# Track plan for N scale coffee Table



## Florida RR (Oct 8, 2015)

Hi everyone. I'm such a noob to the site that I just figured out a day or two ago that there even was a forum for layout design. 

For those of you who haven't seen me in the N scale forum and General forum, I'm building a new N scale layout in a glass top coffee table that I am having made by a cabinetmaker. It will be DC not DCC.

I have puzzled over track planning in such a small space for a while, and I need some opinions. I am using SCARM. This will be my 4th or 5th N layout over the years, so I'm not new to N scale, but I haven't ever built a layout this small.

I am modeling Seaboard Coast Line and Southern RR in about 1971 somewhere in Georgia where the two railroads might have had some "realistic" (cough cough) chance of meeting. Yes, it's a coffee table layout so compromises have to be made. There should be some degree of believability, with a little imagination though. 

Because it is under glass, there will be no switching or anything hands on. I figure two continuously running trains on ovals and a siding controlled by a pair of remote turnouts is the most interesting I can get hands off with DC. It has to continuously run. One advantage to the coffee table is that when sitting down each main line train will disappear from view 40% of the time. The siding can hold my little Southern switching locomotive and a few local cars hauling corn, kaolin, and wood. The inner main line can be a Southern mixed freight moving goods from connecting railroads and Georgia down to Florida. The outer main line can be SCL hauling sand, phosphate, orange juice, and other stuff from Florida to points north.

Apart from the track plan, scenery is critical in such a small space. Back then, small towns were surrounded by family farms growing cotton, tobacco, corn, and hay, plus tree farms. 

Give me your thoughts. Am I even close to believable in this small space, and is the number of structures that I have laid out a reasonable fit into the space? Layout size is 49.5" x 27"

-Florida RR-


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

I don't see any crossovers from the outside loop to the inside loop. Is that on purpose? Otherwise it looks like a fun place to run trains.


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## Florida RR (Oct 8, 2015)

I removed them because there will always be two trains on the inner oval and one on the outer oval so they would never get used. They would be there for decoration only. Fewer things to possibly go wrong.

-Florida RR-


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

Florida RR said:


> I removed them because there will always be two trains on the inner oval and one on the outer oval so they would never get used. They would be there for decoration only. *Fewer things to possibly go wrong.*
> 
> -Florida RR-



Sounds reasonable to me.


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## Mixy (Dec 14, 2010)

The initial project looks good to me. The space is limited and there are no many options, but here are two more projects of a similar size in N, that you may see for ideas and inspiration:

Micro sized model train layouts & track plans in N scale

Click on each plan to see more details. Both are 2' x 4'.





Mixy


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## Florida RR (Oct 8, 2015)

I'm still at it.  My coffee table probably won't be delivered for at least another month, so I still have time to plan for the track. In the mean time, I have sold off my CSX stuff and gone into time warp back to 1978 in the middle of Georgia. That means Family Lines System, which is great because it consists of Seaboard Coast Line, L&N, Clinchfield, West Point, and Georgia railroads all in one cooperative.

I switched from the old Atlas software to SCARM. I like that SCARM has so many track libraries available, in particular the Peco turnouts that I plan to use. 

A 2.5 x 4' coffee table layout could very easily become monotonous. At a certain point it has to go back to childhood when we kept ourselves amused with continuously running trains. It's also not accessible without some effort, so it's limited to continuous running and static display. I have moved more in the direction of static display, adding a tiny "yard" or what at least represents one. Two trains can run on the two main lines, a third can sit on the siding, my MP15DC can sit in the yard, and my RS3 can sit on the spur track at the feed and seed. There! I managed to get two trains running at any moment, with a third ready to be switched into action from the siding using a pair of remote turnouts, a simulated yard complete with a switcher, and another locomotive servicing a spur track. I think that's about all the action and display that I can realistically cram into the tight space. Two versions are attached. I can't decide which is "better" or whether I can cram in anything else and still be believable. 

I have bought 11 locomotives in the past few months, and I can only use 6 really. Loud sigh. 

-Florida RR-


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