L shaped desk shelf N scale layout brainstorming

[Dinosbacsi]

So I have a corner desk I spend most of my time at (either using my PC in my freetime, or homeoffice work). This corner desk has a two story L shaped shelf over the desk area, and I use these shelf to put my hobby display stuff onto. Car models, HotWheels, all kind of merch stuff, and ever since I got into B Train Shortys, my trains. They got to the point where the whole lower shelf is basically dedicated to them, so I have this small layout on it, basically.

 

This is the basic layout and sizes of the shelf. The sizes are in centimeters, and the brown lines are wooden walls supporting the upper shelf. And besides (or under) it is the layout I currently have. As you see, it's a small loop, the hairpin curves on both ends going through between the wooden support walls - and having a bit of air time as they go around the edges, but thankfully this doesn't seem to be a problem under the Shorty trains' weight. There is also a single passing siding, so I can have one train going and one train sitting in place, without having to remove it from the tracks. I also put a few unconnected tracks between them to use as extra storage for my other trains.

 

It's a pretty cute layout if I say so myself, but thing is, I'm out of track for my trains. And I'd like to put more actually functional sidings on the shelf, so if I get power units to my other trains as well, then any of them could run without having to manually replace which train is on the loop. But I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to come up with compact layout plans to fit as many track as possible on such a small shelf, so I decided to make this thread to share the results of my brainstorming, and see if any of you guys have better ideas.

 

#1

This was my first idea, a quick and easy extension of my current layout with just two extra sidings (note that the former static siding tracks from the middle are not shown here because of the 50 track piece limit of AnyRails). It's easy to do, and all I would need is another set of a Unitrack compact junctions pair, but the two new sidings are a bit short and could probably only fit 3 car trains (though that's still something, I could already fit my 165 series and my EF64 locomotive).

#2

This is my second idea. Here I like the idea of the yard being a bunch of pararell tracks and being a separate place from the main loop. But while I like the look of it, I'm afraid even the two longer sidings would be too short for a 4 car Shorty train, but they might just barely fit, while the other two sidings could be used for locomotives.

 

If I would go for this, then I could also extend it with two extra sidings in a similar way to the original one.

 

#3

My third idea ditches the fully 45° and 90° curves and goes for a slanted main straight, which seems to allow for more and longer sidings. Of course, this can also be extended with the usual way of just extending the main straights with two extra sidings.

 

Keep in mind that the short filler straight segments don't have to be a 100% accurate as the tracks in real life allow to some free movement, which is not possible in AnyRail, therefore I couldn't connect the whole loop all the way through. So for siding lengths I can also gain a few centimeters here and there if needed, possibly. Also in the case of the #2 and #3 layout, I suppose a few centimeters of the ends of the siding trakcs can hang in the eir, especially if it's just the buffer pieces. I'd prefer if I could fit them without them overhanging, but if it's needed to fit 4 car shorties, then I could do with a little bit of overhang.

 

So what do you guys thing of my potential plans? Or any other ideas? I wonder what else could be placed in such a small place. Oh, also, I forgot to mention, but I'm using Kato Unitrack.

[bill937ca]

Ok its Kato Unitrack, but which radius are you using?  Are those dimensions cm?

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by bill937ca

[disturbman]

Dimensions are in cm.

What's Kato minimum radius again, R150? If that's the case you could maybe take (another) look at Tomix mini curves and mini points. The mini points are particularly nice as they allow very compact though visually unrealistic geometries, and the mini curves have a minimum radius of R103 which could help limiting the overhangs. Just a suggestion, at least you could play with them in AnyRail, and see if they could allow for more interesting options. Depends also how problematic those overhangs are.

[railsquid]

My experience with B-Train Shorties is limited to a single set with a Kato motor unit, but it is fine on Tomix 103mm radius curves and the 140mm radius points:

 

 

[bill937ca]

The Kato Pocket line drives are R117 minimum radius.  Kato compact radius are R117, R150, R183, but the turnout are R150 - 45 degrees.

Edited October 27, 2021 by bill937ca

[Dinosbacsi]

Yes, the dimensions are in cm.

 

As for curve radius, the 180° curves on both ends are R117. And I mostly use R150 and R183 for other curves, and I also have a few 15° curve pieces which I believe are R249.

 

6 hours ago, disturbman said:

you could maybe take (another) look at Tomix mini curves and mini points. The mini points are particularly nice as they allow very compact though visually unrealistic geometries, and the mini curves have a minimum radius of R103 which could help limiting the overhangs

Yeah, a bit I wish I started with Tomix tracks instead, especially because they have tight radius 30° curves, while Kato only has 45° ones for R183, R150 and R117, which is pretty limiting. I've been thinking about maybe getting some Tomix tracks and combining them with Kato's conversion tracks. As my mostly space consuming area would be the yard with the switches, I could do the main loop out of Kato tracks and then a yard with Tomix mini points. I will try to sketch something up with AnyRail.

[bill937ca]

If you use Tomix Mini Rail turnouts, there are manual turnouts available but only in the 91082 set.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10046278

 

All other mini-rail turnouts are powered.

[cteno4]

Dino,

 

its pretty easy to make your own 30 degree tracks out of 45s. You just cut out the extra form the track in the roadbed in the center of the piece of track with a razor saw. then slide the two halves together and then snip off the extra rail flush with the end of the end of the roadbed. you can put a dab of epoxy to glue the two pieces of roadbed together. this way you get appropriate sockets for the unijoiners on both ends and your custom length. pretty easy.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Dinosbacsi]

On 10/28/2021 at 2:54 AM, cteno4 said:

its pretty easy to make your own 30 degree tracks out of 45s. You just cut out the extra form the track in the roadbed in the center of the piece of track with a razor saw. then slide the two halves together and then snip off the extra rail flush with the end of the end of the roadbed. you can put a dab of epoxy to glue the two pieces of roadbed together. this way you get appropriate sockets for the unijoiners on both ends and your custom length. pretty easy.

That's actually not a bad idea and might be a pretty fun DIY project if tight 30° curves I needed. Though while I could imagine doing it to simple curves, I don't know if I would have the nerve to cut into switches. They're pretty expensive 😢

 

By the way I measured them, and a 4 car B Train Shorty consist is around 25cm in length. So I think my #3 layout plan could accommodate them pretty well on the two longer sidings, and with maybe even one more train on the shorter one, overhanging onto the switch. Might be worth a shot, I should get a set of #4 turnouts and try it out.

 

Also with the 25cm in mind I will try to come up with other layout plans as well.

[Dinosbacsi]

So recently I got back to brainstorming about improving this desk layout of mine. For starters I actually rebuilt the layout in real life based on layout #3 from the posts above, just without the top-right sidings made of the 481-R15 turnouts, as I don't have any yet. So I just used unconnected tracks for the yard to see to see how it would feel like. It's actually pretty good, I like the longer straight on the "main line" and the fact that the storage sidings would be behind it, so I could actually see the moving train unobstructed and the parking trains in the back.

 

But after taking a quick glance at it it was clear that my sidings with the #3 plan are not enough. It could hold only two 4-car trains at max, and even that way one would overhang into the junction, and I wouldn't even have space for my crew platforms. Another issue was that my 205 keeps derailing on the 150-R45 left turnout as it goes over it, which might be an issue with the 205's power unit (it was always a bit problematic), but it made me realize I should plan the layout with this in mind.

 

So I played around with AnyRail a lot and I think I finally came to a conclusion that maximalizes my available space. The representation is not perfect, as I've ran into AnyRails track limit, so imagine the track actually connecting in the middle and each siding can be extended by a few centimeters until the walls and with buffers on the ends. So here it is:

As you can see, three tracks long enough to hold 4-car Shorty train, perfect for my four Chuo-Sobu trains (one running, three parked). One 3-car siding, perfect for my 3-car 165 series. And one shorter siding, enough for a locomotive or 2 random cars at max. And with the standard direction of travel (clockwise running), all junction points are run over from the back, so no derailing over them.

 

So here it is, I think this will be the project for now. Still not enough, as I've just ordered even more trains (lol), but I think this is about the maximum one can fit on such a small desk. Good thing is, all I need to get for this is a set of 481-R15 turnouts and I should be good to go.

[Dinosbacsi]

So last week I actually rebuilt the layout again based on this last plan I posted, it's actually really good. I love the views I get of the train on the main loop from my sitting position, and the sidings seem pretty good as well.

 

I don't have R15 turnouts yet, but here it is in it's current form. Quite a close call, but the 3 sidings fit with 4-car trains, I just need to get the turnouts and insert them (which I plan to do in the near future). I also put in an extra piece of track in just to place those 3 random junk cars somewhere, but that's unrelated.

 

Now that the base of the layout is something I'm satisfied with, I'm planning to do some decoration. I have already placed some DIY catenary poles made out of junk molding sprues, but I plan on ordering real ones to improve the look, alongside a few more small crew platforms.

 

I'm also thinking about putting some retaining walls behind them, for decoration and to decrease the risk of any trains falling down the edge of the shelf. I was thinking about these Greenmax viaduct underpass store kits, as I really like the look of them and would like to get them. Now of course there is no space there for them fully assembled, but do you guys think they would fit/work just as walls if I were to assemle only the sidewall parts and put them on those remaining 1-2cm between the tracks and the edge of the shelf (and maybe fix them in place with tape or something)?

I mean it would't make much sense to have warehouse doors or shopfronts face right into the tracks, but I like their looks and would work temporarily, then I could use these viaducts properly if I ever build a normal bigger layout or something. What do you guys think?

[Cat]

They would make great backdrop flats — shorty stores for shorty trains!

[Dinosbacsi]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:46 PM, Cat said:

They would make great backdrop flats — shorty stores for shorty trains!

Yeah, I think I'll get them.

 

As for catenary poles, do the Greenmax double catenary poles (https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10193669) work with Kato unitrack catenary bases or does GM have their own catenary pole base? Or I could also go with Kato's own double catenary of the same style (KATO 23060), but I can't find that one on HobbySearch, I would need to order it from somewhere else.

 

Edit: Whatever, since then I've found Kato 23-060 catenaries on HobbySearch. I don't know how I didn't find them previously, they were right there.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Dinosbacsi