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Help With Krackel Hopper's Layout


Krackel Hopper

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Krackel Hopper

hey hey,

 

After several moves over the last couple years I finally settled down enough for a layout.

 

I have room for a 3ft x 6ft layout. The layout will be in a corner, so ideally the depth should be closer to 2ft (but I have room for 3ft).

 

For the limited size, I'd like to do something of a rural Hokkaido layout to run my fleet of Kiha-40s. I'd prefer a continuous running (loop) layout with multiple small sidings for 1-4 car sets to be displayed, the more sidings the better but without it being a spaghetti bowl..

 

I'm currently looking for 2x6 or 3x6 track plans. I am yet to find anything promising so far. Does anyone have any suggested track plans or would anyone who likes making plans care to take a stab at this?

 

I'd prefer to use Tomix Fine-Track as I have a small stockpile of that track including 3-way turnouts..

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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post-1969-0-07772200-1493841056.png

My take on the idea. A mainline cutting through the mountains and a smaller branchline running below it, meeting at a station with passenger yard (and an optional freight or storage yard in the middle). The main station has one side platform by the station building and one island platform with the diesel depot in the front. The small station has one tiny island platform and two tracks, just enough for local trains to meet or an express to bypass a local train. It could be set up for continous running through both loops for an extended run or the main loop could operate with a point to point service with two trains on the branch between track1 and 3. One highlight is the long mainline viaduct between the two mountains with the small vilage and the local line below.

post-1969-0-07772200-1493841056_thumb.png

  • Like 6
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bill937ca

Ooh, 24 inches is really tight.  That limits you to R243 and R280 and maybe R317.  Don't forget the Tomix curved turnouts are your friend. Start the turnout on one of the end curves and widen into a full station. My layout is 30 inches by 60 inches.  If you can 36 inches would allow more options.

Edited by bill937ca
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Krackel Hopper

Ooh, 24 inches is really tight.  That limits you to R243 and R280 and maybe R317.  Don't forget the Tomix curved turnouts are your friend. Start the turnout on one of the end curves and widen into a full station. My layout is 30 inches by 60 inches.  If you can 36 inches would allow more options.

I agree that 24" is really tight. Like I said, I can do up to 36" but that will create some problems with being able to reach the back of the layout. I think somewhere around 30 or 32 inches would be a decent compromise of reach and available radius. I think with running mainly 1-3 car kiha40s I can get away with mostly R280 curves and not look too terrible.

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Krackel Hopper

My take on the idea.

I like it. I played with changing a few things but every time it seemed to create a bigger problem. Right now the only "problem" I see is that the sidings for the small station appear to be very small (2 cars at most) but that is a problem with my lack of space and not with the track plan itself.

 

For the elevation on the viaduct, were you thinking of just raising the approach tracks to the viaduct? Or both raise the viaduct as well as lower the tracks to the small station?

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velotrain

kvp - I like your plan, except for the top right corner, where I think the inside line should also be in a tunnel.  The way it is now, there will need to be a virtually vertical wall between the two tracks, and it will look very unrealistic.  imho, this will be even more true where the outer track emerges from a tunnel and crosses the inner track, which had been in the open.  If the outer track needed to be in a tunnel here due to the geography, I don't see how you can explain the inner track being exposed when it is just a few inches away.

 

The upper station does need longer sidings to be operationally viable; I question the reason to have a second station only a half-loop away from the main one on a small layout.

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The missing tunnel is just something i forgot to set. The small station is there as an operating bonus to allow two short locals or one short local and one longer express on the branchline. This allows up to three trains to be moving at the same time. I would both elevate the main and drop the local to minimize the ramp angles, but keep both stations and the viaduct level.

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Years ago the N-Track modules were allowed to be widened to 30 inches to allow for the mountain line.  This was a good compromise and a relatively easy reach.  Any wider and you could count on messing something up.

 

My short arms welcomed the idea.

 

Gerry

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I've shrunk the layout above. Smaller curves (280mm for the mainline) on the visible part allows a slightly (one car) longer main station and removing the curves in the viaduct allows the same for the branchline station.

post-1969-0-63356400-1493908821.png

 

post-1969-0-63356400-1493908821_thumb.png

Edited by kvp
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Krackle,

 

At this size you should be able to easily pull he layout out to get to the backside. Maybe put it on some rolling cabinets or legs. The extra bit of space will really help dampen the spaghetti bowl effect

 

Jeff

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Krackel Hopper

Krackle,

 

At this size you should be able to easily pull he layout out to get to the backside. Maybe put it on some rolling cabinets or legs. The extra bit of space will really help dampen the spaghetti bowl effect

 

Jeff

 

That is a good point.  As long as my track work isn't terrible, derailments should hopefully be kept to a minimum anyway.. and if it does happen, this would be easy to slide out to gain access.

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Krackel Hopper

I've shrunk the layout above. Smaller curves (280mm for the mainline) on the visible part allows a slightly (one car) longer main station and removing the curves in the viaduct allows the same for the branchline station.

 

I like it.  I'm going to build a temporary version of this over the weekend and see how it plays out.  Unfortunately I don't have all the available turnouts go actually have it running but I think I have enough track to give myself a feel for how it will work.

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