for the last several years, I've been playing with the layout pictured below, which IMHO is the best 30" x 54" layout in N-Scale ever!


my scenicking was terrible, but the game it made was fun.

Givens and Druthers

(Railroad Name) - to be determined
Scale: N scale
Gauge: (Std, Narrow): std

Prototype: (the railroad you want to model): Fantasy. semi-modern with heritage steam. freight and passenger (eg: just about anything)

Era:
Region:
Railroad:

Space: 36x80 door

Describe Space e.g. basement. Provide diagram showing Overhead clearances and any obstructions or limitations.

Governing Rolling Stock: (Biggest planned): some amtrak passengers. Might eventually try a Tomix shinkansen

Relative Emphasis: (move the V)

|______________V________________________________|
Track/Operation .................................................. ..Scenic realism

I want to try better scenicking this time

|_________________________V______________________|
Mainline Running .................................................. ........ Switching

I want the option to do both, possibly simultaneously

Operation Priorities: (rearrange as required)

wanted: long, aesthetically interesting mainline run. as long as possible while leaving room for a small yard and challenging, but not frustrating, switching. Mountain scenery

Switching at the yard and at the industries should be able to be run without disturbing a train running on the mainline

No storage tracks planned, I'm not averse to use of the 0-5-0 switcher :mrgreen:


Typical operating Crew: __1____

Eye Level (Owner) : N/a
The door will be placed on a table and operated from a standard office chair, with occasional standing. with overall operating height somewhere between 36 and 40 inches.
Turnouts and coupling will be all manual (toothpick based decoupling). I do not plan to add DCC, but to operate the old fashioned way with a couple of power packs. one for the mainline run, one for yard and switching.

I'd like the option to link with my old layout, but I don't know that I'll have space for both. so that is optional and the old layout shouldn't be a consideration in the plans for this one


Add to this any features required or intolerable (e.g. duckunders, multiple levels).
Would like some tunnel/mountain scenery. A two level double folded dogbone mainline would be best. 2% grade max. prefer 11" curve minimum radius if possible on mainline. 9-3/4 is acceptable in switching area
switching area able to operate separately, but linked to the main line

Welcome to Big Blue ScrewySqrl and I hope that you enjoy your time with us all here.

I had a brief look at your track plan and I would like to recommend that you search out the articles on GERN as I think that some of your industries could be suitable shippers/receivers of the all purpose product that makes everything that it is made from automatically 3% better. It will even make your hobby time 3% more productive, better and more enjoyable.

Seeing the ACME plant makes me think that one of your receivers should be named Wile E Coyote Industries and as we all know from our Bugs Bunny days, a major user of their products. ACME are also major users of GERN in nearly all their products especially the explosives as it makes the explosion 3% bigger.
Perhaps if Wile E Coyote Industries also began using GERN they would have 3% more ideas and 3% more success in catching the Road Runner.

Mark

thanks. That's my OLD plan though. Note that I am looking to make a new door-sized layout.

Sprinkle a little GERN on your "Old Plan", and it would become 3% bigger......... POOF !!! Door Size
:oops: You would have to restrict the width so that all the enlarging happens in the "length dimension". Just think of all the fun if the ACME Factory was 3% bigger

here's a first draft:



minimum radius is 11" except a few 9-3/4 in the switching area. should be good for passenger and steam setups

I don't like the switching area, not enough sidings to hold interest. I want something that a bit of a challenge to switch, without being a tymesaver -- suggestions/mods welcome

Yard is also a storage area (idea was to hold a passenger and 2 freights in the yard, although only one train at a time can run the actual mainline

the 2% grade will be its own scene block, dividing the mainline, switching area, and yard

the bend in the yard lead is to make room for the power pack.

I was tempted to call it a very crowded track plan but your explanation defines it as intentionally designed this way. You have a challenge to build a scenery/landscape to integrate all the tracks in a prototypical manner. I am exited to watch your layout developing.

faraway Wrote:I was tempted to call it a very crowded track plan but your explanation defines it as intentionally designed this way. You have a challenge to build a scenery/landscape to integrate all the tracks in a prototypical manner. I am exited to watch your layout developing.

well, it is a first draft. please offer suggestions for improvement!

here is my second draft:



I like the switching a lot better with 5 sidings to switch and a decent-sized runaround.

I eliminated the yard lead as it was useless, the 'yard' is now just storage tracks for freights and passenger consists.

colors are the same as before, just with a benchwork now.

thoughts, suggestions?

It is amazing to see you planning industry, yard and passenger traffic on such small layout. I would go with much less but that is not a question of track planning but what you and me expect to use a layout for. You need much more operation with real (passenger and freight) trains than I do.
I think you track plan is fine in that light. You get a lot of action

Well, I do like to watch trains roll...Its relaxing.

But at the same time I like having something to do.

a third draft:



this stretches the mainline run a little bit and eliminated the storage yards for a mostly self-contained switchig layout with an inglenook sidings yard.

while I also have the two-door layout plan, I have this as a fallback if the other is looking too expensive



min radius 9.75"
Prototype: Original Norfolk Southern
fictionalized Central North Carolina
1955-1960

Grey: base elevation (1 inch foam)
White: tunnel (effective 1.75" ceiling under a 1/4 inch foam)
Green: 3%% grade from base to 2" (if stretched back to the tunnel entrace a 2% grade can be managed
Red: 2" elevatio (on 1/4" foam base)
Orange: industry trackage
Brown: yard
Dark Green: Interchange with Southern (base elevation)
Purple: Interchange with Seaboard Air Line (2" elevation)
Blue: river (-1" eevation..on base board