Point to point

[Harleygirl3177]

Hi. i am brand new to the world of trains. I have a town set up already but can only run the train along the wall so it cannot go in a circle. It can only go back and forth. I have no idea what I need to buy to accomplish this. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Harleygirl,
If you're using On30, HO, or N we have reversing trackage available.
What is your scale?
Thanks,
the Bach-man

[Doneldon]

Harley-

You can also build a model railroad which lets you do switching rather than just
back and forth. Tell us a little more about what you hope to accomplish.
                                                                                                          -- D

[Desertdweller]

Maybe you can do something using trolley cars?  They could simply reverse at the end of the run.

Do you have room to put a reverse loop at each end?  Then you could run a single track along your wall and run a conventional train.  You could put a passing siding in the middle and run two trains, meeting in the middle.

Les

[CNE Runner]

Harley - Running a point-to-point layout can get very boring, very fast unless you give your trains a purpose. By purpose, I mean switching (shunting) cars into and out of industries/locations as well as onto and off your layout. To have fun, and keep interested, one does not need an extensive point-to-point layout...much can be done in very little space. I strongly urge that you become familiar with Carl Arendt's website on mini/small layouts. I am sure you will find several layouts that will meet your needs. Carl's website can be found at http://carendt.us/OriginalIndex.html

Although Carl is no longer with us, he still has a tremendous influence on this genre of model railroading. You might also want to look through a few issues of: Continental Modeller and Railway Modeller magazines - found at better booksellers (such as Books-a-Million and occasionally Barnes and Nobel). These are English magazines (and rather pricey); but contain a wealth of information on very small layouts that could be adapted to U.S. prototypes.

Good luck with your layout,
Ray

[richg]

If your trains have a purpose as was mentioned, put a turntable on each end to make it more interesting.
I have seen some layouts like that. Steamer era though.
Many years ago there was a railroad line near me in Northampton, MA that ran a steamer with a passenger car and combination car on a line with a TT at one end in Williamsburg, MA, end of the line. Back to the yard in Northampton. Connections to a couple other roads in the area with the yard. This was done four times a day. There where small freight deliveries and pickups along the way. Maybe a freight car at times.

Rich

[81F]

I don't know about the states but point to point or end to end layouts are quite a popular form of model railway in the UK (probably because we had so many short branch lines before the 1960's).

Many of these have a small terminus station at one end (with a goods yard where hunting can take place) and some "hidden" storage sidings at the other which represents the rest of the world. This can add a little more interest and purpose since the trains appear to go somewhere else rater than just be moved around a yard.

[rbryce1]

I believe you stated that all you had was wall space, and not enough room for a circle, but never did say what scale you are running, which would be based on the size of your existing town's buildings. 

I have seen many point to point railroads in train shows and on You Tube, and they were all very impressive.  The thing I enjoy most about railroading is not seeing the train go roundy round, its creating the settings they go through to get there. 

To me, the scenery is by far the most difficult and important thing, as this is what removes the boredom of operating the train.  The train itself has only a fixed set of details, while your scenery can hold a thousand times more small and intricate details, many not even seen the first few times you view the layout but pick up on later.  Also, there is nothing to stop you from having 2 or even 3 point-to-point railroads on a single layout to allow you to run multiple trains of different styles or even just 3 different trolley cars for variety, depending on how wide your available wall space is.  You could easily fit 2-3 somewhat parallel track lines in a 12-24" wide area with a lot of scenery, where that is not wide enough for any HO scale turn-a-round.

Depending on how much wall space you have, a narrow, very long city, industrial area, or mountain scene could be quite enjoyable as well as challenging to build, and the scenery will be looked at far more than the train running through it after the first few passes of the train.

[ebtnut]

This discussion points out some of the decisions to be made in your approach to the hobby.  Let me start by saying that any of them are equally valid if they satisfy you.  It is a hobby after all, and the enjoyment and relaxation you achieve are what's important.

Having said that, consider that there were very few true point-to-point railroads.  The greatness of American railroading came about in large part because of its interconnectivity.  A carload of widgets made in a small plant in Massies Mill, Virginia could be shipped to an assembly factory in Tacoma, Washington.  The car began its route on the Virginia Blue Ridge short line, was given over the Southern Railway, then routed west over several other large lines to its destination.   True isolated point-to-point lines were primarily single purpose and industrial in character – logging, mining, quarrying, etc.  There might be some limited on-line switching, but in essence these roads were loaded at one end and emptied at the other end.  A shelf layout that at least simulates a connection to the rest of the world and has some degree of on-line switching can be a satisfying layout.

Now, if you are not into operations, but would rather have an animated diorama where the scenery and structures are the primary emphasis, that's OK too.  There were a lot of short line railroads that never had any type of turning facility and simply ran tender-first for half their lives.  Trolley models are another way to approach this as noted previously.  Their purpose was to simply move people back and forth along their route.

[Desertdweller]

Reading through this thread, it occurs to me that a long, narrow model railroad might look natural if it were placed in a scenic settling that requires a long, narrow actual railroad.

Two quite opposite possibilities come to mind: a railroad operating in a river valley, and a railroad operating along a ridgetop.  I have worked on actual railroads built in both situations.

A ridgetop railroad would have the track visually higher than the surrounding landforms.
In some places it would be silhouetted against the sky, making the backdrop a simple blue-painted surface.  Since this type on railroad would be built atop a watershed divide, it would use few, if any, bridges.

A valley railroad would have the valley wall for a backdrop, and probably quite a few bridges.  The front edge of the layout could be the riverbank.

Les