What type of layout for 12X9?

[Gary H]

What type of layout should I be aspiring to with a space of 12 x 9 feet with  central operating 1.76 E.M?

When I say 'type' ,with such a limited space It would  be a little daft hoping to run mainline 10 coach passenger trains with a circa 8 coach length platform!

I'm thinking at the moment of a BLT during the transition period with maybe an added continuous run with a scenic block to hide a fiddle yard on the other side.

This could be a new layout that hasn't even been scribbled on the back of a note pad as yet but I'm hoping to avoid previous mistakes and looking for idea's!

[DCB]

If you want 10 coach trains in 12 X 9 maybe use N gauge.   7 or 8 coaches on 12 X 9 and 00 should be OK, lets face it most branch line termini are great sprawling things while town stations are quite compact. Certainly with well over 30 feet of track 7 coach trains, around 8 feet long should be well within your grasp.   I can run 6 coach trains on my incomplete 54" X 76" double bed size layout.

 

Dig out CJ Freezers 60 plans for small railways, or plans for larger layouts and start dreaming. 6X4 layouts expanded to 12 X 9 can be very effective.      Checking out   "Crewlisle"(?) on this forum could prove inspirational.

 

The dreaded BLT is great as a diorama but tedious in the extreme to operate, Basically most never saw more than one engine at a time, so it looks mildly Thomas the tank engine like with three trains and a station pilot crammed in.

 

OK Kingsbridge saw 2 engines at a time but it was rare, unless you pick a very big one like Kingswear or Ilfracombe which is sort of self defeating.

 

I operate a 10 or so foot long BLT on a friends layout but it has 20 feet of plain track available as a headshunt so is fun pulling out great rafts of wagons with a straining pannier tank, but you can't squeeze that into 12X9 without a 180 bend.

 

I would go for a medium size double track suburban or town station with cramped goods yard, Teignmouth.   And reverse some trains there a la Cheltenham LMS.. Cheltenham had a Turntable and carriage sidings but only two through platforms and one departures bay.

 

If you want Branch line I would suggest you model a through station if you have room.  Plenty of intermediate branch stations had trains turn back short of the terminus, both passenger and goods.  Personally I tend to set a train or two running and watch it intermittently while working on something on the bench.

 

If I was starting again  would go for a completely fictitious railway company with fictitious liveries etc.   That way no one could tell me the colour was wrong, it had the wrong rivets and the wrong number.  And it would be 4 foot 1 " gauge.....

[Pete the Elaner]

What type of layout should I be aspiring to with a space of 12 x 9 feet with  central operating 1.76 E.M?

When I say 'type' ,with such a limited space It would  be a little daft hoping to run mainline 10 coach passenger trains with a circa 8 coach length platform!

It can be done & it can look authentic. Railways are squeezed into locations in cities.

I never thought WCML would be possible but I have a 6 track section of it in OO at home. The layout is 15' x 8' but the scenic section is only 7.5' x 3.5'. It is a scale replica of a real location with only a few very slight compromises. Getting 6 tracks round into a fiddle yard was the biggest challenge.

 

Other people's layouts are not the best thing to replicate. Ultimately we are all trying to model the real thing so why not look there for ideas?

 

IMO you approaching this the wrong way. What stock have you got or would you like to run?

[Guest bri.s]

What type of layout should I be aspiring to with a space of 12 x 9 feet with central operating 1.76 E.M?

When I say 'type' ,with such a limited space It would be a little daft hoping to run mainline 10 coach passenger trains with a circa 8 coach length platform!

I'm thinking at the moment of a BLT during the transition period with maybe an added continuous run with a scenic block to hide a fiddle yard on the other side.

This could be a new layout that hasn't even been scribbled on the back of a note pad as yet but I'm hoping to avoid previous mistakes and looking for idea's!

You don't need to model all the platforms length just part of them make the rest off scene

 

Brian

[Gary H]

If you want 10 coach trains in 12 X 9 maybe use N gauge.   7 or 8 coaches on 12 X 9 and 00 should be OK, lets face it most branch line termini are great sprawling things while town stations are quite compact. Certainly with well over 30 feet of track 7 coach trains, around 8 feet long should be well within your grasp.   I can run 6 coach trains on my incomplete 54" X 76" double bed size layout.

 

Dig out CJ Freezers 60 plans for small railways, or plans for larger layouts and start dreaming. 6X4 layouts expanded to 12 X 9 can be very effective.      Checking out   "Crewlisle"(?) on this forum could prove inspirational.

 

The dreaded BLT is great as a diorama but tedious in the extreme to operate, Basically most never saw more than one engine at a time, so it looks mildly Thomas the tank engine like with three trains and a station pilot crammed in.

 

OK Kingsbridge saw 2 engines at a time but it was rare, unless you pick a very big one like Kingswear or Ilfracombe which is sort of self defeating.

 

I operate a 10 or so foot long BLT on a friends layout but it has 20 feet of plain track available as a headshunt so is fun pulling out great rafts of wagons with a straining pannier tank, but you can't squeeze that into 12X9 without a 180 bend.

 

I would go for a medium size double track suburban or town station with cramped goods yard, Teignmouth.   And reverse some trains there a la Cheltenham LMS.. Cheltenham had a Turntable and carriage sidings but only two through platforms and one departures bay.

 

If you want Branch line I would suggest you model a through station if you have room.  Plenty of intermediate branch stations had trains turn back short of the terminus, both passenger and goods.  Personally I tend to set a train or two running and watch it intermittently while working on something on the bench.

 

If I was starting again  would go for a completely fictitious railway company with fictitious liveries etc.   That way no one could tell me the colour was wrong, it had the wrong rivets and the wrong number.  And it would be 4 foot 1 " gauge.....

That sounds more like it! Point taken about the BLT, in hindsite it will get old quickly .

Thankyou for the idea's.

[Gary H]

It can be done & it can look authentic. Railways are squeezed into locations in cities.

I never thought WCML would be possible but I have a 6 track section of it in OO at home. The layout is 15' x 8' but the scenic section is only 7.5' x 3.5'. It is a scale replica of a real location with only a few very slight compromises. Getting 6 tracks round into a fiddle yard was the biggest challenge.

 

Other people's layouts are not the best thing to replicate. Ultimately we are all trying to model the real thing so why not look there for ideas?

 

IMO you approaching this the wrong way. What stock have you got or would you like to run?

Very little at the moment in UK outline atleast. I still have an H0 American based layout occupying the space that is now 10 years old and that I feel has run its course which has got me thinking about something else.

I used to have a UK E.M gauge layout before the American one so its second time lucky, maybe! The old one had many shortcomings that I would like to avoid second time around.

I'm thinking 1960's transition era diesels ideally .

You don't need to model all the platforms length just part of them make the rest off scene

 

Brian

 

Indeed, that would work OK and is a good idea!

[Nearholmer]

This may, at first reading, appear a mad suggestion, but 0 scale is readily do-able in that space, even as a continuous run.

 

If you adopted finescale track standards, you would have to limit yourself to small prototypes, but if you adopted coarse standards, you could run medium sized things (in fact you could run big locos, but they would look a bit odd).

 

0 scale has a lot to recommend it and, contrary to what some might suggest, it need be no more expensive for the same area of layout as 00.

 

If you are used to 00, think about what you could fit in say 7ft x 5ft in that scale, to get a rough idea of what could be done with 0 in your area.

 

A lot depends on what "floats your boat".

 

Kevin

[Crewlisle]

 

Thanks for the complement (DavidCBroad, Comment 2).  The following comments appeared in this forum about 2 months ago when someone asked a similar question for a 10ft x 8ft space.  And you are only thinking of a branch line terminus?  With 3ft 6ins more than me in length & 1ft 6ins in width you could do the same with easier curves.  My minimum radii are second radius (mainly in the tunnels) & the maximum is 7ft radius on the through station.

 

With reference to the track plan above, ‘Crewlisle’ is a DCC exhibition layout where I have managed to include three interconnected levels with hidden crossovers under the high level so that trains can exit the reversing loop/cassettes from any direction.  On the high level there is a 4 platform terminus for 6 coach expresses, steam shed, turntable, diesel shed, shunting/marshalling yard; on the mid level there is a double track mainline with OLE representing the WCML between 1955 & 1985 with suitable locos & stock; the lower level being the reversing loop.  And all in 8ft 6ins x 7ft 6ins or in other words ‘a quart in a pint pot!’.

 

 I run a total of 52 locos (steam, diesels, AC electrics, Blue Pullman, HST, APT & ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’), 65 coaches/parcel coaches & 120 wagons with no fiddle yard!  I have fourteen 4ft 6ins long cassettes which form part of the reversing loop on the inside of the central operating well.  I have two longer ones for storing my Blue Pullman, HST or 6 coach express.  These can only be accessed from one end with the other end resting on top of the tracks under the right hand baseboard.  The shorter cassettes are replenished from the stock boxes as required.  It is not super detailed or prototypical but over the years has been continually improved.  I run a minimum of two & sometimes as many as four trains simultaneously.   It was built to entertain & for that reason has been exhibited at the NEC five times (last one in 2015) & Alexandra Palace for the second time in 2017.  A regular comment is "It is nice to see something moving!".  There are photos & videos on Google & You Tube.

 

Forget the modern planning tools; I did it the old fashioned way using Peco point templates & aligning the curves by eye.  I placed the templates where I wanted them then carefully aligned the curves & adjusted the templates as required.  As they say in the ship repair/building industry, ‘If a curve looks right it is right!’  Before I started 40 years ago I decided what I wanted from my train spotting days in the fifties.  That was a terminus, steam shed, diesel shed, turntable, goods yard, WCML with OLE, semaphores on high level, colour light signals on the WCML & a reversing loop.  I think I have achieved my ambition & I could never break it up & build a different one.

 

PS:  The short bottom baseboard is hinged for access to the airing cupboard & the gap at the bottom RHS of the plan is not a mistake in converting from imperial to metric.  It is so the bedroom door can open!

 

Peter