Layout design feedback

[chrismears]

I must be coming on my first month's anniversary of joining the S Scale Society. I've experimented around with some first scratchbuilding projects to get a real taste for working in S and I'm finding it all very alluring. I feel pretty confident that I want to dig in and build this next layout in S. Before I get too much further into this post, I really want to commend the Society on their work in the scale. I've been working my way through the piles of newsletters and books available on their website and have been really enjoying every minute of that time spent - there sure is a pile of great work going on by some terrific modellers. It's an alluring scene indeed.

 

I've long been fascinated with branchlines that terminate with a turntable at the end of the station's run-around loop (Bembridge, for example) and really liked Maurice Hopper's Stroudly Green as a fantastic example of this concept in application as a layout. My amazing wife has offered me the space in our living room's bay window as a home for my layout in our small house. In this area, I see the layout as being about six feet in length and hopefully not much deeper than two feet. I'd like it if the layout completely fits in this space without having to move it out to add staging areas, etc. I've been pushing this plan around on paper for a while now and thought I'd share a copy online here.

 

I've tried to work with some generic assumptions in sketching the above out but remain a little concerned that it might be a little more busy than the quiet area I'd like it to appear as. Rather than ramble on with my thoughts and concerns about the plan, here, I put together a post on my blog and added them in there:

http://princestreet.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/another-layout-sketch-and-some-introspection/

 

Any suggestions? My apologies if this really isn't the right forum for this rambling. It is for S scale and I thought I might borrow on more experienced members thoughts on fitting it all in. Good or bad, I'm keen to hear what you think.

 

Thanks

[Phil Copleston]

Oh not to worry Chris, this is EXACTLY the right forum to discuss S scale layout design! 

 

I like your plan, but at 6ft long it will inevitably feel rather cramped in S scale (equivalent to about 4ft 10ins in 4mm scale or 3ft 10ins in HO, if I got that right). Perhaps including fewer structures and opening up more open areas would give a greater sense of space? 

 

TBH, I don't have and 'pearls of wisdom' to offer. Just get on an build it! (advice I ought to take myself, ha ha). Anyway, well done you, and good luck! (and keep us posted)

[chrismears]

I like your plan, but at 6ft long it will inevitably feel rather cramped in S scale (equivalent to about 4ft 10ins in 4mm scale or 3ft 10ins in HO, if I got that right). Perhaps including fewer structures and opening up more open areas would give a greater sense of space?

Hi Phil, thanks for your note and enthusiastic reply. I agree with your observations. I do like that sketch but it does show how easy it is to get carried away when there's a pencil in hand. I really like the baseboard design but it deserves some editing.

 

Six feet in S will be tight. I'm working from the assumption that a 3-3-5 Inglenook-style plan will fit in six feet. What I'd like to figure out is a way to work an Inglenook-style plan from both ends if possible, hence the run-around loop. A second goal is to try and escape the rather linear nature of the typical Inglenook. If I can't acheive the latter, that's okay. Most of all, I just want to start building something. As much fun as design is, construction's really where the action's at.

 

Cheers

 

 

/chris

[chrismears]

Hello again. I couldn't let go of that plan and some of my frustration with details in it that just weren't what I wanted in the layout. A lot of paper, pencils and tea later I have this:

Since I only plan on a single engine I can't figure out why I figured I needed a staging area. I also wanted to discard a lot of structures and general "business" of the previous. I've included a line in front of the station. In "real life" this would be where trains should arrive but on this layout the only movements here will be light engines running around cars on the runaround. Most of the activity in this iteration stems from the inverted inglenook arrangement made up of the runaround, the goods yard and the coal siding.

 

I've drawn the baseboard a little wider than I think I'd like it to be. As before, I've added in a few more thoughts and notes over on my blog:

http://princestreet.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/progress-and-refining-the-plan/

 

Thoughts?

[clecklewyke]

I have to say that your run-round loop seems very short. How many wagons/coaches could you run around?

 

Have you considered the idea of eliminating the facing point on entry to the station, moving it off-stage, and using a sector plate or cassettes in its stead? Llanastr comes to mind, as do Iain Rice's ideas on "bitsa" stations.

 

Re style, do not worry too much about "openness". Certainly avoid over-fussiness but the station is cramped so there needs to be a reason in the prototype for it being cramped. High land values, with lots of surrounding buildings, sloping sites, existing rivers/canals etc.

 

I look forward to seeing progress.

 

Ian

[MartinWales]

Must say that the LH end of your original sketch could be tacked onto the above plan and hopefully give it more senes of openness, and make a small layout look a little larger than it actually is 

[MartinWales]

Any progress with your project Chris??

[MartinWales]

Any more news Chris?

[Joseph_Pestell]

Unless the theme is very much Col Stephens type light railway (and even the stations for those could be quite large), I think it is going to be pretty impossible to include passenger workings in such a space. A shunting layout such as Box Street Yard would work well though.

[backofanenvelope]

Think Chris may have wandered.. http://princestreet....ining-the-plan/ 

[MartinWales]

Well spotted that man!