Most Excellent!

I really enjoy layout designs that are small and based on prototypical operations.  Years ago I encountered several of these on a blog maintained by Jack Hall, a real life railroader  http://oscalewcor.blogspot.com/2009/12/modeling-philosophy-part-i.html ... sadly, it has been over a year since he has updated it. 

I find these types of operations are ideal subjects for the model railroader, both new and old.  They are simple enough to get things running rather quickly, yet provide as much 'modeling' as any modeler desires to accept.  Several of these 'layouts' could be linked together to form an industrial rail line with nearly unlimited operational potential for either the lone wolf or even a club.

It would have been neat if the aerial photo was linked to Google Earth (or something similar) where the reader could do a bit of exploring on their own.

I wouldn't mind a "series" of those layouts....

....with lots of single track in between each of them!

Excellent article once again demonstrating there is not a need for a high density of track in a layout, or in a scene for that matter, and still have an active operating session!

Ken L

Dear Ken, "...lot of these

Dear Ken,

"...lot of these single-turnout layouts, with lots of single-track mainline in between..."

Sounds remarkably like what Joe F talks about in this month's Reverse Running...
(Just don't let the want for "lots of them" stop you from building the first one and running it standalone...)

Lance, fantastic article!

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS Ken, there are an amazing number of proto railroads which can be broken down into series of "single turnout" scenes. A personal fave of mine is the Meeker Southern in WA. Consider checking in with the Small Layout Design YahooGroup for info on the Meeker and other "Single Turnout" inspirations...

Nice to see a photo of a prototype turnout in a model magazine

complete with the so common Self Guarding Frog, no less!.

My model railroad

My switching railroad consists of basically three different areas linked together to form an entire railroad. Any one of them could stand alone. One section is 6' by 18". The second is 11' by 2'. And the third is 6' by 2'. All three feature a lot of activity and a lot of car spots as Lance likes to call them. 

If you are interested check out my YouTube video on one of the locations at http://youtu.be/za5IMUJv3QQ.

Or for more pictures check out my blog at  http://dpirr.blogspot.com/

John

...

Dave Barrows in it's finest extension?

Barrows

Too much scenery for late-vintage Barrows .

Love it

After reading this article, I'm re-thinking my 18" x 10' layout design.  I wanted to have a track for a passenger train to be sitting (mostly to display it) and a few non-railroad related buildings, like a hotel and a couple stores, but what I had for track wouldn't work.  Now I'm thinking I could aim for a simpler track plan with no runaround (that I used to think was a requirement), and I could still have a fun little switcher that the kids would still enjoy running on.

Already have a master trackplan..

...well, i'm still working on it.  But some "towns" are nothing but a single interchange track, nothing else.  The goal is to have a single track mainline between towns with sidings 4+ times the length of a typical length train.  Possibly 5 times if I reduce the length of a typical train.My goal is the avg. length to be 25' and have 100' between towns.

This is the master plan for what I refer to as the Ultimate P&A Layout.  The Interim P&A will unfortunately be a bit cramped.  Single track mainline, with 6 towns.  There is at least 1.5x length of track between each town.  This is to make it feasible to have TT&TO but not have towns right on top of each other. 

I do plan on having some places where all there is, will be a turnout, following what Lance is describing here.  I made great progress in March, April came and became very ill, and was off my feet for all but 3 days that month.  May has been 50-50 so far.  Still recovering from whatever viral bug I must have had.  Ah well.

Ken L

"a simpler track plan with no runaround"

 I'd try to keep a run around just to make it more interesting.  A train can arrive from staging, work the town ,then run around the cars and head home. Passenger trains can arrive, run around and return. Tracks don't take up much space, and scenery can reduced to building flats and photo backdrops to allow more flexible track configuration...DaveBranum

Great design and fun to operate

I fully agree - Great Idea!

I live in New Zealand and am an irregular operator on a friend Mike's layout. His layout is three switching sections and occupies three of us for a good two hours. My patch is the 'industry' end which has only 2 industrial spurs, a 'classification' track, an interchange track and a Mine track. To facilitate exchange of cars between the sections there is also a loop that can be used in the 'common area'.

The key here is that there are only 4 industries + the mine. But each industry has multiple doors and the odd silo. It is very enjoyable spending an evening switching cars in and out of these industries. One spur, multiple spots for the one industry, I love it.

Robert

Perhaps Something Like This ... ?

Dave ('skiloff') -- your post reminded me of a prototype 'Inglenook' that might provide some inspiration.  It is from the late Carl Arendt's "Small Layout Scrapbook" (page 73)  http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page73/index.html

It is titled "Real Life Inglenook Poses Prototype Puzzles" and discusses a simple transloading operation using two turnouts.  It was submitted by Stuart Pate, who mentions another track just to the right of those shown that could be modeled near the backdrop and used to display some favorite cars, i.e., your passenger train could sit there ...  Cheers.  Dave O

Thanks, Dave!

I can see having something similar for sure.  I plan to paint the wood frames tomorrow and then hopefully will be able to play with track configurations on Wednesday.

Single Turnout Layout Design

Similar designs can be found all over the country at the end of industrial spurs.  You don't even have to go there!

Google Maps satellite view allows good aerial views of such trackwork.  A good example is the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition at the south end of the UP (x-SP) Costa Mesa Sub here in southern California.  The boxcars bring in newsprint.  Depending on the era, SP or Cotton Belt boxcars, or the Golden West Service repaints were common.  From time to time, other roads could be seen there.  Even as late as the early 1990s, a big sky blue GN boxcar, complete with the famous goat herald, was seen serving the spur.  Once the domain of high-nose GP7/9s, now NRE Gensets and RC slugs are frequent motive power.  Other power at various times includes GP15-1, GP38, GP40 and similar.

-Jim Fuhrman MRA

Sorry

......don't see the challenge.  Might be something I'd do if I only had a 1x8 area, built it run a month or two, then rip it out and start over again.

Dear Dave, In what sense?

"runaround" in small place

Here's the idea I used on my previous layout. It is from the Small Layout Scrapbook website, which is full of great ideas for small layouts. It is the "Box St. Yard" and uses a "sector plate" seen on the right end to effect a runaround. It is hidden behind a bridge and a building flat, and actually works quite well. Takes up much less space that a switch and tail track. 

Skip Luke

One Turnout Railroad

I volunteer at a railroad museum that has two turnouts, but only one is normally used.  We have four locomotives, one of which is not allowed on the siding.  We can rearrange the cars and locomotives in any order we want using just two locomotives, and the switching can be fun to figure out.  I have thought about a shelf layout with only one switch serving a grain elevator complex that has its own switch engine.  This complex could have the elevator, feed mill, coal shed, and lumber shed all strung out down the siding.  A peddler freight could arrive on the main and switch cars into the elevator complex.  For added challenge, only the switcher could be allowed on the siding.  Additionally, the mainlain train could be rearranged to go back the way it came rather than continuing down the track.  Such a thing could pack a lot of operation into a long narrow space (e.g. shelf layout) and not require much track cleaning or maintenance.  The thinking is just a bit out of the box, so I'm glad to see that I'm not the only crackpot chewing on the idea.  Thanks, Lance!

I'm fully in the camp of less

I'm fully in the camp of less is more, but I have to agree that this wouldn't entertain me for long. Doing a few simple scenes like this together and leaving out the tunnels, double slips, and wall to wall spaghetti of track, but this (to me) is over simplification.

It's great...

"Lance is really pushing things forward"

His layout in the recent MRP showing a four switch layout with run around and two long spurs is a more interesting than a one switch wonder. The operations of running a train onto the  scene, working the industries that face various directions then running around the train and heading home off scene  is a nice hour of relaxation and a compressed version of many prototype branch line operations during the typical modeled  era .....DaveBranum

Smaller Can Be Better

Smaller can be better for many..

....but not all.  It is a matter of what are the objectives of the layout.  If you want mainline operation in the 1950s using TT&TO, then having a larger layout is a prerequisite.  Having one, two or three towns, without 1-2x train length in between them is just not enough to make it worth building a layout.

Ken L