Balancing Towns with Trainyards

[WesternOutlaw]

Balancing Towns with Trainyards

-an EB Train & Town Crossover Topic

Balancing Towns with Trainyards is certainly a challenge for Town and City planners, especially for those with limited space.

Just how much Town is TOWN ENOUGH?

Does your busy City have room for a shunting yard or do you prefer a simplistic single rail line through a bustling Tabletown?

Do your City Modulars infringe upon space for a Train Engine Shed or roundabout with a few switchtrack?

How do you go about balancing Track and Town?

Share your thoughts here in Train Tech:

[Fuzzylegobricks]

I am currently building a coast guard HQ, and it is quite hard to get that to go with trains

in my city, but what I do is add the general things such as: Station, cargo terminal, and definitely

for me I add a passenger train and a cargo area. Harbors generally will help very much with this problem, for loading crates and unloading them at the cranes,

most people can't afford a nice harbor, but then you can do the passenger things like a airport route or a light rail.

[cimddwc]

Interesting topic which I've been asking myself too, since I'm planning my big train/town layout that I can only start building some time next year when my new apartment is built; a long time for planning...

My plans incluse a main rectangular track loop with two tracks, widening to 4 or 5 for a long passenger station on one long side; the other long side and one short side will be in a tunnel under the main town section. Not only will this save space, it makes the visible part also look more realistic: the section of a bigger city, tracks seemingly entering in one corner and exiting in the opposite.

I'll focus mainly on passenger trains, the Maersk train and my container terminal will probably be the only cargo area, connected to the main loop at a corner. And as if (or since?) two levels aren't enough, there'll be a smaller lower section with a river/bay – a good place for a nice train bridge across the water. :) I don't plan a harbor, though; rather a beach, maybe a small boat rental, and a pirate ship as tourist attraction. All in all, I hope it will become a nice and well-balanced town/train/some coast setup, rather town-dominated (modular style) than train-dominated...

[mrblue]

since in my future layout I will not have to worry too much about available space, I already planned to have at least 30/40% of the layout dedicated to shunting and trainyard area.

unfortunately, few days ago I read a post about including also an harbor... and this made me think to change something in the plan to leave a little spot for this too.

anyway, for me, having a train and no trainyard would be a too sad situation! most of the train fun comes from shunting.

have a nice train lego day

mrBlue

[Ralph_S]

I feel a bit the odd one out in this forum, having built a grand total of two train MOCs in the last two decades. The reason why I built both is because I figured they'd look nice as part of a larger city layout, with -as The Brickster describes- a single straight line running through my town.

Trains aren't the centerpiece.

Cheers,

Ralph

[ManitobaMoe]

Last year was the first year i actually did a display at a local toy show and i was limited to a loop outside of my main town. Now with my ebay purchases, i hope to expand it to allow a small train yard but my main focus will still be the town.

[lightningtiger]

Now this is an interesting topic, I'm mainly a town builder that uses railways as just another mode of transport through a town so then I would say sadly town outweighs trains 80:20 at best for train component. For my town, a track running passed the town buildings, crossings, stations and slidings is what I mainly build into my town.....an ever expanding one at that which means if the town is growing so is the railway.

Keep on laying down that track everyone !

[pinioncorp]

I really haven't really started building my tabletown yet, the plan is to have the extents of the town at the back of the layout overlooking a railyard and station. The way I see it, while the buildings are nice, they are inanimate. Rather than trying to attach a railyard to my town, I'm adding the town to my railyard. I might sneakily tunnel the track through the buildings at the back to hide it looping back on itself.

[Legoless]

Given an unlimited budget (or any kind of budget at all) I'd be with LightningTiger on this one. One thing that I think many model train layouts do badly is that they centre mostly on the railway side of things, with only the bare minimum of other buildings around to justify whatever sorts of activities their location is supposed to serve.

That's fine, of course, nobody should dictate how another's layout should be built, but several ovals of track, a railyard, a station, and maybe a depot tend not to represent a realistic balance. On the other hand, Lego trains is hardly the format of choice for the many 'rivet counters' that engage with the hobby of model railways (as it is impossible to produce a millimetre-perfect rendition of any prototype in Lego- let alone accurate colouring and detailing). So as far as I am concerned- whatever floats your boat.

All the same- given the money and time- I'd rather do an 80% town to 20% railway balance, with rail nonetheless taking up the foreground. Yet I will always delight in the well-crafted 4.5v or 12v layout (or mainstream model railway scale) if the builder can 'sell' the concept well enough to invite the viewer to willingly suspend disbelief and fully engage in the fantasy. And when that is done well, that truly is magic.

Edited May 29, 2011 by Legoless

[ZueriHB]

I like model railways and I really can get lost in some pictures of well made LEGO towns (with or without rail).

I never really liked those over cluttered layouts with lot's of track and no landscape, also I strongly discourage simple ovals.

But for my approach, as I don't wan't to restrict myself to 'a table' I do floor. And because I have a very understanding GF, I'm allowed to occupy almost all available floor space for my hobby.

Because of my profession I know how real tracks are laid out and try to strongly adhere to those real life standards. Of course I still shorten distances to roughly 1m = 100m or 16 studs = 10m.

Placements of stations or stoppings is governed by surrounding space, where it'll look good and / or realistic to have one, there will be one.

Sadly, my GF's not really a fan of town, so no towns, track side buildings, bust stops etc. I hope I can convince her to comply with some of my wishes.

PS: If there where a simple way to reverse head and rear lights, there would be almost no loops to reverse a train on my layout.

[Outer Rim Trading Co.]

Ahh, the eternal balance of train vs town. I think I've managed to solve the problem with my tabletop town by adding a second level so the trains can run through tunnels under the main town section. Alas, there is still no room for the beautiful train shed though...

[peterab]

My train town consists mostly of a turntable and roundhouse. each is four straights long with a single straight track between, but as you'll understand once I add a couple of ovals of track around it there is little room for much else. It gets taken to train shows as part of a club layout and other members do more of the town scenery.

I'd like to do a multi level layout, including a passenger station, and European town center, perhaps including a medieval portion. That will have to wait until I've finished renovating our house and have an extra room available to expand into.

[rriggs]

I tend to end up with either train layouts with just the odd building or town layouts without trains. Space is the limiting factor. I often think about an outdoor train layout as I have plenty of garden and without the need to have power outside as all my trains are RC it would be easy to setup and could provide excellent photo ops but would be a nightmare to maintain!

Cheers

Rog

[Andy Glascott]

I tend to focus on getting several trains running at once, preferably with the ability to pass each other by, then build a bit of town/scenery around them. Current limiting factors are space, hence the three levels, I'd much prefer to have more space and spread things out a bit. One day I'll build a layout with town, countryside and everything else. One day....

Andy

[Toastie]

Trains aren't the centerpiece.

Whoa,

that's quite a statement! I guess it depends - looking at your beautiful layout (I really like the buildings!) all I see is a familiar Dutch train right in the CENTER of the whole layout. "Center" really is relative, at least since these weird physicists have turned everything upside down last century.

BTW that train is nice!

Regards,

Thorsten

[Ralph_S]

Whoa,

that's quite a statement! I guess it depends - looking at your beautiful layout (I really like the buildings!) all I see is a familiar Dutch train right in the CENTER of the whole layout. "Center" really is relative, at least since these weird physicists have turned everything upside down last century.

BTW that train is nice!

Regards,

Thorsten

Thanks Thorsten. I am glad you like it.

I wasn't going to post the picture again, as I am sure quite a few of the regulars in the town forum have already seen it because I keep bringing it up It's my own little reminder of the years I lived in the UK. However, showing it may make it clearer what we are talking about though, so here goes.

Brickston Borough (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr

The train is British by the way; not Dutch

Let me rephrase my sentence: I personally don't consider the train the centrepiece of the layout, even though it is be in the centre of the actual picture. My layout is supposed to resemble a London street and I wanted some sort of background for the buildings and the street to give the impression that the city continues behind it. London is crossed by a fair few elevated railways running on top of Victorian arches. This seemed the ideal thing to put in the back and I felt that it wouldn't be complete without a train to go on top of it and I've been on very similar trains rolling into Waterloo Station. I like the train and I certainly think that it adds a something interesting to the layout. I also felt that if I was going to build a train (my first in two decades), I should put some effort into making it good enough for people who are actually into trains (including the train fanatics in the Brickish Association) to appreciate it. I seem to achieved that goal, but it did come as an after-thought.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited June 1, 2011 by Ralph_S

[AussieJimbo]

Great London street scene Ralph_S.

Proper job.

:classic:

[henryhotspurs]

I have a large multi-tiered layout. I am lucky to have a whole half of a two car garage to use. It has been my experience that the running trains get the most "oohs and ahhs" from the crowd. Despite the skyscrapers, modular buildings, crowds of minifigs, MOCs, and whimsical snapshots of everyday city life, it is the trains and their epic journeys around my layout that wow most onlookers. My two independent loops, station sidings and small switchyard always garner the most attention. Piles of shipping containers, forklifts bustling about, gantry cranes and lines of boxcars keep even the most stoic parent occupied.

At a recent event I noticed that the running trains drew most of the adult fans. They were impressed by the city, but the scale model railroaders came up to talk about the trains. I believe this group of 'crossover' hobbists will be the future of Lego trains. If TLG would do an electrified, out of the box, set of switch points and rail crossings, wallets would fly open and memberships in train themed LUGs would soar!

[Bricktrix]

I always forget about this forum so glad I remembered today as this subject has been one of much consideration to myself over the last few years!

My old home layout I would say I got the balance wrong. It was far too cluttered and compact, although this was mainly due to room size limitations and also what I personally wanted from the layout operational-wise:

Oversized Image removed by moderator

Link to gallery: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=318579

So over the last few years I've given a lot of thought for the direction of the new portable display I'm building (still to be finished):

Oversized Image removed by moderator

Link to gallery:

The choice thats been made is to model the railway, with minimum buildings. The centre piece is the station and goods shed, but off to each side of these I'm trying to leave as uncluttered as possible.

The idea behind this is to showcase the engines and stock more whilst running (as those are what I like to build), rather than focusing too much attention on the layout itself.

Real life town and city railways are very cluttered, with buildings cramed in anywhere possible (London being a prime example of this) whilst more rural branch lines tend not to be.

The period being modeled also plays a part in how many or few buildings should be used, so trying to get a good "visual" balance can be difficult.

I think there are 7 or 8 buildings / structures in this 25ft display. The first public show we did with it as a "work in progress" display seemed to work very well, as families walked the entire length of it picking out the individual structures of interest to them, once they had enjoyed the trains first, so hopefully the balance is about right for what I wanted :)

[ZueriHB]

Hey Bricktrix, glad you posted those photos!

Your old layout is exactly the kind of modeling I don't like, too cluttered with everything. But your new modular layout is stunningly beautiful! The MOCs, trains, carriages, buildings, everything! I bet it'll look so much better once it's 80% complete (a model layout is never finished ^^).

Also your automatic switch points is a unique and great idea.

[mrblue]

@Bricktrix: I have always been a big fan of your works, and both layouts are wonderful. I like the first because you have a lot of space to "work" (have to read "play") with your cargo trains, and your second layout is a truly a piece of art.

if I were you, I would not finish that and I'll keep the center part with the station finished, with all those "non-lego" details, and the outer parts just the way they are. this setup imho will be able to show the difference betwen a "just lego" layout and one with a special touch!

I used to have a N scale layout with all those look like real life things, and even if I'm now a lego purist, the pictures I have seen are redeeming me a bit!

have a nice train lego day

mrBlue

[Legoless]

I am blown away by Ralph S's stunning London scene- you could shut your eyes and almost hear the overwhelming traffic and train noise. Very typical of a busy London street.

And Bricktrix's WIP is already a masterpiece- despite comments about generally preferring more 'town' involvement, as always with model trains, realism is often less to do with being dimensionally perfect (as some modellers in 'finescale' model railways attempt to do), as with being able to 'sell' a sense of 'being there'. Sometimes I've seen technically impeccable model railway layouts that just somehow lack that sense of believability, whereas I've seen some rather poorly scaled layouts that still worked despite some often gross dimentional errors (eg mixing underscale and overscale accessories in close proximity, etc)- one could 'buy' the concept. Bricktrix's layout works by not having too much clutter, and, of course, his most excellent MOCs, including superb British rolling stock and that wonderful footbridge.

Because of my age (42) for me steam trains were already museum pieces by the time I was old enough to appreciate trains. It always seems a bit odd to me to see steam trains in colour- since most footage of steam trains in their heyday were filmed or photographed in black and white. I've always wanted to build a steam-era based layout entirely in monochrome to capture that sense of 'realism'- since steam trains running on preserved lines in full colour somehow don't quite look right!

[Ralph_S]

Thanks for the compliments, AussieJimbo and Legolass.

A working rain layout does seem to go down well with the public at events. My stuff is generally stationary. Some of the buildings and most of the cars that are now part of Brickston Borough have been on display at various events and what seems to draw most of the attention there aren't the houses; it's the cars. The yellow ambulance and the red Routemaster bus. I could bring just those two to a show!

I've seen Carl Greatrix' trains and his railway station up close and they are brilliant. The new layout looks good too. Besides the quality of the individual models, I think it also looks very well integrated -much more so than the original layout. The emphasis may be on the rolling stock, but the buildings are an integral part of the set-up.

Very interesting thread.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Bricktrix]

Thanks for the comments and compliments, ZueriHB, mrblue, Legoless and Ralph :)

Legoless, I am the same age as you and your comments made me smile, I know exactly what you mean. If you could pull that off, a monochrome steam era layout would be a lovely unique idea to see built :) I can picture it now and think it would look great if everything could be kept to black and greys. Infact, I wish I'd thought of doing that, it could have worked fantastically as a 2 board section inbewteen full colour sections of my display!

[WesternOutlaw]

Bricktrix: that's tuly an awesome display. You've done a fine job at balancing town and train. Looks like you have a lot of space for your fantastic display.

On I side note, I've replaced your images with hyperlinks as our site guidelines call for images no larger than 800x600. You're welcome to re-edit with smaller images if you resize them.

EDIT: And that station is amazing! It has to be among the best stations ever created.