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.