Looks good!

Do I detect the influence of Byron Henderson in your design?

Influences

Sure - Byron Henderson, Lance Mindheim, Carl Arendt and countless others on the web and here on MRH have influenced my thinking. Philip Goldstein's rail-marine web site ( http://www.freightrrofnyc.info) has also been a treasure trove of information.

Lots of operating potential.

Hi Christian,

This looks like an excellent plan with lots of operating potential.  GO FOR IT!

You may wish to pick up Tony Koester's book on Model Railroad Operations and read that to get some very good operations type ideas.  This layout design just reeks of lots of very good operating potential and some very good modeling potential with some diversified industries and sidings.  If you look at the first 2 or 3 chapters of Tony's book before you start making sawdust and laying track, you may find some things that may prevent a potential liability down the road, but your plan looks really good to me.

Good luck and regards, Vic Bitleris

Love it!

Excellent plan of one of my favorite types of railroad (see the track plan database).  Definitely look at the harbor float operations in and around New York Harbor for inspiration.  Looks like you have room for more industries on the right side adjacent to the yard.

I assume the shelves are 18 inches wide, give or take?  Definitely some very good ideas here.  Look forward to seeing your progress.

Best,

JG

Shelf width

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words guys.

Jeff - you are correct. "Shelfwork" is 18" hollow core doors with the obvious modifications to accommodate the float and tug. And its sectional - just in case!

Christian

Very nice Indeed...

Great job Christian, when a plan strikes an instant "I like that a lot" I think you should realise that you are on an winner.

Not only is the track plan really plausible, but it looks very prototypical for the type & location.  You have clearly done your research.  It also looks like a great switching layout, with tons of potential.

Look forward to seeing it progress from flat 2D to the real thing.

Jas...

Looks good.

 The car float might be a bit short and with water at the wharf up on top and at the float bridge it might be more convincing to run a seawall around the corner and connect the two small pieces of water into one larger piece. I like your  design of the float yard as it looks like it might have enough capacity to handle the traffic, I've  seen many plans that din't take into account how car floats were pulled and loaded. Generally most layouts look too crowded with track and industries but in this case being a high rent district you might even be able to add in a few more car spots in those blank areas on the plan. Do you have a float bridge style in mind? Something like the unusual WM bridge at Balto might look good in this kind of layout........DaveB

Nice plan!

Very nice plan. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress, and good luck getting out of your chair

I like the track.....

Looks very much like one that

Looks very much like one that MR did a while back for one of their magazines. I think yours has the same flavor but is slightly different. You are definitely on to a winner here, I particularly like the way you have integrated the passing track into the curves. This plan will be nice enough that if you like the harbor thing you could easily incorporate it into your next railroad as there are obvious places to extend it to fit a larger space later.

Rob in Texas

Great Layout

Great layout.  I would suggest that you make the left side a car float also.  That would give you four places for cars to go and enter the layout. 

Mike Lee

Great Layout

Wayne

I like it. Nice shelf job. I especially like the crossing on two sidings as I had just finished mine up and had a chance to use it. Great. Thanks for the look see.

status

Did you get this one built? Love the design and would love to see some pics of the finished layout!

Thanks

Graham in Canada

status...Yes...Christian I would love to see what you did in 3D

Hope you built this...and would love to see photos of the progress.

Decided to give this layout a

Nice.concept and plan. The

Nice.concept and plan. The options for expansion are good as well. You are likely to have just the opposite of a chainsaw layout with this one. Additional floats and a small interchange yard could allow you to interchange lots of cars to off layout destinations. I am looking forward to following along with your efforts.

Minor Concern

I really like your plan. 

Looked things over and really my only concern would be the tightness of the curves and turnouts.  But as long as you don't ever plan on running anything larger than a 36-foot car and "assume" a very small locomotive you should be okay.

I did not see any "switching traps" and it looks like the majority of your plan will allow you to use the lead/main on the right side of the layout.  

Given you will be running a short wheelbase locomotive at a slow speed and have a good number of turnouts, I would suggest going with frog juicers for your turnouts to avoid stalls.  Another option, (if available for your locomotive), would be adding a "keep alive", "current keeper", or similar type of capacitor to your locomotive to avoid stalls. 

Joe 

" As much as I think modeling

Looks like a very neat design. To learn more about prototype  car float operations I recommend Phil Goldstein's New York harbor terminals website,it has lots of photos ,track plans, and information about operations....DaveB

Very nice

Nice layout, looks like it will be fun.

One thing I don't see is coal trestles or wharves.  Steam ships in that era would be coal powered (as was everything) so coal was a HUGE commodity for railroads.  Industries would have one spot that was also a coal dump for a boiler in the basement.  There would be a wharf to dump coal into lighters to fuel ships or barges to take it to coastal towns.  In addition there would be retail coal dealers delivering to houses, businesses and smaller industries.

Looks Great

Looks Great!

Cant wait to see the progress!  

I like it...

It cries out for a staging extension off the bottom right of the bench

Can I recommend a look at  "

Can I recommend a look at  " Track Planning Ideas from Model Railroader - 58 track Plans from past issues - selected by Bob Hayden" On page #41 there is a track plan for the "Short Hills and Eastern" (The article actually starts on page #38- a rather more complicated version of your layout - the reason for the recommendation is that on page #40  there is a diagramatic plan for a steam powered, two-track car ferry " Karen Bay" - which would fit very nicely as a replacement for your car float, should you fancy using it. Away back, I built a modified and stretch version to hold longer cars - much fiddling with enlargements on A3 paper and cutting and pasting! - It actually worked surprisingly well