A shelf layout to fit in the closet

Yes that's the plan Bill. I have already learned a lot!
Though I certainly do also have a lot of creativity flowing around…. I have absolutley no shortage of ideas!
My goal is to "Finish" this layout this year, before I can more seriously think about planning something else.
Darius

I've been working away slowly but consistently on the layout. Though it seems like I don't have enough to show for it…!
But I do have a nice big upgrade - I have a workspace now! my previous desk was nice but very small, so I picked up an antique beast for free from Facebook marketplace. It's kind of funny because the last desk was also free from FB marketplace. Now I can leave the layout setup on the desk to work on it (So much for keeping it in the closet). It's been nice, I can just leave it set up all the time and chip away at it, bit by bit.

And that's exactly what I've been doing! It's all pretty much ballasted except for the points now (which I've been putting off). Also finished my scalescenes coal office and some scratchbuilt coal staithes.

I think I'll have to change my plans though. I was going to put the coal staithes and office down in the wedge between the sidings,(above the brake van), but now that I have everything ballasted and am testing the buildings in position, I think it will be too crowded (assuming I want road access, my original plan for a level crossing will also be nixed). Instead, I think I'll put it on the top siding, which is where I was originally planning on putting a goods shed. (Any tips on position? Unfortunately, I think the only logical position is with the back of the building facing the front of the layout).
Now that I'm at this stage, I'm realizing many things that I would do differently next time…. but that's okay! I'll just pivot and keep going however I can.

I'm not sure of what else to put into the little wedge where I was originally going to have the coal setup, it's not very much space to use. Maybe some old ties and bits of track… and I think I might just give the whole layout a more "overgrown/disused" feeling than I originally intended.

I also realized that I'll need to build a ramp from the station platform down to the signalbox/ticket office… Don't want people to jump! I know that my station isn't prototypical by a long shot, but do you think I should put the station building on an angle roughly matching the tracks, or parallel with the retaining wall at back?

Coming on nicely Darius, ballasting looks good.

Think the station building looks right where it is, and I agree you don't want to make it all look too crowded.


Ed

Hi Darius,
Perhaps the wedge could be a bit of 'nature' with a few trees and shrubs. On the other hand a little hut for the maintenance crew could also be an option.

Cheers,
Claus

Hi Darius

Apologies for being late onto your thread but I have been somewhat engaged away from YMR for some time and am only really catching up with everything

Firstly, I admire your decision to build something small and simple.  I think it was Iain Rice who said in one of his books that we should not build a massive layout to discover that we can't build trees.  His point was that a 3ft x 2ft layout will teach you all you need to learn when you build the next layout.

I'm a little uncertain from your trackplan how you intend to shunt into the paltform if there is something beside the coal staithes.  Are you planning on passenger coaches - because your kick back/headshunt is quite short?

As far as that little wedge of space is concerned, I would consider a yard crane (Ratio or Wills make a kit - simple to make and a useful addition to any yard)

I look forward to further progress

Barry

(Yarslow Model Railway)

Well hello everyone!
I can't believe it's been more than seven months since my last post! I'm sorry it's taken so long to come back around, though I've been thinking about it the whole time.
I haven't accomplished much more since my previous post, besides finish the platform ramp and work on the placement of the signal box. Maybe some ballasting too? I can't even remember….
As always, thanks for all your input and opinions, I really appreciate them.
Barry, the siding by the station is pretty useless, it's more for looks than anything else… I guess not so prototypical or actually useful but I guess I just wasn't content with a normal Inglenook, I had to make it a bit extra. Though in retrospect I think a normal inglenook would have been just fine. Though I did measure to see that the autocoach and an 0-4-0 fit into the headshunt…. Not sure how much I'd actually do that.

Anyways, In January I said this: "My goal is to "Finish" this layout this year, before I can more seriously think about planning something else." I think we all are familiar with the fact that new years resolutions aren't always kept…. I have officially given up on "finishing" the layout this year.
Why?
Well, I'm getting married in October! So for now, the models have been put back in the cupboard. But don't worry, they will make another appearance, hopefully in the not so distant future. Thankfully my fiancee likes trains :)
I'm very excited for this new chapter in life!
Darius

Congratulations Darius, best wishes to you and your fiancée for the future.



Ed

Hi Darius,
Congratulations and best wishes to you and your fiancee.

Cheers,
Claus

Congratulations Darius.  A wife who supports your hobby is known around here as  a "keeper"  :lol:

Hi Darius from another railway modeller guilty of not posting any news about his railway lately, despite possitive associated progress, honest !

Anyway, that's wonderful news about your October marriage, only a few weeks away, but don't panic, all will be fine and dandy and I wish you and your soon to be bride all possible happiness and sucess in your lives together.

It is rather good fun you know, difficult and testing at times, but the bride and me have known each other for 52 years now and are as crazy about one another as we ever, so life can be joyful and rewarding.

Felicitations mon ami,

Bill

 

Hello all, and good morning from Winnipeg. Thanks for your kind words. Marriage has been great! The wedding was lovely, it was so nice to celebrate and see so many friends, but mostly lovely to see my wife 🥹.
Getting married is a busy time! We’re pretty much settled into the place that I had been living in, and slowly getting into a routine for life. 
On another note- I feel a little bit silly saying this, but I think I may scrap the layout and start something similar but different - hopefully better. I’m open to hearing wisdom from modellers with more wisdom though! 
My layout was initially built to the size it was for two reasons 1. It fit in my flat’s massive built in closets, 2. I found a scrap piece of plywood that was a good size. 😂 
It worked well when I lived here as a bachelor, because I sacrificed the best shelf to the layout and put my clothes higher up, but we’ve rearranged the clothes so that my wife actually has good storage that’s easy to use, putting my layout on the top shelf. I also got rid of the massive desk I had and replaced it with something smaller and more practical. 
Now the railway doesn’t fit very nicely on the desk, and to be honest it’s a pain to get out and put away. 
I’m also feeling like I’m trying to do too much scenically with the current layout, which I suspect most of you could have told me. The new one would be simpler and hopefully easier to achieve, I also have realized I prefer the country look a bit more than industiral.  My thoughts are to do a pretty basic inglenook split over two small segments (with a possibility of a third addition) so that they are individually easier to work on and store. Not sure the sizes yet, I would just want to have one piece of track bridge the seam, so probably the smallest size to fit the three sidings of an inglenook on, and the second section would just be one track segment as the headshunt. Probably wouldn’t be more than 5 ft long all together. 
It’s hard to be motivated to work on the current layout when I can see so many issues with it. 

I have a peco insulfrog 3 way point that I would like to use as the basis of an inglenook, but I’ve heard that it potentially could cause a lot of dead spots for my small 0-4-0 Shunters to stall on. I’m not sure if it’s better to use three way point or two small insulfrog points. Does anyone have any advice on this matter? 
I’m using DC

Hi Darius

Hope you and your wife are well and it's good to hear your both enjoying married life.

Probably a good idea to start a new layout, we all do it from time to time as it's a good way to rekindle the enthusiasm and get going again.

I know I've not done much on my little N gauge layout for the last year, except run trains a few times to try to help and keep the track clean, but I've too many other things going on, including looking for a new house.

Regarding your insulfrog points, you will get much better running with electrofrogs, especially on a low speed shunting layout with 0-4-0 locos.


Ed



 

Thanks Ed, 
I haven’t looked into electrifrog points much at all, I guess I figured they were “above my pay grade” haha. 
Seems worthwhile though if it would make for significantly better running. 
One thing I don’t understand, is there a good way with DC to switch the polarity of the frog, but without a point motor? I don’t really understand frog juicers and microswitches and if they’re applicable. 
Is it awful if on something like this I just wire the frog to the switch rail?

You could try a 'wire in tube' method to change the points and if you use a slide switch to move the wire it can also change the polarity of the frog.

Old picture from previous members thread.

Operation Abyss – Your Model Railway


Alternatively, you could just rely on the pints switch blades to change the polarity of the frog, but you'll need to keep them clean.
 

Hi Darius.  Congratulations on joining in the "Married" brigade - with supportive wives, we are indeed a happy and blessed bunch.

Your Peco 3-way point is a great space-saver and I would go for a shunting layout based around it.  With the track and the point blade gaps clean, it will work fine with your 0-4-0 tank.  Dead frogs do not need polarity switching gizmos, so dont concern yourself there.  The polarity of the blade automatically drives the polarity of the opposite side of the frog.  As long as everything is clean - including your loco wheels.  Also, clean your wagon/coach wheels - they are a secret source of track crud, especially plastic wheels which seem to attract crud without much effort.

More importantly, you will not always be running 0-4-0 locos so dont put off building a layout using the 3-way out of fear that nothing will run.  Modern 4-coupled engines with bogies tend to have pick-ups on all wheels so you will not have a problem.

Good luck with your new project.  Go for it - once you get track laid and wired and can run stuff, it's amazing how inspirational that can be for getting the next job done, and then the next, and then………..

Regards  Barry

Thanks Gentlemen, I'm playing around with track plans on anyrail, as well as trying to figure out what size the layout can/should be.
I think that I'm going to try to make the layout in two sections, the bigger chunk will probably be a max of 18X40 inches, the biggest that can fit into an under-the-bed storage container. I'm thinking that that segment will contain the points and sidings of the inglenook, minus the headshunt. The headshunt will probably be an extension with just a single piece of track on it, I'd like to make it nice and scenic. That segment might only be 9 inches wide, so it can fit in our bookshelf.
I think that I would like both segments combined to be about five feet long.
I toyed a little bit with the option of including a runaround, which I do think I could make room for, but I don't think it would be worth squeezing in! I attached an image of two ideas, one with the peco three-way, and one without. The bottom siding would have an engine shed on it, I'm not sure what will be by the other two, maybe just a simple goods loading dock? The top layout with the three-way is more what I'm leaning towards at the moment. it's a bit confusing, I have two similar ideas overlapping. I'm talking about the one with the highlighted green flex track, not the runaround.
I'd really like this layout to depict a rural scene, with some hills and lots of green.

Sorry, that was confusing. this is the simple trackplan I'm considering, without the runaround, as fun as it could be haha.  Dark gray would be the 9 inch wide section to fit into the bookshelf.  

Another idea with a different runaround… I suspect that it's uselessly small.
this would also make the larger segment too big for the container.
Is it worth trying to put a run around in there, for  abit more operational fun, or is it just a fool's errand that will be a waste of space and energy? I'm not even sure if it's useful.

You could always swap to a smaller scale and then get more in the same space 


Ed