' with 9 mm gauge track in 7 mm scale (
09 scale) An important aspect of any model railway is the layout of the track itself. Apart from the
stations, there are four basic ways of arranging the track, and innumerable variations: •
Continuous loop. A circle or oval, with trains going round and round. Used in
train sets. •
Point to point. A line with a
station at each end, with trains going from one station to the other. •
Out and back. A pear shaped track, with trains leaving a station, going round a
reversing loop, and coming back to the same station. •
Shunting (US: Switching). Either a station, a
motive power depot or a
yard where the primary mode of operation is
shunting. This includes layouts which are built as a
train shunting puzzle such as
Timesaver and
Inglenook Sidings. Common variations: • On a point to point layout, the train can increase the time it takes to get from A to B by going around a continuous loop a few times. • Single or double track or more, so more trains can run at the same time. • Intermediate stations, to distinguish between express trains which go straight through and local trains which stop briefly. •
Branch lines, to add an excuse for more stations and different types of trains. • Use of multiple levels. • Arranging the continuous loop as a figure-of-8, possibly with one track going over the other instead of having tracks crossing on the same level. • Folding one loop of a figure-of-8 over the other loop to produce a looped-8, so as to reduce the amount of space needed while keeping a long continuous run. • Using one or more
fiddle yards (US: staging tracks) to represent the rest of the railway system. A fiddle yard is regarded as off-scene; it may hold multiple complete trains, and may also be subject to direct human intervention (fiddling) to re-arrange trains, • Dog-bone arrangement of a continuous loop; the sides of an oval are squeezed together so it looks like a double-track section with a loop at each end where the trains turn around. •
Rabbit warren; a continuous loop folded over itself several times with multiple levels and many tunnels for trains to pop in and out of - often a small layout with sharp curves and short trains. ==Station layout==