How to build small model railroad layouts (Kalmbach)

[Alcanman]

Just a heads up. The above publication is now available from your local W H Smiths. Although most of the content has prieviously appeared in MR , still great value at £3.95.

 

Mal

[steve1]

Is it full of their usual 6 x 4s?

 

That said, I shall probably look it out.

 

steve

[F-UnitMad]

Yes, I'd like to see what they define as "small".....

[shortliner]

I got mine last week from my local Newsagent - I have to say that "just for a change, MR has actually produced something readable and not hugely oversized "small" layouts. Maybe they are learning that it doesn't have to fill a basement to be interesting. or worth building!"

Edited January 4, 2015 by shortliner

[Alcanman]

I forgot to include this link http://www.kalmbachstore.com/mr5141101.html

 

Plenty of good ideas to save space, not just layout plans. Lots of Iain Rice stuff I've seen before, but I particulaly liked the small LA 'Patch' ATSF L shaped shelf layout.

 

A good introduction to US Model Railroading for UK modellers thinking of trying US modelling out with a small layout.

[south_tyne]

Thanks for that Mal, looks like an interesting little book. I will have a look out for it in Smiths this week. 

 

David

[F-UnitMad]

Yes, it certainly sounds as if it's worth a look.

[F-UnitMad]

Tried my local (and pretty large) Smiffs today in search of this mag. No sign of it. bah humbug!!!!

[EmporiaSub]

Picked up mine in Smiths in Lancing earlier in the week.

Only got charged £3.50! Seeing as the U.S. price is $7.99.

 

Most articles are repeats that have appeared in MR over the years, but still worth an evening read,

as MR now seem to accept that the vast majority of modellers do not have basement sized areas.

[vaughan45]

Electronic version available on Zinio and also now Model Railroad Planning 2015.

[F-UnitMad]

I got a copy thanks to an RMweb member

 

The best article I thought was also probably the shortest - the one on Team Tracks by our hero, Sir Lance Mindheim

 

Other than that I didn't see a great deal that was specificaly really pertinent to Small layouts, & had to smile at the "MR Stereotypes" - most of it was Transition Era, & the good ol' "Sacred Sheet" still seemed to be much in evidence, even if it was cut about to make some different shapes.

"Small" also seems to mostly equate to "small room" in size terms. Not many Planks or Micros, although at least there's a few.

[DanielB]

I feel Kalmbach needs to do a "micro layouts" book. Nothing over 4' long and 2' wide. That'd get them all confused!

 

Though they'd probably cheat and stick loads of N scale roundy roundy layouts in it!

[DelawareAndHudson]

A few observations:

 

--  Model Railroader/Kalmbach IS an American based and focused magazine/company.......so.....MOST of the articles will reflect that

 

--  "Small" layouts in the US/Canada tends to be larger than "small" layouts in the U.K.  On average, we simply have more space to work with

 

--  Our trains shows aren't based on the "exhibition culture" that I see in the U.K. shows as shared by many of you in pictures here so it is not nearly as common to built a Plank or Micro to take to a show here.  Personally, I think this is unfortunate.  I'd make an effort to attend shows like you have.  I'm bored with the typical American train show.

 

--  The dominant U.S. magazine (Model Railroader) has promoted the "basement filler/garage filler/attic filler" for as long as I can remember.  I've been reading MR since I was 11 years old back in 1985 and big layouts have always been the norm.  They make a big deal when a layout fits into a spare room that's 10'x10' or so.  

 

--  The "Sacred Sheet/4x8" IS a small layout in the U.S.  There is a long and actually logical history to using it.  Every single complete train set (locomotive, cars, caboose, track power pack) I have ever seen in this country comes with an oval or circle of track.  When making that first step from running a train on the living room floor to an actual train layout, most beginners still want to be able to watch trains run.  The oval leaves the floor and migrates to a table.  For a beginner, this is logical, practical, and a very common FIRST layout.  If you've been in the hobby 10, 20, 50 years, you probably look at the Sacred Sheet with disdain.  That's great, you've moved past it.  But don't belittle the beginner.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  The Sacred Sheet still serves a purpose.  While admittedly unwieldy to move, inefficient in it's use of space, and very limiting in track arrangements, the 4x8 is also the most common size of plywood available.  Commonly available = commonly used.  

 

--  Model Railroader has published articles on Planks, Micros and other small non-sacred sheet layouts.  Not every month but they do appear.  I'm the first to admit that often the best of them are actually built by you guys in the U.K. so PLEASE write articles and send them to Model Railroader.  If you want to see more small layouts in MR, then submit YOUR work.  They might publish it.  

 

--  MR is currently running a new "small" layout series.  January-April 2015.  It's an N-scale layout built on a 36"x80" hollow core door.  The hollow core door layout is the "Sacred Sheet" of N scale in the U.S.  It's not a bad little layout.  It has a bit of everything; continuous run mainline with staging for a few trains; freight and passenger operations, a branchline junction with the mainline, some switching, and plenty of room for scenery.  Perfect?  No.  A good compromise for some people?  Yep.  But again, these project layouts aren't typically aimed at someone that has been in the hobby for years and years.  They often start in the January issue for a reason; to inspire the newbie with that Christmas gift train set to make the first leap and hopefully become a life long model railroader.  MR's project layouts aren't intended to be the ultimate lifelong layout.  They are a stepping stone.

 

--  One other major cultural difference that I believe really drives the large layout concept here is the idea that the ONLY way to truly enjoy model railroading is if you are operating on huge layout with a dozen or more people.  Is that the ONLY way to enjoy the hobby?  Of course not, but it has been strongly promoted for 2-3 decades.  If one has the resources to do so, then by all means, have at it.  I don't have the resources so that is not my motivation.

 

 

 

Just some of my thoughts on why many of you feel that MR and Kalmbach aren't catering to the "Plank and Micro" crowd.  Again, PLEASE write and submit articles on your Planks and Micros.  I would really enjoy reading about them.

 

 

Jason Cook

New Haven, IN

[steve1]

Jason,

 

Thanks for that, it was useful to have the US perspective on both the mag and the hobby.

 

If you like reading about micro layouts, then I suggest you have a look at the magazine here, Model Trains International  --> http://contents.mtimag.co.uk/

 

Cheers

 

steve

[F-UnitMad]

Hi Jason, yes thanks for your input. In fact I apologise as my post/reflections on the mag, on re-reading, do come over possibly excessively negative.

The difference in 'perception' of the hobby on either side of The Pond does crop up quite regularly here, & it's generally summed up in the fact that we don't have space for very large layouts here - even Clubs with their own premises are unlikely to fill it with one layout, but more likely to build something transportable for Exhibitions, so in the UK we tend to model a "Place" rather than the US way of modelling a "Route". Thinking in 'Place' terms naturally lends itself to also thinking in small layout terms and how to overcome the limitations that entails.

Edited January 13, 2015 by F-UnitMad

[DelawareAndHudson]

F-UnitMad,

 

 

To be fair, I have no idea what percent of layouts over here are basement fillers.  Even a basement filler can mean an awful lot of things.  One layout I have seen is something along the lines of 35'x55', two levels and in one spot, three levels.  It's HUGE.  It's a pretty accurate rendition of a secondary mainline.  It takes a pretty big crew to operate.  Most definitely a model of a route vs a place.  I think that layout is in the top 10% size wise but by no means the biggest out there.  For all the press dedicated to the huge layouts, I think the more common size is the spare room/one bay garage/partial basement.  100-300 sq ft range.  

 

I think there is a growing interest in modeling a Place instead of attempting to model a large route over here.  James McNab has built a great layout based on a single short branch of the Iowa Interstate Railroad.  You can check it out here:

 

http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/MJMGrimesLine

 

It's also been in several magazines in the past couple of years.  You can probably see a lot of similarities in James' approach to Lance Mindheim.  While not exactly small layouts, they are not huge mainline oriented layouts either.  Fideility to prototype and single crew operation trump multi-train operation.

 

The annual Model Railroad Planning magazine almost always has a single scene/town layout.  A friend of mine built a layout a few years back that was based on a branch.  While it did include a section of a mainline, the junction and the branch were the main focus of the layout.  The mainline was actually just an oval with only 10'-15' exposed, the area around the junction with the branch.  

 

The layouts that currently interest me are ones like Nick Palette's Hallsville, PA layout, Mike Tylick's O-scale Pioneer Valley layout (Sept-Dec 1994 Model Railroader) but done in HO scale on a 24"x80" hollow core door, etc.  Basically things built on one or two modules.  Also drew up a layout that is about 11'x15' and loosely inspired by Nick's Hallsville layout combined with a yard from Ian Rice's Small, Smart & Practical layout book to make a forer NYC line as a Penn Central era branch called the Hallsville Secondary.  It's overlaid with a former Pennsy branch that runs on an embankment/fill above the the Hallsville Secondary.  The Pioneer Valley layout comes first though.  It's smaller and more manageable right now.

 

Jason

[dullsteamer]

The dominant U.S. magazine (Model Railroader) has promoted the "basement filler/garage filler/attic filler" for as long as I can remember.  I've been reading MR since I was 11 years old back in 1985 and big layouts have always been the norm.  They make a big deal when a layout fits into a spare room that's 10'x10' or so.

10' by 10' or so is what I'd regard as an ideal sized space for a layout. It's manageable for one person to build and run, but still has plenty of potential for realistic operation and scenic development.

 

The massive basement-fillers so often seen in MR strike me as being club layouts that just happen to be built in someone's home. Owning one seems more like being a project manager than a railway modeller to me. Fine if you have a good team, but after a day spent managing people at work the last thing I'd want to do is come home to do it some more.

 

On the other hand, so-called planks and micros don't appeal to me either, as I think they don't have much potential for operating or scenery. As nice as some of them undoubtedly are, after a while they all look alike to me.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[DanielB]

I get the feeling that Model Railroader is catering for its 'core customers', and playing it safe by publishing what it always has - good looking 'large' layouts.

 

I subscribe because I find it inspiring, what can be achieved in such spaces.

 

I do feel that Model Railroad Hobbyist is probably a better platform to slowly bring the common US consensus around to the idea of TRULY small layouts, like Shortliner's many offerings.

 

[k-59]

I get the feeling that Model Railroader is catering for its 'core customers', and playing it safe by publishing what it always has - good looking 'large' layouts.

 

I subscribe because I find it inspiring, what can be achieved in such spaces.

 

I do feel that Model Railroad Hobbyist is probably a better platform to slowly bring the common US consensus around to the idea of TRULY small layouts, like Shortliner's many offerings.

 

Really a magazine printing something there readers would like to have but likely will never have is not unusual, and certainly not restricted to MR or even model railroads in general.   

 

My problem with what MR features isn't the size of the layouts, but rather that almost all their plans assume that you will have a train room, and that the only thing this room will be used for is your layout and as such there will be no more creature comforts than room for two men to stand back to back. However, I was pleased to see that this year's MRP featured a number of designs which took other uses of the space into account.

[DelawareAndHudson]

There's shelf layouts, spare room layouts, garage layouts, basement fillers, and then there is THE BARN FILLER.  Found this on Youtube.  Ken McCorry's massive Penn Central layout.  Over 7 minutes of video and I don't think the train ever passed through the same scene twice nor did it do a complete lap around the layout from the comments.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ODnHRbwGVw

 

Here's some pictures of the layout.  Make sure to check out the picture of the real barn.  That's where the layout lives.

 

http://www.phillynmra.org/archives/layout/ken-mccorry-penn-central-central-region-ho

 

Model Railroader ran an article on this layout years ago and considered it possibly the largest private home layout in the world.

 

 

Jason

[F-UnitMad]

If I had that sort of space, money & (presumably) time, I'd stuff model trains and go buy myself a REAL Short Line....

[DanielB]

Really a magazine printing something there readers would like to have but likely will never have is not unusual, and certainly not restricted to MR or even model railroads in general.   

 

Absolutely, or else Top Gear Magazine wouldn't sell at all!

[Barry Ten]

10' by 10' or so is what I'd regard as an ideal sized space for a layout. It's manageable for one person to build and run, but still has plenty of potential for realistic operation and scenic development.

 

 

 

I think they're coming round to this view. In one of the recent issues they said that 12 x 12 or so was about the biggest size one person could comfortably develop on their own in a reasonable time, and that's certainly been my experience.

 

It's a good, flexible space as well. You can squeeze in a lot of railway, or alternatively go for something nicely minimalist and spaced-out.

 

My old layout room in our former house was 14 x 6. I always found the width restrictive, so when we were looking for a new house I stipulated (as one does) that I wouldn't accept anything less than a 20 x 12 railway room. When we finally found the house we liked, though, there was no single room even remotely that large. It didn't matter, as we'd fallen in love with the house, and all of a sudden the trains seemed much less consequential. My wife generously offered me the choice of bedrooms for my train room and I went for the second smallest room, which is 12 x 11. The 14 x 6 layout wouldn't fit in any configuration, but on the other hand it was a larger area overall. And although I expected to fill the room within a couple of years, that's been far from the case. At least for myself, it's pretty close to the idea modelling space. If I'd had a bigger room, I'd have started going down the route of unrealistically big and complex layouts.

[switcher 1]

I seem to be going smaller with my layout plans/ideas as well; even though I 'could' have a 14ft run, I just don't seem to be in a hurry to build an 'empire' any more. My interest has turned to 'micro' & 'nano' sized layout ideas.

[F-UnitMad]

If I'd had a bigger room, I'd have started going down the route of unrealistically big and complex layouts.

 

 

I think that sums up what I'm not keen on Basement Empires - many of them end up as sort of "Trains Everywhere" scenes; quite overcrowded & not very realistic. Of course the same can equally apply to Shunty-planks, with every corner jammed with very short spurs, in the belief that more spurs automatically equals more fun.

The antidote to all that is the modelling & writings of modellers like Lance Mindheim. I am forever looking at the peninsular on his Downtown Spur layout. It measures something like 8' x 2', yet it has just one long spur running down the middle. Now that takes self-discipline, since the 'obvious' thing to do with such a space would be to put more track in it!!!

Edited January 14, 2015 by F-UnitMad