Biggest space with the least track

[SR71]

When setting out on a new project I think we are all guilty of trying to cram in as much as we can. When looking at a map a railway is really just a tiny thread running across the landscape though.

 

Reading some of the threads for the big layouts in development got me wondering; what's the largest layout with the least track plan that's actually been built?

 

I recall an end to end southern halt/loop and level crossing that, while the track was in a straight line, must have been a meter or so deep. Someone must be able to beat that though?

[Dunalastair]

Was there not a tunnel layout with only a ventilation shaft on a hillside?

 

Edit : Or was that apocryphal?

Edited July 13, 2023 by Dunalastair

[bazjones1711]

We have started to build a layout based on the coil unloading sidings at Tinsley , it’s 8 ft x 18 “ with just one line of Peco bullhead track . Trains of around six wagons will reverse in and coils unloaded via a working overhead crane .

[Pete the Elaner]

19 minutes ago, SR71 said:

When setting out on a new project I think we are all guilty of trying to cram in as much as we can. When looking at a map a railway is really just a tiny thread running across the landscape though.

 

 

The term I frequently use is 'compression' & I try to minimise it as much as possible.

The trouble is that this takes many interesting features away.

[JohnR]

Chiltern Green was always a good example of this. 

[woodenhead]

19 minutes ago, bazjones1711 said:

We have started to build a layout based on the coil unloading sidings at Tinsley , it’s 8 ft x 18 “ with just one line of Peco bullhead track . Trains of around six wagons will reverse in and coils unloaded via a working overhead crane .

 

Club Team: "We're doing Tinsley"

Rest of Club: "Wow, can't wait to see it, that's going to be massive we'll need to make space in the clubrooms"

Club Team:  "It's the coil unloading facility, we've a few yards of Bullhead to lay and we're done, don't even need any points"

 

Club Bodger puts down the hacksaw he's just used to saw halfway through an 08 he'd eagerly begun to convert into a slave unit for the first of three class 13s he'd thought he'd have to build after hearing the word 'doing Tinsley'. 🤣

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by woodenhead

[Fishoutofwater]

Pendon springs to mind.

[MattR]

My first thought was Hills of the North - Spirit of Shap. It's 35 feet long, not sure the width.

Edited July 13, 2023 by MattR

[Nearholmer]

This may be the ultimate. It certainly has less track per unit area than any other layout I’ve seen.

 

 

 

 

[SR71]

3 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

The term I frequently use is 'compression' & I try to minimise it as much as possible.

The trouble is that this takes many interesting features away.

That would be very kind to my efforts when I revisit them you can usually delete 50%

[Flying Pig]

Barry Norman's Petherick struck me with its depth when I first saw it crammed into a small chamber in the de Grey Rooms.  

[The Stationmaster]

5 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

Was there not a tunnel layout with only a ventilation shaft on a hillside?

 

Edit : Or was that apocryphal?

I built a module like that for teh modular layout at SWAG.  4ft long module witha tunnel mouth a few inches from each end and teh rest in tunnel.  However there was hole in teh side where you could see the railway crossing overa waterv course ab nd I later addeda. small shunting layout on the top of the hill over the tunnel.

[AndyB]

One N gauge line going round a fair chunk of my garage with a BLT was of that ilk; featured in April's Railway Modeller. 

Mostly scenery with a bit of track. 

I think it was about 18' of track from FY to station throat. Baseboards were about 18" deep. 

[Trevellan]

17 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I built a module like that for the modular layout at SWAG.  4ft long module with a tunnel mouth a few inches from each end and the rest in tunnel.  However there was hole in the side where you could see the railway crossing over a water course and I later added a small shunting layout on the top of the hill over the tunnel.

And very novel it was too...

[Dave Hunt]

The MMRS Chee Tor in 2mm fs was a large amount of Peak District scenery and a railway running through it.

 

Dave

[DCB]

I remember a fully scenic 12  X 8 with no track or trains at all,  I think it was based on the battle of Waterloo.  is that the ultimate or is that a different hobby?  

[Wheatley]

"Morfa" by Neil of this parish was a long single track which seemed to take up most of a small chapel. 

[Nearholmer]

54 minutes ago, DCB said:

I remember a fully scenic 12  X 8 with no track or trains at all,  I think it was based on the battle of Waterloo.  is that the ultimate or is that a different hobby?  

Hmmm …….. sounds like the model lacked important details.

 

Look carefully at this postcard, and you will see what I mean.

 

 

The line was part of the vicuñas system, and it was rather ahead of its time (which wasn’t 1815), because it was worked from 1911 by hybrid petrol-electric railcars, which used a dynamotor to feed energy into a battery when going downhill and when braking, then drew power from that battery to supplement that of the petrol engine when accelerating or climbing (which actually wasn’t a new idea, even then).

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by Nearholmer

[woodenhead]

32 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

"Morfa" by Neil of this parish was a long single track which seemed to take up most of a small chapel. 

But it was oh so evocative...

[DavidB-AU]

Here's an interesting one, not much track but the rest isn't just open countryside. It's still just an oval of track with only one train length visible but the focus of the layout is the above ground scenery based on Turnpike Lane. My photos don't really do justice to  the magnificent model of the Charles Holden station.

 

 

 

[SirBud]

There doesn't get a much larger space around a track than this:

Nullabor Plain, Australia

[JohnR]

49 minutes ago, SirBud said:

There doesn't get a much larger space around a track than this:

Nullabor Plain, Australia

 

Was there not an April Fool in Railway Modeller in the 80s based around that? 

[Nearholmer]

It’s surprising how long people have been thinking of ‘grand scenery, barely any track’ layouts. I’ve got a copy of an MRN or MRC magazine from 1938, in which a typically pen-named author provides rationale and a plan for a room-filler in 4mm scale that consists of nothing but a halt and one siding, set high up in the heads of the SW valleys, with a hidden FY. It’s an incredibly radical idea for the time, when 0 gauge spaghetti bowls were more normal, and it wouldn’t look out of place as an MRJ article nowadays.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

21 hours ago, SR71 said:

When looking at a map a railway is really just a tiny thread running across the landscape though.

Except for those parts where the tiny threads are woven into a patch of as much track as possible in a confined space.

 

What would be truly impressive is a layout displaying both.

[SR71]

36 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Except for those parts where the tiny threads are woven into a patch of as much track as possible in a confined space.

 

What would be truly impressive is a layout displaying both.

That's the dream. Barn(s) with a large terminus at one end. A long run to a return loop & fiddle yard and somewhere to keep the extensive range of classic cars on route in-between. Seeing trains go by as you fettle the cars or have the staff do the cars if you feel like running the trains instead.