HO lay out Design. Please give feed back


G

GeoGeorge

New Member
Ok working on my layout design.

The last HO layout i messed with was 50 years ago as a kid. The last trains i messed with where G scale and that was 15 years ago.

purpose for the layout
1) my own fun. I like to rail fan my layout. so trains running without me having to do anything but sit back and enjoy is big.
2) light Ops. maybe 2 or 3 friends over to do some ops drink a few beers and fix the world. lol. Im not a big Opes person as i have not done much of it at all.

Its a free style layout, will have a mix of Steam and Diesel. I live in St. Louis so i tent to like things like UP, TRRA, KCS, MoPac as my power as it all have ties to what i see and grew up with. the yards and business will all be after stuff around me. Will have mountains and tunnels on the layout and they are figured into the layout designs. I like the idea of two main lines but i also like the design i did with only one main and lots of passing tacks.

I hope that is enough info for everyone to give me useful feed back on what you think.
 

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GeoGeorge said:
Ok working on my layout design.

purpose for the layout
1) my own fun. I like to rail fan my layout. so trains running without me having to do anything but sit back and enjoy is big.
Click to expand...
Basically you have folded dogbone loops. Can one get to the outside of this, or am I right in assuming this an around the room with walls on three sides? If so, other than looking back to the bridges between the tunnels, or through the scenery, one is only going to get to see one side of a running train. For a better viewing experience I would flip one of the ends of the bone so there would be a run where one got to see the "other side" of the train up close. With only one track main line in the one design (yellow background) this would be easier to do. Or perhaps put a reversing loop in somewhere to simply reverse the train on the more viewable tracks.

If one goes with a single track mainline with passing sidings it is not possible to just sit back and watch the trains without extensive automation do do the meets on the sidings.

On both plans I see a whole lot of straight track which is parallel to the straight edges of the layout space. I would attempt to tilt some of it to be not parallel or maybe even not straight but long gentile sweeping almost straight. Looking at the industrial area on the center isle, it seems a lot could be done there to reduce the parallel syndrome.

Finally, the one with passing sidings has one huge long run between sidings. That is from going around the roundhouse, one has to go around the entire perimeter of the space before a passing siding is found. Then boom boom there are two. Little bit longer space, then boom boom two more. Trains will always be backed up waiting to use that first one long section.
 
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Iron Horseman said:
Basically you have folded dogbone loops. Can one get to the outside of this, or am I right in assuming this an around the room with walls on three sides? If so, other than looking back to the bridges between the tunnels, or through the scenery, one is only going to get to see one side of a running train. For a better viewing experience I would flip one of the ends of the bone so there would be a run where one got to see the "other side" of the train up close. With only one track main line in the one design (yellow background) this would be easier to do. Or perhaps put a reversing loop in somewhere to simply reverse the train on the more viewable tracks.

If one goes with a single track mainline with passing sidings it is not possible to just sit back and watch the trains without extensive automation do do the meets on the sidings.

On both plans I see a whole lot of straight track which is parallel to the straight edges of the layout space. I would attempt to tilt some of it to be not parallel or maybe even not straight but long gentile sweeping almost straight. Looking at the industrial area on the center isle, it seems a lot could be done there to reduce the parallel syndrome.

Finally, the one with passing sidings has one huge long run between sidings. That is from going around the roundhouse, one has to go around the entire perimeter of the space before a passing siding is found. Then boom boom there are two. Little bit longer space, then boom boom two more. Trains will always be backed up waiting to use that first one long section.
Click to expand...

Its gong to be built in my garage and there is a 3 foot area around three sides of the layout, only the area with the mountains will be up against a wall.

i will mess around with your other suggestions and see what i can come up with. thanks for taking the time to give me your feed back on this.
 
On your 1st layout I really like the double main line. Wish I had done that, but one thing to consider is that your train will be needing to travel in opposite directions to back into the sidings. Might be a logistical nightmare running ops sessions.
 
I do not give advice on track plans. What could be ideal for you may well be a nightmare to me.

I do say, have things on the layout that must be there, not what you think should be there.
Have a comfortable layout to operate; with easy access everywhere.
Dare to be different. Have something on the layout that is seen in real life, yet rarely modelled.
Look at real life. See what you see and not what you thought you saw. Nature throws up surprises. Man-made is not always perfect.

Have fun. Keep it fun and it rewards a thousand fold.
 
If rail fanning is your main interest, I'd recommend going with the 2 mainlines as per plan 5b. You can have 2 trains running at the same time, and not have to do anything while sitting back and enjoy watching them. 👍

Also, if built as shown, looks to me like you have the opportunity for anywhere between light operations to fairly heavy-duty ops if so desired. Therefore, I don't think you'd be hurting in that department, either. ;)
 
Mixed Freight said:
If rail fanning is your main interest, I'd recommend going with the 2 mainlines as per plan 5b. You can have 2 trains running at the same time, and not have to do anything while sitting back and enjoy watching them. 👍

Also, if built as shown, looks to me like you have the opportunity for anywhere between light operations to fairly heavy-duty ops if so desired. Therefore, I don't think you'd be hurting in that department, either. ;)
Click to expand...
yes rail fanning is number one for me, but being able to have a few friends over to do ops was something i was trying for. I have not done ops other then 1 time before so im very unclear on how a layout should be set up for that. Thanks for taking the time to look it over and give me your feed back on it.
 
Plan 5b has more just plain running opportunities with two loops. If you replaced the yard you have drawn on the left side with several longer double ended tracks that would facilitate storing several "ready to go" trains so you could just run. If you even added half of the spurs on the rest of the layout you would have some opportunity to do some switching.

Plan 6a is simpler in that it is just a dog bone, so you can only run one train at a time without any intervention, probably two or three trains in the same direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) if each has an operator to make sure they don't run into the rear end of the train ahead. You do have one reverse "loop" created because turntable feeds both sides of the dog bone. An auto reversing circuit will handle that easily, or you can eliminate the connection to the main on the front if you want to avoid it all together.
 
ok have taken the feed back that i have gotten and did some small changes to the lay two layouts that i like. never knew just coming up with a track plan was going to be this hard. lol
Thank you all for taking the time to give me useful feed back on all this.
 

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Ok I like 5b mostly for the yard and the two separate lines, great opportunities!
I like 6a because as I mentioned I like single track with trains meeting on sidings, however theres too long a stretch without. Great scenery possibilities tho!
 
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