Apartment (door) N Scale Layout

Txronharris: Gotta say thanks. You made me think about a few things. I went and did some reading last night, some looking at pictures, and some perusing of track plans that I've collected in books and magazines over the years. I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. Gotta find a different track plan. The one I've got, when compressed into 3x7 starts to feel toy-like.
2. I think that it starts to feel toy-like when I try to get more than one scene into my alloted space.

A couple of articles I read discussed "linier design", where the trains pass through a scene only once. A couple of others discussed uses of staging.

Now, I'm looking very hard at some modifications of the Texas Subdivision from "Track Planning Ideas" and/or a modification based on John Drye's Bald Eagle Branch. I'm thinking that the means that Lance Midenheim used to model the limestone quaries on his Monon (tracks that lead off the layout with the industry suggested on the backderop) might be the way I need to go. The INRD serves coal mines and power plans on-line, but they're usually a good distance from the mainline.

Maybe I can sneak an extra 6" in length and get to 7.5'....

Back to the drawing board. Time to add on-line staging and go for a single location operation.

 

I'm thinking that I may "negotiate" space for the layout as is in that article. Make the power plant the Hoosier Energy plant at Meron, replace the lumber distributor with a plastics plant, and boom...

I'm going to have to make sure that the layout will fit. I know, if I set it up permanently (or as permanently as possible in an apartment) I need to be able to get it out in a few years when it's time to move to a house.

If not the Texas Sub, I may be on the hunt again. We'll see. The 9' would be great, though.

Coal drags with SD40-2's, mixed freight with GP38's....
I can see it now!

 

Here is a link to one you might like to look athttp://www.geocities.com/gdagley/index.html

This has a lot for its space.

Alan

 

Alan, that's a cool layout. I like the angled divider. Although JKD is going for a more shortline approach and a little less industry, it shows what can be accomplished with a well thought out trackplan. Do you guys have a copy if the "Texas Sub" article/trackplan mentioned above we could all see? Maybe that could trigger some ideas? I definately think FriscoBob's on track with a hidden staging are for east/west (or whatever) traffic. Take a look at his post in this forum (I just did again--is that the Texas Sub you're referring to?). Maybe just a low divider along the back so you can see the staging if you need to would do the trick. I'll try and find a couple other things that might peak your interest.

 

The Bureau of Land Management (wife) has agreed to let me off the door and into the 2'6" x 9' space that the plan for the "Texas Sub" will take. The only condition placed was that it be built high enough off the ground to allow my workbench and the fabric storage for her sewing projects to be stored in cabinets below the railroad. I got a chance to measure the room, and it will fit!

Yeah!

As soon as I get the track plan cleaned up and some prototype inspiration pics so you can see what I'm aiming for in certain locations, I'll post it up here.

 

That is almost a "religious" question and has generated a good deal of debate on other forums. (This one too?)

I'd consider whether I had easy access to that hidden staging, what kind of turnout controls to use, and how would I hide those turnback curves.

I prefer point to point if I can't do an around the walls continuous run, but staging is a good thing, no matter how you work it in.

If I listed my preferences and they are only mine, I'd choose in this order:

Around the walls, continuous run with visible staging
Around the walls, point to point with visible staging
Shelf, point to point with some kind of hidden staging
Oval, with visible staging
Oval with hidden staging

 

Ahh! Now I remember it. I have that book from several years ago. It is a cool layout and it does seem adaptable to a lot of different locations. You could probably change the one main industry to a lot of other things too, like a transload faclity, paper mill, etc.

 

We actually occupied the new appartment over the weekend, and the room where the layout will be (and share with the bureau of land management's sewing projects) is smaller than she had measured it as. I've had to replan. The new space is 2.5' wide and 8' long with a shelf avaliable at the left hand side of the layout.

Now, I'm no Right-Track (Atlas) planning master, but with a little work, I made it mostly work.

Couple of things I did to the 9' plan to make it 8':
1. Moved the staging off to a shelf that will go above the sewing storage.
2. Added a reverse loop that enters the power plant instead of a loop (eliminated some really really tight turns on the original plan).
3. Added a third track to the yard.

My operation scheme is to stage trains in in the North, South, and Coal supply tracks in the staging yard, as well as cars in the on-layout yard and at the elevator, power plant, and TBD industry. Movements will consist of moving trains on to switch the plant, the industries, make up and break up cars to head North or South. I'll use a car card and waybill system to govern where things go.

The layout will also be built with flex track. It was easy for me to use the snap templates to draw with.

Behind the power plant is a backdrop that hides part of the mainline loop, and the open space on the right side of the layout is intended to be forrest and some water with a small trestle.

Opinions?

 

Sorry to hear the space got chopped, but you are using what you have well. One thing you should remember to do is put about a .75 inch piece of track between switches that are next to each other (the yard, staging, and by the elevator) so you get adequate track spacing. It looks like that won't create a problem for you space-wise, so I'd suggest you get them into the plan now to see what that does.

That snaky track coming off the first switch on the left of the main line looks like it could be straightened out just by moving that switch to the right until it is adjacent to the second switch (the one leading to the elevator).

Hope it won't be too long before you'll have time to get the plan down on a layout board and start laying track.

 

Just a thought:
With a staging yard you may want to use the yard for and industry or two.

 

I've borrowed a pickup on Sunday this week to get the lumber. By the following weekend, the base should be up. After that, it'll just be a matter of getting the track, but in the mean time I'll be able to lay out the plan in "full scale" to make sure it all fits.

I'll see about those couple of suggestions and look into what it will do to the plan. I don't think it will hurt anything.

 

I thought this was a good idea too. Attached is a plan that incorporates that suggestion, and the track space suggestion. Ignore the funny bend in the passing siding, I couldn't get it out of the Right Track software, but since I'm laying flex and not sectional (and I can cut the track better in Real Life than In the computer) it won't be too bad.

I moved the grain elevator into one of the yard tracks, and added another industry (may wind up as a Less Than Car Load location) to the front of the layout.

I also added an additional staging track for another unit train. INRD operates a train for CP that is a Potash train. Adding that job to the layout and having a spot for it to go is something I decided I wanted. It'll probably wind up running a lap or two and then going away, but INRD does sometimes break it into segments, so I thought it might be interesting to doubble it into the on-layout yard, then depart with it as a whole.

Trackplan thoughts?

(By the way, I really appreciate all the help I've gotten here with this plan. I can't wait to start building and post some photos instead of just plans.)

 

I have a idea for you. Where the power plant is can you add a mine to the otherside then when you feed the coal cars to the power plant you will then get fully loaded cars on the other side.

Alan

 

Alan,
I'd love to, and if it would fit in the space, I'd do just that.

However....

The layout space is against two walls. Left hand side and behind the backdrop are confined to walls and a corner.

I figure eventually, when/if we move to a bigger place (again) I can add a mine on the other side of the room. Right now, the coal operation has to be in staging, space wise.

 

You may want to look at the staging design. Might be able to squeeze a bit more in this way:

 

Traingeekboy,
Of all the track planning info I've collected over the years (it's a hobby in itself) I have never seen the issue discussed that you brought up of measuring space for the industries. That is a real problem and has led to modification of 90% of my structures to get them to fit on my around the room narrow shelf layout. If you have to relay the industrial trackage on your layout don't be discouraged, I've done it several times! One of the secrets is that you can rebuild mistakes and they look fine.
On one of my door layouts I built the staging on a seperate shelf that was accessed by a wye so that the staging worked for both east and west bound trains. But on that layout I also had access to both sides of the door.
Take Care,
Ernie C

 

The wife cleared her sewing stuff out of the way last night (the layout will share space with the sewing stuff on the other side of the room), and I finally got to stand in the actual space with other stuff that has to be there.

One thing I noticed immediately is that reaching turnouts in the back corner (upper left of the drawings) to fix problems would wind up being an issue. The second thing I noiced is that my staging yard would have to navigate around a cutting table, a torche lamp, and stacks of storage bins for sewing supplies.

The issue of planning for the size of industries isn't so much an issue for me. I'm not planning to use anything straight out of a box, so bashed, scratch built, heavily modified structures made to fit the space is what I WANT instead of have to use.

I did a couple things in this plan (posted today).
1. Removed the return loop.
2. Made the power plant tracks into two tracks, one for loads, one for empties.
3. Added a crossing in the front/right corner of the space that will lead to two staging solutions. (The prototype has many crossings, so it made sense to add one and use it.)
4. Moved the grain elevator to the front again, and decided on a plastics plant (again, prototypical for INRD) with two tracks that is served just past the three track yard.

The staging solutions may wind up being casettes or removeable fiddle yards. I'll worry about what they are after the main layout portion is up.

By adding two staging points, I can run a point to point style of operation which will allow me to do some of the bridge traffic and through traffic over the layout that is prototypical.

 

Glad you spotted the reach in trouble. Easily overlooked.

Will you be able to reach behind the divider to deal with cars on the tracks there?

Is there a reason you want the staging tracks to be where you put them? They are pretty short and will be shorter if you try to stage cars going in both directions.

Could you run the spur that you have as a grain elevator siding across the layout to a switch on the right hand circle of track so it reconnects with the main line and use this as your staging track? You might even have room for two parallel tracks in that space. Then put the elevator where south staging now is. ??

 

This is quite a change from your original track plan. The obervations I have (and take them for what it's worth):

The left side is quite buisy so it looks a bit "un-ballanced"

There is alot of parallel tracks on the front of the layout. It looks to regimented.

All of your switching (plastics, coal, yard) has to be done left to right. There's not a way to have a train going the opposite way switch anything but the grain elevator (and where would a train going the other way come from?)

I like that you incorporated a crossover since that seems to be "defining atribute" of the prototype.

My Suggestions:

Put a passing siding back in the plan behind the back drop to give you east/west traffic (and more operations).

I actually like the loads in/emties out track arrangement you've got there. It makes sense, but the tracks are definately short--train length would be about 6-7 modern hoppers. Might want to try to make those longer. Maybe have them come off the curve on the left side of the layout and go down behind the backdrop for a bit longer as suggested above? You could then move the lkastics plant down a bit and have it served by the track you have coming into the power plant now.

If you did the above, you could move the grain elevator to inside the loop of track (where the yard is) and move the yard closer to the front of the layout (outside the loop) so you can reach the turnouts better.

You should keep the water idea from the previous plan on the right side
of the layout so you can do some of those bridges you like on the prototype. The tunnel portal can still be there on the left.

Hope you don't take any of the observations I have wrong--they're not critisizms at all. You're miles ahead of me on my layout. Hope some of the things I've said helps!