consists of about 15' of flextrack, with a turnout and parallel spur springing off about halfway along the run. The track is on some spare 1x4 lumber which is supported by bricks at strategic locations. Nothing fancy, but it provides a spot to put some of his fantastic models on rails. As an aside, there is an ugly vertical transition between two boards that happen to provide a good test of tracking and coupler reliability.

The workbench line idea struck me as very functional, the small switching layout sounds intriguing. Tearing down the old layout, the re-location of the bench and the aquisition of a turnout jig is what set it all in motion. Working in my test case trackage is still an ongoing thought process.

Matt

shortliner Wrote:This one - adapted from an N gauge one by Mike Fischer works well as a small switching layout

This has got me scratching my head. I like that all the track isn't parallel. I may have a little wiggle room on the left side, if even only a slight divergence from parallel. I am still studying what your plan provides operationally - it's apparently obvious to Stein!

Learning,

Matt