HO cockpit layout in a 7' x 5' space?


S

StrasburgNut

Pennsy Area rail fan
How well of a layout can be fit in a 7' x5' space? It will be a cockpit type layout and I want some operations and roundy-round as well. An engine facility, a yard and possibily a roundhouse. Plus a coal mining operation and a few other small industries/busoness along the way. Is this too much?
 
There may be a track plan that fits some of this stuff, but I work in N in a 7 x7 room and couldn't fit that much.
 
I have to be honest and say that you will not able to do much with that space. Even with a cockpit design where you have to duck or lift a bridge to get to the central operating pit, you will face some challenges. For one, your pit, if it is to be large enough to move and swing your arms without contacting the bench with your elbow, will take up a lot of room. In that configuration, you are left with little more than a roundy-round, a loop with perhaps a siding or two and a couple industrial tracks. You will have little room, if any, for servicing engines. Also, grade elevation changes will be a problem in that confined space. You will very likely have to make it a flat layout, or live with grades in the 4-5" range and get used to either short trains or double-headed ones.

Too bad you couldn't make it a single slab around which you could operate from all sides. Even at 5' wide you could always walk around to the opposite face and reach something. You'd have more area for a small village, even more room for gentler grades if you used a figure eight track plan of sorts. Maybe a servicing area for a bit of variety, and even some industries.
 
5x7 isnt bad but not great as many use a 4x8 plan. Will you be able to access it from any of the sides or just the cockpit? You could do all the things you are talking about if you keep them on a small scale (ie not a huge coal mine or some large industry). I think if it were me I would nix the turntable. Maybe a 2 or 3 track yard would work and a spur or two for industries.
 
The room itself is pretty much 12' x 5', but on the one 12' leg, there is a wide opening, 6 feet. So I am trying to maximize as much space as possible. I would like to have a small workshop area to work on things, about 5', which is why I am thinking 7' x 5'. Looks like it will be a short C or an L shaped shortline for me. Start small, think big!
 
I think you'll be a lot happier with a shelf type layout in that kind of space that filling it up with a cockpit type. You'll have more room for a workshop and you'll be surprised at how much operation you can fit in on a 2 or 3 feet wide shelf compared to a 5x7 with a big hole in the middle.
 
That being the case I agree with Jim. I would look at 18" shelf layout about 4 feet off the floor and make it slightly deeper on the ends. This way you could put benches at both end and shelves on the long walls. You could then stand to run the trains in a 2 foot walk area. And sit and work on the trains at the benches. Depending on how tall you are you may want to go higher. You can duck under to get in to the layout the 6 foot opening will make this easy access.
 
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FunValleyLine said:
5x7 isn't bad but not great as many use a 4x8 plan.
Click to expand...

I just had a thought (probably produced by being struck by a stray cosmic ray or something): what about scanning a 4' x 8' plan and then "stretching and squeezing" it with a software program so it ends up being 5x7?
 
I think you might be able to fit it, however you will loose valuable space in the middle a 5'x7' by adding all those industries, and a roundhouse, ect. For the "cockpit" style you speak of, you'll want to be sitting in the middle, which means you may have to go outward for industries.
 
Well, I checked the room last night. Unfortunately, I forgot the exact measurement at home. But figure the space to be 7' x 7' square. Here is the hitch. One corner of the foundation wall comes in at about 2' x 3'.

I guess the best way to illustrate is to draw the grid for tic-tac-toe. Put an "X" in the upper left corner. The rest of the open squares is what I have open to work with.

Which is why I am hoping to put a cock pit type design there. If the depth of the layout on each side is 18' to 24", that is three feet to move around in at the minimum.

If I do the cockpit design, I would love to put a folded loop with larger radius (22" I am hoping for) curves, and it going up and over one another. Put the industries on the corners, and a yard right where I can reach it.

I'll have to sketch something up when I can and post if for some critiques. It will be hard to do tonight as the NLCS is on, and the Phillies can close it out!

Any critiques, comment and help would be appreciated until then.
 
I don't think you appreciate just how little space you really have. If you want any sort of room other than a hole to poke your head through, it'd need to be about 2'x3'. With 22" radius curves, you haven't got a lot of room for more than a mainline and a couple of sidings in HO.

I added an Atlas snap switch, just for scale.

You didn't specify which way the foundation intruded into your space, but since the space is square, it won't make that much difference.

I'd really consider an around-the walls shelf, or going to N-scale.
 
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Squidbait has it right on. You really don't have enough space to produce much of layout as long as you persist in the cockpit idea. The foundation post intruding makes it even worse since you'll need the cockpit located close enough to that blocked area to reach around it just to do the tracklaying. If you switch N scale and go around the wall, you can still have two larger 2'x2' sections at each end for a loop and be able to work your way around and hide that column. I think HO is going to be a bad choice for the way your room i laid out.
 
If you want an idea of what you can get away with in a 12x6~7' space, look in the November MR. They have a couple of plans that may or may not be adaptable to the space you have.
 
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