The passing track will hold two 40-foot coal hoppers, and the spur in the tunnel should be just long enough for one hopper and a short engine. There’s only one industry on this track plan, but the steep mountain switchback should keep the local freight’s operator busy servicing it. Again, a removable switching tail is needed to make this workable as a standalone module. The runaround track being longer than the one in the previous track plan unfortunately makes the tail tracks on either end long enough to hold only the locomotive. This plan is designed with the thought in mind that it will eventually become part of a larger layout, extending the main lines in either direction. But the elevator should provide most of the traffic in this town, and part of the local’s job will be to rearrange those cars as they get loaded, complicating maneuvers. There are plenty of options for this last track that would be appropriate for a small rural town, like a coal dealer, lumber dealer, dairy, cannery, packing plant, or feed mill. There aren’t as many structures on this track plan as on the previous one, but there are still plenty of spots to switch: a grain elevator, a freight house, a team track, a house track behind the depot, and a spur representing an unmodeled industry. This plan steps back in time to the 1960s to appeal to fans of Midwestern small-town railroading. Bringing in a four-car local freight job from the detachable staging/switching cassette, servicing all the spurs, and assembling the outbound train should provide a fun half hour’s activity. The central passing track, at 18 inches long, should be able to handle four 40-foot HO scale cars or two cars and a four-axle road switcher. Since there wasn’t space for a depot, I acknowledge the history of this modern-era layout by including the edge of a concrete slab where a depot once stood. A factory, a warehouse, and an oil dealer offer a variety of car types to receive and ship the team track, as a “universal industry,” can receive any kind of car. Legendary model railroader John Allen designed the most famous one, the Timesaver, leading people to start incorporating its track arrangement into their home layouts – forgetting that the point of a switching puzzle was to be difficult to switch, the opposite of the prototype’s goal.Īlthough I didn’t want to make my first 1 x 5 plan purposely difficult to work, I drew inspiration from those switching puzzles of old when it came to packing in as many car spots as possible. Modelers designed (and often built) tiny modules and challenged each other to switch all the sidings in the least time or the fewest number of moves. When I started out in this hobby, switching puzzles were a big thing. Let’s take a look at my five ideas for a shelf layout. It should be simple to build such a single-track cassette and store it away when the layout is not in use. In spite of these space-saving tactics, some plans still require a removable switching tail, two to three feet long, to be operable. Likewise, I’m assuming a short wheelbase locomotive and 40-foot freight cars. Second, in order to maximize the length of sidings, I used no. First of all, the main line extends off both sides of the layout, so it could be incorporated into a larger layout if another move takes place later. Each has a different theme, meant to appeal to different kinds of modelers – operators, scenery fans, or structure builders.Īll five of the plans share some assumptions. (I later found out he models in N scale, but adapting my ideas to a smaller scale just makes things easier for Kevin.) I sketched up five small switching layouts, trying to do my best to put the most operating potential possible on those small shelves. Since Kevin didn’t say what scale he was modeling in, I sketched up my ideas for a shelf layout in HO scale, because it’s the most popular. Any ideas for a shelf layout that you would recommend? The layout is going to be 1 x 5 feet. I just moved and I need to downsize to a shelf layout. Such was the question I received in late April from Kevin Caddell. Sometimes, though, I get a question that stirs my imagination and prompts me to compose a more involved response. Usually I either know the answers or at least where I can find the answers for them. Steven Otte photoĪs the author of Model Railroader’s “Ask MR” column, I get a lot of questions from readers. A reader’s question prompted senior associate editor Steven Otte to see what kind of interesting HO scale ideas for a shelf layout he could come up with.
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