"The Little Layout" by Geren W Mortensen
© Geren W Mortensen
Geren W. Mortensen writes: “Some time ago, I was challenged to design a small, potentially portable, On30 layout that would provide interesting operation, and continuous running for display purposes. The result was something I called The Little Layout. The track plan turned out to be 3 feet by 8 feet, which is just the right size to fit on the tables provided at many train shows. The plan is my expansion of the now-famous Snowshoe and Gumstump track plan, also known as the original Gila Pacific.”
Geren’s website used to have an in-depth history of this plan (showing its evolution to the final form, plus a couple of suggestions for expanding the plan to fit a 5′ by 9′ baseboard). Geren’s converted this to a PDF file and has kindly agreed to me hosting a copy here (238kb file).
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November 14th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
[…] “The Little Layout” […]
November 14th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
thanks for the project idea ! I saw at an exhibition on30 for the first time,
captivated bought 4 loco’s &stock now for an 8×4
October 29th, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Thanks for the Little Layout design: I am now building a version of it as a practice run for a larger layout. mine in HOe and 6 feet by 28 inches. have removed the modular link spur in the bottom left hand corner, added an extra hidden siding at the back, and taken the mountain branch off one of the hidden siding instead of branching off the continuous run. this version allows two operators run trains, one on the continuous run, while the other runs trains from the hidden sidings up nd down the branch line. In HOe the gradients are not as bad.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:00 am
I built this layout with very few modifications and was very happy with it for several years. It was part of a sectional layout me and several others had at one point. We would travel and set it up at shows for several years. I would like to build it again in the future and try to make it even better.