Hello, I have an 8'x10' space along 2 walls available. This is going to be my first layout. I don't have any experience designing a layout and I would like some help. I want to model the UP in the modern time and I want to my layout to be of the switching type and HO scale. This is what I want on my layout: 1.A quarry like this 2. A small engine house of 2 stalls 3. A lumber yard 4. A team track 5. A junk yard 6. An interchange I was thinking about 2' wide shelfs. If possible with a mainline running in the background of the layout. Can you guys show me some track plan looking like this. Thank you
Are you thinking of a urban setting or rural setting? It would help to know more details. Also, do you plan to have a yard on your layout?
Do you mean you have 4 shelfs? Or is your layout to be L-shaped with only two shelfs? Keep in mind long modern cars need radii of at least 24" and #6 turnouts. Almost impossible in a space that small. Building an oval to these standards for the mainline will require a 5 ft wide table. Only the quarry you showed us would fill your whole 10x8 space. Smile Paul
It doesn't sound like he wants a roundy-round, since he indicated I could be wrong, of course. Having said that, the space is a bit tight for all of your layout requirements. Constructrain, do you think you could trim your wish list down to maybe three or four of your most important requirements? Bear in mind that Paul is correct when he indicates that the quarry you show would fill your whole available space. (BTW, the first thing I would cut from the list is the "mainline running in the background.")
Hello David, You are fight, I don't want an oval. The mainline running in the background is the least important requirement so I can get rid of it. For the quarry, I was thinking more about representing the 2 tracks with the hoppers and a pile of agregates. The hoppers would be loaded by a wheel loader. Will this help space wise? If not the next think I'm ready to get rid of is the engine house. Paulus, sorry I was unclear, my layout would be of the L-shaped type. I'm now able to do a layout of 9' along 1 wall by 12' along the other. The width have to stay at 2'. Thank you all for your help
DKS, good looking plan, but what would it look like if you move the quary on to the isle side of the 2 sidings? I drive by a quary for Cemex on a daily basis coming home from work, and it might look better to have the quary pit on the edge where the scenery drops below the normal benchwork. The pit could be built using the newer foam rock castings so they could be bumped into without chipping the plaster.
Thank you David, that is a nice looking plan. What industry could I choose to replace the quarry so I can have a greater variety of car on my layout. Also, how much cars can each of the sidings hold?
That's an interesting quarry, what is are they mining? Maybe place the quarry up against the wall with most of it modeled as a photo backdrop and the loading tracks in front of it, the corner might be a good space as it usually has a lot of unused space you could use to bring some of the large piles of earth into 3D.
This quarry is located in Sioux Falls, I read about it in the january 2013 issue of Model Railroader. It's the prototype for the Winter Hill project of Model Railroader. There's a shortline railroad called Ellis & Eastern that operates the quarry and a couple other industries like a scrap yard and a cement plant in Sioux Falls.
Yes, that or I change the quarry for another industry that offer a greater variety of cars it can handle. Do you have any suggestions?
hi, I am not sure if the picture you showed still is a quarry. Hoppers are being unloaded on those two tracks, the device is below the tracks. Also the number of cement-trucks is indicating the facility at least is used to produce cement. So many industries are served by different type of cars I would not know where to begin. Meat-houses and the food industry in general, like beer are coming into my mind. Though a larger brewery (grain hoppers, tankcars, boxes, coal) probably requires an urban scenery. Glass or paper plants are huge and usually out of town. Where I live is a huge chemical industry, every smell or taste you can imagine is made in this facility. Positioned along a former tramline it was built near a typical smalltown. Industries Along The Tracks is a series of publications by Kalmbach worth reading. I had a bit of a problem what you were after with your wish to have a mainline on the background. The main is supposed to be virtually disappearing to the right behind the piles of aggregates. BTW hoppers are usualle spotted behind the unloading device, then pulled through it. So a cut of cars on each spur usually is half the length of that spur. Since two spurs are available the length of a "unit-hopper" train without its engines will be about 4 ft. Which also is the length of the passing siding of the yard. Paul
You can replace the quarry with one of any number of industries... A small brewery, machine shop, grain silo, plastic injection facility, food packing plant, the list goes on. I'm not sure there is one "best" choice for the most variety of rail traffic, but if you went with a plastic injection shop, for example, they would receive plastic pellets in covered hoppers, and ship out finished parts in boxcars. Together with a lumber yard (bulkhead flats and/or center spine cars), you've got three car types, and you could replace the team track with another small industry, say, a fuel oil dealer, and spot tank cars there for four. A scrap dealer would use gondolas, so there's five. Then, you could squeeze in another industry that's a "flat" on the background, and this could add still more traffic variety. As for the capacities of each track, you mentioned your era is modern, and cars will vary from around 40 feet (plastic pellet hoppers) to 60+ feet (bulkhead flats), so it will vary. However, for such a small layout, I would try to stick with the smallest cars possible. The team track would hold 1-2, the lumber yard 2-3, the "industry" 3-4 on each track, "industry on flat" 3-4, scrap dealer 1, and the interchange 5+, although you will need to be careful where cars are spotted so as to avoid blocking road traffic.
Only problem with a paper mill is that they're huge. An option for a nice compact industry is a fertilizer loading facility, like this:
My first layout was a 10X7 L shaped layout. It was an inglenook design with a staging track. I was operating this layout for 6 months but I was not entirely satisfied. Now I have a 22x2 shelf layout with a yard and have plans to expand it. My project is to build an industrial lead with 2-3 industries. Can you expand your layout? If yes, my suggestion is first to build a little yard, 8x10 L shaped, and second to build a shelf or module with your fav industry. For variety of cars a transload facility is a good choice.
