Smaller Than 4x8 HO Portable Layout?

I currently don't have space for a 4x8 HO layout and am looking for a track plan that is significantly smaller than 4x8 and can be portable, meaning easy to stow and not permanent, like a small table with folding legs. I want it to be a basic oval so I can run trains continuously with switches for industry/car storage. I also want to have it be DCC too. Could all this be possible?

Yes! Here's a web page with many micro size layouts.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/reinoud.kaasschi ... dex.en.htm

There are even layouts using just straight tracks.
http://www.carendt.com/microplans/pages ... dex.html#3

Here's a few by one modeler that's tours Britain to excellent reviews. You can compensate quantity with quality.
http://www.freewebs.com/model-rail-uk/

It's easier to do if you're using smaller locomotives and shorter train lengths.

Many N scale layouts are built on hollow door cores because they're very easy to move around and store. Most HO modelers believe that's much too small. But they're not if you think micro.....

As you can see, most micro layouts model a specific location on a railroad, vs a branch line or main line operations. I think that's what all of us should model in a micro layout. Good luck!

Smaller than 4 x 8 with a continuous run (oval) is pushing it, but it's doable with small equipment. Atlas still markets 15 inch radius sectional track (assuming it's in stock!) which allows for a 180 degree turnback in less than three feet of width.

DCC isn't restricted to any particular size layout, but the difficulty of fitting decoders more or less increases as the amount of space available in the locomotive decreases. Of course, if our Z Scale bretheren can do it, certainly it can be done in HO!

If you're willing to work in N-scale it can be done very easily.

I have an N-scale layout built on a hollow-core door. The track plan is a slightly modified Atlas plan. The mainline is a dogbone (an oval pinched in the middle) with a passing siding on one end, a yard lead on the other end, and several industry leads along the mainline. The yard lead goes to a 4-track yard and 2-track engine facility. This allows me to have 1 train running on the mainline and switching industries while I work the yard/engine facility.

Unless you want towering mountains there is plenty of room for scenery. I built a small village on one side of the layout and it all looks balanced, nothing crowded too close together and no spaghetti bowl of track. All in all it's a very balanced look.

DCC in N-scale is very easy. You can buy the locomotives already decoder-equipped or DCC-ready. The DCC-ready locomotives require just swapping the stock circuit board with the decoder, a very easy switch to make.

Whatever choices you make I wish you good luck and enjoy!

Check out New York harbor railroads as a prototype for inspiration, including my screen name, the Jay Street Connecting Railroad. Wish I could provide some links but a quick internet search will turn up plenty. Short radius curves, plenty of turnouts and sidings for switching, tracks going into buildings for hidden track opportunities, and most were isolated from other railroads and served by carfloat barges so you can have a fiddle yard carfloat connection to the outside world off your layout "island". In a way they're like small model railroads that violate every "don't" of good track planning...spaghetti bowl prototypes.
Also, they mostly existed in the heyday of 40 foot and shorter freight cars and ran 0-6-0 steam and small diesel switchers, so tight curves and short radius turnouts aren't a problem. Don't be intimidated by scenery either as inexpensive plastic factory and warehouse kits will give you some impressive urban canyons. Easier to build than mountains which would look goofy on a small layout anyway.
Other cities had similar urban waterfront railroads but New York harbor is what I'm most familiar with and they certainly had the most trackage.

There's an old Kalmbach book,101 Track Plans, that has a number of small layouts that have ovals with spurs for very tight spaces. They're from the '50's and '60's and are more suitable for flextrack, but I believe they could be adapted to use 15" radius curves and Atlas Snap Switches or Peco Shorts.
There must have been a zillion copies printed, it may even still be in print... worth a look to get you started.

When I was younger,I was about 12 years old and my first layout I ever builted was 3 feet by 6 feet,and was rolling in under my bed when I was'nt play woth my trains.I was get some foldable leg under it to get it at the right height to play..
It was made of 15 inches Atlas track sections,that still availiable today by Atlas,it was an oval with a siding,that was curving at 12 inches raduis and deserving 3 branches,when I got older and built a bigger on,I bring the small layout to my cousin's place and I taked the subway to get to his place with the layout..

if you have a bed that let rooming under it,it can make a great thing,by making the frame and add small wheels under it(you can take wheels from a computer chair,very easy to put in) ,you have just to roll it from under the bed to play,and roll back under when finishing to play,and it do not take any place in the room when stored..just need to spare some space beside the bed to be able to play.and having foldable legs under it to be able to get it at the right height you need to play.