Have a new blank 16x6 table

Are you OK with possibly buying some Ross switches?  Is there room in the budget for more switches?

Do you want to have loop running and some switching?

Can you add an extra 6-8 inches of width on to your table without a lot of difficulty?  If you can make your outer loop 0-72, you can run pretty much anything.

Curious:  You have a blank slate...  What railroad(s) are you going to model?  Where is your layout located?--mountains, desert, plains?  What is the purpose of your railroad? Haul freight?  Passengers?  Both?  Something else?  Why is it there?--where ever that may be.  What will you and others be doing to operate the railroad?

Do you want a main-line run?  Do you want a yard layout?  What kind of railroading do you like?  BEFORE you can develop a track arrangement you need to know what it is your planning to do.

Way too many people have in the past and continue to build layouts that are flat and full of circles and loops or are "spaghetti bowls" where the tracks just criss and cross and twist with no logical route going no where.

People, including you, will tire of seeing the same train going the same direction spinning round and round.  Layouts like these have been done for years and years in all scales.  All I have seen end up not being run and collecting dust.

If you really want to make something interesting and fun be sure you plan for these essential elements:  Plausibility, Purpose and Participation for your railroad and its operators.  If you are controlling the trains and actually doing something with the trains, it will keep your attention and interest far long than a mass of circling track that is only missing its Christmas Tree.  Same is true for the people looking at it.

If I had a 16 x 6, at a minimum, I would put a vertical divider down the 16 foot length to visual separate one side of the layout from the other thereby creating the illusion of distance.  Second I would have a "team track" (siding) on both sides of the divider with a drawer or two under the layout so I could switch cars on and off the layout.  

One side of the layout could have a power plant and the other side a coaling area.  The coal would be loaded into empty hoppers on one side and then transported to the power plant.

Maybe there could be a forest on one side and a lumber camp on the other?  There are many loads/empties ideas.

You train does not have to just circle.  It would be good to have a grade on the layout (creates visual interest) and you could use your vertical space more efficiently.  There could be return loops on one end of your line or the other to "reverse" the train.  Of course, if you used two "A" units, back to back, you wouldn't have to "reverse."  You could uncouple the engines from the train and have your track-work arranged whereby the engines could get to the back-end of this same train and couple on for the return trip! 

If you have a favorite railroad place where you like to see trains, you may plan to develop a layout that simulates that spot and what the train is doing.

Good luck with your future plan.  Last word, be certain to have EVERYTHING within 30 inches of reach for construction, maintenance, revision and upgrades.  Consider a point to point arrangement, versus looping.  Looping been going on 116 years now.

Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy.  I'm just sharing this as my first many layouts circled and it wasn't until twenty or more years later I figured out why I was constantly dissatisfied.  Having more to do and getting the train to actual go somewhere and do something will provide you more satisfaction and enjoyment.  :-) 

Really take your time and think about exactly what it is you want and what you want to see the trains do.  Plan.  Plan.  Plan.  This circling looping thing has been far over-done.  

Ok I will try to answer everything it is blank and I can make it 16 x 8 or 19 x 8 but can't come out any more then 8. I am willing to get more switches never heard of Ross switches but I am running command control ones. I want to run freight and passenger I want mountains with tunnels and two levels. I have a the b and o line diesel. I would also like a yard for switching cars that connects to two main lines one for freight and one for passenger

hey,

Do you have a PC that you can use for SCARM? I have tried to recreate your as built from the scenery post and developed a modification to add in reversing in the other direction.

Let me know. I'd like you to check both plans.

Thanks.

By the way, you don't an email in your profile displayed or I would have contacted you.

I do not have a pic just Mac. I might be able to borrow one 

Ok, here are some pdf's. let me know how close the as built is. Then, check out the change to add a second reverse. Go in to the center one way and come out the other. To get back to counter-clockwise running enter at the new section and exit on the end at the right.

Are you in S. Jersey? I am.

Shouldn't there be another crossover from the outside oval?

DoubleDAZ posted:

Shouldn't there be another crossover from the outside oval?

Working with the "as built"...if one reverses direction you can get back to the crossover and get on the outer again.

I get the "as built", just making on observation. Once on the outer going clockwise, how does one get inside without backing through the lone crossover?

I'm in Toms River. Where are you moonman? You can get to all three loops and the yard from either direction. 

I had to make it 16x8 to do so but then again I have never done this before and had no one to ever show or teach me

Raiderofcoffins posted:

You can get to all three loops and the yard from either direction. 

I see that now in your photo of the actual layout.

DoubleDAZ posted:

I get the "as built", just making on observation. Once on the outer going clockwise, how does one get inside without backing through the lone crossover?

LOL. I left out the second crossover set on the outside line.

I have corrected the omission and replaced the pdf documents above.

Raiderofcoffins posted:

I'm in Toms River. Where are you moonman? You can get to all three loops and the yard from either direction. 

Not too far, in the Westville area. I travel to Wall Twp at the InfoAge Science museum to work on a layout. My email is in my profile.

banjoflyer posted:

If you are looking for track plans you are in luck. Here's a post from 2012 where the owner also had a 6 X 16 table to fill.

Here's one plan from that post but it uses more switches than you have. Anyway it's a start.

Here's another:

 

Mark

I like option #1 SO MUCH more than #2 for a subtle but important reason.  #2 requires the trains to move through  S curves across the switch to go from one loop to another. I've learned these are prone to derailing. #1 uses a much better approach to get a train from one loop to another by avoiding the S.

Take a look at this OGR  thread.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...e-gorge-and-northern

Chris