Possible layout and questions


oplholik

oplholik

Member
Attached is what I have come up with after several tries. Maybe some of you more experienced can see flaws here, and things to change. This is N scale on a 46" X 80" board. I have set some 11" radius track here and there to give an idea of the curves. I want to be able to run 6 axle diesels pulling mixed freight probably. The section of scenery this will depict will be like foothills maybe something you would see with 3000-4500' elevation. For those of you familiar, the Cahon Pass in Southern Calif. Just a train winding thru the hills. There will be small buildings here and there, maybe a small mining operation. I want to keep the tunneling at a minimum. Got to decide if this is going to work for me before I tack it down permanetly. So any comments, criticism, suggestions, I would appreciate. Thanks.

Paul
 
I think your radius might be a bit of a strech. I would be safe at about 14 inches. Other than that I don't see much wrong.
 
There are two issues that you will have to deal with somewhere down the line.

1) What you have is basically a loop with nothing to do except watch your train go around and around. Eventually you will tire of this. It is essentially a very expensive toy train (as opposed to a model railroad). In short, this railroad will not grow with you as you grow into the hobby.

2) Your tracks are pretty close to one another for your vertical separations. One of the ways that people make railroads more enjoyable is by making the scenery look really good. However, you leave very little room between you highs and lows to make plausible scenery transitions. You will be stuck with cliffs and retaining walls throughout most of your layout between the elevation changes.
 
SpaceMouse said:
There are two issues that you will have to deal with somewhere down the line.

1) What you have is basically a loop with nothing to do except watch your train go around and around. Eventually you will tire of this. It is essentially a very expensive toy train (as opposed to a model railroad). In short, this railroad will not grow with you as you grow into the hobby.

2) Your tracks are pretty close to one another for your vertical separations. One of the ways that people make railroads more enjoyable is by making the scenery look really good. However, you leave very little room between you highs and lows to make plausible scenery transitions. You will be stuck with cliffs and retaining walls throughout most of your layout between the elevation changes.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments. After posting this I thought maybe I ought to try and simplify the layout some, maybe reduce the inclines and doing more of an oval, opening up some room for something, maybe a small town. Well, back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with.

Paul
 
As Chip siad, the major problem I see is that you have the train run up a relatively short grade and then spend a lot of time at high altitude. You need something convincing to show what the train is running on and your plan doesn't allow the kind of tall mountains with the track between, just like see on the Cajon Pass. I'd rework the plan so the train worked up a very gentle grade with enough space surrounding the tracks to add the mountins you need to complete the scene. Think of how the tracks run from San Bernardino to Summit and try to reproduce that look and feel without using a figure eight or a plain loop.
 
UP2CSX said:
As Chip siad, the major problem I see is that you have the train run up a relatively short grade and then spend a lot of time at high altitude. You need something convincing to show what the train is running on and your plan doesn't allow the kind of tall mountains with the track between, just like see on the Cajon Pass. I'd rework the plan so the train worked up a very gentle grade with enough space surrounding the tracks to add the mountins you need to complete the scene. Think of how the tracks run from San Bernardino to Summit and try to reproduce that look and feel without using a figure eight or a plain loop.
Click to expand...

Thanks, yeh, agree, need to get simplier and do away with the higher evelations of the track. All my other three layouts over the years have just been an oval on a flat board. Want a little different this time. My last layout was about 25 years ago.

Paul
 
What are you trying to get out of your layout (something to watch, operations, switching)?

I made a mountain layout that was built for watching. I got tired of just sitting and watching it, I wanted to do something more. I kept changing trains out every fifteen minutes so I would have something new to watch. I didn't have a staging yard implemented, so I had to tear the whole train down every time. I am starting renovations to add a hidden staging yard, and right above that will be some new industries, and hopefully a lot of switching opportunity.

You can still do a lot with what you have there. It's tough having the 4" risers in N Scale, but a friend of mine and I designed him a layout that had such. The problem is, by the time you get to the top of the grade, you've run out of room and the train needs to get back down again. What I might suggest to you, make two separate tracks, have one train fly high on some cliffs and bridges; and have the other line run low...ducking in and out of tunnels, and run along streams. A mountain will also open up the opportunity to hide some staging tracks underneath to park trains.

Keep in mind that you want every aspect of a 4x8 to be appealing. You are short on space, so pack in the little details, and throw in some breathtaking scenes. It will keep you interest, and will be a big step up from...the oval.
 
AyTrane said:
What are you trying to get out of your layout (something to watch, operations, switching)?

I made a mountain layout that was built for watching. I got tired of just sitting and watching it, I wanted to do something more. I kept changing trains out every fifteen minutes so I would have something new to watch. I didn't have a staging yard implemented, so I had to tear the whole train down every time. I am starting renovations to add a hidden staging yard, and right above that will be some new industries, and hopefully a lot of switching opportunity.

You can still do a lot with what you have there. It's tough having the 4" risers in N Scale, but a friend of mine and I designed him a layout that had such. The problem is, by the time you get to the top of the grade, you've run out of room and the train needs to get back down again. What I might suggest to you, make two separate tracks, have one train fly high on some cliffs and bridges; and have the other line run low...ducking in and out of tunnels, and run along streams. A mountain will also open up the opportunity to hide some staging tracks underneath to park trains.

Keep in mind that you want every aspect of a 4x8 to be appealing. You are short on space, so pack in the little details, and throw in some breathtaking scenes. It will keep you interest, and will be a big step up from...the oval.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I guess what I was after was more of something to watch, a train wandering thru the hills, with hopefully some interesting scenery. One train will be enough for me, considering the cost of locomotives. I will get back to the drawing board, maybe with something using a half of an incline set to incline to 2" and not having a cross over. I am more into building scenery than I am running the trains, at this point anyway. So, I will see what else I can come up with. This is really taxing my imangitive ability. :)

Paul
 
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