Door

Steve sounds like a dream come true on space. One thing I came across in Minnesota was that if a layout was going to be open to the public there had to be a 2nd exit to the outside. Have no idea how often that rule/law was violated. Just one thing to keep in mind with layout design is for their to be an easy escape path from the room. I suspect from all the layout/room plans I have seen here on MRH that most RR spaces only have one exit. My own room is that way also.

Jack

Maximize the space

I think the LD-SIG has demonstrated you get the most bang for the buck with a single peninsula. In this case, maybe, maybe not. Depends if you want that peninsula for mainline run or just spur trackage.

Let's see - 11' - 6' (aisles) leaves you 5' for benchwork split 3 ways... no, you aren't getting 24" wide benchwork there. 24" wall + 24" peninsula + 12" wall perhaps. The peninsula would be up to about 14' long though - put the door in the middle of the opposite 11' wall and angle stuff  - you can go into the door gap around the peninsula to some extent for the aisle. Or offset the door aligned with one of the aisles and avoid the issue for a 13' peninsula (off the 2' wall benchwork). Standard 36" door is assumed.

Going the other way would give you 2' on each 11' wall, with 14' between them - if you did 2 peninsulas of 24" each, you could have 3 1/2' aisles between them. The peninsulas would only be about 4' long though - 3' on the end for aisle, and 4' for the benchwork along the 18' wall taking up the rest of the space. Enough room for a pretty impressive industry or interchange on each of them though. Might have the door a couple feet in from one end of an 11' wall to maximize the run on that wall instead of having a couple of 4' stubs (which also applies to the other orientation).

Or you could do a single peninsula with a 90deg turn in it for a longer one - which might let you incorporate it into the mainline run. Your minimum radius would figure into designing that one.

One thing I've discovered is that 24" can make for quite a bit of depth - if you are angling more for operations than scenery, you might see what you can do with 18" benchwork along the walls.

My space is similar to

My space is similar to yours (22.5x12.5' inner dimensions) and while I was able to squeeze a peninsula in, there are pinch points, and benchwork is not as deep as I'd like it to be. To give you an idea what it looks like, here's my current drawing (most of the benchwork is already built):

I was trying to push the maximum use of available space and originally this was supposed to be N scale which would've been just fine for it, but after change of heart I switched (back?) to H0 and things became smaller.

In retrospect, maybe I should've gone with a G shape instead of E, but I felt that G wasn't working for me in this space. Also, I realized that for a decent peninsula in H0 you have to have more than 14' width.

Since your space is 11' and set in stone (concrete), to me it would be a no contest - around the wall layout with 24-30" benchwork. Probably multiple decks separated by 16-20", lower at 38" and upper 56-58" height off the floor. For a triple deck, heights would be 28", 40-42" and 56-58" off the floor.

Maybe a helix to climb up and down, although with the 24-30" benchwork depth you can afford to double track a no-lix around the perimeter, following the walls and then come across on the outside of the benchwork for the last 4-5" climb to connect to the decks.

Having the benchwork 24-30" deep and around the walls will afford you some very generous curves worthy of any modern or past equipment. And there's still plenty of depth to make the track break the dead straight monotony of following the benchwork in parallel.

I know all these numbers sound so definitive, and that's because I spent months and months over analyzing every little thing, trying to squeeze inch here and there, etc. 

Great space!

I agree around the walls with one peninsula but I wouldn’t go 24” deep around the walls. Max 18” and give yourself extra aisle space. No choke points at all. That would give you an even greater radius for the peninsula curve, or of course you could have a long stub that has a divider with industries or yards on each side. Lance Mindheim’s books have great bedroom size around the walls layout designs that you could enlarge and many have single peninsulas. They’ll give you great ideas.

Space Idea

I have a space that is close to your size, 17x15, I am building a layout in.  “You can checkout my blog for the plan.”

Lance Mindheim was certainly an inspiration when considering ideas for the space.

Found around the room, 24 inch wide shelves, with penisulas was the best plan for the space.  Given your width is only 11 feet, going with less width, 18 instead of 24 inches for example, and one long peninsula may be a better fit.  

Looking forward to seeing your final plan!

Joe

Thanks for all of the replies.......

Yea have been kicking around ideas similar to those mentioned.   Now matter how much space we have we always want just a bit more.   That 11' is joy killer for me, yea 1st world problem I know.   Right now the current contender is "E" shaped layout with 22" bench work and 30" isles.  Also consider an "e" shape

Always open to more ideas and input

ratled

Go around the walls, 18 inch

Go around the walls, 18 inch depth on bench work. Lift out, raised shelf, swing gate what ever works for you. One 24 inch peninsula that is a branch or yard or industrial area from the rest of the layout. What ever fits your theme. This would make a great foot print for a one town layout moving from one switching area to another. Shallow shelves with low relief buildings and most of the space used for track side scenery and track should make for an interesting layout with lots of operation.

If you get creative and use an around the room spiral grade to a lower level for staging you can actually pack a lot of railroad into that space. Make the door an out swing and you do not need to worry about anything penetrating the room boundaries. Make the lowest part of the bench work 48 inches above the floor under the peninsula and you can have a nice work space under the peninsula and space to sit in the aisle. If you go for a 56 inch top level for the top of your bench work, you could then have staging tracks at 48 inches from the floor.

With those dimensions you could even sit in a rolling desk chair and roll under the bench work into the room. Grade to lower level could be kept under 2 % for the layout. Narrow shelves would be easily supported on low cost shelf brackets. If you have a grade up and down you can have continuous running and have a twice around plan with staging on the lower level.

Sounds like a great space for a railroad.

Thomas Klimoski

Check out Thomas Klimoski’s GNRR Layout. You could use his layout as inspiration. 

I had a 10x18' space in my

I had a 10x18' space in my last basement and I did around the walls and shoehorned a 11 track staging yard under the main yard.

If you could make the room longer to 20' that would be a major plus.  With 11 feet width you could squeeze a lobed peninsula in the middle that would allow 28" radius turn back but at the expense of 24" walkway on each side and 12" wide bench along the wall.

Around the walls will get you the most RR and a narrow peninsula to the GNRR RR would give you more generous layout width and walkways.  

 "how best to use the space.

What part of the SP , what kind of traffic do you want to model?  The answer would greatly narrow down the choices for a track plan. A city industrial park based scene would be flatter than a mountain pass based operation for example.....DaveB

SP in September 1980, HO,

I'm with you all the way for SP in 1980.  That's right in my favorite time frame and was my local RR in my teens and early twenties in the Sacramento area.

SP had lot's of six axle power on mains but your local and type of traffic would be a factor for layout design and minimums.  For example 24" min radius is a little on the tight side for long cars and six axle diesel typical of much of SP's traffic.  OTOH, if you are modeling a piece of the SP, perhaps industrial, 4 axle loco's and smaller radius and few, if any long rolling stock might fit ok.

Regarding your E shaped suggestion, your 24" scene's and 36" aisle adds up to 12 feet, and you stated your absolute width is 11 feet.  That means you'll have to cut down on aisle width or scene width or a bit of both.

Klamath sub out for the Oregon Div

It will be the Jefferson Branch of the protolanced Klamath sub.   A "what if" had they ran the trapped NWP traffic after the tunnel 27 fire in 1978 north and east along the Klamath River, over near Hilt CA and into the Klamath Falls area.   Mostly lumber some "State of Jefferson" inspired bits to sell the illusion.

If I do an "e" plan, one section will be the Humboldt Yard inspired by the one in Eurkea.  It won't have the balloon track though.  I know it's a little small for a yard but I like banging cars some times. 

One section will more of an urban section anchored by the manufacturing co "Vegaly De Find".  Not prototypical I know but gives me a chance for some variety of traffic and limits the number of open loads to model. 

The third section would be the Siskiyou Lumber Co.  The essence of the TPLC. All of the feel but allows for the ability of some artistic liberties.

Still trying to work out a Nolix without having the that 10 pounds of RR in a 5 pound room. If can do that, I can pick up the Simpson mill that provided so much truck traffic after the fire over to the McLoud River Railway, the old mill in Happy Camp and the shake mill that use to be in Siead.

The vision is there just need to see how to fit as much in as I can

Steve

"Still trying to work out a

  The key is to distill the plan down to the few scenes that best capture the railroad's character. I think one could fit a nice layout in your space. For example place the Humbolt yard on the right wall, wrap around the end to a short industrial peninsula ,continue mainline around to the left wall for another scene, then place a Tehachapi loop like helix in the lower left corner of the room leading up to a second level working back around the room to Klamath Falls staging about the Humbolt yard. The second level could emphasis mountain scenery or be additional industrial scenes as desired( a lumber mill with mountain backdrops maybe). Keep the track to scenery ratio low to reflect the remote location and purpose of the line. A similar layout could be done based on the Coos Bay branch ( later CORP) .....DaveB  

Yep, Joe F's Coos Bay is

Yep, Joe F's Coos Bay is exactly what I thought of when the OP described his planned SP RR!

The layout I built in my 10x18' room was a nolix design and fairly simple - around the walls twice suggesting a much larger mainline RR in a small space.  The grade to get the line up out of the 11 staging tracks and over to the yard above was 2.9% - which is definitely doable for smaller local trains.  I pulled 25 car trains with two six axle locos up that grade with no issues and 25 cars is a long train on a fairly small layout in HO.

A smaller Coos bay style layout would work better in a slightly larger room of 11x20.  It would be nice if you could squeeze a turn-back lobe in the middle but with 11 feet width, just a tad too cramped for that - doable but at a cost of narrow bench on on the walls (14" and 16") and fairly narrow pinch points past the 51" wide lobe (24" and 27") if I did my math right.