Can a highly detailed simple oval layout be satisfying?


I am afraid that the answers you will get from others, including me, will be no more illuminating than answering what is your preference for art, music and food. Some of the questions you need to answer...for yourself...are: How large a space do you have? 4' x 8', 2' x 4'. Have you decided on a scale? N-scale can offer about twice the amount of layout for a given space than HO. But do you want to go that small? Age and eyesight may influence that choice. Do you have a lot of rolling stock already that you'd like to keep, thus "locking in" your choice. (I have been in HO scale for the last 65 years, and still have assembled locomotives and rolling stock that I didn't want to get rid of when I started my current (last?) layout in a 14' x 14' dedicated room. Although my eyesight is good...after cataract operations, and with reading glasses, and my hands steady, I wouldn't want to try going to N-scale from HO.)

What era do you want to portray? Transition from steam to diesel? Modern? What railroad do you want to model, or just freelance? Do you intend to invite friends or children/grandchildren, etc? Do you want to run passenger trains, which can tend to be longer, or freight, or both?

You can add passing sidings, stub end sidings to a "simple oval" that can make things interesting.

Scenery and buildings can be an artform in itself, even if you only run an occasional train on the main oval, or do some occasional switching.,

There are a number of books showing layouts that you should look at before deciding on what you want to do. Be sure to ask any questions here on the Forum.

Best of luck!
 
Trailrider is spot on:

What you put into your oval is what you will enjoy.

Do you want to just run trains? A simple oval with no scenery will get fairly boring after a few short minutes.

But there is an art form to creating a beautiful layout, no matter how small. Take a look at Jim (HOExplorer)'s 10-year-long thread on making a bunch of layouts (PInnacle Creek Mining Company if I remember right). Jim teaches a master class on scenery and layout aesthetics in that long long long thread.

For Jim, his passion was all about doing and making. He'd keep the layout for a month or two, tear it out, and start a new one. Because his passion was in the making.

Your layout will be about your passion, no matter how small.

Oh, and Jim got his start in MRRing by building Z-scale on his sailboat. Size doesn't matter if you pursue your passion.
 
If you examine most 4X8 layouts they are essentially a oval layout with a few spurs and maybe a yard. An oval doesn't have to be an oval, but it can have some bends and curves to take it from a round shape to a twisted oval form.

1654106534145.png

Track plan design by unknown.-Greg

Greg
 
My first layout was a 4 x 8 oval with a siding and a couple spurs. I used Bachmann ez track and had it affixed with silicone caulk. I spent a couple years making scenery and buildings. Everything was glued down and it could be turned sideways without falling apart.

It was portable that way. After two moves, I advertised it in the local paper and got $200 for it! It was ho scale.

Not a lot of money, but at the time was enough to cover the cost of benchwork materials for the next layout!!
 
A very small layout would lend itself to very detailed scenery. The larger ya go, the less scenery per square foot you're likely to detail.
Most layouts are a 4x8 sheet of plywood which remains plywood world for a long time. It typically gets track heavy as the owner looks for every square inch to run rail. Ballast is usually the first venture into detailing followed by paper mache hills to hide incline blocks. Electronics are more likely to find their way onto a DCC layout over DC layouts which are usually taken over by the kids and operated as demolition derbys until they move on to computer games. The DC layout becomes a work bench and catch all storage area until it's hauled off to the landfill or cut up for plywood shelves.
 
Can it be satisfying 'enough'...? Depends, as several have thoughtfully replied already. What do you 'need out of your results?' If you just like running a train around in a loop, and enjoy some reasonably varied terrain, industries, some urban scenery, a tunnel or two, a bridge.....the sky's the limit there, even on a 4X8 sheet of ply. Enough could just be the loop and enjoying a toy train of any description running around it. I have done that between layouts. It was enough.

I think most of us know to endure what we must in the way of limits, including in imagination and skills. Our brains can fill in what's missing. I have gotten to where a loop on a sheet of ply would be a couple of steps back, but only because my circumstances changed and I was able to capitalize. And did.

A sheet of ply really constrains one, especially if they're new, to a loop of a kind and maybe a passing siding and an industrial spur or two. I'm talking in HO and larger scales. If I were really tight for space and could only have a loop, and had my current knowledge, I would relegate my time to detailing and refining the scenery to improve realism. I loop is a loop, even with some small spurs. The delight, for me, would have to come in the more creative side of the hobby, and that would be in the scenery and structures, including their placements.
 
homersimpsonlikestrains said:
I don’t have a lot of space for a large layout. Can a simple oval shaped layout that is highly detailed be satisfying enough to not be boring or should the layout be as large as possible?
Click to expand...
Larger isn’t necessarily more entertaining. I’m building a smaller layout (21.5” x 35.5”) and it’s been quite fun to build/operate.

I myself love simpler and more detailed layouts. It’s all about what really captures your interest as a modeler.
 
Depends what YOU like. Nothing says a small layout has to be an oval. If I had a small layout it would be a switching layout, zero continuous running, just switching industries. I might like that, you might hate that. You might want a small oval and be happy as a clam, while I would be bored to tears.

Good news is you can build what interests you. And if you don't like what you built, you can raze it and start over.
 
Does the 4x8 have to remain a full sheet of plywood? You could look at different ways of cutting it to fit your space better. What about a L shape of 2' wide? One leg would leave 6' on one leg with 10' on the other. I model in N scale and prefer switching more.
 
Here are some observations on the layout pictured. Huge engine facilities are enormous space hogs. You have an engine facility inside a loop, instead of a railroad. Lose the engine facilities, you are probably really just using it as a display for your engines. Buy a shelf and put it on the wall as a display. Buy some stepped spice racks and use those to display engines.

First move the layout about 2 ft away from the back wall so you get behind it. Or cut off the corners on one end, to make two 2x2 triangles, then attach them on the other end to make a diamond shape that will fit in the corner. Stick one of the pointed ends in the corner of the room and let the layout stick out at a 45 degr angle into the room.

Next put a divider down the middle of the layout. Something 16-24" high would be good, but even 12" would help, and then make 2 scenes, one on each side of the backdrop divider. In one fell swoop you have essentially doubled the size of your layout. If your layout isn't double track, then put a passing siding/runaround /double ended track on both sides.

Those simple steps will give you more than just a 4x8 and allow operation yet still keep the continuous running option.
 
homersimpsonlikestrains said:
I don’t have a lot of space for a large layout. Can a simple oval shaped layout that is highly detailed be satisfying enough to not be boring or should the layout be as large as possible?
Click to expand...
Yeah well, that depends on several things including your imagination, AND your Imag-ination.

One has to imagine how to operate a simple oval in interesting ways. Making perfect starts and stops without lurching or jerking without using the momentum feature of the throttle and then again with it. Calculate the distance and then try to put on 10 scale miles in exactly 15 minutes (once again with no sudden unprototypical surging or slamming on the brakes.). Go for 20 scale miles. Put two trains on with different operating characteristics (one creeps better and one goes fast better) keep them from catching one another by utilizing the throttle. etc. I had a simple loop on a flat table that I spent a few weeks with doing this sort of thing before I got a bit tired of it.

Then how many things can you image in your brain. How hard is it for you to imagine that each loop of the track the train is arriving in a different destination? That the country side is different each loop. Who lives in this town and what industries are needing service by the railroad..... The more imagination one has the longer a simple oval will serve.

Of course a single switch with a single siding will add SOOO much.
 
Last edited:
You can take a 4x8, add a narrow L-shaped extension to one side (for a freight yard), add some switches for industries, and have a functional freight railroad.

Do a search on "black river junction" (an MR plan). I modified that by making the L-extension about 6" wider, and adding a more functional "yard".

I can have 2-3 engines running at once (road train, industrial switcher, transfer job). Easy to do on an Android tablet running the Roco z21 software, with two control cabs set up side-by-side.

A simple oval?
I'd get bored with that, quickly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top