Hey everyone, Here is my dilema, I am starting a new layout but only have a rather small place to put it! The location is in a walk-in closet that goes under the stairs. The far wall is 96" long but for 48" of that it's only 20" wide. I can also only come out about 36" for the other 48". I would really like to find out if I can fit a loop in the 20" wide space. I have three young kids under 6 who love trains and would really like to do a continuous running layout for them to watch. I know the best bet is a switching layout or a folded out and back. So anyone think this can be done? Thanks for the help in advanced! Vinny
Let me see if I have the space correct. Its a walk in closet, so I assume the layout will fill the closet and be operated from out side the closet, yes? Does the closet space look like so: Which side is the door/opening on? Top or bottom, and how long?
Those are the dimensions just flip it 180 degrees. I thru together a little paint drawing (not to scale though.) The layout will take up the back of the closet, being operated in the space noted in the drawing. The area under the stairs will agreeably be a hard to reach area of course. I am hoping to place a 180 turn in that 20" wide area. This will be in a tunnel to block the tight radius view.
Thanks for the diagram. A layout with a tight radius in that corner can certainly be done, however that tight 9" radius curve required to get a turn around in 20" is going to eliminate a large chunk of options for N Scale motive power. Here is what I would do: Since you said this is primarily for the kids enjoyment, I dressed it up with the usual interests, tunnels, bridges, rivers, crossings, ect. Instead of extending the full depth of the 20" wide channel, I stopped the benchwork 2 ft short to allow an access hole. A 20x24" hole is a tight fit, even for a skinny guy like me, but should be no problem for the kids. Chances are you can reach the end from the layout edge anyway, but better safe than sorry. Other than that, you have your typical double main circle with a small staging yard, so each kid can have their own train. The double main allows two trains at once to reduce fighting and I gave you an industry spur for your own enjoyment after the kids go off to bed. With this approach, no curve is below 13 inches, therfore you can run anything you want, and it will always look decent too. But again, this is my suggestion to how I would approach it. Just something for you to consider.
Mark's design is superb. The only change I would make would be to swap the location of the yard and spur. This allows easier access for making up trains. I would also include a couple of re-raillers in that area. Nice little plan. I do like it.
I like Mystere's solution. Only change I would make is in crossover at top of plan. It makes an S curve on inner oval. One way to avoid that is to have inner switch of crossover go into the end curve of the inner loop, with the crossover route as STRAIGHT side of turnout, and continuous inner loop route as CURVED side. I used a similar arrangement to avoid an S curve on this 24 inch x 36 inch N layout that represents the trackage aboard a Navy base.
Thanks for the inputs...I had a feeling that i'd probably end up having to do something like these...maybe put a longer oval diagnally. I mainly intend on using a small switcher for motive power...but I'll just have to wait till I get the material for the layout and see what works for me. As always..this is a great place to get ideas.
Tight spaces can sometimes lead you to be creative with your track-work. Because the door opening was so narrow it forced the tracks to enter and leave at an angle if I wanted to make maximum use of the closet. By doing this I was able to use 14½ “ and 13¼ “ radius curves rather than the 11” that would have been forced upon me if I had tried to go directly between the door jams.
My dad has an 8' X 12' N scale layout that is 4 module that are all 2' wide. this makes for 2 loops with and 11" radius on both ends of the layout. We car run pretty much any diesel locomotive manufactured in N scale. Now steam is kind of tricky for us. But what we did to hide the eye sore of seeing the cars going around that tight of a corner was to hide the loops in a tunnel.
The plan i have in my head would also put the tight radius in a tunnel...and use the area above the loop as an industrial spur and/or interchange yard. So many ideas...so little equipment right now. Bummer!
Of course you can do it, if you limit the kinds of equipment you run (basically F-units, GP-7's, switchers, and that sort of thing, plus 35' to 50' boxcars, short flats, short gons, and old-time, short passenger cars) and if you run the track right to the edge of the layout. I would also wall in the edges of the layout so you don't have any derailments leading to heart-breaking crashes. If you put that tight radius in a tunnel and cover over with other scenery, you can make the covering stuff really easy to lift off so you can get to derailed cars--or use wood roadbed that will allow you to reach up from underneath. (In that case, close in the whole track with a hardboard wall that goes up an inch or so, to protect derailed stock). Sounds like a great idea: a place for trains to disappear to for awhile, then magically reappear. Kids love tunnels. (So do the rest of us!)
Well on my dads layout with 11 inch radii, we can run pretty much anything we want. We can run full length passenger cars if we so desire. I have ran a SD 40-2, SD 45s on it and even took my Little Joe for a run around it once. Now one thing I would like to add is that use truck mounted couplers, unless absolutelly impossible to do. What I have found is that if we couple 2 body mounted cars together in a train the front car will literally pull the back car off of the track.
The area that is only 20" wide is already walled on 3 of the 4 sides...well it's actually 21" but i figured in for a backdrop of somekind. I figured if I put a 1" wall around the track in the tunnel i could prevent falling of the edge of the turns. I hope to run a 44-ton switcher, nw2, and/or a mp15(for my enjoyment), and probably a run of smaller tanker cars for the kids on the main pulled by a F3B or something like that.
The equipment you are describing should work fine. I would stay with four axle power, everything you've described is of that configuration. You might mean an F3A, not an F3B. A-units are the ones with the cabs. That extra one inch--21 vs 20 inches-- may be critical, as the minimum requirement for a loop of Atlas 9 3/4 inch radius track is 21 x 21 inches.
well...going to the Amherst Railway Society's Railroad hobby show in Springfield, MA tomorrow (Sun. 31st), and will be able to get a good idea of what's out there.
