I almost agree-? I've seen a pretty nifty G scale layout that was about 3x6 at a Narrow Gauge Convention,
( Gn15 ) 1/24 scale on 35mm ( HO ) track...?? there are also a number of folks doing O9 / On18 , which is 1/45 - 1/48 scale on 9mm ( N gauge ) track?? The late great Carl Arendt had a website and some books devoted to very small or micro layouts - he had one that was 1 square foot in G scale !

? http://www.carendt.com/

Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2018 08:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Max" <msarazin@...>
Subject: Re: [small-layout-design] What is a "small layout"
To: [email protected]

I'm beginning to think there are many definitions
of 'small layout'. One is 'fits in a car'; two: fits
in 'bed of truck'; three: based on 'acreage', etc.

Max on Cape Cod

On October 17, 2018 at 7:42 AM "James Macintyre via
Groups.Io" <steampun@...> wrote:
How many nitpickers can quibble over a small
layout?

As many as want to! ;-}

Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2018 07:17:30 -0700
From: "Ed Weldon" <23.weldon@...>
Subject: Re: [small-layout-design] What is a "small layout"
To: [email protected]

The adjective "small" only matters when someone puts that word into a
set of rules about what we can or cannot do.? I think that would matter
if size were a criteria for preference for participation in some event
or a criteria for receiving some other benefit.? Our little corner of
model railroading is nowhere near that kind of problem.? Discussions and
meetings between folks of similar interests are naturally self limiting
regardless of how and where the discussion takes place; so I doubt a
definition of small layout is of any real value.? If you see your layout
as small then it is "small".

Where I live I wish there were enough active interest in small layouts
to foster a nucleus group to stage a "get together" event of some kind.?
I'd love to be a part of that; but it's not something I could do alone
even if enough active participants could be attracted to a gathering.? I
even have a possible available (and cheap) "Community Meeting room" in
mind.

I guess this is just a sign of the times as the average age of our kind
increasingly pushes life's limits and the upcoming generations have less
bandwidth for any entertainment that doesn't come from a screen display.

Ed Weldon (CA South Bay area)

Hi Joe

In H0 4x1 is probably a tad small for a 5:3:3 Inglenook with typical US equipment but it's easy to add a clip on "stick" beyond the modelled layout to form part of the yard lead. The total minimum length you need is the length of 8 cars plus the length of the loco plus the length of the first turnout with a couple of inches for clearance. That or any other fairly simple switching layout using equipment that you don't mind other people handlng can be a great way to give people at train shows , especially youngsters, hands on experience rather than just looking at other people's work.

It's not just youngsters though. Some years ago, I was operating a friend's small, 5ft 6 ins by 18ins plus cassette based "fiddle yard", H0 layout at an exhibition near Paris (France) and got talking to a visitor who was clearly fascinated by our typically British intensity of operation . Rather regretfully, he told me that living in a small Paris apartment gave him no room for a working layout but he might manage a diorama. When I explained Inglenook Sidings to him- it can just be fitted into four feet with older European four wheel wagons - his obvious delight was wonderful to see; he really could have a working layout. I'll never know whether anything came of that conversation of course but it taught me that we all have the the possibility of starting the ball rolling.

My 'Kitchen Table Railway' is just that. A 16mm scale, 32mm gauge railway on the kitchen table because its the only available space in my small, very small, flat. Its 4ft x 2ft and the background is made in foam board which can be quickly lifted off when I need to store the railway for those odd occasions when the kitchen table has to be used as a kitchen table. Not up to the standard of most modellers but at least it allows me to run something and keep my interest alive.




Barry

Just love those single blade points.

Ken


On 21/10/2018 8:36 PM, Barry Loraine wrote:

My 'Kitchen Table Railway' is just that. A 16mm scale, 32mm gauge railway on the kitchen table because its the only available space in my small, very small, flat. Its 4ft x 2ft and the background is made in foam board which can be quickly lifted off when I need to store the railway for those odd occasions when the kitchen table has to be used as a kitchen table. Not up to the standard of most modellers but at least it allows me to run something and keep my interest alive.




Barry

Its Atropos track and point kits Ken.

Barry

Barry, here's one still in use at the Launceston Tramway Museum in Tasmania

Ken


On 22/10/2018 8:42 PM, Barry Loraine wrote:

Its Atropos track and point kits Ken.

Barry

Love it Ken.....

Barry


------ Original Message ------
From: "Ken Howard" <khoward@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: 22/10/2018 12:35:36
Subject: Re: [small-layout-design] What is a "small layout"

>Barry, here's one still in use at the Launceston Tramway Museum in
>Tasmania
>
>Ken
>
>
>On 22/10/2018 8:42 PM, Barry Loraine wrote:
>>Its Atropos track and point kits Ken.
>>
>>Barry
>>
>
>
>
>

Weren’t the single moving point turnouts quite common in streetcar tracks in pavement? And still are where such track exists.?

Have seen pictures of underground mine tracks where one movable rail was pivoted at the “frog” point and the free end moved totally from one running rail to the other. Obviously only possible with very light rail. And short lightweight equipment.?

Charles

Charles, not the same thing. Usually know as blade and mate, the blade is a casting and shaped so it can direct the tram to either route. The blade only moves about 75 to 100mm and the mate has no moving parts. This is a photo of one in Melbourne. We have several in use at our museum but I don't have a photo to hand.

The other one you describe was called a stub switch.

Ken

On 23/10/2018 9:47 AM, Charles Brumbelow via Groups.Io wrote:

Weren’t the single moving point turnouts quite common in streetcar tracks in pavement? And still are where such track exists.?

Have seen pictures of underground mine tracks where one movable rail was pivoted at the “frog” point and the free end moved totally from one running rail to the other. Obviously only possible with very light rail. And short lightweight equipment.?

Charles

Thanks for the picture and alternate name, which I had forgotten, for the streetcar switch.?

This is what I think of as a stub switch. Since they literally “bend the rails” there are limits.?

And this is the type of underground mine track switch I mentioned, as seen in the Mollie Kathleen mine in Cripple Creek CO:

Charles

There is another system available for model railways which eliminates both blades and therefore requires no control!! Basically a wagon will run straight unless it is diverted so if a tram turnout with the flanges running on the groove of the rails rather than the main part of the wheel on the top of the rail then the wagons can run from both choices in the trailing direction but will choose the straight choice in the facing direction.

Archie