Shelf Layouts

[Herc Driver]

This may or may not give you an idea...this is my shelf layout, approximately 16 feet long by 24 inches wide at the ends and narrowing down to just over 14 inches wide in the middle. It's certainly possible for one of the rear tracks to drop to a lower area or even a middle track, reaching down to another level. The layout is basically a compressed dog bone concept, with a yard in the middle. The long mainlines have passing tracks, long enough for most passenger or freight pulls on our layout. There's a meandering local line that links the various industries together, then connects to the mainline at one end, while the other deposits engines or cars to a repair facility. The yard allows for access to the mainline and yard operations with additional access to the fueling station and another repair facility. Granted, the layout is chocked full of buildings, roadways, and other details...but that's the way my boys and I wanted it. Our goal was to make the absolute most of the limited space we had, with long mainlines for long trains, and a yard for shorter operations.