More Model Railway Musings

Oh No! Cold Spring Shops has discovered the dreaded Depot Layout. (In British usage, a 'Depot' is a locomotive servicing and maintenance facility, not a passenger station or freight terminal). This theme has been so popular with diesel era modellers in Britain it's become a bit of a clich� on the Exhibition circuit.

On the subject of curves, it seems to me there's a big difference in the way American and European modellers approach them. Americans tend to keep the curves in the open, and make extensive use of transition curves to soften them. In contrast, a common European approach is to exploit the way many manufacturers design their stock with clever extending couplings that can negotiate tight curves. So we see layouts with some very tight curves indeed (15" in HO or 8" in N), but those curves are hidden in tunnels.

My own layout follows this pattern; restricted to a 12'x2' space I use tight curves (which will be hidden once I get round to constructing the scenery) to enable me to model a double track mainline that can cope with trains of nine 85' coaches. They have no problem with the 8½' curve on the inner main at each end, although they look ridiculous in the process, with the two coach ends at 45° to each other!