What percentage of a loop do you allow to be filled with a train?

I had a theory that it should be no more than 25% and run at lower speed -- i.e., a "local" or "commuter" rather than a mainline through freight or cross-country passenger train. Smaller motive power and rolling stock would also be better.

That said, though, the final call is what you're comfortable and happy with. My opinion is largely irrelevant other than answering a question.

Sometimes it is like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Most of us want to run longer trains but we do not have the mainline to do it. So when you want to double or triple head a freight it looks out of sorts if you only have a few cars behind it. My mainline is 27' x 12'. On one mainline I have one engine with 14 Lionel scale auto racks and that takes up half the loop. So I don't run it fast I run it slower and it does not look like the front and end are close. Pulling wise most of your larger engines can handle longer consists then our layouts can handle......Paul

To me as stated it's up to the operator. Some of us ( okay I imagine at least 1/2 of us) can't have a Hugh layout. I use to have 8' x 16' but it was also to small for the trains I was running but I wasn't going to  shorten it any. I was running about 40% of the loop. My ceiling layout was 16' x 14' and it was a little over 50% but I liked the look of it. I had A-B-B-A ( NYC PA's/PB's ) 2 scale boxcars and 7 MTH 16" passenger cars behind them. 

It's what you like

Michael, If you are happy with the train length on your layout, go with it. I have a rather long S gauge layout, it is about 35 ft long but the width is only 6 to 8 ft. My longest train that has regularly run so far is a double headed U33 21 ore cars plus a caboose. I have test run around 35 box cars behind a 4-6-2 Pacific plus the caboose, this train on the reverse loop the engine passes by the the end cars on parallel tracks. I think that looks kinda neat. I say please yourself, as one friend says he named his railroad IMRR. {ITS MY RAIL ROAD}.

Ray

On a test-track loop of slightly less than 11x17, probably as much as 75% when filming test runs. I do try to keep from "seeing" the head end reappear while shooting the rear. In some places it's easier than others.

---PCJ

100%!!!

My outside loop with 072 curves is for my Lionel M10000 and each side is approx. 10-11 feet so it takes about  50% of a side. My other 4 loops are shorter, of course, and I tr to limit them to one side or 25%. Just a rough rule. The engine are older Lionel so I try not o put too heavy a load on them.

I would just suggest that you change the train length from time to time for the sake of variety. Long trains are fun but they don't have to predominate if track is limited.

IMO an oval operation has a better effect with a view block that allows the train to partially or completely disappear from view before it reappears. I would shoot for a train under 50% to avoid the tail-chasing appearance.

On my own layouts, my longest trains are generally no more than about 25% the length of a complete circuit. I try for the longest possible mainline in layout planning. On small layouts I usually run short trains well under 50%. Of course everyone can make their own "rules" !

Interested to see your track plan and photos.

It is a good question, Mike!

I am like you, I like longer trains, but don't have much space.  I go for the variety idea already mentioned.  I also have  track in the back go under scenery, breaking up the look of chasing its tail.

I have 2 ovals on 6' x 16' flat benchwork, no grades yet, but planned with an up coming expansion. I try to keep the trains to the length of one of the long sides or maybe just a little longer where they get into the curves a bit, but a few cars less than half of one of the loops. When my grandson is here the more cars and the longer the train the better it is. He would like the trains chasing their tails (maybe even continuously connected or even overlapping, if that is possible? ).

I am still fairly new to all this and now about 5-6 years into it. I know little about the real railroads and am still learning so I am sure my methods are not correct. However, my honest feelings are that it's your layout and if it looks good to you and you enjoy it then that's the correct length for the trains. If you change your mind then that becomes the new standard. To me it's all for fun me and my grandson and I really enjoy watching him have fun. He's very creative and comes up with some really good ideas for the trains and their operation. The imagination in young minds is very good! So, IMO, the more fun you have the better it is. As he gets older maybe some more prototypical RR operations will be incorporated. I enjoy those as well and I think he might also enjoy them someday, at least I hope he will.

I try to limit the train length to its longest straight run... so on my 30' X 30' layout. the longest train is 30 ft long...

It all depends on what I feel like doing at the time. Sometimes it could be as much as 99%, just because i can. I never really considered a percentage of loop before. Usually I just run a train that looks good regardless of how much mainline it takes up. On my layout with the view block I try not to make the train so long that I can see both ends at the same time on the back side of the view block.

I usually don't use much more than 25% of a loop on my 12x8 layout. However, I will run a postwar F3 A-B-A with five 15" 2500 series passenger cars which is close to 10' in length. That takes up nearly half of the outside loop!

With mention of overlapping, can't that be achieved with a helix?....and that made me wonder how many train operators have a helix?  I remember the MTH display at a show or shows having one...

I am working mostly with 4 X 10 ft layout at the present, and I run my longest at right at 50% of the loop around, enough for my ABA FT set with 13 cars.

When I was doing N and Z, I would run trains of length about 1/8 the loop length.

With A-B-A combo the engine itself is pretty long especially on small layouts.

I'm still confined to 8x12 right now. When I build up a consist, I usually size it to the loop it's on. I have two O-72 loops, a single O-48 loop and the O-36 loop on the second level. The upper level covers 1/3 of the layout below, which is a new development for me, as I hadn't had a tunnel setup before. I like to run my VL engines, so the O-72 loops really determined the "basicness" of the whole thing. I'd rather run super cool engines (as in Long articulated) than have a spaghetti bowl of track to traverse. Just my thing.

Back to the question at hand. I "usually" set up no more than 9 cars on the outer, 7 cars on the second, and 5-6 on the smallest loops. This varies of course if I have the full-on ABBA Daylight setup with those nine passenger cars, or something special like that. I have a couple of short passenger sets too, and those look nice anywhere. My VL BB and Challenger both run water tenders, so they alone look long before adding any cars to them. That's Ok. They are Awesome. My Centipedes look more massive too before any cars get on them. The VL Greyhound Challenger (or the Williams AA E8 engines when I'm feeling Dieselly) with the 7 car MTH City of LA passenger car set is about as long as you want to go on my layout. It's 40% of the outer loop.

It'll be really interesting to see when my Atlas ABBA and 12 car 21" passenger setup arrives late this year. I'll be glad 1/3 of the layout is tunneled with that, as I suspect it'll be an easy 50% or more of the outer loop length when put together. That might be a set I'll run more at the club modular layout, if I can ever get the time to meet up with those gents!

In final conclusion, I probably run trains that most "train dudes" would consider too long for my layout most of the time. And I'm totally good with that. Run what you can when you can.

Life is Short. Trains shouldn't be.

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I like long trains. But the train should be as long as makes you happy. This is a hobby and do what ever you enjoy. I have run tip to tail trains as well as short trains and long multi unit trains that cross over themselves on two levels. It's all fun for me.

The math works out to be 14 to 15% of mainline loops on my railroad. However, the length of trains on my railroad is a function of the lengths of passing sidings, and not the length of mainline loops.

Passenger trains on my railroad are typically 7 cars long plus a steam locomotive or multi-unit 1st generation diesel set. Passenger equipment and locomotives are 100% MTH Rail King, so passing sidings are 10 to 12 feet in length.

Freight trains are usually longer than passenger trains, and freight equipment is also MTH Rail King or equivalent size Lionel and K-Line cars. So freight trains as long as 9 cars including the caboose plus a steam locomotive are typical on my railroad.

I never allow the engineer to see his own caboose. On the club modular layout, that's a train about 50' long.

What is a loop?  Haha... just poking fun.

Ideally, less than 10% of the mainline.

My layout's track area is 6 X 16 ft.  The outside loop follows the parameter of the layout.  I have two relatively large tunnel at each end of the layout to cover curves.  

I also like long freight trains and for the most part I run scale equipment, both freight and passenger.   In experimenting with train lengths to see what is ascestically pleasing, at least to me, I find that running trains with two diesel locos on the point, and 9 to 10 freight cars plus caboose is what works best.  At times though, I can't resist the temptation of a long coal drag so I will work up a train of 15 - 18 cars including caboose, again usually with two locomotives on the point or one Y6b.  Running these long train slowly and having the two tunnels on both ends of the layout help create the illusion of a much longer train. 

The inner loop is approximately  10 X 4 ft.  Shorter freights of 5 - 6 cars works best on this loop and, again, I run at slow speeds.  

The Mountain Division loop is approximately 6 x 4 ft.  I rung freight trains of 1 - 3 cars plus caboose and one locomotive.

Passenger trains tend to be shorter when using scale cars.  The good thing about prototypical Western Maryland passenger trains was that they were usually only two cars long.  My scale WM cars look great when running on my layout!  When running Pennsylvania passenger trains, one scale GG1 locomotive is usually followed by 3 - 4 scale passenger cars and looks fine.... any longer though and this train would look a bit silly as I run them pretty fast over the outer loop.

As many have already said already on this thread, it really up to each of us because it's our railroad and we can run it however we want.

You have to work with what you have and like. When I decided to build my layout I cleared out the dining room and nixed the idea of around the wall because of the house layout so I built a square 12'x12'  bench work. There is a 6'x6' opening in the middle for access. My outer loop is 072 for my M10000 which is the only thing that runs on that loop and it can run fast !!  I have buildings and people plus vehicles but no real scenery. I like to watch my trains run so there are no tunnels, view blocks or underground tracks. No second level, no switches,didn't want that either. $$ was an issue but I wanted all new tubular track for smooth running. So train length is really based on the straight of one side of the loop except the #5 or inner loop. I run some 1945-46 freight cars on that. If, a big if, I had a 30'x40' room with a lot of bucks I would do it different.  If I wanted to recreate what I had with my first layout I would nail together some crooked boards and put the uneven panel on rollers and keep it under the bed. Do what you want with what you got.

For an occasional gag I've run 100%:  a full-circle train with "mid-train helpers". You have to pick cars of just the right length to close the final gap, and coupler slack helps take up small differences allowing all cars to couple full circle. Then you have an endless train with distributed power! Looks good with a large oval, partly hidden, and slow to moderate train speed.

E3's are a lot of locomotive on a small layout. Mine's only 12x14 so I have some experience. When I run the Lionel Santa Fe 2343 A-A with a B, or the Williams FA-FB-FA Great Northern set or any of the other O scale sized engines they eat up a lot of space. Because of that I turned down a really, really well priced used set of Williams UP, Alco, PA1-PB1-PA1 because like the GM E3 they are really long so as much as I wanted them I felt they too large for the layout. Yes I still have days where I kick myself for letting them go.

Bogie

I have some perfect circle loops 0-27 and smaller .40% is the best, but I'm at about 78% with a Marx AB and three passenger cars on 027, 40% of the pie is blocked from view.

Of course there are occasional 99% runs on a 4.5x9. Usually if a loco is new I put it through its paces on speed and hauling maximums. But I usually abide by the engineer entering a long straight, not seeing anything but maybe the caboose's rails exiting the straight.

On a long layout? I don't have huge engines. My PW 2046 Hudson (non-magnetraction ) has the record at 28. My 2037 and tmcc rectifier both with magnetraction, get 25 done, mostly heavier post war cars, few needle points) The jr Berk/Kan-motor 23-24, but pulled a better testing on a 2-3% grade, but lost again on over 3%.

   My bent, offfset, uneven, dog bone El is one where the engineer holds his breath each time around the small end. Though not a reverse loop, the entrance and exit tracks are only ½" apart at best.

. In a cab forward loco, the engineer and caboose crew could hi-five each pass. Running my Generals double headed, 6 cars, 3 passenger, 3 freight & the cowcatcher pilot sweeps the cobwebs from under the bobbers steps