OK so I officially hate this site.
It has been on my mind to build an indoor 1:20.3 display track ever since I got bit by the large scale bug. In fact it started out simply as that with no intention of ever having an outdoor layout. I have a little over 12 foot by 6 foot on one end and 3 foot on the other side wedge in which to work with. This set up will actually set over a static HO display (that will in turn be the top of a short book case) and the underside of the F scale display will house the lighting for the HO below. It was going to be fairly simple really.
Thanks to this site and the 2015 MIK challenge, between Vic’s pizza layout and Shawn V’s logging micro, I think I want more. I laid awake one night scheming and the thought of a 2 foot gauge 7/8ths mining micro came to mind. Well while that would be all fine and good it does nothing for my current desire to display my 1:20.3 trains. This led to a 1:20.3 2 foot gauge mining RR spur (actually a loop) that would head onto and leave a dual gauge track. The front would be a 12 foot long dual gauge section with my CR&N depot; however, leaving that and traveling behind the depot would be a two foot gauge mining RR that would re-enter on the otherside for a continous loop that would be an operating micro.
I planned already (thanks to more suggestions here) to hand lay the track on homemade hewn ties for realism. Well if I am hand laying track already why not lay dual gauge. So if this pipe dream (yeah John C. this one really might just be a pipe dream) were to be come a reality how does one make the switch from the dual guage track to the single gauge track?
I was going to ask “and am I nuts for even thinking about this” but I already know the answer.
As I was re-reading this to correct for spelling (I haven’t gotten Joe his copy of Devonics for Dummies (or maybe that should read to understand the dummy)yet) I may have come up with my own solution. Just simply run the two foot gauge off the end of the dual gauge and loop back around and onto the dual gauge again. In essence make it 2’ foot gauge and add a third rail at 3’ along the front section.
Also this is plausible for the prototype kinda. They ran dual gauge in front of the depot for a few years 3’ and standard. There were also a few narrower than 3 foot mine RR in the area (though they did not have interties that I know of).