Hi Folks
I have had a request to do a overview of my model train layout, I know it's not real steam related, but I hope you enjoy.
It's been a while since I have done an update/overview of the layout, it is HO and all locos are DCC with sound, (Modern and Steam) not based on any specific location, (freelance) but the majority of US stock and location is BNSF.
Size is 4200 x 2800 mm (13'6'' x 9') Built in a bedroom. I classify this layout as a "City Layout"
So you don't need a large space for lot's of detail and I always run trains at a slow prototypical speed.
Some might notice that the BNSF loco house has moved location and I now have a British section on the Southern end.
Sorry for the camera work, my video camera still does not like poor lighting.
If anybody would like to see any particular feature of the layout please leave a comment. eg crossing gate layout and installation, (technical setup) loco/consist etc.
I can run both British and US trains, Freight/passenger
This layout is not finished, still lots of ballast/detail etc to go and as we all know they change all the time.
Hope you find it informative.
Cheers.
Gary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfUcPvueo3Y
What a wonderful layout!
Thank you for posting the video.
Thank You Gary, for a lovely tour!
It was every bit as spectacular as I'd hoped it would be. You have definitely shoehorned an incredible amount of detail into a very small area, and made it all fit nicely in a logical fashion. Your stable of motive power is highly enviable and the quality of your city scenes are most impressive!
I like the fact that you have managed it all in a rather small room, a true challenge to be sure!!!
Much Appreciated.
That's a great layout with an impressive amount of detail - well done!
I very much agree with everybody else Gary, I love how the steam Loco throws out a plume of smoke with every stroke of the engine, impressive amount of Rolling Stock...I admire this very much 😉👍
Very nice layout, Gary. Thanks for posting!
What a wonderful layout!
Thank you for posting the video.
Thank you for your comment.
Gary
Thank You Gary, for a lovely tour!
It was every bit as spectacular as I'd hoped it would be. You have definitely shoehorned an incredible amount of detail into a very small area, and made it all fit nicely in a logical fashion. Your stable of motive power is highly enviable and the quality of your city scenes are most impressive!
I like the fact that you have managed it all in a rather small room, a true challenge to be sure!!!
Much Appreciated.
Thank you
Yes it was a challenge to fit that amount of track into a small space, lots of change of plans were involved, but I'm only renting a house (although 12 years) and we will be moving soon, so I had to design a layout that could be dismantled and moved so it is actually built on 4 sections that can be removed.
By doing these videos I hope to encourage folks that don't have a lot of room to take up the hobby, one of the advantages of model railroading is you add what you can afford and there is a lot of structure building. (which I like)
Cheers
Gary
I very much agree with everybody else Gary, I love how the steam Loco throws out a plume of smoke with every stroke of the engine, impressive amount of Rolling Stock...I admire this very much 😉👍
Thank you.
I'm glad you liked.
I don't run smoke all the time as I don't know how healthy it is for you, and I even have set of smoke detectors,
but I agree it certainly adds more prototypical running to model trains, especially at slow speeds.
My rolling stock I have collected over many years and allot of stock has been purchased of ebay (used)
Cheers
Gary
I used to have a large (for me) HO layout when I was young & used all my spare funds left over from my paper route to buy Ho train items, have been casting an eye that way again as I have young grandchildren that would love to see trains running (at least that's the excuse I tell Ang) I am gravitating towards steam loco's & have always liked the more complex (bigger) engines.....my question is , do they have any trouble traversing standard radiuses because of their length ? thanks, Bruce
Well Bruce ... it really depends on what you are referring to as a "standard" radius curve. Having worked exclusively in flex track through the two nice group layouts I've been associated with in HO/HOn3 modeling, I'm not sure if there is a fixed "standard" radius for fixed track curves as produced by the major suppliers, but would suppose that if there is, it would likely be around an 18" radius curve.
I know most of my larger locomotives, being brass imports, had trouble handling curves at anything much under 30" radius, and so most of the major curves on our large layouts were designed at a 36" minimum, but I must tell you ... that takes up a lot of space, and even then the larger steam locomotives like my cab-forwards, or other articulateds, just don't look quite right going around anything tighter.
You must also give thought to your turnouts, whether for sidings along the mainline, or more especially in the yards where multiple turnouts come one right after another. The smaller the turnout number, the tighter the radius created, and thus the more difficult it is for larger engines with longer wheelbases to negotiate. Most large engines cannot tolerate the common #4 turnouts, and are even likely to trip up on a #6, especially when laid in series. #8 & #10 turnouts are usually best for longer wheelbase engines and articulateds, but they also eat up a whole lot of room.
BTW: just in case you are unfamiliar with the concept, the switch or turnout number references the ratio of divergence of trackage created by the turnout, such that a #4 turnout is physically much shorter and causes the track to diverge much quicker at a 1:4 ratio, while a #8 turnout is much longer, and causes the tracks to diverge more gently at a 1:8 ratio.
The biggest question is how much space are you willing to devote to this endeavor, and then once that is determined you have your control limits pretty well set concerning the radius of curves and what size turnouts will allow you to fit what length sidings and yards in as well. Then you will be better able to determine what size and kind of motive power would best be suited to the space available. If you choose to design it the other way around, buy deciding what engines you wish to run, how well you want them to perform and appear while running, then you may be in for a rude shock when you find out how much space you are going to need, or worse yet, when you find out that they just don't "fit", nor work reliably, and end up having to downsize your motive power dreams.
Just as an alternative for you to consider that might help keep it all smaller and easier to do. Perhaps give consideration to a small logging or mining railroad, instead of a big class A mainline operation. Smaller and prototypically very slow geared locomotives are specifically designed to handle tight radius curves and tight turnout trackage. Their proper slow speed makes the layout "seem" much larger, whereas to run a mainline operation at scale speed means you need a whole lot of track just to get up to scale speed, and you'll find you are rolling through your whole layout in no time at all. Small industrial switching layouts offer the same advantages as the logging and mining type layouts, and as a bonus, should you ever get connected with a truly large group layout, your smaller setup may well be able to be integrated into the larger layout as well.
Any other info that I can provide, please don't hesitate to let me know, as I do have rather deep experience along this line!
I used to have a large (for me) HO layout when I was young & used all my spare funds left over from my paper route to buy Ho train items, have been casting an eye that way again as I have young grandchildren that would love to see trains running (at least that's the excuse I tell Ang) I am gravitating towards steam loco's & have always liked the more complex (bigger) engines.....my question is , do they have any trouble traversing standard radiuses because of their length ? thanks, Bruce
Hi Bruce
Ah the bug bites
First thing to do before you purchase any track, rolling stock etc is get yourself some track planning software, I use AnyRail, (free) and have done so for years, it has lots of product info which will help design your track plan for your available space.
Then decide on your theme (logging, industrial, country station, city etc).
Don't rush the planning stage.
In my case I had 13'6" x 9' to use and I set some early rules, no duckunder, a continuous run and elevation for the city viaduct. (for visual affect) but these are all personal choices.
I tried to keep my radius as large as possible and the end result was 24" outside, 21" inside (as much as possible) so I settled on a dogbone layout to give me the space between the sides.
If you are very tight for space an end to end layout maybe your solution.
I have included a track plan (from AnyRail) to give you an idea how I used the space.
As Stoker has said, your turnouts are very important for the smooth running of the trains, (both locos and rolling stock) most of the commercial equipment will give you the minimum radius specifications that their rolling stock can negotiate.
And of course resources like this (forums, YouTube etc.) will always be willing to help. (nothing liked passing on pitfalls and tips)
As I have said I have included a track plans and a couple photos to give you an idea.
Cheers
Gary
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Well Bruce ... it really depends on what you are referring to as a "standard" radius curve. Having worked exclusively in flex track through the two nice group layouts I've been associated with in HO/HOn3 modeling, I'm not sure if there is a fixed "standard" radius for fixed track curves as produced by the major suppliers, but would suppose that if there is, it would likely be around an 18" radius curve.
I know most of my larger locomotives, being brass imports, had trouble handling curves at anything much under 30" radius, and so most of the major curves on our large layouts were designed at a 36" minimum, but I must tell you ... that takes up a lot of space, and even then the larger steam locomotives like my cab-forwards, or other articulateds, just don't look quite right going around anything tighter.
You must also give thought to your turnouts, whether for sidings along the mainline, or more especially in the yards where multiple turnouts come one right after another. The smaller the turnout number, the tighter the radius created, and thus the more difficult it is for larger engines with longer wheelbases to negotiate. Most large engines cannot tolerate the common #4 turnouts, and are even likely to trip up on a #6, especially when laid in series. #8 & #10 turnouts are usually best for longer wheelbase engines and articulateds, but they also eat up a whole lot of room.
BTW: just in case you are unfamiliar with the concept, the switch or turnout number references the ratio of divergence of trackage created by the turnout, such that a #4 turnout is physically much shorter and causes the track to diverge much quicker at a 1:4 ratio, while a #8 turnout is much longer, and causes the tracks to diverge more gently at a 1:8 ratio.
The biggest question is how much space are you willing to devote to this endeavor, and then once that is determined you have your control limits pretty well set concerning the radius of curves and what size turnouts will allow you to fit what length sidings and yards in as well. Then you will be better able to determine what size and kind of motive power would best be suited to the space available. If you choose to design it the other way around, buy deciding what engines you wish to run, how well you want them to perform and appear while running, then you may be in for a rude shock when you find out how much space you are going to need, or worse yet, when you find out that they just don't "fit", nor work reliably, and end up having to downsize your motive power dreams.
Just as an alternative for you to consider that might help keep it all smaller and easier to do. Perhaps give consideration to a small logging or mining railroad, instead of a big class A mainline operation. Smaller and prototypically very slow geared locomotives are specifically designed to handle tight radius curves and tight turnout trackage. Their proper slow speed makes the layout "seem" much larger, whereas to run a mainline operation at scale speed means you need a whole lot of track just to get up to scale speed, and you'll find you are rolling through your whole layout in no time at all. Small industrial switching layouts offer the same advantages as the logging and mining type layouts, and as a bonus, should you ever get connected with a truly large group layout, your smaller setup may well be able to be integrated into the larger layout as well.
Any other info that I can provide, please don't hesitate to let me know, as I do have rather deep experience along this line!
Hi Daniel
Great advice, I totally agree with your summary on layout planning.
I love the way we all help our fellow enthusiast.
There are always lots of decisions to be made, eg model train vs fine scale etc. (and of course finances)
I received my first train set when I was 13 (over 50 years ago) and have been hooked ever since.
I'm going to post up a video of the crossing gate setup. (for general interest)
I would love to see a video/photos of your layout.
Thank you
Gary
Good information & much to digest here , (thank you so much) model trians have sure changed alot since I was 12 😉👍
I do like the idea of a smaller (logging type settup) with an eye to easy expansion, I've been cleaning out the drum room that I put in 10 yrs ago...in the top of the garage (Yes there is a good reason it was located there 😉) it's large, but not heated/cooled, but is insulated.