What length trains do you operate?

[TTDB]

I'm presently constructing my portable exhibition HO layout hopefully with the frontage of about 20ish foot not sure whether to have a oblong or hexagonally yet however I do like to run my locos in consists of two, I do have one engine I run by itself (fox valley GP60M) but all others in pairs.

I'm looking at an average manifest train of about 14 various length cars this works out about 12 feet long I'd like longer but want some scenery space and then there's the hidden tracks behind to stable them, I'm not a fan of intermodal but would be hard to operate a modern U.S. Layout without so pondering on length of that but what length are my buddies are here running in HO be it cars or length units?

Thanks

TT

[cromptonnut]

Whatever type layout you are running and trains you can use will be constrained by the length of your fiddle yard sidings.

 

Have you considered some kind of helix at each end, and having the storage roads underneath the layout so you can get maximum scenic depth of layout?  If you are using an oblong arrangement you'd have the set width based on the minimum curvature you decide on to get the 180 degree curves at either end anyway, which will set the minimum space you require.

 

Having, say, a 5ft helix at each end would give you perhaps 14ft of straight scenic run at the front on a 20ft length, 2ft for the scenic area and 3ft operating space behind if you have the storage underneath.

[johnb]

Many years ago I used to have a portable HO tailchasing exhibition layout 16ft x 7ft with a centre operating well. I usually ran 10ft/12ft long trains with one double stack set of 9 intermodal cars (that was 3 x 3car units). I often ran three SD40s on the front. The scenic section was the full 16ft length and partially round onto the ends. The limiting factor was the fiddle yard track lengths as the pointwork took up quite a bit of length on some roads.

I have since downsized and now go for switching layouts where 4 cars is a long train.

 

HTH

 

John

[shortliner]

Many years ago I used to have a portable HO tailchasing exhibition layout 16ft x 7ft with a centre operating well. I usually ran 10ft/12ft long trains with one double stack set of 9 intermodal cars (that was 3 x 3car units). I often ran three SD40s on the front. The scenic section was the full 16ft length and partially round onto the ends. The limiting factor was the fiddle yard track lengths as the pointwork took up quite a bit of length on some roads.

I have since downsized and now go for switching layouts where 4 cars is a long train.

 

HTH

 

John

Like John - my latest switching layout runs a maximum of 4 or 5

[doctor quinn]

The outer reaches of class ones offer similar possibilities, I model CP Rail in Vermont in the early 90's. The staple motive power was 25+ year old RS18s and most cars were 50' boxcars and covered hoppers, with some very short local freights.

 

Nick

[Robatron86]

3 cars max on mine, but it is small in layout terms. Also a class 1 RR.

[298]

My loop and FY tracks can handle three 40' cars or two 57' Reefers, but it is possible to run round longer trains by poling them.

 

If I was the OP, I'd have a few FY tracks a bit longer than the scenic section, then you can still create the impression of a "scale length" train that fills the layout, when in reality it is only a quarter of the length.

[Glorious NSE]

If I was the OP, I'd have a few FY tracks a bit longer than the scenic section, then you can still create the impression of a "scale length" train that fills the layout, when in reality it is only a quarter of the length.

I would agree.

 

When we designed RS Tower the concept was that the staging needed to be bigger than the scenic area, which on a "roundy" style layout you can achieve if you have curved staging area's with the staging yard ladders on the end of the layout - that way with some scenic breaks you can run trains that can never be seen in their entirety, and so must be "long" in the context of the layout.

 

To put it another way, nobody will look at your train and say "that's a short train" as nobody ever sees the whole thing in one view.

 

How long doesn't really matter much for the visual trick to work - ours is a biggish layout so some of our trains are 30'+ in length, the shortest full length ones are about 23'.

 

I would suggest if you have a frontage of 20' then train lengths of between 20' and 30' should be possible with careful design of the boards and choices of how you set up the staging yard.

 

There's other visual tricks you can pull too - our experience (with a previous roundy layout) is that Intermodal trains aren't as big a problem in terms of "looking long" - they don't look much worse than manifests. The ones that look really short are block trains of 89' autoracks. An 8' block of autoracks will look far shorter than an 8' block of double stacked containers or an 8' rake of mixed manifest cars. (The same trick works for all car types, 8' of corn syrup tanks is a longer looking train than 8' of ethanol tanks!)

 

If you want the same length of modern intermodal train to look longer, concentrate on the 5 packs of 40' wells and go for deep sea traffic, not the 3 packs of 53' wells - again, visually more train in the same space.

[Adrian Wintle]

My loop and FY tracks can handle three 40' cars or two 57' Reefers, but it is possible to run round longer trains by poling them.

 

If I was the OP, I'd have a few FY tracks a bit longer than the scenic section, then you can still create the impression of a "scale length" train that fills the layout, when in reality it is only a quarter of the length.

 

It is just like looking at real trains - you normally don't see the whole length of the train just the head end, a lot of middle, and the tail end. For the model, as long as the head end leaves the scene before the tail end shows up, your mind thinks it is a long train. In fact a scale length train often looks too long even if you can get it all in view at once. In N-scale, I find around 40 coal hoppers/gons looks right while 80+ looks too long (even though it is prototypical).

 

From my testing layout:

 

These look like long trains, but they are about 20 auto racks, 30 wells, or 40 Coalporters.

 

Note how your mind makes you think this is part of a long train, even though there are only 10 wells in shot.

 

In prototype terms, you see this:

 

and your mind tells you that it looks like this:

 

Adrian

[Zomboid]

9 40' boxcars plus a loco is longer than my entire layout...

[dave1905]

A typical train is between 10 and 14 cars which works out to about 5-7 ft plus engine and caboose.  The vast majority of my cars are between 30 and 36 scale ft long.

 

One of the reasons I chose the 1900 era is I can have a 12 car train and easily clear in a 7-8 ft siding.  When I finish some more coal cars, a 20 car train would still be less than 9 feet, pilot to markers.

[Mr_Tilt]

When I ran my 'Smalltown - USA' layout in the 80s-90s (see thread here for its second coming http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98414-smalltown-usa-the-second-coming/) I always ended an exhibition session by running the longest possible train. With three locos on the point I could fill the whole main loop with freight cars so the caboose was around 2" in front of the head end loco. 

 

The train was maybe 28' in length but that was in N scale so it was a LOT of cars! Somewhere I've got a photo of that but I'm darned if I can find it now of course.

[Mike Kieran]

The beauty of modeling a short line is short trains. My trains are 3-4 cars long.

[steve1]

4 x ore jennies is the longest train on Duncan's Mine 2, That or a 2 x 40' or 1 x 40' + 1 x 50'. All plus loco of course.

 

steve

[sjgardiner]

Not my layout, but trains don't have to be long to look good:

Edit: the blog is here, as you should all know.

 

You should see Trevor's layout in person and operate it, the pictures don't do it justice to just how good it looks, and S scale gives the opportunity for little trains to be big in the scenery while packing in the detail.

 

Stephen