Hi, I am currently in the process of slowly completing my first permanent layout in over 25 years.
The layout is basically a U-shaped 8' x 12 x 8' layout. It has two independent lines, the outer line with 22" curves is my mainline, this is essentially a dog-bone with town/engine facilities at one end and the other end of the dog-bone is another town with a few industries.
The inner line is a mining/logging line which services a mine and a logging camp and brings the products to the town with the industries.
I am satisfied with the overall plan, however I am at this point trying to determine how best to add a large hidden staging yard to the layout. I assume the easiest method would be to add a lower deck.
My question is how many of the readers of this forum have ever added a staging yard after the fact?
I don't know if this'll help, Don, But I am adding my staging after the fact. My layout is around the walls with 3 pennisulas. The staging will be under the back 30' wall. It starts here:
There will be a 2 track main where you see the foam below the main level. The staging tracks them selves will be here:
And will run arond the exterior 42' wall and hook into the layout here:
Basically one big circle.
So yeah, I'm adding staging after the fact. Hope it helps!
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
I am so impressed and also envious of the area of your layout. Looks like you will have no problem with adding the storage/staging yards.
I have an idea for how to tie in my mainline to a lower deck, my problem is that I also need to tie in my inner line as well and that is where my problem lies at the moment.
As a last resort I can add to the inner line by punching through a wall into my garage, which unfortunately at this moment in time seems to be my only option.
However, I will keep looking for ideas until then, as I said progress will be slow.
I went the helix route down to my lower level which is a staging/storage area. I put the helix in when I built the upper layout level and then added the lower level track after I had all of the main work done under the first level (i.e. turnout controls, wiring etc...) . It was designed this way from the beginning, even though the construction was in phases.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
How did you plan and built the helix?
The concept is straight forward, a series of circles. Are there plans for these available or do you simply build by trial and error?
Others have some pretty good plans and can post. I just created a basic curvature form that was 1/3rd of a circle (120 degrees) with a 26" center. I then kept cutting them out of 1/2" plywood. Mine was single track so I used a width of 2.5" . If I had to do again I would go 3 or 4". Since I was dropping 12" to the staging/storage area, I wanted 3.75" clearance and exited out the opposite side I entered it took 3 1/2 turns . The grade is around 2.1 degrees. For supporting the helix some folks use threaded rod. I used L brackets screwed to 4 vertical 2"x2" pieces of wood in the center of the helix. The brackets then go under the 1/2" roadbed. The threaded rod is easier to adjust but with being only 2.5" wide, there was no real easy way to attach threaded rod too the roadbed. Thus I went the L bracket approach. I used 3" L brackets and added them as I added each layer. I started at the top and worked towards the bottom (since I finished the top first.
I hope this helps a little.
Edited 2/27/2008 -
I thought a picture might be helpful. Here's an early construction picture of the helix showing the bottom portion of it.
Don,
The current issue of Model Railroad Planning (2008) has an article on building and designing helixes.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Many believe that a multi-level layout is an absolute. My second layout was a two level with lower level staging.
I wrote about my experiences on my blog which can be found at this link:
http://wwwjoe-daddy.blogspot.com/2007/08/ll-pox-on-hidden-staging.html
"You show me a man with both feet on the ground and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants on." -anonymous