trying to design HO layout for 12.5x13.5 space

[gngsound]

(This is a bit long-winded - my apologies in advance.)
I'm a newbie, just rediscovering model trains after a 30-year break. I recently pulled my old Tyco set out of mothballs. It was never more than a simple over&under because I had no place to set it up for more than an afternoon at a time. Now I have a blank slate of a basement room and a license to build bestowed by the wife (with a few caveats like 'reasonable budget', etc.) But I also have what might be considered the modelling equivalent of writer's block. I've been playing with Xtrackcad, looking over layouts I can find online, took a trip to the nearest (1hr away) modelling club's permanent layout for inspiration - and still feel like I don't have a good starting point for a layout.

This will be HO - I already have an investment there (ready, fire, aim). The room is 12.5' wide, three walls (the fourth 'wall' is actually an aisleway that I can't encroach on). One side wall is 16', other is 13.5' (standing in the aisleway looking 'in', 16' wall is on the left). No permanent fixtures to work around, but this is currently my computer room. I'm trying to keep it an around the wall layout set high enough that I don't have to find a new space for my computer and desk.

I have young grandchildren. I feel obliged to have some sort of continuous loop in place so that I can dare let them operate a train without fear of them not stopping it in time. But for me I would like something that supports operations - watching/listening to an operating session at the club made that pretty clear. Roundy-rounds are too boring, but I also want something other than a switchyard.

Initially, I thought about prototyping the shortline from my hometown. Now known as the Owego and Harford (OHRY), then it was a stretch of the Lehigh Valley Auburn Division. Target era would be around 1960. But the OHRY is an out and back, so the 'grandkid loop' is a problem. I also found that in order to place all of the depots and industries on the layout, there would practically be no running distance between them. But this is a rural shortline and it just wouldn't feel right without some running time between stops. After the trip to the club layout, I'm not too married to the rural shortline layout - but still want some distance between destinations. One thing I considered to address that was to go with two levels and a helix and double the line length. Downside is then I can't keep the entire layout high enough to sneak my computer desk under it.

I have a tendency to think flat and symetrical. And I find myself unable to easily shed the snap-track mode of design layout. I even dove in and built six 2'x4' benchwork frames, thinking I would go 'modular'. That was a few weeks ago. They are currently assembled into a simple 4x12 peninsula with a folded and flattened figure eight on it so that I would have something to play with while I struggle with layout design. (I would like to not waste them in the end.)

If I do use the 27-mile OHRY as the basis, the design elements are:
Owego - Passenger depot and switchyard
Flemingville - small depot with siding (not sure yet if it is a spur or passing siding)
Newark Valley - ladder factory with spur siding (I used to work there)
Newark Valley - passenger depot with 1000' passing siding
Berkshire - furniture factory with spur siding
Richford - grist mill with spur siding
Harford Mills - LPG storage facility, two spurs with unloading rack between them
All of the sidings were laid parallel to the main as far as I can tell from goolge maps.

Based on the physical space layout and the info above, any suggestions for online layouts/plans to look at, other design elements or construction ideas to consider, etc? If I go with a two-level layout, what kind of spacing do I need between the levels to look OK, and are both levels the same depth? Is a helix the best choice to get up/down? Or does the room simply not give enough wall length to do a continuous main plus the operations and I should consider selling the wife on the idea of dedicating the entire room and either build across the 'fourth wall' or do a walk-in
with a peninsula (room might be too narrow for that)?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[steinjr]

Just a couple of quick suggestion:

1) decide on a typical train length, e.g. a loco and 8 shortish freight cars - about 4 1/2 feet of train length (a 40-foot freight car is 5.5" long, an modest engine around 8-10" long), or a loco and three passenger cars for a length of about 3 1/2 feet.

That gives you a goal for distances between stations, length of yard tracks, length of passing track.

2) instead of modeling seven scenes from the line, how about picking just three scenes from the line and modeling them, with two train lengths between each scene, to give you some rural running?

Smile,
Stein

 

[gngsound]

Thanks for the suggestions. 8-10 tank cars was about the biggest train I ever recall seeing on this route, so I was already thinking trains of 4-8 40' cars. And the 'pick three' approach basically puts one stop on each wall - so the two-level approach basically does the same, just on two planes.

Studied another layout I found online yesterday that was a 4x8 with a split-level L on the end. One end of the layout had an over/under going out to each level on the L. The split-L got me thinking - what about a 30" wide wall layout that was actually two 15" 'steps' separated by 12" rather than two 30" shelves separated by at least 20" (and requiring extra lighting for the lower level)? But is 15" going to be deep enough to provide enough room to build a decent scene? It would only be about 60% of the depth of most modular specs I've seen, so maybe not. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[steinjr]

But is 15" going to be deep enough to provide enough room to build a decent scene? It would only be about 60% of the depth of most modular specs I've seen, so maybe not. Thoughts?

15" is plenty of depth for a decent scene, as long as you don't have too many parallel tracks.

In the editorial of 2010 issue of Model Railroad Planning (MRP), Tony Koester illustrates the concept of "narrow mindedness" by showing some pictures from scenes on Bill Darnaby's excellent Maumee Route layout - one scene is 10.5" deep, another 8" deep. Both look great.

In MRP 2002 there was an excellent article by Paul Dolkos called "Making an inch into a mile" - on how to extend scenes to and beyond the backdrop. Another article (also by Paul Dolkos) on how to make narrow scenes more realistic in MRP 2009.

MRP 2001 has an article called "Open Prairie, Narrow shelves", where Bernie Kempinski discusses techniques for modeling wide open spaces (where the horizon is far away) on a narrowish shelf (the key being putting the RR on a raised embankment, at chest level or higher and adding stuff in the foreground, between you and the tracks, to pull attention to the foreground rather than the background).

Think of it this way - if you can have 6" of foreground between you and the tracks in H0 scale, that corresponds to about 35 feet in 1:1 scale. Not an extreme amount of space, but enough for a railroad embankment, a ditch, some bushes, pershaps a small building or two in the foreground.

Smile,
Stein

 

[Beachbum]

+1. Stein mentioned some excellent references there.