GridNorth Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I'm just starting out railway modelling. I have a room, a baseboard set up and even a few pieces of OO Gauge Peco Setrack to play around with but I'm struggling to find inspiration for a layout. I'm having a little play with Scarm but I've come to realise that I don't have the imagination to be creative. I've bought a couple of books and looked around on line but most designs seem to be closed loops and large. I'm limited to an 1800 x 1500 L shape 500 mm wide so I have resigned myself to a point to point layout and designs that meet this criteria seem to be a little thin on the ground. IO have some ideas in my head for scenery along the lines of a small canal dock with a warehouse leading to a small branch line station and town with some sort of industrial/mining theme. I would also like to incorporate a bridge over the canal. Al 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Hi Al, I am sure someone on here will be able to help you. Firstly though we need a few more facts, so let me test my assumptions? 1) you are talking of 00 gauge, if so have you considered N gauge? 2) I assume your L is only accessible from the inside? 3) Is this a permanent installation or might you want to take it to exhibitions in the long term? 4) Is this layout just for your entertainment or are there/ might there be young folk interested or to be interested? 5) Any thoughts about control systems (e.g.:- DC or DCC), or as a newcomer are you confused by these terms? 6) Is your main interest operation or construction? 7) (Lastly) Are you interested in building rolling stock, or engines, buildings, or track? Hope the above is not too much to digest in one go! Your canal idea could develop into something interesting! Best regards Paul 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridNorth Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 1. OO Gauge as stated 2. Yes 3. Permanent 4. Just me 5. DCC 6. Bit of both 7. I will purchase scenery and rolling stock items. I have made some progress. It didn't occur to me at first but if I look at 2 layouts one 4' by 2' and the other 5' x 2' then join them together. It makes sense as I would like an industrial area and a small branch line station so that would fit into two sections. Al 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 An all time classic, the book '60 Plans for small railways' may give you some inspiration: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60-Plans-for-small-railways-2nd-edition/302825115422?hash=item4681c88f1e:g:rZcAAOSwjW5bXzfF 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridNorth Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Are there no free resources? I've already paid for a couple of Peco books with loads of layouts but hardly any to suit me. I don't mind paying again but I would like some idea of what is in it. I am trying to create my own with Scarm but struggling. Not helped by the fact that examples are in feet and inches and Scarm is metric and I can't see a way to change it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Holliday Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 One free resource I like is the Gauge O Guild's guide to small layouts. https://www.gauge0guildarchive.com/gazette_archive/other publications/Small-layouts-1/offline/download.pdf Although the scale is different, there are lots of ideas, and the plans are all to a scale, with one foot squares, so 1 foot in O Gauge is best represented as roughly 8 inches in 4mm, so your 4 feet board would accommodate a 6-7 foot long O gauge scheme. Also there is at least one photo of the actual layout, which gives a better idea of what you might get in the space. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallpaul69 Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 22 hours ago, GridNorth said: 1. OO Gauge as stated 2. Yes 3. Permanent 4. Just me 5. DCC 6. Bit of both 7. I will purchase scenery and rolling stock items. I have made some progress. It didn't occur to me at first but if I look at 2 layouts one 4' by 2' and the other 5' x 2' then join them together. It makes sense as I would like an industrial area and a small branch line station so that would fit into two sections. Al Hi Al and other watchers, One classic plan has at the front of your smaller area as an industrial scene linked to a terminus station on your larger area where the industrial locos swap wagons with the BR locos. The disadvantage of this scheme is that the "fiddle yard" for the terminus end up behind the industrial scene and therefore not too accessible! Had you more length this could be got round by an incline so that the fiddle yard and the industrial scene were on different levels. It might be possible to have three levels, with the terminus on the middle level and the tracks going down to the fiddle yard at the front of the smaller board and up to the industrial area at the back of the small board. Afraid my drawing skills are no where good enough to try and sketch this out for you! Hopefully someone else can take up the challenge? Best regards Paul. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridNorth Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 After discovering Scarm I've come up with this: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JDW Posted November 12, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 12, 2019 First thing you need to do is get an imaginary loco and train and run it around the plan, see how many place you can find where it won't fit... Imagine how it would be operated, and what trains would need to do to get where they need to go. One of the industrial sidings is totally unusable, and the run round loop is only a couple of wagons long, as is the headshunt in to it from the 'main' line 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 I reckon a small BLT with "Hockey Stick" Traverser or simple cassette Fiddle Yard with a small wharf or goods sidings as a kick back in front of the Fiddle might work for this space but it is very tight. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted November 15, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 15, 2019 I haven't seen a plan where the traverser moves lengthways like this across an angled entry before; a very good idea and a brilliant lateral space saver. This deserves some thinking about, given that I'm planning a fiddle yard rebuild anyway... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stokes Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 On 01/11/2019 at 12:21, Tallpaul69 said: Hi Al and other watchers, One classic plan has at the front of your smaller area as an industrial scene linked to a terminus station on your larger area where the industrial locos swap wagons with the BR locos. The disadvantage of this scheme is that the "fiddle yard" for the terminus end up behind the industrial scene and therefore not too accessible! Had you more length this could be got round by an incline so that the fiddle yard and the industrial scene were on different levels. It might be possible to have three levels, with the terminus on the middle level and the tracks going down to the fiddle yard at the front of the smaller board and up to the industrial area at the back of the small board. Afraid my drawing skills are no where good enough to try and sketch this out for you! Hopefully someone else can take up the challenge? Best regards Paul. I think it would be better for the fiddle yard to be a little higher than the terminus and at the back with the industrial area at the front and a little lower. I think that this arrangement would look better and access to the fiddle yard should be fairly easy reaching over the industrial area. I personally found "Scarm" difficult and "Anyrail" a lot easier. It is free for up to 50 pieces of track which should be fine for you. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 2 hours ago, The Johnster said: I haven't seen a plan where the traverser moves lengthways like this across an angled entry before; a very good idea and a brilliant lateral space saver. This deserves some thinking about, given that I'm planning a fiddle yard rebuild anyway... Nor have I - in fact I missed it here until your post!! Interesting concept certainly, but lining up rails at an angle..? Not for the faint-hearted! It can be bad enough getting traverser tracks to align accurately at 90 degrees!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Harlequin Posted November 16, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 16, 2019 (edited) Hi Al, The space you have described is very small for OO. You would have more options if you could make the layout bigger. However, within the defined footprint here are some thoughts: Keep it simple. Simple track plans can be very satisfying to look at and challenging to operate. You could maybe fit a small fiddle yard in the short arm but if you don’t want to lose valuable scenic area consider effectively having two stations, each one acting as the fiddle yard for the other. A hook-on cassette or a hinged flap at one end of the layout is neat way to provide fiddle yard facilities outside the footprint but without taking up permanent space in the room. A scenic break in the middle would disguise the short distance from end to end and the tight curve. You don’t need a run round loop at all, especially if you have two locos! But if you do want a run round you only need one. It could be shared by both ends of the layout, running through a scenic break if you have one. Make sure there’s room for the largest loco in the headshunts, but... Restricting the rolling stock to small locos, wagons and coaches (4 wheelers) will help fit the track work into the space and give you trains that are more in proportion to the surroundings. Edited November 16, 2019 by Harlequin 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridNorth Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 I seem to have given myself a difficult task. Can you point me to any good layout plans. I have discovered that the small layout plans seem to focus on the modelling/scenery elements and the larger ones on running the trains. I wanted both but with the emphasis on the running the trains. I seem to have arrived at a disillusionment moment. I could spend a little more but with some reluctance. Al Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxUnpopuli Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 (edited) In the back of Peco's 'Guide to OO Gauge Railway modelling', page 116, is a small corner layout - not as small as your space, but adaptable. It's a small branch line terminus to a fiddle yard. I'll send you something by PM. Consider swapping Setrack for Streamline and smoothing out the curves a little. With such a narrow space you want to save as much space as you can, and the wide centres for parallel tracks with Setrack won't help. The layout below is very similar to DavidCBroad's above in concept, but sweeps up an incline over the fiddle to get you some more real estate. Fiddling will be... fiddly... so you'll need some good solid engineering and testing to make sure the (very clever) traverser system works 100%. I've kept the industrial bit simple, with one point. It's complex enough getting up there, with a three-way and a double slip at the station entry to get you the headshunt/loco staging siding. I thought a turntable might be overkill but you could shoehorn one in if you kept it small! You can simplify to taste, but space saving turnouts like the 3-way, double-slip and the short Y-point are useful tools, don't dismiss them too quickly. (Edit: I have goofed the traverser geometry, but you get the idea.) Edited November 21, 2019 by FoxUnpopuli 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stokes Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 I can't see what the scale of the diagram is, so I can't work out the gradient of that incline, but I think it looks as though it will be fearsome. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&DWatty Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 I quite like Foxunpopuli's sketch and think that it offers quite a bit of operating scope onc ebuilt and loads of scenic scope in a heavily built-up inner city area. The 1:20 gradient might work for industrial short wheelbase locos and a couple of wagons. The engineering for the traverser doesnt look like a "beginner" type of job as it will need to be very accurately built, but the OP doesnt state what he building skill set is, so he might take it on. The passenger workings would need to be very short- maybe a "bubblecar" DMU or 0-6-0 plus suburban coach. It could include a worker's train bringing in folk to the docks area and these could be the 4-wheeled coaches mentioned above..... Some ideas on the plan. Maybe change the station corssover and reverse it as the single platform than has a run-round that will allow slightly longer passenger workings (marginal, but in this space I think worth it). Curving the industrial sidings more towards "south" will increase length marginally and a three-way point at the entrance instead of the Y would give another siding but beware that filling the whole space with track may be counter-productive. I really like the "hockeystick" traverser- engineering caveat above applies. Hope this helps. dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Flying Pig Posted November 21, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 21, 2019 I think the industry elevated in front of and partly over the fiddle yard would make the latter very inconvenient indeed to work. Has anyone tried a scheme with the fiddle yard on the longer leg of the L? You might fit a conventional traverser of 30-36" in the available space, which is enough for a two coach passenger or a 5-6 wagon goods. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 I honestly think you should go N-gauge, with your priorities, for such a small space. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
down the sdjr Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Mike Storey said: I honestly think you should go N-gauge, with your priorities, for such a small space. You could make a lovely N-gauge layout on those baseboards. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxUnpopuli Posted November 21, 2019 Share Posted November 21, 2019 N-gauge would be a more relaxing solution. Gradient is a whopping 5%/1in20 as mentioned by others above. Riffing on S&DWatty's idea - you could change the station throat to a 'Minories' type. All good comments. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNWR18901910 Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 I started practicing N Gauge as a teenager and I hope to make an N Scale layout like the one I described. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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