As I mentioned on the last post on Gerlos, I would be starting a new blog for the new layout...

Even though construction on the loft conversion hasn't even started, I'm already planning what's going to go in it. The original plan had Gerlos moved up into the loft where I had envisaged to fix two problems it:

The ramp up to the upper level station on one side was a considerable 4%. This severely limited the length of train that most of my loco's can haul when going that way round.

The second major problem was the lack of height difference between the lower station and the upper station meaning it all looked a bit, meh!

So the plan was to extend layout on one side to allow for a longer climb to the upper station. By making this around 3.5m in linear distance, I could also raise the upper station to a giddy 10cm above baseboard with a <3% gradient! The other ramp could easily go that high as it was already approximately 3.5m long.

However then a third limitation shows up: A lack of depth, the layout is only 3 feet deep. And this would mean lots of near vertical rock faces. So it wasn't really going to look very good.

The loft offers other possibilities, the internal surface will around 6x3.6m (20x12), which would give a usable floor space of around 15x12x20 (allowing for the door and a place to put a radiator (never directly under the layout!). Plenty of space for some serious HOe action...

My holiday last summer has rekindled (together with the additional space) a desire to run the HOm Bemo models on a layout as well. Creating an HOm layout is something I've set out to do twice before in '96 and '06, in both cases it had to be shelved due to a lack of room (despite making ridiculous compromises). Third time lucky perhaps?

I picked up a Swiss magazine over the summer in Interlaken (at the wallet emptying shop) and an article in it described a layout built by a professional builder for an English client. This comprised a fiddle yard/reverse loop to reverse loop arrangement with a single intermediate station.

As the trains leave the fiddle yard, they climb first up to the station, then using a spiral (part visible) up to the reverse loop. Looks pretty ideal to me....

However, I'd like to have more than just one station and I'd like a branch as well! Just to make it even worse, I'd like to have an interchange station as well between the HOe section and the HOm section....

Yes, quite a list but as a long term and only project, I would like to think it can be done.

So all the talking out of the way, here's the conceptual plan:

It's even in a U shape to suit the space available!

More ramblings soon and my apologies for the lack of pictures!