Model Train Resource: HO-Scale Track Plans for Shelf Layouts

HO-scale track plans, which represent 1/87 proportion, remain the most popular of the model train options because they balance detail with a convenient size. But layouts may be out of reach because even a 4-by-8-sheet pike takes up too much room in a standard bedroom.

If you’re willing to forego space-hogging loops for more operations, you can realize your dreams of HO-scale track plans through a shelf layout. Not only does it leave the center of the room usable for other activities, but mounting it at shoulder or eye level leaves the space underneath the shelf free for desks, cabinets or other furniture.

© 2011 by Aurelio Locsin.

This New Railway Modelers page describes the steps in designing shelf-sized HO-scale track plans with fiddle yards. Because the website is based in Britain, it describes OO scale, which is slightly bigger than HO. However, that scale uses HO-gauge track, so the ideas work well for American creations. The final example includes oil tanks, a factory with loading docks and a coal yard, but reveals no dimensions. I’m calculating its measurements at about 6-inches wide by 4 feet long in HO.

When you’re finished with the article, click any of the buttons on the left site of the site to be led through a wonderland of model railroading information.

The Model Railways Shunting Puzzles website hails again from the UK because the Brits have been building small shelf layouts as a standard for decades. A shunting puzzle is turnout-heavy layout designed to provide hours of operation. You have to figure out how to move cars from arbitrary points to other arbitrary points determined randomly, such as with playing cards or dice. You could forego this artifice by adding industries and a switch list to the HO-scale track plans. The 1’ x 4’ example shows an American urban yard with two freight facilities and backdrop relief buildings. It’s designed for a GE 44-ton or Alco S2 switcher, pulling 40-foot cars.

The late Carl Arendt, master of micro-layouts under 8 square feet, describes more than a thousand shelf layouts on his website. This page, selected at random, has over six examples of HO scale track plans from around the world, with a few more in other scales. Included are an extended Inglenook measuring 66” x 12”, a 30-year-old pair of modules that packed up into a crate for college living, a 12-by-32-incher constructed for Ikea shelving, and a pike with three gauges so the builder could use as much of his railroad collection as possible. You can click an index to eight years of layout pages near the top of the site.

Though HO-scale track plans for shelf layouts are narrow, they don’t have to be small, as proven by Nick Kalis. His Lower Montauk Branch of the Long Island Railroad occupies about 14’ x 19’ not counting a 16-foot peninsula that is 18 inches wide. (Click the layout design image for a larger view.) There isn’t a single loop but the pike, set in the warehouse district of Long Island City in 1963, boasts three bodies of water, at least two dozen industries and a car float. You can read about Nick’s layout philosophy and view photos of the layout in progress.

Carlos B. Sanchez Damian built his industrial Iguala Valley Railroad along the three sides of a 13’ x 12’ room. (Click the diagrams to enlarge them.) This makes it an excellent example of HO-scale track plans designed for spare bedrooms. Because he’s located in Mexico, he’s had to import track, rolling stock and accessories from the U.S., and go through Mexican customs. The process takes about 10 weeks assuming everything goes smoothly. The layout has no staging yards, but like the prototype, it stores cars on the passing sidings. Among the industries are a tank farm, cement plant, lubricants depot and feed mill. Be sure to check out the photos of the pike.

Click here for some videos of HO-scale track plans, though not for shelf layouts.