Hello TrainBoard! I've been lurking here for a while taking in the scene and really just growing dizzy at the vastness of knowledge here. And I must commend everyone who contributes for having such a wonderful, helpful, and cheerful attitude. It seems to be one of the characteristics of the hobby and something I truly admire and love about it. When I was a boy our local train shop (The Red Caboose) was filled with folks like that who really helped get this stuff in my blood. After about 13 years hiatus from model railroading I'm looking to dive back in. Previously I had HO layouts in relatively larger spaces. Now I've annnexed part (roughly 35sqf) of our small apartment for a freelance layout inspired in part by a real prototype and a fictitious prototype (I'll explain in a moment). The space I have seems to lend itself to an L-shaped layout. In that configuration I can do 7'x2' on one side and 4'x5' 4" on the other. On the deeper side I could see maybe getting away with 18" radius curves for a loop of some kind. I know it's not going to happen on the shallower leg. I'd like to combine elements of some of my favorite things. The movies--the old west--and steam driven logging trains. One of my favorites has been the Yosemite Valley Railroad and there are a couple of good YVRR models around. I'd love to visit them at some point. What I love is the majesty and beauty of the area and the era of steam. Referring to movies and the old west, one of my favorite films is Back to the Future 3. Groan if you like. It's whimsy and I dig it. I fully intend to have a Rodgers 4-6-0 painted up like the one in th efilm. Really this is just a reason to head over to Jamestown to see Sierra No. 3 all put back together since the rebuild Anyhow, the layout will feature 1885 Hill Valley ala BTTF3, but that's really more of a scenery choice. I plan on operating no locos larger than the 4-6-0 and short (~40'?) rolling stock. The passenger cars in the movie are quite short and were used primarily for traffic down towards Angels Camp. The train would have to descend a grade into what is now Melones Reservoir on switchbacks that I understand to have been very short. But I digress. Ultimately I'd like to incorporate some of the beauty of the YVRR and the whim of the movie. Yes, I know they're both totally unrelated. Perhaps on a larger layout I'll eventually feature 1955 Hill Valley, just so I can build the movie theater (I work in the theater industry). Anyhow, I'd love some feedback, specifically on how to get the most out of the very limited space (hopefully) without switching to N-Scale. Just like her dad, my toddler is really getting an interest in trains, unlike her dad however, switching operations aren't really that exciting for her. While I don't expect her to be working on it actively any time soon, I'd love to give her the opportunity to turn a throttle and move a train a bit. Ideally a continuous run would be an option for operating. I don't really see much use for the 24" deep section other than switching though and there aren't any switching yards I'm interested in modeling so it may be entirely freelance or else a staging area. Thanks for reading along if you've made it this far, I'll look forward to the feedback!
Welcome to TrainBoard! Well, I cannot help much with planning, as I am not in HO. But all those things you talk about, of interest, make this sound rather intriguing. So I hope you'll continue to share as progress is made. A track plan, when available, and photo? Boxcab E50
I didn't think 0n3 would really provide that much additional space? Although now that I think of it Sierra Railway may be a narrow guage which would make it smart to do it that way anyhow. I'll look into that. In the mean time, I drew up a VERY rough plan...Lot of dead space in the middle of the L but other than that the main areas seem to work out. In this example I'm making Hill Valley into a spur and representing only the switches toward Marrysville and Shonash/Clayton/Eastwood Ravine. The larger section includes a continuous run and a highly compressed version of Railtown 1897 since at this time I just won't have enough room to incorporate anything interesting from the YVRR like the El Portal station.
why not think N? Look at the MDC/Athearn 2-8-0 and the Bachmann 4-6-0...you will get a lot more bang for your buck in N since the space will be about 4 times greater
Read this: An N Scale Short Line in 3'x8' - TrainBoard.com . See if you can adapt this to fit your space in HOn3. Mark
