HO Industrial Shelf - Guilford in the 90s

[nuno81291]

Hello TRW 

It has been some time since we moved and dismantled the Nth version of the HO Layout. My prospects of a finished layout space are not good, and in the intervening time I have decided to build a shelf switcher in my office to keep my hobby sanity! The goals of this layout: Shelf switcher on the 2 available walls of my home office. Target width is 18" as I found that to be good at armpit/taller height for reach in depth. I wanted water to appear, and snuck in a little canal scene for visual interest. I wanted a few spurs, a run around, facing and trailing point moves required. My door to the office is where the staging is, so that will have to be a drop down or removable section. This iteration is the "more is more" approach, I have thought about less trackage ala Mindheim, but I think this has enough play value, and I enjoy an on scene run around opportunity. Looking for any input before I get to benchwork! I have unfortunately come down with Covid and figured this is a good way to spend some unscheduled down time.

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[Philip H]

Get well soon!

How much room do you have for the staging track? And what are you thinking - fiddle yard, fold down tail track, sector plate?

[nuno81291]

Get well soon!

How much room do you have for the staging track? And what are you thinking - fiddle yard, fold down tail track, sector plate?

I have 6’ for staging. Thinking a fiddle yard with maybe 2 tracks, maybe a small runaround so locos can run around a returned train.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Glad to see you're back on the horse. I'm a big fan of your work.

[packers#1]

I have 6’ for staging. Thinking a fiddle yard with maybe 2 tracks, maybe a small runaround so locos can run around a returned train.

Unless you’ve got to have the locomotive do it, I’d just leave them stub ended and either 0-5-0 the locomotive or do some sort of transfer table. Otherwise, it looks like you’ve got a good handle right now on what you can do. I would suggest laying out the track and operating the plan some before permanently affixing anything; I’m messing around with different layout setups right now myself and it’s been very rewarding for breaking out of the planning box and seeing how different switching arrangements work out.

[nuno81291]

Thanks Ed, its exciting to have some prospects at modeling again. Thanks for the wishes of health Philip H, we got knocked on our  pretty bad by it. And I completely agree Packers about some testing to flesh out any desired changes.

Here is the Less is More version. Pros: more prototypical track arrangement for such a relatively small space. 1 large industry, 1 smaller and a transload area. No runaround but I am reminded of a few branchlines in the area (Peabody branch serving Rousselot gelatine, or the former Watertown bakery) that had to shove to the end of the line with no run around. Could be an excuse to model a beat up transfer caboose to "lead" the way. Less trackwork means trains running sooner, and realistically a little more breathing room for some scenery in such tight confines. I think this plan would give me plenty of play value, and could easily spend an average 30-45 minute session switching the line. I am on the fence still between both plans, but as all of my chain saw layouts have shown in the last decade; its easy enough to start over!

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[amato1969]

Love it!  This plan certainly "breathes" a little more than the previous one.

  Frank

[ednadolski]

That would also work well to 'scale up' to a P:87 layout    (just minding the reach-in depth in the corner)

Ed

[LIRR]

Good to be back in the game to be sure……

With a smaller project you can get into more detail - scenery, structures, equipment etc, than you could/would with a larger project.

[ronw1970]

I like the simpler track arrangement BUT.... if this is depicting an older industrial area and back in the 1980s I kind of think the more complex track arrangements were more common back then at older locations .. just my two cents

[garethashenden]

I like the simpler track arrangement BUT.... if this is depicting an older industrial area and back in the 1980s I kind of think the more complex track arrangements were more common back then at older locations .. just my two cents

I think this is true. Model all the track, but some of it out of service or overgrown, in proper Guilford style...

[nuno81291]

The saw dust is flying, foam being cut, and whatever scraps of material from the previous layout being mutilated 

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[nuno81291]

Quitting time for tonight. Quite the day- decided to cut it to 16” total width after hovering over my desk with a morning coffee and tape measure.  Ripped a bunch of old 1x4 to make the frame, cut up some 2” foam. Put a deliberate split between two segments to make this semi modular after the heartbreak of the last layout. Attached the foam, cut some Masonite as the water surface, carved some rough land forms, got some brown paint over the pink and painted underneath with white primer. Even got some old fascia cut up and installed. Tomorrow will see the back drop Masonite, bringing the layout up to the office and mounting on brackets (or some legs… undecided) then time for track!

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[nuno81291]

Got the backdrop cut up, shelf brackets installed and put the layout up.

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[nuno81291]

Doing some mock-ups with structures to determine where the track will actually end up.

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