Here I am presenting three different plans for my hobby space. An M , G and E shapes. I don't have a favorite at this time. Early 70's Appalachian Coal Run is the primary focus. Running with Switching. Looking for feedback from those who have experience with various layouts on which foundation would give most flexibility to design and interest. N Scale. No Isle is under 2.5' most are 3'. My goal would be to keep them at 3'. Grid is 1' A fourth Design based on the last one, is to widen the middle leg since you can access it from both sides and eliminate the bottom leg.
I'd go with the G shape. It looks to offer the most flexibility and the most real estate. Broken up into distinct sections for at least 6 different scenes.
The "M" shape seems to be good as a point to point layout. The "G" has good aisle space and room for looping as a continuous run. The "E" shape certainly appears to have a very pinched aisle space at bottom. Widening the middle as you've noted would work. If you took the bottom leg out, or perhaps just made it a narrow shelf for staging/fiddle yard? Boxcab E50
The M shape and the G shape both offer a lot of space for views. The M shape offers more natural view breaks, assuming a divider on each peninsula. It also avoids the Window. The G offers a pure dogbone style loop option. The M is point to point, though you could probably fit a loop to loop between the 2 peninsulas though the 3' one would need to be a 12" radius at most. If perhaps that turn around were on a lower covered level, it would be ok and not distracting. You could bump the right peninsula an extra foot out though and probably still clear the exterior door. That would give you a good radius for that loop and allow a view break in the middle along with a continuous run. So I guess what I'm saying is that I like the M, especially if you bump the right leg out to 4' as it offers a solid point to point design, lots of natural view breaks and the option for an inner loop for those times you just want to run trains.
Yes, that was primarily what I was looking at originally with that E shape. Is to have a narrow staging yard at the bottom and a larger peninsula for operations.
Mark and YoHo I appreciate your feedback. I really appreciate the time mark spent coloring up Scenes. I certainly could fatten up the first run on M to decrease the pinched curve. In fact I could space them and widen the tip of both legs on the M for better radius. I like to change things up, I am a bit of a busybody when it comes to change. So I am going with Unitrack for the time being in anticipation that I will change the layout around some. But I am trying to focus on a bench arrangement for toying with layouts. Originally E (which initially was a C with a 30" top and 56" middle), was my lead candidate. Mark and YoHo certainly have made some great comments and helped drive me back to all are decent ideas. And I would still love to hear comments.
Question, is this going to be a 1 or 2 "man" exclusively operation? Or do you intend to have operating sessions? Because if you need to have people moving past each other, then the E and the M win and obviously the M is best with it's wider aisles. With the G shape, sure the aisles are wide enough, but imagine all the times you need to walk past people as you follow your train. With the M, people will be out of each other's way a lot more. The E has tighter aisles, but offers the most "Feng Shui" in terms of space with the larger space of your "office" making a good gathering area.
layout As a fellow Southern Railway fan I am simply excited to see anything you do. Couple of things that I thought about are - The coalfields are full of short branches off the main to serve a few mines up each little valley. the E layout would do this nicely with narrower middle legs. Narrower middle legs would give space for a loop at either end. - are you thinking of below level staging at all? Here is a paint example of what I am thinking. Have you seen this site? Appalachian Railroad Modeling - Home HTH
More than likely me myself and I are the primary operators. Wife, Junior and Juniorette, well maybe some days. Wife actually is quite interested so I hope she will be involved a little more. Though I wont mind squeezing past on occasion. G and M are the most intriguing opportunities to me. Specter makes a good point. And initially I don't plan on anything below, but I do plan on building the bench work to allow for it. On thing that intrigues me with G , is I can use the top part of the G which is 19' long as a long descent. If you double it that 38' lets say minus a little 34 linear feet, at 2.5" gives me a 10" drop. If I keep dropping down vertical part of the G that will get me 14" down. then I could use the bottom part of the G as staging / the rest of the world. I like this idea. I dont care for helixs. Also having the trains move on a long slow grade, would give a nice large open running area. With a few sidings tucked in for smaller industries it would be an interesting run I think. Single line, with sidings. Though it does have drawbacks. Specter presents some nice points. The hardest part of my line is reconciling the desire for industry as presented by Specter and nice scenic loops that the kids will want to watch (and myself of course). So far I really appreciate all the feedback. And I think Grey One, is dead on. I personally see walking/moving in the G shape as the most relaxing.
I like G the best. With a double sided backdrop it would break up very nicely, giving the longest looking mainline run.
I think I have settled on G. I now really have a vision for what I want to do. This will definitely be a very long term project. The nice thing is I can focus on the center of the G as a 4x12 layout that I can run as I work on the rest of the railway. I am going to give xtrackcadd a go and see about coming up with an early prelimanry conceptual design for the railway. In other words try and workout some of my ideas onto paper. I am really excited about the concept, but reality, well often it is different than ideas. thanks for the replies. I will publish a more focused plan of the G as I come along with it.
