10-21-2011, 10:12 AM
If you want automated layout with lots of passenger trains moving, have a look at at the Broadway Lion's subway layout (http://broadwaylion.com/page4.html).
There is also an automated downtown Philadelphia layout (http://www.prrnortheastcorridor.com/)Steve Smith made with lots of moving passenger trains and trams and what not.
But none of these really qualify as a "small" layout.
As for what would be the most interesting situation - terminal switching, or throwing a turnout between two trains to send train 1 off into staging on track 1 and train 2 into staging on track 2 - it really depends on what you like.
Personally, I find the description in Model Railroad Planning 1997 of passenger terminal car handling at Argentine on Chuch Hitchcock's old layout a lot more interesting than just watching trains scoot through a junction, but your mileage may of course vary.
The core problem with simulating a lot of traffic through a small scene over some time (not just train1, train2, train 3 - done) is that you have to have lots of staging (or turn/recycle the sets pretty rapidly - e.g. using run-through staging and fairly generic looking commuter trains - so the same set first is train A eastbound, then train B eastbound, then train C westbound, then train D westbound or whatever).
So I would say that the core design decisions for a commuter railfanning layout is length of the repeat cycle, and staging design.
Smile,
Stein
There is also an automated downtown Philadelphia layout (http://www.prrnortheastcorridor.com/)Steve Smith made with lots of moving passenger trains and trams and what not.
But none of these really qualify as a "small" layout.
As for what would be the most interesting situation - terminal switching, or throwing a turnout between two trains to send train 1 off into staging on track 1 and train 2 into staging on track 2 - it really depends on what you like.
Personally, I find the description in Model Railroad Planning 1997 of passenger terminal car handling at Argentine on Chuch Hitchcock's old layout a lot more interesting than just watching trains scoot through a junction, but your mileage may of course vary.
The core problem with simulating a lot of traffic through a small scene over some time (not just train1, train2, train 3 - done) is that you have to have lots of staging (or turn/recycle the sets pretty rapidly - e.g. using run-through staging and fairly generic looking commuter trains - so the same set first is train A eastbound, then train B eastbound, then train C westbound, then train D westbound or whatever).
So I would say that the core design decisions for a commuter railfanning layout is length of the repeat cycle, and staging design.
Smile,
Stein