Track Plan Ideas, Desperatly Need Some Help!

J

jkeswick

New Member
Jun 27, 2006
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Taunton, Somerset, England
Hi all, ive been looking around and seen that alot of members have some very good track plan ideas. I was wondering whether you would like to help me knock around some ideas for a rather challenging layout in 00 and definatly one that will be created in stages over the next few years. I am submitting a plan with this thread, showing baseboard size available. On the large end being 2' wide i would like a large station the full length of the end to take long passenger trains. The drop down section would be perfect for a river with a large viaduct. A small station would be placed on the 1,5' are ( this could be lengthened right to the end if need be.) The rest of the 1ft long section would idealy have a twin mainline track. Possible branch line if space is available. Ive got this far but when it comes to palnning an ideal station and things im hopeless. It never seems to fit or be quite right! The system will be powered by DCC and im the only person to be controlling the layout with a command station and 1 hand held. I own many 00 gauge locos from british to american. Im not concerned on it being modeled to a place, just look realistic enough! Any ideas will be apreciated.

Jason Keswick


scan0001.jpg
 
Jason,

Welcome to The Gauge!

Lots more questions first... ;)

What else do you want to include? What industries do you like? What kind of rolling stock do you prefer? What is the location? Era? Is your focus more passenger (as seems to be indicated), trains running through scenery, or switching?

There is a "Givens and Druthers" thread here:

http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=19575
that has some questions that might help you focus and provide more information...

If you can provide more info, there are lots of people here who can help.

Andrew
 
Hi, im looking at running more passenger, i also have a small collection of 009 which would be nice to include. Im looking more at the scenery running, passing through the countryside. The large station would be a good large town/city station, and the second smaller one possible a small station with just small passenger trains halting. Im looking at present day. Alot of my locos are new modern desiels, and will purchase more of these rather than steam. Although my collection does include a few, the actual design would hopefully be more modern. Im not that interested in switching, i would rather just have a main line passenger type layout. Although i like a bit of control, switching doesnt intrest me a great deal. It needs to be the type of layout i can set going, and a couple of locos can easily run under no supervision and can be left to a route whilst being watched. Location im looking at modeling a british layout with those style buildings etc. Thanx for any help that i get.
Jason Keswick
 
OO9? Is that narrow gauge "double-O"?

In any case, if you are after "trains running through scenery" I don't really see much wrong with your initial plan to have a narrow shelf with a couple of stations and some great scenery. Maybe some nice industrial buildings (but the backs) as modern routes seem to always run through somewhat seedier sides of towns. You can always leave these areas "open" to future development if switching/shunting does begin to appeal to you.

Some of the more spectacular scenery would include your bridge/river combination, and whatever other "non-railway" landmarks you'd like to include.

I would add a couple of crossovers between the two loops of mainline. I assume you want the doubel main to allow two trains to circle unattended...?

Where is the door/access to the room?

Andrew
 
Thats exactly what it is! 009 locos run on N scale track at 4mm scale. Peco do a large range of special track for this scale, not many ready to runs are available so mostly kit built using N gauge chassis.

Yeh i would like to just have two trains running around each loop. And when im feeling up to a bit of control i could run a few more with DCC, i will be spliting it maybe in half with two boosters.

Over the river area thats about 4' across so could be a very nice viaduct. The only thing i really stuggle with is the station layout. I have a plan which i will go and scan in and see what you think. I just never know whether its going to look right.

Access is through stairs that come up in the centre of the room. The window on the 14ft end is a double doors (used for access of large things as the stairs are more like a ladder!) The room is on the first floor.

Jason Keswick
 
Modern passenger operations seem to be a small but enthusiastic section of model railroading. If you stick with your theme, I would look around and see what you can find out about the local commuter and other passenger operations near you. Look at the more modern stations, and even look for an interest group/historical society/transport enthusiasts group that might provide more information.

It used to be (at least in North America, but I am sure it holds true for the UK) that the station did everything - freight, express, passengers. There was often a "house track" which allowed cars to be spotted at the station. Today though, it seems that there are maybe one or two tracks in front, and the train pulls up, loads/unloads passengers, and continues on.

One thing you might want to incorporate is staging for trains. You can do this a number of ways, but my suggestion would be to increase the depth of your shelf by about 6 inches, allowing "surround staging" to be used. See more about the concept here:

http://www.ovar.ca/Mike Hamer/Hamer.htm
http://bostonandmaine.blogspot.com/

Andrew
 
Modern passenger operations seem to be a small but enthusiastic section of model railroading.
Click to expand...
Remember, the collapse of passenger rail in the 1950s-60s was a North American phenomenon only. As far as I can judge, passenger traffic is not just common but dominant in Britain and many European countries. When it comes to modelling in the UK, passenger is usually the focus.
 
Hi, yeh your right, we dont tend to send that much by train over here. Most of our operations are passenger (even tho this section is very weak due to service problems, you can hardly ever get a train on time!) We tend to send most of our goods by road in lorries as the UK isnt large enough to need too many freight trains. We do however send things like coal around by train still, mostly for powerstations etc. We certainly dont have anything on an american scale! Locomotives are small and weak compared to even your smallest!

I have come up with a plan, i will scan it and submit it soon just havent been at home much in the last day or so. I am considering the extension of width, i could produce bassically four loops that go right around, two of which are behind the backscene, these could appear ever so often, and all appear into the main station. Will create double the length of track work here so might need to think about cost! But what the heck if im doing a section at a time cost wont seem to matter so much!

Jason Keswick
 
Looking forward to seeing your plan...!

I guess (and it is just a guess) that the busiest freight train is probably the Channel Tunnel train that carries the trucks in those special "flat" cars?

How interested are you in modelling the "behind the scenes" part of passenger operations? Or do you just want the nice visual of trains rolling throught the countryside to your favourite station?

You can spread out the cost of things by completing it in stages, although you may have to live with a bit of an unfinished look for a while. This is not necessarily bad though - at least your track will be flawless...! ;)

Andrew
 
Right sorted out a plan, i have only done the station area at present, this is because of the layout being so big, on peice of A4 paper it becomes difficult to get the dimensions of track work right etc! Ive included the idea of the "staging" one double line disapears into this all the way around the out side in an extra 6 inches of board space. This hopefully will come out in certain places around the layout to show a 4 lane section. I was thinking that if i make the extra two lanes link into the other two lanes to create basically a double loop so with dcc i can run 2 passenger trains per line so 4 altogether but without seeing all if them on the loop at the same time, some will appear others will disapear etc. Please let me know your thoughts.

The channel tunnel does carry alot of lorries, and cars over the channel. We do occasionly have freight trains, and this of course is more noticible around cities etc. I live in the country in the south of england and not much freight travels down here. The local station is mostly passenger.

We definatly dont have the levels of freight that you do over their.

Jason Keswick

station1.jpg
 
I am not sure what purpose the lowered sidings provide? They will need to be sloped for mostof their length, which means that everything will alwasy be backed up against the bumper at the end...? If you are adding this just for scenic variety, you don't need to drop so far - a few mm difference is quite noticable.

I hope that the surround staging idea works for you. Even if you are not heavily into operations, it will provide some variation for you. If you can get a reliable crossing, then you can make a "twice around" (or four times, or whatever) without so many turnouts to throw.

I like the idea of exposing all four tracks at one (or more) points. Makes things interesting.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the plan.

Andrew
 
A note about DCC - running two trains on a single loop of track is a very basic application of DCC - you could do this using more traditional DC power. Unless you want to add sound, but even newer sound decoders can run on DC.

Andrew
 
The siddings are level, because where the points are now 1.5 inches below the height of the station, after these points the main line goes up 1 in 40 in 5ft, the siddings remain at the lower level whilst the main line goes up to station height, now 1.5 inches above the sidding height. Not 3 as it says on the diagram. So these will infact be level.

As i am writing im in the middle of drawing the next section, i got a few books from the local library on model railway design and have got some ideas for some sections and adapted them to my size baseboard.

I already have the DCC equipment, and my locos are already DCC, it also gives me the possibility quite easily to run 2/3 passenger locos on one line at a time, due to the length of my line, in all being a double loop with the staging, 180 feet long. I can run more locos on one section than i can easily with dc.

Jason Keswick
 
right i have done the other plan! seems slow progress drawing them all out but ive got to get it right! here goes....

station1.jpg


section2.jpg


The section on this side links up, the section missing on the other side is just 4 straight tracks joining up both sections, visit www.perfectbore.com/untitled.htm and i have drawn it joined up and will continue to do so with the next sections, please give me plenty of feedback on what you think. Will really help!

Jason Keswick
 
Sorry the first scan of the baseboard sizes has been written over on my website by another by accident! Not that the design fits the sizes now ive used the great ideas posted for me! If you visit www.perfectbore.com/untitled.htm i have laid out all three sections to complete the designs, please leave feedback on it, ive inculded the gradients etc, you might need to read the burb in the middle to see how ive shown them! Please leave any ideas you have to improve this design. It now clearly shows how their is basically twin tracks looping around the room twice! Something like 320 feet of track, the bank card isnt going to like that purchase!

Jason
 
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