Extending the layout

On the previous pages I have shown how you elaborate on the idea of shrinking or increasing a model railway design. Here, I want to describe how you can extend an layout. The idea of making a design extendable is not new. Especially in the United States, many designs have been created that are extendable, so that the job can grow with the space, budgets and skills of the modeller. For example, John Allen’s world-famous layout, “Gorre and Daphetid”↗, stated with a simple model railway of 4×8 feet to end as a basement filled with a model railway paradise.

I do not want to take it that far. Here I would like to present two ideas where a simple a simple oval be extende to create more operational possibilities.

↓ A short passenger train, such as this BR628 railcar from the DB in Sigmaringen, Germany, is sufficient to perform the basic passenger services. The photo was taken on July 28, 2020.

An extra terminus

This layout above is – for me – the minimum feasible oval. It has little, but sufficient, possibilities for shunting. The oval has a passing loop at the station and two goods sidings. The plan is drawn with Märklin↗ C-track. On this layout you can run a maximum of two trains, for example a passenger train and a goods train. Given the tight curves, I recommend using only short cars. Otherwise, yopu might encounter problems with coupling the cars.

By adding an extra terminus to this plan, you can run more trains at the same time. There are also more sidings so that the possibilities for shunting are improved. The station at the oval now is needed to “reverse” trains, for example to place the locomotive on the other side of the train. This allows the train to change direction and head back to the main terminus station. This gives just a bit much needed operational value than just running around in circles.

↓ If you want to build this design, the numbers of the track pieces are shown below. I would make the room between the station and the oval a bit larger. This gives you more freedom of movement when you operate the layout.

Bedroom Layout (revisited)

As I wrote above, a lot of designs, made in the United States, extend an oval on a rectangular baseboard with a terminus station. The design below is an adaptation of a design by Iain Rice↗, published in Model Railroader↗ on October 2001. To be honest, this design is no longer small and does not meet my self-imposed limits. But I wanted to see how I could recreate this design – originally drawn with flex tracks – with the rigid Märklin C-track system. And I think I have done a fairly good job, if I say so myself. I used the large radius (arced) turnouts as much as possible. This not only looks better, but also gives better running characteristics. Only the switches that are a bit out of sight have a “normal” radius. There was no other way to do it without exceeding the original dimensions of the layout.