I had some problems, escalating when I bought some new rolling strock from Roco and Märklin/Trix which were more demanding than I was used too in several ways. I draw the following experiences.
- Not to narrow radius, preferably at least 430 mm.
- C -track. Far superior to M-track I was used too, and easier to handle / more universal than K-track.
- Never S-curves; some coupler connections don't allow for that; at least a short track around 90 mm in between
- A good benchwork, with flat surface. The C-track forgives minor bad areas, but not too much.
- Good care with slopes. Avoid turnouts and/or curves in slopes, and don't make them to steap or to abrupt changes in the slope. OK, a typical Märklin loco would cope with 10 % slopes and more, but you will certainly not succeed with all your stock.
- Don't invite Mr Juhan Palm to run his trains on your layout ;-)
However, I have prettly lot of M-track, and not that space, so I would still like to keep my 5100 and even 5120. My solution has been to have one main line very carefully built, which allowes for all stock, and other lines which don't. So the main line has C-track, not one curve with less then 242xx 242xx (c a 430 mm) radius.
As I also have some swedish stock, and Sweden always have had lot's of catenary, I must have that on some lines too. Well, it's not needed for feeding the models with power, but it looks rediculous with a electrical loco that haven't it's pantograph up. And what's the problem? Problem is that it takes a more patient builder than me to get this! So the pantograph will of course get of the catenary, and either be destroyed, or destroy the catenary. Or just get stuck. And where do you think this will happen? Right, in the tunnel. In the furthest corner, totally unreachable.
This is one interesting property with tunnels. Don't think that you might be so skilled that you are able to build a very nice track, test it several times with different demanding models, and than can seal it with landscape building. Your trains WILL derail just at that point. Every part of your layout must be reachable. And catenary really is very troublesome, it caused derailing, it makes it difficult to get your trains out, and they are almost impossible to repair if hard to reach.
My new layout has catenary on the main line only, the one with very property laid C-track. Most of that track is visible, and the shorter tunnels are reachable in different ways; from underneath or from removable parts of the landscape. And the catenary in the tunnel is a much more solid solution then the model railroad manufacturers. The purpose is only to lead the pantograph from tunnel entrance to exit, as all power is from the track.
In my youth I was very fond of so to say "program" complicated train movements, using the technique available at that time. With layout 2 my goal was to let the computer control everything. It worked, but not without problems. Especially it's difficult with timing, and with recognizing what train is on what section. In addition to that it must be fun to play with it, not only the building. So I have a different approach here:
1. Block sections for the rather long lines, with good looking signals from Viessmann, and brake section which gives a good behaviour of most of my locos.
2. A hidden yard (see below), with semi automatic operation; trains are started manually.
A panel was constructed with LEDs to indicate track occupance, and I've tested lots of fun equipment during this process, see the technical page if interested.
So, the digital signals really aren't used that heavily. I use the broadcast nature of it of course, that trains may be parked all over the layout, and started manually, and I love the functions I may activate. One funny thing is that I use my accessory decoders completely different in my two last layouts; before they were used on the main line with the purpose of computer control; nov I use them in yards, with the purpose of avoiding boring cabling.
The idea with a hidden yard ("Schattenbahnhof" in german), is to be more realistic. You have a yard that is hidden for the observer. Here you have some trains parked. When it's time for a train to arrive to your station, you active one of the parked trains. It moves out from the tunnel, advances the station through some visible track, maybe stops there. Sooner or later it will depart, and disappear in the distance through a new tunnel or something. Of course, we know that it will enter the hidden yard, and stop at a free track there.
Thats on thing I wanted to have, and an ideal thing to use level under the visible part.
I like having both, had it in the other layout, and have it now. I like it. In my childhood there wasn't much double track in Sweden, but now there is; the nice parts however, in mountains etc, with low traffic density, still have lots of single track, even in Germany. As the space is limited, You might say I roughly have three parts of my layout:
- The main line, with double track, catenary, wide radius. A rather long loop, with automatic train control: 5 block sections, allows for 4 rather long trains running automaticly.
- The shadow station. For those that allow 360mm and don't use catenary, I have also a hidden yard, with three tracks. Main line + hidden yard takes more trains, about 10 I guess, haven't counted yet.
- The secondary line. Even further there is a single line, escalating in a helix in a mountain, and passing a bridge up to the mountain station. Here is the turntable for the steamers, I'm very fond of the problems caused by having to turn the steamers around. Unfortunately not all my steamers may reach this, C'est la vie.
I find it important to try finding nice looking places. A matter of taste of course. Mountains and bridges are rather important for me, and parts where you may have sight of the train for a longer train, preferably with smoth curves. And not tracks all over the layout; it makes it more fun to drive on, but not to look on. It's nice to have space to build scenes, housed etc too. One of my daughters has been interesting in building Faller amusement park things; and as these items are moving, I certainly like the idea myself. But everything takes space!
So, some of these demands I'm satisfied with, some not. If one could choosed not one curve should be visible with a radius less that around 1000 mm, but of course there are lot's of them. I do have a small bridge, I like it, but my dream was to have a bridge over a deep gorge or something. The secondary should have led to a distant place from the main station etc; nov, to allow for track lengths etc, it's situated partly just above the staion. This line should have been a long line in a deserted landscape, with a few wood cutters and farmers, but who has the space for that?