Layout Designs

© Ian Holmes

This plan was devised for the first layout design competition on the small layout design forum on Yahoo! for a layout in 3′ x 1′.

The main feature of the plan is the hidden rotating turntable. This can be lined up with all exit roads and rotated through 360 degrees. This removes the need for any complicated pointwork for sidings and run round loop. In addition by having interchangeable cassettes on the traintable you remove the need for a fiddle yard too.

The traintable will take a 12″ (305mm) cassette that is long enough for a loco and 3 skip wagons in the chosen scale of Gn15.

Gn15 is LGB scale 1:22.5 using 00/H0 track and mechanisms to represent a 15″ prototype, though this plan would work in any narrow gauge combination.

Ian spent his early railway modelling years pouring over the plans of Roy Link in Railway Modeller. Years of living in small bedrooms in houses, student dorms, bedsits and flats ingrained the practice of small layout design in him.

Ian now lives in America and has a large basement, but still only designs small layouts.

© Geren W Mortensen

Geren W. Mortensen is planning (and building) a series of modules that go together to create a larger layout but that work perfectly well on their own - a great way to build up to a large layout of your own.

Geren models in On30 scale and so can plan for 9″ radius curves with O scale scenery.

Geren wrote: “Attached is a version of the ‘transition module’ meant to be used between the “Salisbury Loop” and the “Crisfield Industrial” plans. In addition to making a transition, this module can stand on it’s own as a small shunting layout. This is the town of Berlin.

“Some changes are made to the “Crisfield Industrial” track plan to accomodate this module. First, the entire plan is pushed “back” on the module so that the lead track (which enters from the upper right of the “Crisfield” plan) is 3 inches on center from the back of the layout. A meandering branch is added to the front of the “Crisfield” module, 3 inches from the front, which may join another module at a later date.”

© Geren W Mortensen

Geren W. Mortensen is planning (and building) a series of modules that go together to create a larger layout but that work perfectly well on their own - a great way to build up to a large layout of your own.

Geren models in On30 scale and so can plan for 9″ radius curves with O scale scenery.

Geren wrote: “Here’s a design I whipped up for a shelf layout, which I’ve called the Crisfield Industrial Park. It incorporates an Inglenook section, among other things.

“Basically, a train of one engine, one passenger car, 5 freight cars and a caboose roll into town from the upper right. The caboose is cut off, and the five freights are spotted on the upper side of the run-around track, and the passenger car is spotted on the lower side of the run-around track. The engine then inserts itself into the tail track on the upper left, and the Inglenook scenerio is run, leaving five cars to depart town. Some additional gyrations are performed to get the caboose and passenger car where they belong, the engine couples to the outbound end of the train, and the train heads back off the module to the upper right.”

Eventually, this module will be joined to Salisbury Loop via a transition module .

©Geren W Mortensen

Geren W. Mortensen is planning (and building) a series of modules that go together to create a larger layout but that work perfectly well on their own - a great way to build up to a large layout of your own.

Geren models in On30 scale and so can plan for 9″ radius curves with O scale scenery.

Geren wrote: “Here’s another design I’ve been working on - construction is actually started on this. This one’s a loop plan, with a sorta timesaver flair. Eventually, the Crisfield Industrial module will be connected to the street track that runs off the left end of the street (see sceniced drawing to see where the street is) via a transition module, and a yard section will dangle from the lower right where a wye is starting to develop.”

The unscenic version

© 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).