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What constitutes a "large layout"?


cromptonnut
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Size is relative,,

Pete Waterman's O gauge layout is 160ft long

But in 4mm that would be about 92 feet ( so he easily beats my 53ft)

In 2mm that's 46ft

Down to around 15ft in T.

Or about 835ft in 7.5 gauge.

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  • 6 months later...

I Had what could possibly considered a large layout although at the time I never considered it big. I always wanted to add more and do more so it never seemed big enough. It was loft based and was about 22ftx16ft. So I suppose that gave me 76ft or running. I say had but that is sort of a misrepresentation. I still have everything from that layout plus an awful lot more engines and stock all boxed up waiting for the time we get a bigger house. I am still waiting. I am a very patient man. But yes our house is up for sale ...... :)

Edited by cypherman
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  • 5 months later...

Banks road is roughly 30ft long end to end,

starts with freight yard,middle scenery then town/depot and onto station.

takes three of us to strip down in 30 mins and same to rebuild...

wagon8.JPG

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  • 1 year later...
On 26/02/2014 at 12:09, chev32 said:

Does this tick the boxes? Belongs to a mate of mine its a modeled on Fassifern ,New South Wales ,3 levels of track ( i ran one of my british locos on it a few week ago but still have found it after it disappeared into one of the lower levels ! ) Its been a work in progress for a number of years features scratch built points and a lot of 3D printed buildings (not pictured ) Housed  in a 60 x 60 ' shed on his farm

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Makes my under construction 12m x 6m HO Australian point to point layout seem small. Its based on 1952 NSW prototype. Passenger trains are scale length but goods sidings have been selectively compressed. Then Again I saw a large model railway in Hamburg, and another in the Colorado Model Railroad Museum.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Many of the huge permanently fixed layouts in the US sometimes do a cab ride. But it's often welcome to the railroad of no action other then the cab ride loco. A huge layout but only on loco operating. There are often other people there running nothing but just standing around watching this cab ride loco proceed on it's own round the railroad. Often they're single track so you run down the side of a building that houses the railroad and then you go into a tunnel to do a 180 degree turn and run back down the side of the building the other way. Many are multi level and they use the helix system to go from one level to another which always makes me smile for these US layouts are massive in size and gradients between the levels would not be out of the question and in my opinion would look far better. Others do the cab ride when it's an operating session so you get all manner of things happening like derailments, signals passed at red, head on collisions, trains becoming uncoupled and members being short tempered with each other. Many of the clubs rent basements in large buildings which sometimes the landlord wants to put to another use and the railroad which was never designed from the outset to come apart ends up in a number of skips of ignited on the huge railroad bonfire. Others are long established clubs like Blissfield in Michigan who own the premises the railroad is housed in.

Here's a cab ride on Blissfield during an open to the public day when strict railway protocol is not adhered too.

 

 

Edited by faulcon1
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13 hours ago, faulcon1 said:

Others do the cab ride when it's an operating session so you get all manner of things happening like derailments, signals passed at red, head on collisions, trains becoming uncoupled and members being short tempered with each other.

Sounds to me more like you just have a complete downer on American Basement Empires!! :nono:

Care to share the links to these videos containing all these mishaps? They sound enormously entertaining. :rolleyes:

Although as for "signals passed at red", you do fully understand prototype American signalling practise, don't you..?   :scratchhead: 

Edited by F-UnitMad
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  • 2 weeks later...

On the Redlford layout they have trains that run as mobile advertisements which shows all the companies that sponsor the layout and it gives them a bit of free advertising as a return thanks. Redford is a large layout with quite a few young guys operating trains which is good to see. I don't like it when I see a club layout that tends to be an old farts only zone.  

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Large layout?   I know what a Too Big layout is, one you have no hope of ever getting to the point where you can actually run trains, or one where maintenance takes up 100% of your modelling time leaving none for actually running trans.    Oh and those where a train disappears into a tunnel for what seems like an eternity.

Those American style layouts with a single track winding for hundreds of feet around  50ft X 50ft basements on about 3 levels would be my ideal, but with UK stock, MSWJR in GW days with scale length 80 wagon trains around 30ft long.   Less than half the length of US Consists ...  Think I'll stick to 24 X 8

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On 16/09/2020 at 01:53, faulcon1 said:

 

Here's a cab ride on Blissfield during an open to the public day when strict railway protocol is not adhered too.

Club layout, public open day - I'm not surprised they didn't run to "strict railway protocol" - though I didn't see too much wrong on the Blissfield layout. I think it's similar to many club layouts at exhibitions in the UK, which will also have a mix-up of rolling stock, and not much in the way of 'strict' operations. They'll also have some entertaining derailments too, although the "head-on" on the Redford layout was a new one to me. Not surprising though as again it seemed to be a 'run what you like' Open Day, so a bit chaotic anyway.

On a privately owned basement empire, with a properly organised operating session and well-briefed crews, the standard of operation will be far higher. As is likely to be the standard of scenery and accuracy of train formations as well.

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Only just seen this thread.  

 

If you want to know what constitutes a big layout ask an exhibition manager.

 

They are most likely to be the ones that cost the most with the biggest vans and numerous operators to accommodate and feed.

 

When the exhibition team create the floor plan with that big drawing of the exhibition hall and tack on layout shaped bits of paper, they will start with these big layouts, they usually want them to be prominent  and their  size command the shape of the island(s) everything else can fit around them.

 

Sweeping generalisms there, I know.

 

Andy

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On 02/10/2020 at 22:20, F-UnitMad said:

Club layout, public open day - I'm not surprised they didn't run to "strict railway protocol" - though I didn't see too much wrong on the Blissfield layout. I think it's similar to many club layouts at exhibitions in the UK, which will also have a mix-up of rolling stock, and not much in the way of 'strict' operations. They'll also have some entertaining derailments too, although the "head-on" on the Redford layout was a new one to me. Not surprising though as again it seemed to be a 'run what you like' Open Day, so a bit chaotic anyway.

On a privately owned basement empire, with a properly organised operating session and well-briefed crews, the standard of operation will be far higher. As is likely to be the standard of scenery and accuracy of train formations as well.

On the Retford layout you may have noticed the large hoardings on the sides of the freight wagons. Those are businesses that sponsor the railway and the hoardings are temporarily fixed to the sides as a thank you to all the businesses and it gives them free advertising in return. According to one member there timetable running nights are taken much more seriously and what we see in the video is an open day for the general public when a lot of trains are run simply for visual effect.

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