Boring Loops

Well our layout is actually just 3 loops, but they're all connected, all have reverse loops, and are on 3 different levels. It's just a matter of hiding the fact that they are loops with scenery and grades.

The bottom track is a simple loop with 2 reverse loops, but most of the track is hidden, except across the front and back. The 1 reverse loop is completely hidden, while the other reverse loops is only seen across the center of the layout... which is a great place for photography.

The upper 2 loops are folded/twisted dog bones. The grade track that connects the upper loops to the lower loop is mostly hidden. As the train comes up from the lower level, it pop out right behind the roundhouse.

So our track plan is rather boring as well. Limited space will do that to a layout, especially in O Gauge. You just have to create interest in other ways......

Perfect example.... Norm Charbonneau's old layout. 3 simple loops, but you would never really pay attention to that because of the level of detail and scenery. We studied his layout a lot before deciding on a track plan. We're just not that good at scenery and buildings to show off a layout like Norm can.  

I too am limited at home to "boring loops." So, I look for other ways to enjoy the experience. Sound, for example. The new Lionel and ERR systems let me bring lots of noise, slow downs, start-ups, communications, etc.

Then, run more than one train on a loop at a time. Again, thanks to TMCC/Legacy! And, vary their operations. Have one stop, other come up right behind. Then try to keep running at varying distances apart.

Also: photos! movies! Set up little areas to focus on.  A station, curves, etc.

Here's a movie I made some time ago, may have been on "Weekend at the Movies" but I don't remember. I added a back drop to one end of the boring loops to make a different scene.

B&O Bill, you have a lot of good suggestions for fun.  I also very much enjoy video-ing and photographing my layout from all the angles I can dream up.  In fact, I have many shots stored on Picasa, and can often bring one out in response to a thread here without shooting anything new.

For me, a "city" scene has no place on my railroad. It takes up too much realestate and way to much work in detailing to make it convincing. Plus, it is usually just a "pass through" as the trains run around the tracks. Remove the scene and replace it with a siding that you can do some switching with.

I have three loops that I change out consists pretty frequently to keep variety going. Some days are tinplate, some days conventional contemporary or postwar. The next layout will be around the wall to get more space in between to give the impression of more distance..the variety of consists keep me from getting bored...at least for now...I am adding overhead to run trolleys on for one loop in addition to the usual..that should add more interest.

I have 2 main line loops with a siding between the 2 loops on one side of the layout.

I have 2 reverse loops on the inside with a tunnel in the middle.

The tunnel was unplanned but my wife said "you need a tunnel" so there was a tunnel !!

She was right because the tunnel and the hill side on top of the tunnel makes for a nice scenery break from the country to the small town and residential area.

I thought when I built this layout and track plan, I would have several possibilities for trains to run and pass.

This would be true if I ran trains with 5 or 6 cars.

I like a long train 20 or 25 cars so the possibilities of trains running on the same loop got derailed real quick.

After watching the trains go around a few times and thru the inner loops and tunnel I thought hmmm that was a let down!!!!

So I work on my scenery and the small details which I enjoy more than anything.

As some of you have mentioned I try taking different photos of the trains in different location looking for that perfect shot.

Thank god for digital cameras.

Last weekend I installed some new track lighting that I bought at Lowes on certain areas of the layout platform and this really changed  the overall look of my layout.

I had several dark areas that although I knew little detail items where in place most visitors over looked them.

Just these few additional lights really changed things.

Although I am a "loop runner" it is still nice to get the trains running after a long day and sit down and just watch them run !!!!!

Mark Strittmatter

TCA # 14-69917

Indiana PA.

Don't forget  Huge View Blockers do winders to a Boring loop layout. If you can't see the trains 100% of the time, IT ads mystery and intrigue! Operationally it's still two boring loops but the possibilities of scenery!

I agree with electroliner's statement.  I am stuck with a small space for now, but should gain more real estate in a year or two.

Good morning

Watch the video for this months Detroit Three Railers meet. This is one loop of track excluding sidings and yards. At one point later in the evening six operators, six trains on one track all chasing each other. Legacy and DCS at same time. Not boring!!!

Clem k

Hello Clem, yes this would be interesting.

Has too be the following, one very long loop, or very short trains or both !!!

Clem,

I watched the video and I agree it wasn't boring!  Wow there was lots of action!  Also, it looks like the Detroit 3 Railers have a lot of great stuff on that Web site!!

Thanks!

Thanks for all the responses! I think I am going to do a switch yard in the back, and then I am going to have a logging camp in the front. There will be a farm, and a small main street scene. My main focus (this is where visitors sit near) will be the switch yard and engine maintenance facility.

and to add a little more, Norm tossed out and tore up 6-8 months of track planning and work to start his new new layout in an oval format.

Just reimagine it, add an operational element and some new scenery.

I think that after you post the video, you'll have plenty of ideas to make it new again.

Yep, relegated to boring loops on an 8 x 5 display here too. Being so confined and wanting to add more, I built upwards and now operate 9 boring loops on a 8 X 5 display. Illumination is your friend when real estate isn't available for operating accessories and switches. Chris Miller is my friend (well... at least he's one of my favorite venders)

Put in a some industrial sidings and a small yard, give up city space.    Then using car-cards or just randomly, generate a train in the yard and take it out on the line and switch the industries.   Put in the cars from the yard, pick up the cars from the industries.    Then go back to the yard.    

If you put in a run-around track (passing siding) and some facing point switches, the switching work (fun) takes even longer.    On a small layout I had with one interchange and about 5 industries, I used about 12-18 cars.   It could take me over an hour to pick up the cars off the interchange and place them in the proper industries and then bring the cars pulled from the industries back to the interchange.

I used little tabs I put on the top of the cars when they were on the interchange.   I had more tabs than cars, and I had tabs for each type of car (boxcar, hopper etc.).   I would take some from a little box at random and put them on the cars.   That way the destinations of the cars coming off the interchange was different each time I ran.

It was so much fun, I had to really force my self to quit running to work on scenery.   I did not even notice the lack scenery when working out the switching problems.

The club layout is essentially two loops. What helps is that the entire loop of either main is not visible. Tunnels, altered curves, elevation changes, buildings (and other view blocks) add interest and mask the length of the run. Add slower operating speeds and that enhances things.

Here are my four "boring" mainline loops!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwW2VwAPsVI

Here's my boring loop... one track on a 4' x 10' layout.

Thanks,

- Mario

Wanna stay busy in a small space? put this one together and play! 4x4x8, all Fastrack 036, and many ways to do stuff. if you're clever you can run 2 trains at once. maybe. would take tmcc or some block wiring.

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could add or partially redesign by putting a trestle through town? Y'know something that is elevated but for freight train to "short cut" through town?

I agree with PRR Jim, I tried this experiment after coming home from a friends HO Scale working layout.

His layout is quite large with many possibilities of running trains and setting off and picking up cars without tying up the main line.

But it is still HO !!!

I started out by set off some coal hoppers at the local coal load out and then continued on to another siding and set off a few cars there.

Put the rest of the train on an inner reverse loop and came around and picked up the caboose.

Then went back to the engine house dropped off the caboose on a siding next to the engine house and then changed out this M1A for an I1.

Picked up a  new caboose which meant I had to move the original caboose out of the way and then headed out to make up a coal drag that I set off earlier at the coal load out.

Before I knew it  was running on this layout for an hour and half and maybe only made one full loop around the layout.

It is true time does go fast when you are having fun!!!!!

Mark Strittmatter

TCA # 14-69917

Indiana PA.

Another idea I had when re-imagining my three loops is to take the straight away of two of them and put an S- curve into both just to vary the routes from an elongated oval to make a loop more interesting to watch.

NOBODY'S LOOPS ARE MORE BORING THAN MINE!

My 19"x20" layout has 124 feet of O-Scale 2-Rail Flex Track, with a single short freight train running around a single-level folded dogbone, with no structures of any kind, no autos, no people, no animals, no trees, no creeks, no trestles or bridges, no sidings, no crossings, no yards...nothing that resembles a typical railroad.

It runs continuously around and around, like a kid's train around the Christmas Tree, and I love it!

It's a simulation of the High Mojave Desert, where I live...sheer, desolate, barren wilderness!

Rip Track          (Click pics to enlarge)

Rip Track....I like your layout. A great example of "less is more". Mine is a great example of "more is too much!"

four more "boring" loops

and one on the floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4itstzghgY

Thanks, Tom!

My desolate, barren, desert wilderness layout is my idea of a Gleaming Metropolis and a Thriving Rail Empire.

My "Calico Freight Lines" train is like the legendary Phantom ship "The Flying Dutchman", and will never find a port, but will roll the rails forever, a Phantom train with a Phantom crew, rolling forever toward a Phantom destination.

[The Mountain Goat is the only animal on my layout]

Cheers,

Rip Track            (Click to enlarge pic)

Rip Track,

The Phantom Calico Freight Lines!  I like it, it does describe your layout.  Can't be boring!

HEY POPI,

Running those 5 trains simultaneously is quite ambitious and anything but boring!

If I were at the control board, I would have a heart attack in about 7-8 minutes.

Rip Track

My first layout was in a 7x16 sectioned off part of my garage and featured a reverse loop at one end.  Here's 2 photos, the first showing the reverse loop end and the 2nd showing the rest of the track:

The switch at the bottom, center of the 2nd photo is the reversing section of track.  I think this was all 054 curves.

Here's another photo where I added a small yard to the right:

I remodeled the bench work and removed the siding you see where the triangular-shaped building is located in photo 2 to allow for more aisle room.  Numbered switches would have allowed a skinnier yard and I probably wouldn't have had to redo the bench work, but hindsight is what it is.

The reverse loop allowed me to run around the main loop and then reverse direction, eventually (after running the loop in the opposite direction) going back to the yard.

Now I have a 12x12 layout upstairs with a 2x14 extension down the side:

Still a single loop, but I have a drop down bridge at the Wye to gain access to the room and perform switching.  The small engine facility keeps me busy as well.

I have a small downtown area just east of the Wye, with a siding going behind all the buildings.

Even this layout has been remodeled 3-4 times.  Don't be afraid to pull up track and rearrange if you don't like what you have.

Loops do get boring really fast. 

But don't lose heart, here is a link to a traditional modern Lionel 3 rail layout that has included operations, meaning that there is a purpose to running the trains.

Just like a real railroad, sometimes we need to look to having a "purpose" for our trains, some like the loop to loop, some only favor real operations (mostly HO, N, 2 rail O). Me personally, I like both. Real operations with other train buddies. Operations general last 2-3 hours ( and time flies), but I also like to have a train running continuously when I'm working in the basement. I like the sounds.

See if you can incorporate something similar to what is in these videos, I think you'll like it's concept.

This will give you a taste of what operations are:

http://youtu.be/4P0XFSl7wv0

http://youtu.be/p_Sh48Zr_pM

http://youtu.be/P4_u-X-M2UE

http://youtu.be/KA3azXm06d4

I like it, I wish I had that much room. Since I know you have a fascination with nucs ( from a previous thread), as a pool table cover you could model the trinity site. Don't forget the radiation detectors and also remember that you most of your layout would be 1 Km radius ( instant incineration, radiation burns and since it is in the desert sand becomes glass., the rest would be in the 5km circle that would most likely leveled from the blast and shock wave effects. Depending on wind direction the rest of your house could be in the fallout fan. Ha Ha

Here is mine, work with what you have. 24L X 16W room

Below pic is whole room shot, open center area is were the Christmas tree is located when it is up

Two "boring loops" round-the-wall on a small 9x16 attic operation:

I decided early on to run comparatively short trains slow, very slow, and cross over between the dual mains often.  Then I can foul the main with the Freight consist while I service the Sawmill log and lumber cars and/or the Denim Mill coal and cotton cars located in opposite corners, switched to Spurs off the 096 curves of the outer main.  

Passenger train will have crossed over and continues on the inner main with its 072/084 curves and "annex" passenger loading Shed cross track at the Depot [in a curve]. Meanwhile the 0-6-0 moves coal and sand hoppers, diesel tanker, Diner and stuff around the Service Yard/Enginehouse area.

Actually this protocol will occur if I ever get the track cleaned of ballast glue and rail rust paint, followed by removing all the tools, boxes and clutter from the site of the future Village.

Near time to go up to the Mountain Cottage and harvest the spouses's post-frost sedum garden for tree stock.

David,

these operations are great!  I modeled in HO and N from 1969 to about 3 years ago.  Scale modelers always talked and wrote about operation, but only once did I see it physically done with loads.  That was an elaborate coal loader at the mines and dump at the ship yard on the Severna Park Maryland club layout.  A mechanical genius divided the mechanisms in scale scratch built structures.  All others just set out and picked up cars.

What you showed has been around for ages, and from what I see at shows the kids love it!  Not to mention 58 year old kids like me!  I like it because I don't have the skills or tools to build such.  So far I have a log dump, and want to get more as time and funds permit.

However, I too like many here just like to watch the trains roll by, like when I was a kid of 8 or as a kid of 58.  ;-)

HEY SUZUKOVICH...THAT WAS A GOOD ONE!

Didn't you work with Kistiakowsky on the detonation unit for the Trinity device?

Anyway, modeling my billiard table as the Trinity Site wouldn't be complete without Oppenheimer and Groves (in 1/48 scale) inspecting the crater and the stumps of the shot tower!  (Which would mean a large hole in the table...)

I liked your reply...it had the typical wit of a Yugoslavian!

Rip Track  (Ukrainian/Austrian)

Didn't you work with Kistiakowsky on the detonation unit for the Trinity device?

We were both hung over from the night before.

Anyway, modeling my billiard table as the Trinity Site wouldn't be complete without Oppenheimer and Groves (in 1/48 scale) inspecting the crater and the stumps of the shot tower!  (Which would mean a large hole in the table...) Ground bursts, got love them. Only issue is the fallout!!!!!!

I was thinking more like before the denotation. If you decided to make changes to your layout and room , you pull the trigger and be done with it.

USA retired CBRN/CWMD SME 

BORING LOOPS TRAIN ROOM:

My Train Room building started out as a 20x25 foot Billiard Room addition to the house, but since nobody uses that 900-pound 9'x4-1/2' Tournament-Size table anymore, the Billiard Room has become a Train Room dedicated to the most Boring Loops on the Forum!

Aaaaah, but it's comfortable though, with a nice soft couch, recessed lighting, A/C, and a room-filling Stereo system.

Rip Track Hal         [Here are pics...click to enlarge]