A Micro-Layout Staring me in the Face ~ Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Five days a week I wait for a train home on the northbound platform the CalTrain's Mountain View station, which gives me a good trolleyfanning view of the adjacent VTA light rail station.

This is the western terminous of the VTA's Tasman West line. During rush hour, light rail trains do an interesting dance--one train will arrive, another will depart (they have to be syncronized because the last few miles of the line are single-track). And sometimes trains pull in and out of a pocket track. The track arrangement is a double X-over, like this:



Or scroll around a satellite view via Google Maps:


View Larger Map

Anyway, it recently occurred to me that this whole terminal could be an interesting micro layout. For a little bit more interest you could build up the pocket track into a small servicing area (a minimal barn with room for one or two cars plus some work equipment--maybe squeezed into some into some random unused urban space, like Portland Streetcar's under a freeway) and let the rest of the system be "off layout staging".

I've posted a few pictures and movies of the VTA here over the years, mostly centered around Mountain View; you can find them all under the Contemporary tag.