The Perfect Shelf Layout?

I've mentioned the Kanto Railway's Ryugasaki Line in these pages before, but I've been thinking about it more and more lately. While I still plan to build the layout shown below, I would also like to build a scale model of Ryugasaki Station.

At 4.5 kilometres long, the Ryugasaki Line is the perfect size for the modeler with very little space. While the entire line could be modeled inch for inch in T-Gauge, it could be compressed in almost any scale. Ryugasaki station today has 4 tracks, but looking at images from 30-40 years ago, it was an entirely different story. There were double the number of tracks at the station, and it was host to both passenger and freight service. Today, the line is passenger only.


Ryugasaki Terminal -
Image from Wikimedia Commons

The line from Ryugasaki to Sanuki is single track with no passing sidings. There also used to be an interchange track with the Joban line at Sanuki, that has long been removed.

In T-Gauge, the Ryugasaki terminal and surrounding area would be just under 30 inches long. I want to do this as a diorama and I plan to handlay the track to get the track geometry right (handlaid T-Gauge turnouts... Yay!) I do plan for them to work as well.

On the layout plan in the previous post, I may extend the branchline off to the side to allow me to place the terminal section next to it. More locations may be added in the form of additional dioramas. Ireji station would be simple, but Sanuki Terminus would require a lot more planning.

In theory, Sanuki could be part of a modular layout with the Ryugasaki running off of it. That said, that's a far in the future thing.

If you're looking to model a Japanese prototype but want something easy to manage, I'd definitely recommend the Ryugasaki line. A lot of information is available out there on both the modern and historical operations on this tiny line. Just be sure to have Google Translator handy ;)