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Hi guys, looking at creating my first layout in HO, I already have my baseboard setup in a 2.4m by 2.4m square. I plan to have a large town center with streets cars and buildings with a passenger station in and around the loops down the bottom. The track will then rise up into the mountains that overlook the town crossing a bridge over water before coming back down into the town and a container terminal. Please have a look at the layout below; this is my first time so any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
If anyone has the time to try and better the layout I am very open to suggestions because I will admit I have no idea how to make track flow correctly. I have included a link to my XTrKcad file:
http://www.glarerail.com/images/files/1/layout.xtc 32.4kb (virus checked)
I am using Hornby track by the way so R600, R605's etc
This is some of the pictures I have gotten my ideas from. Have yet to find ideas for the container terminal or the bridge in the moutains.
Any idea where I can get buildings like these? Or are they scratch built?
What's a meter?
And if you know the answer to that then it's spelled "centre".
Just kidding. The only problem I see is that the red over blue line looks like a very steep grade. Cog wheel type grade. I don't know that any diesel could make that climb.
Very nice inspiration photos by the way.
Thanks for the reply, it would be a very steep slope, any ideas on how I could design around that?
You really don't have enough room for a decent grade. You can lower the lake part of the payout and then put a bridge over it, giving the illusion of elevation. Your tracks over the lake are way too close to the layout edge so you need to pull the whole track plan down a couple of inches. With the relatively limited space you have to work with, think of having the tracks level and then using foam to build up elevation around the tracks, again giving the illusion of rugged country without having impossible grades.
The buildings shown in your last photo are common kits available from Faller, Vollmer, Kibri, and a number of other European manufacturers. If you are in the UK, you should have no problem finding these kind of building kits.
I plan to start the incline right down the bottom right corner as soon as it leaves the main ovals and have it at a 3% grade or there abouts right upto the top right corner, going slowly back down along the top and back down the top left side if that makes sense so it should work out ok I hope.
It also looks like your inner loop is a trap
If you enter it from the red line you will need to back out and if you enter it from the crossover you will need to back into the red line.
If you moved the crossover to the top and the red line to the bottom you may get by.
I played with it a little bit. Please advise if this is what you were thinking or if I got it all wrong.
The lower inner loop is still a trap. Just trace it as if you were running a train.
A quick idea for that upper open space you indicated. You could incorporate UP2CSX's ideas with a large mountain or some large hills. This could act as a scene block and also give your layout the illusion of being bigger than it is.
I think I will just put some hills, maybe a small farming community or something there or maybe some industry feeding off the back of the terminal. The only thing I worry about is the lower loops how there is no real way back to the main line without going around in circles. I guess I will need to figure something out for that. Thanks for the ideas.
I am trying to keep my layout as simple as possible to get everything out of it that I need while using only the track I already have. I never did like my original layout the loops down the bottom were a little silly and I really wanted two main tracks around the outside with more sliding to park container wagons. So with that in mind I came up with the following layout. Please express your ideas and suggestions.
It's better but you're still not quite getting it. Unless I'm looking at it wrong, your inner loop is still trapped. The inner loop has two crossovers from the outer loop but I still don't see a way for train to go from the outer loop to the inner loop. You would need to install at least one four way crossover to get trains back and forth between the inner and outer loops and I don't see it.
Is there some reason you have to have a two track mainline? I would have a single track mainline with passing sidings. You can use the space that's freed up to add two more tracks to your container terminal. At a minimum, you need two tracks for loading and unloading containers and two tracks for staging incoming and outgoing cars. I'd also get rid of the connecting tracks in the middle of the layout and add more industrial spurs coming off the main for some additional industries to switch. This will give some additional room for town and country scenery, something that's severely lacking now. Double track mainlines seem like a good idea but they take up a lot of space and require a lot of extra trackwork to make work correctly.
Change of plans I've been doing lots of ready and now dislike loops and shrug them off as being boring. The layout below is one I am currently toying with, the line represents a risen level to be divided by a brick retaining wall.
I sure like the idea a lot better. You have more room for a decent size container yard and you've got some space for some industry spurs too. The one thing right off the bat I'd change is the stub end passenger terminal. You'd have to back your passenger trains into the termonal and railroads avoided that at all costs. You can connect your terminal tracks by making them run parallel to the main and then connecting the inside track back to the main so a passenger train could run through the terminal. This would also give you access to the passenger terminal from both directions should you decide to extend the layout.
Small update i think this it what UP2CSX was after, still catching up on all the terms.
Just about got it. Remove that switch that connects the inner main about half way down the first passenger terminal track and use it to connect the terminal track to the mainline at the end of the terminal track. The goal is to allow a passenger train to pull into the terminal, load and unload, and then go back to the mainline with no backing or filling moves. You can also save some money and remove that crossover just before the passenger terminal switch since it really serves no purpose. It would also be a good idea to move the crossover switch from the second to the third track in your container terminal about halfway down the yard so your switcher will have an escape and won't get trapped behind a cut of cars.
You should start planning what kind of industries you want to use since they will determine the kind of industry spurs you need. It's rare, unless you're building a modern industrial park, that the tracks would be as straight and parallel as what you've shown. It adds a lot more interest to have industrial trackage snaking in and out of several industries that grew up over time rather than having everything lined up in a row.
Small update, green track will disappear off into the moutains and disappear under the container terminal before coming out near the industry, I think it gives the train some freedom instead of backwards and forwards.
I think I made the changes correctly UP2. If not do you mind drawing what should go where and upload the new pic? Thanks very much.
Hey, getting better all the time!
If you could move the turnout from the green line to below the turnout on the passenger terminal (third track from right) you'd have something!
Keep trying different plans, that's how you end up with the right one!
Better but, as Rico said, you've got to move that switch for the new green mainline below the last crossover in the erminal. as it stands now, you wouldn't be able to get a passenger train coming in on the two mainlines out of the passenger terminal back to the green line one it's past the crossovers. Since you've decided to keep a stub end passenger terminal, you'll have to back all of your trains out to the crossovers to get them back around the layout so you'd better get some body mounted coupler passenger cars or you'll spend a lot of rerailing cars.
You've also got a grade issue to work out. Either there has to be a stiff grade up to the container terminal or a stiff grade on the green line. You need to measue exactly how high you have to go and how much length you have to do it in. I suspect you're looking at 5-6% grades, which is too much for mainline railroads.
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