I don't know about Bozeman ,but Missoula has a very active model railroading community. If you get over there go to the Treasure Chest hobby shop. Its somewhere overe by malfunction Junction. You'll have to look it up. Also I think they have a swapmeet every spring there. Scince you're in the middle Helena has a pretty good swap meet too, also in the spring. I was raised in North Central MT(north of Shelby) and now reside over the hill from you in Lewwiston ID. If you are mobilr Spokane has a swap meet around the 15th of Feb.
Don't be afraid to do projects for college based on your railroad knowledge,specially in engineering. Plenty of research stuff to do. BILL
Or find others in your college that like trains and start a college club:
http://www.ritmrc.org/
Started by and run by college students
Chris
RITMRC President 2004-2006
Lancaster, CA
Check out my railroad at: Buffalo and Southwestern
Photos at:Flicker account
YouTube:StellarMRR YouTube account
Montana Railfan I will do what i can to fix and re-work, andi guess we will see what comes out of it. Thank you for the advice and we will see what i can do.
I will do what i can to fix and re-work, andi guess we will see what comes out of it. Thank you for the advice and we will see what i can do.
For newcomers to model railroad design who have not had time to study and gain some basic design principles, it can be hard to see the issues. So if you keep trying to do a design without that investment, your results may not be what you want.For your situation, an HO 4X8 is not what I would recommend. (Who am I kidding? I'd never recommend an HO 4X8). A big 4X8 slab is hard to move, so you'd be better off with sections, like the MILW "Beer Line" layout MR is featuring as a project series in the magazine now) But since you've already built the table, what else can you do?
Since you are interested in Linn Westcott's "Switchman's Nightmare" from 101 Track Plans, let's try laying that out in the 4X8 "sacred sheet" footprint. If you are willing to give up continuous-running, it fits pretty well, since there is a lot more square footage with which to work.
Anyone who is interested can read more about this layout here. That link includes a description of the layout design and bit about operations.
It looked like your layout used about 16-18 turnouts. The switching layout above uses only 12, but I think it could offer more operating fun and long-term interest, since it incorporates all the features of Westcott's "Switchman's Nightmare".
For portability, ease of future re-use in a different space, and more long-term useable radii, I think you'd be better off with a sectional apporach. But if you've built the 4X8 table and want to keep using it, something like this might be a decent alternative.
ByronModel RR Blog
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
Hey!
By MSU I assume or at least guess that you mean Michigan State University? I go to Michigan State and am building an N scale BNSF model railroad based in Washington in my apartment. No trackwork or anything yet... Anyway, just curious!
or montana state.... oh well, back to searching
Don
Oops, I goofed when I posted my suggested layout for our college friend earlier. I had in my head that the layout he showed us was an HO 4X8 when it is actually an N scale 2X4. I should have realized it from the look of the switch machines on the turnouts in his photos. (Well that, and he said it was N scale several times.)
Anyway, the ideas and track plan I posted should still work fine as an N scale layout in 2X4. It should also work well connected with a future second 2X4 turned 90 degrees to the first. The continuous running connection can be provided on the second 2X4.