I have been thinking about building a shelf layout (Money sort of short to biuld a big layout) so I'll have a place to run my trains. But I have ran into a problem. I have looked in just about every model railroad planning book old and new and I haven't found anything that interest me. Would any one be intrested in helping me design a layout, or if anyone has any suggestions let me know. Thanks Don
Donald, To make it a little easier you might want to post what domension you have available. also the type of operations you are interested in. You may want to have a look at this link which is to Robs shelf layout he is currently designing. Robs Shelf Layout Design
Thanks for the help. I like to model the building around the 50s and 60s around Eastern, KY. I have all of rolling stock but they are mostly 40 and 50 footers box cars, flat cars and some others. I like to build both Main line ans switching That's where I started to have a problem at. Well let me explain. I have a around the wall layout now. Its about 4" wide all the way around the room except in the corners. I have 30" curves to run my modern 6 axle diesel power and a BigBoy locomotives. I like to take two wall (8'x6' at least 2' wide) to build the layout. So for now some of it will be used as a main line. But in a year or so I'll be building a bigger layout but the new layout will have all the main line running and this one will be the switching part of it, and it will be connected to the new layout with one track. I think I explained that right. If there I something I did do over let me know. Don
Take a look at some of David Barrow's switching layouts in the last few Model Railroad Planning magazines. Linda Sand has a good one as well in the 1999 (I think) issue - it is U shaped but could easisly be reconfigured into an L shape. Both David's and Linda's are designed with modern (long) equipment in mind. If you are using 40' boxes instead of 50' then you can compact them a bit more.
I've always found these two articles by Robert Lutz to be a great inspirtion for designing bookshelf/shelf style railroads. They predate David Barrow's "Dominoes" by a few years: Bookshelf railroads - part 1 - basic planning techniques Model Railroader, January 1977 page 52 Many good module ideas and trackplans ( CORNER, "LUTZ, ROBERT J.", MODULE, SHELF, MR ) Bookshelf Railroads, part 2 - shelf construction Model Railroader, February 1977 page 95 ( BENCHWORK, "LUTZ, ROBERT J.", SHELF, MR ) Drew
