Small layout concept - help please

[steinjr]

Stein,On a 8 footer you should have room for 3 industries-the key is to think small-that includes using 9" "snap" switches if necessary.

When building a small ISL its best to throw away the books and use everything to your advantage.

Here's a HO 12" x 8' ISL I built around 10 years ago.It was a nice time passer.

The lead to the first switch was 25". I use Atlas "snap" switches.



The equipment was a Athearn SW7 and 40' cars.

No doubt an 8 foot layout (of which 2 foot is the switching lead, and six foot is fixed), using 40' cars, totally fulfill the requirement that the fixed part of the layout will have to fit in 5 feet of length and 15" of depth, and be set in modern times, with logs inbound and wood chips and veneer outbound.

See many 40' cars in such service these days? I would have expected bulkhead flats for pulp wood, about 60-70 foot long 5-7000 cu foot wood chip hoppers, and veneer maybe shipped out on 73 foot center beam cars.

Guess why it was suggested to the OP to consider either backdating things to the era of 40' cars or considering N scale.

Smile,
Stein