Memphis32

From what I can make out from the photos, that's how it is... If I'm missing something, please do tell me! The RH end crossover is in the image further up this page with the double slip on it, the LH end is shown in the distance in another photo from the the same site (https://eisenbahnstiftung.de/bildergalerie):

Realised that in the plans so far, the branch has no access to the island platform which I believe is probably its most likely arrival and departure point. Revised here to fit more closely with what I think I'm seeing in prototype photos, with platforms very roughly shown in brown. It doesn't have quite so smooth a flow, but progress is slow enough without the complication of handbuilt track! Please do feed back if possible!!

Further fiddling has resulted in a slightly more compact version, with one fewer goods loops/sidings (and the layout on the opposite side of the available space for accessibility reasons). As the little feedback so far has been along the lines of "it seems fine", could I challenge you to say if this is an improvement or not, and why (both prototypical and playability-wise). I will add that the extra loop going astray will probably not limit the stock on view, as budget will be the limiting factor for that! The green rectangle is lifting/lift-out access

By 1970 it had been replaced by something more conventional (and Peco-like!): https://www.rnz.de/nachrichten/eberbach_artikel,-Eberbach-Nach-Unwettern-in-der-Region-Sehnsucht-nach-der-alten-Badischen-Gebaeudeversicherung-_arid,214015.html You may need to click through a few pics to find the one I’m referring to...

Further additions, having found many more photos showing a pre-rationalisation layout at https://eisenbahnstiftung.de/bildergalerie (put Eberbach in the search box). It's getting pretty busy, but I think in a good way! There are a few places where points will need bending a little to improve flow - especially the double slip at the RH end. I am leaning towards a very long-term plan of having the branch develop as an American-shortline-style round-the-room layout at a lower level, including a representation of the viaduct at Himbachel. I'm still pondering the carpentry implications of this. Any more suggestions would be welcome! Edit to link to two particular pics (from the previously mentionned site) showing best views of each end:

Any criticisms, major flaws, improvements, other suggestions?

Indeed - there’s a link to the other layout in my signature, but it’s got no further than baseboards and track plan due to house moves/kids/storing parents’ stuff for their house move etc. The branch is actually just going off-scene, with enough “fiddle” yard for a vs98 pair (is the other bit a vt98?), a loco-hauled passenger train and a freight to shuttle back and forth, though I had also been considering a longer-term American-style branch around the walls at a higher level, but I’m not sure how that would work with what I want so far. My top concern at the mo is how to get enough fiddle yard for the main line that I won’t feel limited later. The Brit layout is mainly an oversized shunting plank so doesn’t really need much, so I’d been working out whether there was a way to swap a fiddle yard for that without it being too big a job - having them on opposite sides of the baseboard and flipping it over, or lifting them both up and down on pulleys etc. My conclusion was that it was more effort than it’s worth, but am willing to be shown otherwise!!

Following a year of pursuing other interests, I'm back on the case of planning how to use half a double garage to fit both already-built baseboards for a British late steam layout and a continental layout. The Rhine-inspired attempts from last year are doing nothing for me so I went on a hunt through Google Earth to find something more suitable. Heidelberg was somewhere I visited a few times (I had my first Pizza Hut there), so I went up the Neckar valley and found something almost ideal - Eberbach - it fits in a double track mainline and a single track branch in less than 600m, including approach pointwork. It also happens to lie on the route taken by the Rheingold (admittedly decades later than what I plan to model!) Link to Google Maps and here's my interpretation:  The width has been compressed slightly, but still allows for regulation width platforms! A couple of extra features that were still there in photos from the 80s are included too, such as the mainline crossovers, the extra siding at the top (part of a once much bigger exchange yard for the branch I think) and the one at the lower right, which I think is for an end-loading ramp. There was once a small turntable in the Y between the branch and mainline, but I think it would be a bit cramped in there. The big pink rectangle is the space I wanted for operating (3' across), and the yellow is a hinged lift-up section. The branch fiddle would be out of sight (mirror on the ceiling for operating) but would need a crawl-under to fix issues, and the main fiddle yard needs thought (if needed at all - I'm more of a watch things go round and round or shunting type, not exact train formations and timetables. So far...), but I ran out of track pieces in the free version of the software!

I wasn't sure which topic area to put this in, but as it is essentially part of my layout design, it can go here for now!! I'm planning a layout with a long sweeping curve to make the most of the length I have available, and wondered whether anyone had any input on useful (non-layout) things to do with the large corner areas left behind. I don't want to fill the corners with track or scenic stuff as reach would be difficult if not impossible, as well as much more expensive and over-ambitious, but I also don't want the space to be wasted as I (seem to) have precious little of it!! Any thoughts?

Looks good, with a bit more room - especially as the station is right on the edge of the town, and there's a ferry right in front of it. I'm leaning more towards not bothering with the station anymore, and just having the branch junction with a few sidings:

Thanks for that, but I think DavidCBroad is right, I don’t have the room to fit the platforms in, mostly width of boards. Also having nearly no buildings would look rather better if the location isn’t a station!

Thanks, I think... I hadn't actually spotted the other platform on the plan as it only has half an outline, and did wonder how it was operated - I thought it was possibly to clear the mainline for non-stopping traffic! How about without the station then? It relieves me of the task of making much in the way of convincing buildings! This idea keeps the double track mainline appearing from a tunnel, with a branch heading off up the hill. You have to imagine the RH end going into a cutting. At the point the branch joins the mainline there is a goods loop and small yard with a barge mooring point (the original reason for the branch before the mainline came?) If anyone knows how to make the thumbnails a more viewable size, that would also be handy!

I'm looking to build a layout loosely based on bits of the Rhine valley between Bingen and Koblenz. What I have planned so far is derived from the layout at Boppard, much simplified, and with a substantial change to how the branch departs from the station, due to issues with hiding one end exit of the layout adequately. A (not-to-scale) drawing of Boppard HBf: Having tried to fit the full (shortened) platform across the layout, it was obvious that it dominated the scene, so I went for the end of platform with station throat pointwork idea. The problem was then how to hide the platform disappearing into the hole in the sky. There's not much in the way of road over-bridges along that line, added to the fact that the branch line climbing alongside the loco shed crowded that end of the layout a bit, so I've made the branch leave in the opposite direction, but with a reversing move from the station. Here's three versions with differences being how to use the space next to the loco shed: I'd appreciate feedback on whether the junction seems plausible, and anything that's glaringly wrong! The position and angle of the mainline track at each end has to be where it is as it adjoins helices that fit with another layout. Anything else can be changed! Some of the workings-out that brought the idea to this point can be found here.

Here's a couple of ideas for filling in the LH end. Junction is the same, and I'd still welcome any opinions on that! First, shed area similar to Boppard - single road shed with a second siding next to it for locos awaiting work I assume. There's a single siding in addition, poss for branch line carriages, or goods exchange, or there could be a small industry behind the shed area. Second reduces the loco servicing to a single road, and adds a second carriage/goods siding. There could be space for adding some yard equipment, such as a small crane and end-loading dock. Or with 3-way - flows better than a separate switch I think:

Any thoughts?