Long-skinny-layout experiment

[scott]

For a while, I've been thinking about layouts that would:

 * give a good feeling of distance
 * focus on the lineside details and nearby scenery--the stuff that's most evident to rail passengers

In the initial very rough sketch below, you'll see several horizontal black lines--these indicate cuts that break up a 4x8 sheet of plywood into 8 6-inch-wide strips, each 8 feet long. What's not shown are the several 45-degree corner pieces that could be use to make 45-degree or 90-degree joins between the pieces so they could be strung together end-to-end through one or more rooms. It wouldn't have to be done with plywood; that was just the first idea.

This could be DCC for convenience (running 2+ trains simultaneously, wherever possible), or DC, maybe with blocks to run 2 trains at at time. At the very least, the Kato turnouts would allow one train to run without messing up the other. There's a station near the middle to provide a passing place. Of course, you could also do this with a double line.

Total track length on this one is 945 inches.

The distant scenery could just be suggested in whatever subtle way would work.

[KenS]

Interesting idea. Six inches feels a bit narrow to me, but it does let you focus on the rail line and immediately adjacent scenery, and everything else can be implied by photos/painting on the backdrop (presuming you have one), or by small structures or profile buildings behind the track.

[David]

The small layout scrapbook recently ran an article

http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page95a/index.html

that included pictures of a similar layout where the base had been cut to follow the track (instead of just being a rectangle). The base was painted black and lighting was used to focus on the track and track details. It's the second set of photos down, and there are also some near the bottom of the same idea.

[scott]

Interesting--thanks!

[IST]

I like your idea, but maybe there is too much curve on the second part of your plan (from above). I think a 3 or 4 car train would look little bit weird on it. I would use less curve and on one part of the layout I would lay the track to the very near edge, so there would be enough area behind it to make a somewhat detailed scenery.

[grumbeast]

I've often thought about this kind of layout for Shinkansens, giving a great long run with some loop boards at either end.  I confess though that I've been thinking in terms of 4ft x 1ft lengths to make transportation easier.  It would be a really cool thing to see at a show.  I tend to agree that 6" does feel a little narrow though.

Graham

[Lawrence]

I'd agree with reducing the severity of those curves, go for a more sweeping effect. As for 6" depth, don't see a problem with that, it's roughly 30 scale feet and you can get a lot in there

[scott]

Part of the problem with the curves is that there are only a few Unitrack curves that come in 15-degree sections (leaving out the very tight ones that look odd).

[CaptOblivious]

I like three and five; The reason is that I've seen something like this done before, on a blog I used to read.

early construction post:
http://blogs.dion.ne.jp/alfred/archives/2642218.html

photography:
http://blogs.dion.ne.jp/alfred/archives/cat_135182-2.html

As near as I can tell, he just makes dioramas to photograph his trains on, but many seem to share your goals of achieving long, narrow runs. Have a look around his blog and see if anything strikes you.

[scott]

Thanks--looks like some really nice work there.

The problem I have with dioramas and modules is that I'd like to have something to actually run trains on without having to wait through several construction phases. I just don't have the patience, I guess. :-)