Biggest space with the least track

[Dave Hunt]

Pretty similar to what Pete Waterman actually has.

 

Dave

[SR71]

😲 I want to be Pete Waterman...?

[Michael Hodgson]

23 hours ago, SR71 said:

Biggest space with the least track

 

Chester Cathedral before Pete Waterman arrived ?

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Surprised no-one has mentioned this layout yet:

 

 

It is admittedly a basement layout - double deck in N Scale, but it is a home layout and the work of one modeller (over thirty years).  In 1:160 it's 16 scale miles (530') between the staging yard entrances, yet I understand there are fewer than 40 turnouts on the whole layout, and most is single track (with I think just 4 passing sidings).  There are hardly any buildings, as the area of Canada being modelled is largely empty.  Although the SAR is a freelance model railroad name, the actual line modelled is real, so it is also a prototype model.  Trains run at prototypical slow speeds, so journey time end to end is typically 45 minutes to an hour and a half (I think this includes waiting times at meets).  Worth a look,

 

Keith.

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by Keith Addenbrooke

[Dave Hunt]

The running on that system is superb.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

There is (or at least there was some years ago) an HO layout in the museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, that runs round the basement. I don't know how long it is but suffice it to say that it is huge and features a series of scenes such as mountain, desert etc. and all of them are large scenic modules with the railway running through. It's very impressive.

 

Dave 

[Nearholmer]

It’s a magnificent layout in some ways, but TBH I think it’s a bit too realistic for my tastes. I don’t have the patience to watch a train going that slowly, for that long, let alone to plant eighty seven million miniature pine trees.

[25kV]

8 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

There is (or at least there was some years ago) an HO layout in the museum in Balboa Park, San Diego, that runs round the basement. I don't know how long it is but suffice it to say that it is huge and features a series of scenes such as mountain, desert etc. and all of them are large scenic modules with the railway running through. It's very impressive.

 

Dave 

 

It appears to still be there and when I saw it 20-odd years ago was breathtaking...  and there was also a shark in someone's backyard swimming pool. 

[St Enodoc]

On 14/07/2023 at 21:48, SR71 said:

That's the dream. Barn(s) with a large terminus at one end. A long run to a return loop & fiddle yard and somewhere to keep the extensive range of classic cars on route in-between. Seeing trains go by as you fettle the cars or have the staff do the cars if you feel like running the trains instead.

If it's barns (plural), then you could watch a train leave from one then drive one of the classic cars to watch it arrive at the other.

[Steven B]

There's a T gauge layout featuring the Forth Bridge.

 

The most haunting model of a railway I've seen was at the Imperial War Museum and was about 2m square covering the rail entrance to Auschwitz death camp. A horrific place but very sensitively modelled in shades of grey and brown.

[DavidB-AU]

On 14/07/2023 at 18:18, JohnR said:

Was there not an April Fool in Railway Modeller in the 80s based around that? 

 

There was a real layout based around a combination of that and the Pilbara iron ore railways called Arid Australia. In 1996 it set a Guinness-certified world record for the longest model train, 70.2m long comprising 7 locos and 650 ore hoppers. In HO scale that represents a train 6.11 km (3.8 miles) long.

[Chris M]

My garden railway has lots of scenery but not much track!

[SR71]

1 hour ago, Chris M said:

My garden railway has lots of scenery but not much track!

If anyone does n gauge in the garden I think we'll have found the bench mark.

[Chris M]

There are some who have done N in their garden. Based on my experience of G in the garden and N in the house I really wouldn't recommend N in the garden. My N gauge layouts concentrate on not too much track and making it look like the railway has been built through the land. 

 

I would say Chiltern Green was my initial inspiration for appreciating what N gauge was all about, albeit I only made the jump from 00 many years later. Everyone is different and will want different things from their model railway but it does seem to me that sometimes a lot of track is crammed in and perhaps misses the point of what N gauge does best.

[JohnR]

5 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

 

There was a real layout based around a combination of that and the Pilbara iron ore railways called Arid Australia. In 1996 it set a Guinness-certified world record for the longest model train, 70.2m long comprising 7 locos and 650 ore hoppers. In HO scale that represents a train 6.11 km (3.8 miles) long.

 

Yep, April 1990 edition of RM. They joined 580 9' sections of N gauge track together on a beach. 

[AndyB]

I think there was an RM issue in the mid 70s featuring "N gauge in the garden". I'm sure someone with access to their digital archive will spot it if so inclined. 

 

I'd hate to think about the track cleaning involved!

[SteveyDee68]

21 minutes ago, AndyB said:

I think there was an RM issue in the mid 70s featuring "N gauge in the garden". I'm sure someone with access to their digital archive will spot it if so inclined. 

 

I'd hate to think about the track cleaning involved!

I hate to think about the subsequent derailment involving a wayward snail! 
 

HOURS OF FUN!

[MartinRS]

Gransmoor Castle captured the look of a railway in the landscape, though I can't remember how large it was.

[Chris M]

4 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

I hate to think about the subsequent derailment involving a wayward snail! 
 

HOURS OF FUN!

i once had  G scale train which had been running fine suddenly have a number of wagons uncouple. There was a snail between the rails and its shell had acted as an uncoupler. Slugs make a nasty mess underneath the power trucks when you hit once.  

[Keith Addenbrooke]

This is another of my favourites.  Not so large - the comments below the Pilentum video give an indication of size - but still a single line through scenery:

 

 

This video from the maker's own channel during the early days of construction shows more of an overview - and how tall the helixes needed to be for the steep 'valley-side' scenery to fall away in front of the running line:

 

 

(we could debate the extent to which helix and hidden trackwork should be counted towards to the length of the run - but either way it adds to the  physical length of the track pieces needed).

 

Not to everyone's taste, but I could certainly sit here all day and watch a layout like this - when I really should be getting on with building my own,  Keith.

 

 

[Philou]

Does mine count? Not much track here:

 

 

or here:

 

 

All WiP and in it's a barn too!

 

If you'd like to have look, the link is here showing the blow by blow account of the conception, construction of the room in the barn, and now the modules (I did note that some photos have gone AWOL due to the great server failure - let me know and I'll post them back up):

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Graham108]

Surely Great Britain in the post-Beeching era wins the award

[TheQ]

While not competing with many of the above mentioned layouts.

I inherited a layout packed with track , much of it was difficult to actually use.

 

The inboard tracks were halved in quantity, sub boards 10 inches deep were added to the front of the two foot deep main boards, the sub boards were pure scenery. The return side of the layout has been hidden under a hill side.

 

As you can tell I feel railways exist is a landscape beyond the perimeter fence.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 13/07/2023 at 14:50, Dunalastair said:

Was there not a tunnel layout with only a ventilation shaft on a hillside?

 

Edit : Or was that apocryphal?

 

Sorry - forgot to reply when I saw this:  a member of the 009 Society Merseyside and South West Lancs group has made just such a model, called Moelwyn Tunnel, but it is a micro-layout (so not so much space for no track).  There is a picture on NGRM as they are active there.  Keith.

[Kris]

On 14/07/2023 at 21:30, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Surprised no-one has mentioned this layout yet:

 

 

It is admittedly a basement layout - double deck in N Scale, but it is a home layout and the work of one modeller (over thirty years).  In 1:160 it's 16 scale miles (530') between the staging yard entrances, yet I understand there are fewer than 40 turnouts on the whole layout, and most is single track (with I think just 4 passing sidings).  There are hardly any buildings, as the area of Canada being modelled is largely empty.  Although the SAR is a freelance model railroad name, the actual line modelled is real, so it is also a prototype model.  Trains run at prototypical slow speeds, so journey time end to end is typically 45 minutes to an hour and a half (I think this includes waiting times at meets).  Worth a look,

 

Keith.

 

That is a stunning layout done in a way you just don't see in the UK.