My First Japanese Layout

[the_weird_one]

Good evening,

 

I've been lurking on this board reading everything I can for a while now but I thought I'd better make a post and say hi. But I'm not good with introduction threads so figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.

 

I've done a small British N Gauge layout before but given my love of Japan, and Japanese culture, as well as anime and manga I wanted to turn my hands to a layout based on Japanese trains which is how I stumbled upon these boards via Google.

 

Unfortunately I have recently been made redundant so I'm going to be stuck in the planning stage for a while but I've attached what I've come up with as a reasonable sized layout for starting when I find work again. But I'd like to get some opinions on it.

 

The blue track is for a shinkansen line, I would like to know if the station is long enough to get an 8 car shinkansen in or not, my idea is to have a Dr. Yellow (full 7 cars) and a N700-8000 (full 8 cars) but I've not been able to work out how longer platform I'd need to have in order to be able to do that.

 

The orange track is likely to be a commuter line, though I may also run some freight on it at some stage. I've connected the Shinkansen line to the commuter line as I intend to have a cleaning train as well and wanted to be able to leave it in a siding while not in use but able to clean the commuter and shinkansen lines when needed.

 

The green track is either going to be for a tram or railbus.

 

As for landscaping I've not made my mind up what I'd like to do yet but would like to get a tunnel in there somewhere so I can get the lights of the trains illuminating the exits.

 

Anyway Hi again and I'll try to post more though I tend to be rather quite I'm afraid but overly talkative when settled in somewhere.

[cteno4]

Weird one,

 

welcome! looks like youve gotten the japanese modeling bug.

 

the shinkansen station looks a tad short for an 8 car train.

 

700 and n700 center cars are about 16cm long and end cars 17cm long. so a 7 car will be about 114cm long and an 8 car 130cm long

 

so your inside track should just hold the 7 car train and maybe the outside will as well, but not an 8 car, assuming those are 10cm lines.

 

any thought of making the shinkansen line elevated? does make it harder to see and get access to your inside tracks, but is more prototypical. might also help break up having a number of concentric ovals at the level. might be able to get double viaduct in there at the edge of the layout. could be embankment on one side instead of viaduct and then go into a tunnel as well.

 

keep us posted on the progress!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Welcome weird one,

 

I like your track plan.  You don't mention which brand of track you use, but it looks like Tomix judging from the 3-way points you're incorporating.  I have a few suggestions:

 

1. In Japan shinkansen lines are Stephenson gauge and local trains are Cape gauge.  Therefore the two don't mix.  I would suggest isolating your shinkansen lines;

 

2. Shinkansen lines are often elevated in built up areas.  Therefore, on your station side, I would flip the station so that the shinkansen is elevated on the inside and the local train loops pass under the shinkansen lines at each end.  That way, an elevated shinkansen station behind the local station would give a great view of the trains;

 

3. An 8-car shinkansen needs about 1400mm of station.  I'd use the next platform unit module up.  Thus, if you are using Tomix, the modular length is 140mm so I'd make my platforms 1540mm long. 

 

4. Then, I'd make the radius of the shinkansen as large as my layout can handle.  Shinkansen cars don't look good on tight turns.  In particular, the nose of the "Bill-et Trains" those with duck-bills, overhang terribly on tight turns.

 

5. On the subject of shinkansen and tracks, most of mine don't like the 280 radius on the 3-way points but handle the 541 radius side fine.  Just another thing to keep in mind.

 

6. If you're wanting some sidings for the shinkansen AND choose to go down the elevated track path then I'd recommend making a part of the shinkansen station a terminus so that a couple of shinkansen can be parked there.

 

7.  Love the streetcar idea.  Use Google Earth to take a look at, say, Kuramoto in Kyushu.  If you want to go a little bigger then take a look at Enoshima, south of Tokyo.  That's one pretty little private railway, rich in character.  I must admit, when I first saw your green track I thought of the little mountain railway called the Hakone Tozan Railway.  Enoshima and Hakone rolling stock are readily available in N-scale.  I'm not sure about Kuramoto ... I'll find out in October.

 

Wishing you all the best ... and looking forward to seeing some photos of that layout.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[JR 500系]

Hi there the_wierd_one!

 

Hi from a newbie that's also slowly planning his layout! Nice layout you have there! I can see a beautiful layout becoming shape! Your layout gave me some ideas for mine too! Neat! Thanks for sharing! Can i ask which software you used to draw the tracks? I'm using AnyRail and i cant use more than 50 pieces of rail in the free trial version...    Need to draw out my layout like what you did too to get a better idea. Like The_Ghan said, it would be better to elevate the shinkansen tracks as Shinkansen really looks alot better on elevated tracks, and also free up all the space below the viaduct for more local/ express lines. You can also convert them into dining spaces/ shops/ parking/ playgrounds etc just like in Japan! Your layout concept is very similar to mine, except mine doesn't have the street car but there is a Eiden 900 Kirara to go into the mountain regions instead ~

 

@ The_Ghan: Wonderful advices there! I've learnt something too in the process! Thanks!

[the_weird_one]

Than you all for your welcomes, I've read your replies and amended my current thinking to suit (have attached the new current layout)

 

Weird one,

 

welcome! looks like youve gotten the japanese modeling bug.

 

the shinkansen station looks a tad short for an 8 car train.

 

Japanese culture and animation are a big part of my life - so much so that I run events and clubs in the UK for anime fans, so its not so much catching the Japanese modeling bug but adding the train modeling to my already existing figure modeling bug.

 

Thats a shame but I've not got any more board length to play with in my mind, I want to do as much as possible on a single sheet of 8' x 4' something when I start making it. I wanted to use the N700 series as it is my favorite one of the shinkansen that I've had the fortune to ride on. With the Railstar's a close second eventually would like to run both a N700 and be able to change it for a Railstar occasionally.

 

Welcome weird one,

 

I like your track plan.  You don't mention which brand of track you use, but it looks like Tomix judging from the 3-way points you're incorporating.  I have a few suggestions:

 

1. In Japan shinkansen lines are Stephenson gauge and local trains are Cape gauge.  Therefore the two don't mix.  I would suggest isolating your shinkansen lines;

 

2. Shinkansen lines are often elevated in built up areas.  Therefore, on your station side, I would flip the station so that the shinkansen is elevated on the inside and the local train loops pass under the shinkansen lines at each end.  That way, an elevated shinkansen station behind the local station would give a great view of the trains;

 

4. Then, I'd make the radius of the shinkansen as large as my layout can handle.  Shinkansen cars don't look good on tight turns.  In particular, the nose of the "Bill-et Trains" those with duck-bills, overhang terribly on tight turns.

 

7.  Love the streetcar idea.  Use Google Earth to take a look at, say, Kuramoto in Kyushu.  If you want to go a little bigger then take a look at Enoshima, south of Tokyo.  That's one pretty little private railway, rich in character.  I must admit, when I first saw your green track I thought of the little mountain railway called the Hakone Tozan Railway.  Enoshima and Hakone rolling stock are readily available in N-scale.  I'm not sure about Kuramoto ... I'll find out in October.

 

Wishing you all the best ... and looking forward to seeing some photos of that layout.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Oops sorry yes I am planning on running using Tomix track, though the Kato is easier to get in the UK I don't like the height of the plastic ballast that comes on the Kato system, the Tomix is better in my mind aesthetically, though it will be ballasted around so in reality that doesn't make a lot of difference.

 

I had wanted to connect the two lines despite knowing its not prototypical so that I could leave a track cleaning freight train in the sidings behind the local lines. But as you said the shikansen typically run elevated so I've abandoned that idea and will run a separate train as and when it needs to, going to be a while before I have enough trains that its going to make me have to remove one to get space to run a cleaner on that line anyway.

 

The sinkansen radius is currently a 354mm to keep things within a single board that is unfortunately as large as I can go, maybe in the future I'll have a massive train shed, and allow myself some larger double track radius. The rest of the radii on my track are 317 and 280 on the commuter lines and 140 on the streetcar.

 

Thanks for the suggestions of places to look at for the street car, I have a rough idea of running the long middle stretch down the edge of a park / public green area and have grass in the middle of the rails rather than the usual ballast or sleepers.

 

Hi there the_wierd_one!

 

Hi from a newbie that's also slowly planning his layout! Nice layout you have there! I can see a beautiful layout becoming shape! Your layout gave me some ideas for mine too! Neat! Thanks for sharing! Can i ask which software you used to draw the tracks? I'm using AnyRail and i cant use more than 50 pieces of rail in the free trial version...    Need to draw out my layout like what you did too to get a better idea. Like The_Ghan said, it would be better to elevate the shinkansen tracks as Shinkansen really looks alot better on elevated tracks, and also free up all the space below the viaduct for more local/ express lines. You can also convert them into dining spaces/ shops/ parking/ playgrounds etc just like in Japan! Your layout concept is very similar to mine, except mine doesn't have the street car but there is a Eiden 900 Kirara to go into the mountain regions instead ~

 

@ The_Ghan: Wonderful advices there! I've learnt something too in the process! Thanks!

 

I use AnyRail, I stumped up the £35 for it as it was by far the simplest to use, though it doesn't have all of the track available listed for Tomix it is close enough that I can get my shopping list from it then when I can afford to buy it go to Plaza Japan and order.

 

I've also attached the AnyRail file for you to open and look at since you can open a layout with any number of pieces in the trial version just not make them.

[Densha]

7.  Love the streetcar idea.  Use Google Earth to take a look at, say, Kuramoto in Kyushu.  If you want to go a little bigger then take a look at Enoshima, south of Tokyo.  That's one pretty little private railway, rich in character.  I must admit, when I first saw your green track I thought of the little mountain railway called the Hakone Tozan Railway.  Enoshima and Hakone rolling stock are readily available in N-scale.  I'm not sure about Kuramoto ... I'll find out in October.

Do you mean Kumamoto in Kyushu? Kuramoto is not a city in Japan if I am right and Kumamoto has trams.

 

Thats a shame but I've not got any more board length to play with in my mind, I want to do as much as possible on a single sheet of 8' x 4' something when I start making it. I wanted to use the N700 series as it is my favorite one of the shinkansen that I've had the fortune to ride on. With the Railstar's a close second eventually would like to run both a N700 and be able to change it for a Railstar occasionally.

It's not prototypically, but perhaps it's an idea to run shorter Shinkansen? 4-car for example.

Personally I would have dropped the Shinkansen line in such a small space, but that is up to you of course.

 

On the new file: I don't know how you look at it, but to me it looks like something is wrong. The Shinkansen station is above one commuter line and the Shinkansen line is above a few sidings as well. I think the pillars will stand on top of the tracks, and it will look bad anyway.

Also, it seems like your tram track crosses the commuter track. But have you thought about if that really works in practice when driving your trains?

And I recommend looking into the Tomix double switch/crossing because I heard bad things about it.

 

Attached an edited file of Anyrail with normal and edited tram (just moved a few pieces because I don't have the full version) how I would do it personally. Of course I don't know if you like it and the tram line could be done much better with more rail parts.

Or perhaps even your sidings below at the empty space?

[The_Ghan]

Weird one,

 

I've been to Japan 5 times, and lived there for a year.  I'm making my first trip back in 20 years later this year and I'm pretty excited about it.

 

One thing I would suggest is just to read the following threads by westfalen.  He's travelled far more extensively through Japan than me, particularly by rail.  Take some time to check out his destinations using Google Earth ... it's amazing the places westfalen got to in his latest trip.  Use Google to look up images of stations and see what trains run on them.  Check out some of scenery too:

 

Japanese Vacation No: 9 - Week 1

Japanese Vacation No: 9 - Week 2

Japanese Vacation No: 9 - Week 3

Japanese Vacation No: 9 - Week 4

 

Feel free to ask plenty of questions about locations, railways, trains and models.  Quite a few members know a lot more than me.  In fact, the more I learn about Japanese rail the more I discover how little I know ... if that makes sense.

 

This is my little patch, so to speak.

 

BTW, what side of your layout do you consider the "front", top or bottom on plan?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Davo Dentetsu]

Japanese culture and animation are a big part of my life - so much so that I run events and clubs in the UK for anime fans, so its not so much catching the Japanese modeling bug but adding the train modeling to my already existing figure modeling bug.

 

Great minds think alike.  :P

[the_weird_one]

Right have taken feedback into account and come up with what ever revision it is now.

 

@Densha - I kinda want the tram to cross over the mainline it was originally going to be a heritage steam line but decided the 140mm curves were probably too tight so changed it to a tram, as I'm also not going to be automating anything or using DCC having the running problems isn't going to be an issue cause i can just hold the commuter trains in a station until the tram crosses.

 

I did how ever like your movement of the sidings to allow for a better shinkansen line so have left them as they are but have moved the shinkansen lines a bit. Also I want them mainly as background and as I have fond memories of them.

 

@The_Ghan - Thanks for the links, I shall read them when I get time from fire fighting last minute problems from my convention but they look really interesting.

 

Also I consider the front of the layout to be the bottom, sorry too many years of looking at technical drawings makes me assume everyone would reallise that, tis a bad habit.

[brill27mcb]

Hi! Refer to the track design "snippets" here:

 

http://trainweb.org/tomix/track/Snippets.htm

 

Especially look at Figures 2, 10 and 11. Using something like the top half of Figure 11 will gain you more station length within the confines of your table space. The basic idea is to put the turnout on the curve itself, so that the length available for straight tracks (and therefore station platforms) is maximized.

 

Rich K.

 

Added P.S.:  It also eliminates a reverse curve situation, zigzagging through the turnout. I've noticed that for some reason the Japanese seem to like them on yard throats (both real and model), whereas here in the U.S. we try to design them out.

[The_Ghan]

Ah, Weird One,

 

Rich's post just reminded me of a few more things:

 

1. Space for station platforms: you need an S72.5 between your PL541 and your R541-15 as shown on fig. 14 if you want to fit platforms between the track.  This widens the spacing from 37 to 55.5mm.  Also, the crossing made by X72.5-30 on the left end of Station 3 in that fig. looks more prototypical to me.

 

2. Transitions: Whenever you create an "S" bend you should add a straight section approximately 1-car long as a transition between the change of direction.  This maintains car alignment at the couplers, relieves operating problems and is also prototypically the right thing to do.  This occurs on your orange tracks where you have R280-15 and R315-15 pieces making up reverse curves.  I notice those bends add up to 30^o in each direction.  Perhaps reducing them to just 15^o, pulling the orange tracks towards the bottom of the image so that the green ends up between the orange and the blue might help.  This will enable you to add S72.5x2 to each "S" bend.  You need to use S72.5 because they will be at 15^o and that will keep your horizontal length left-right at 140mm - ie: 145 x Cos15^o = 140.

 

3. Easements: This isn't necessary, but easements are where the start and end of a curve is more gentle than the mid radius.  This happens prototypically and can improve the appearance of trains rounding a corner on scale models.  It is easy to create easements using flex track, but Tomix doesn't have it.  What I do is bump up the radius by two radii increments at each end.  If you can't afford the space, it isn't really worth going up by a single radii.  Eg: looking at the top left corner of the two orange lines, it appears you have 2 x C280-45 for the inner loop and 2 x C317-45 for the outer loop.  For me, I would change the inner loop to C354-15 + C280-15 + C280-45 + C354-15, and the outer loop to C391-15 + C315-15 + C315-45 + C391-15.  Of course, we can't always do this when real estate is limited in the basement or study, but if you can, it will get noticed by the pros !!!  Easements are probably even more important on the shinkansen lines and you will notice that Tomix has loop sets with Easements incorporated into the loop.  Easements aren't required for tramways and lines using trains with shorter cars, such as Hakone and Enoshima.  In fact, with trams and short cars I actually like to avoid easments and stick to tight radii.

 

4. Train length:  Finally, there is absolutely no reason why you can't run 6-car or 7-car trains.  In fact, the 0 Series Shinkansen R-sets were 6-car, and the Q-sets were 4-car.  The 100 Series P-sets were 4-car and the K-sets were 6-car.  The E3 and 400 series were also 6-car and 7-car sets.  I think 6-cars is a great length to run as in most cases, the train doesn't look "too short".  Alternatively, you might choose to model railways that use longer consists of shorter cars, such as the Odakyu RomanceCar trains.  Check the links at the bottom to the different RomanceCar trains.  The models can be seen here.  While out of production right now I've managed to pick up just about every one of them from Ebay or Yahoo.

 

Mindblowing stuff, I'm sure, but it took me years to learn these things.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Densha]

May I ask you why you used some weird small track parts on the layout? They seem pretty useless to me.

[The_Ghan]

Densha,

 

Who are you asking ... and about where?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Densha]

The weird one is, take a look at his layout drawing around the corners, there are some really small straight parts at some places of which I don't get the purpose.

[cteno4]

they help get the tracks spaced the way he wants on the ends on the viaduct level and get the points away from the curve. lower level tracks they are needed for the sidings he has there. you will find as you try to cram a lot of track into a small space like this you end up having to use small bits to get things just so to fit in with multiple things going on. also with track geometries and more complex plans you have to use the small bits to make it all work out. we always had this issue with all the incarnations of the first jrm layouts were we did them on the fly. if you want it perfect with only big pieces of track you will just end up with a very simple oval and pretty limited if you want to squeeze every ounce of layout in your area.

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Densha,

 

I agree.  On the blue track, the straights between the PL541 points and the curves are too short for an effective transition.  They should be about S140.

 

It looks like he has S18.5 or S33 half-way around the curves.  This give him the exact 37.5mm spacing between sidings at either side.  Ie: they're spaced relative to the orange tracks as well.  These might change if he wants to increase the spacing to 55.5mm to fit island platforms.  Of course, if he changes the curves as I explained in the "Easements" section of my earlier post then the problem might solve itself.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

Any straight bit you can get between a curve and a point helps. Granted 128+ is better, but at times it can be hard to squeeze in.

 

Easements are great, but they then can make your overall sectional track geometry even more challenging and thus the use of more of the little bits to make things connect up correctly.

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

 

Easements aren't required for tramways and lines using trains with shorter cars, such as Hakone and Enoshima.  In fact, with trams and short cars I actually like to avoid easments and stick to tight radii.

 

Tramways use spirals, where the radius gets tighter and tighter as the car proceeds through the curve.

[the_weird_one]

Hi all,

 

Thank you for all your help - will do individual comments on posts since my last one here - would have done it last night as I was expecting the Olympic Opening Ceremony to be one of those massively boring affairs but I ended up watching the whole of it for a change it had me entertained.

 

Right time for replies in order of comments recieved:-

 

@brill27mcb thank you for that link as you'll be able to see I've managed to incorporate the junction in the curve of the shinkansen line at the back (top) of the layout, because of the angle of the turn out I've used the junction as an easement stretch that The_Ghan has suggested.

 

@The_Ghan thanks for more great advice, I wasn't aware that I needed the spacer in the junction to allow for an island platform, but now that you've told me they are in there.

 

With the S-curve at the bottom, I put them in as I didn't want a totally oval track for the commuter line, despite that being its effective appearance, just turning it back in on itself adds to my mind at least a little more interest, but taking in to account your advice I've reduced the angle of the curving for the S and introduced 2 x 72.5mm lengths of track before switching back, so hopefully they now won't cause any problems during running and will still add that little more to the interest of the running than a pure oval.

 

I wasn't aware of the nature of easements but now that you've mentioned it they do make sense, and I just have the room to be able to do them within my layout area so again following your recommendations I've included them all the way around the curve's.

 

Though I technically can now run the 8 car shinkansen's as I was hoping to, when I found out the track lengths needed on my original layout I'd thought about just running 6/7 car trains. Though at some point in the distant future I would like to run a full 16 car set thats for track 2, which won't happen until this track is completed. Though again than you for the RomanceCar Yahoo! link I must admit I've never considered them but looking at the auctions there's some nice sets there.

 

@Densha just as @cteno4 & @The_Ghan said they were there as required to get the track spacing how I wanted, otherwise I'd have been more cramped on an already cramped layout than I absolutely needed to be.

 

@The_Ghan, I know a 140mm lenght of track after a curve before a junction would have been idea but I was taught with my previous peco layout that any straight is better than no straight after a junction unless the junction is being used as part of the curve, but you'll notice that now there's only one case where there may be a problem which is to the bottom right of the shinkansen line but I'm hoping that because the S curve is slightly broken up with the 72.5mm track and that both the radii are 541mm that it shouldn't cause too many issues.

 

@Jeff yep thats what I thought any straight is better than no straight.

 

Anyway I've attached revision 4 after taking into account comments you've all been helpful enough to give me. Though I feel like I should have manage to come up with a layout with less obvious problems now before posting it.

[cteno4]

yep, any little bit to get the truck set as straight as possible when the flanges hit the blade helps. of course the longer the car the more lateral force there will be on the trucks.

 

jeff

[Densha]

The last one definitely is the best out of them al. There is one thing I think you should consider: are the sidings long enough? How much space will your trains take up? The commuter sidings aren't long, so more than 4 cars on the the top one isn't possible, maybe 5 cars on the 2nd and 5-6 cars on the longest sidings. The E231 Yamanote line I have is about 13cm per car, but taking another centimeter for the coupler and flexibility and you already have 14cm. Not to forget that I have another Japanese train that is 14cm long per car without coupler.

It's difficult to find an other good place for sidings at this layout though.

 

I assume you made the tram station at the left for some more variation, but IMO it looks a tad bit weird. But if you can find a prototype I say go with it.

A good idea to make two stations on the inside so you don't necessarily have to cross the commuter line every time.

 

Where will the platforms going? (I assume you are planning those, but I don't see space for them, in anyrail you can make a sketch with the square producing button thingy)

[the_weird_one]

@Densha Thankfully since I knew I couldn't run a full length shinkansen I wanted to make sure the commuter ones were only 4 carriages long to give some kind of impression of difference in size between them. As such the bottom two sidings are going to be for my commuter trains when the short freight train that has my track cleaner attached goes out to clean the tracks.

 

I've never played with the drawing tools in AnyRail and now that I have I don't like them but attached are my rough ideas for stations, not prototypical I know but I also am aware that I'm low on space so I'm having to make a compromise there, I'm also tempted to put a curved station in on the bottom right hand side. But I'm leaning towards not as that would be too many stations on a layout of this size.

 

As per your comments I have added another tram station in just before the track crossing to give me a couple of different services, one going all the way to the station at the front/bottom of the layout and one to a different area of the town scape.

 

After adding the stations in I've decided not to have a 2 station shinkansen line and reduced it to just running around a single station loop, really it is only going to be there for background movement anyway while I play more with the commuter and trams. The double station type thing on the right hand side of the tram layout is going to be a service yard for a single tram, starting to like the idea of a vintage type tram in there being looked after while two Protrams do the normal service and bring out the vintage one for special occasion runs (new year/town festival and the like).

 

Anyway I present Revision 5.

[Densha]

I'm not sure how the platforms of both commuter stations would fit with the viaduct next to it, because it's practically on it. You would probably have to do (almost) scratch-built them to fit in there. Could shifting the whole shinkansen loop a few centimeter above help?

I actually meant to say that your idea of those two switches of the tram were already good, but if you are going to make the second one a yard then another switch would be nice indeed. But which one of the new two will be the yard?

 

If you could post the any file I could show you what anyrail can do. You can round the corners and make the track plan much clearer with a few options. Just trying some things out also helps.

[cteno4]

Nice, coming along!

 

Many Shinkansen stations have local tracks and platforms butt up against them. Also some selective scene compression is usually needed in a smaller layout like this. Should not be too bad to kitbash interesting stations as needed, and with a small layout like this you will find you will have to do some thing different than straight out of the box to get the most out of your track plan.

 

Have you thought about using double track viaduct and then just doing the station with platforms on the outside of the Shinkansen tracks? You should get a platform then just long enough to hold the 7 and 8 car shinkansens you want. More fun to have two shinkansens running at once and more prototypical.

 

Agreed, two Shinkansen stations is a bit much on this small of a layout. You could have the larger local station butt up against the Shinkansen station and a smaller one up front.

 

One issue with the tram wil be its crossing your local tracks. I'm sure it's done some in Japan, but I don't think much. Also will make the operations a little challenge. You could put the tram on an auto reverser so it cold also run on its own. Could run the tram to the backside of the local station in front and to the frontside of the station in back and then use buildings as much as possible in the middle to hide the tram for a while.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[The_Ghan]

Jeff,

 

I get what you're saying about the tram layout, but in this case I'm finding it quite seductive.  I can just imagine the small tram operator having his timetable squeezed by JNR resulting in seemingly ad-hoc departures.  Plus, it gets the smaller elements of the layout out in front where they're easliy seen.

 

This layout is developing quite a good urban feel to it.  My final comments to The_Weird_One relate to the "urbanness" and the green tram layout:

 

1. Make sure these spurs that you've added have meaning.  The front one is obviously a station, the end one might be storage sheds and maintenance, but what are the others?  You'll need to think about whether they are branches, sidings, stations, etc.  But I like the fact that they are there;

 

2.  If you're doing a branch, such as the spur in the middle of the layout, perhaps a Y point in it so that a tram approaching in a clockwise direction can enter the branch, stop at the station, return to the loop and continue in a clockwise direction to the front station ... like this:

 

3.  A couple of strategically placed short passing sidings would mean you could run 3-4 trams using DCC and look rather prototypically correct.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan