The Cascade Northern R.R. Mining-Logging Branch

[NWP SWP]

And my layout could just be "dormant" during college or I could work on all the trees, structures, rolling stock, etc. 

[NWP SWP]

Oh and Ed it's 8 feet total two 2ft wide levels a side.

[doctorwayne]

tstage

Then all this superball track planning is a waste of time for everyone - including yourself.

Find out from your folks what size layout they would consider as "acceptable" and plan your layout using those dimensions.  You'll find that "fences" will force you to think how best to utilize your mrring space and you'll be freer to work within those confines vs. running out to the end of your choke chain and strangling yourself everytime you come up with your next great layout idea.

Focus on small and achieveable goals for your first layout then plan your US version of Miniatur Wunderland when you have the money and the space...

 

tstage

Posted by tstage on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 12:12 PM

Making the link to the new thread clickable:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/261849.aspx

...and locking the old one.

 

C'mon, Tom, you didn't really think that would alter the conversation, didja? 

 

I appreciate Steven's enthusiasm, and I get the feeling that he, in turn, appreciates the patience exhibited by those who are offering their advice.  That said, I think that he needs to listen to what they're saying and at the same time listen to what he himself is saying, too.  The layout type keeps changing...all but the 4' depth of it despite repeated admonishments regarding its impracticality.

 

If you don't like the advice, by all means ignore it....if you have success, great!  But repeatedly asking for advice and repeatedly ignoring it shows that a great number of members here have considerably more patience than I could ever muster.

Steven, build it!  Whichever one you want...just do it!  I built my layout without a trackplan at all, and while it's not to everyone's taste, it works quite well for me. 
And, at the risk of being ignored (don't worry, I'll ignore that  ) you might discover that a 4'x8' works quite well...once you cut it into narrower strips.  

 

Wayne

[richhotrain]

doctorwayne

 

Steven, build it!  Whichever one you want...just do it!  

Time to start a new thread? 

[rrinker]

 I too say start small and add on. Your first layout is not going to be your last. Even John Allen started small.

 My Dad passed away when I was young. I was determined to keep model trains going, so the first year I just put up what we always put up over the holidays, we didn;t really have room in the house for a permanent layout. But I wanted to have a layout all year, so I broke out the old N scale stuff and bought some more. I built a 2x4 layout from an Atlas plan book. I did have room in my bedroom for more, so i ended up building a 4x8 HO layout, no real track plan, just built it like the temp layout we used to set up, with a few extra touches like an abandoned siding. Wanted more so I went back to N scale, and built a 3x6 where I think I got most of the idea from an Atlas book but added some additional touches like a steep mining branch up the side of my mountain. This all before I was a teenager. Then I got into computers and the layout just languished through high school and college. After college I met a girl who's Dad was a model railroader, mostly armchair since he too had no space to build a layout. He had a couple of dioramas he made and briefly had a 2x4 N scale layout, but most of all he had all the 80's MRs I had missed while away from the hobby. I picked up a couple of locos and some car kits, and I was back. My apartment had a "walk in closet" that was just a bare room - no place to hang clothes or anything. I had a table with my computer in there and figured if I put up some bookshelves I could run a layout around 3 of the walls. That worked out pretty well, but I never got to the third wall. On one wall I modified a plan out of 101 Track Plans. On the second wall, I designed it myself. My plan for the third wall was another modified plan from 101 Track plans. This was my first layout I actually designed something for rather than just using a book plan or throwing down a loop of track and hoping it worked out. Things again conspired to keep me away from the hobby for a few years, but then I had a house with a HUGE basement. I started with an 8x12 donut (you can see my old plans on my web site) with plans to connect it to the rest of the basement. Through many iterations I came up with a workable plan to fillt he basement, but that too was not meant to be. Back to an apartment and I had room for a long narrow switching layout. Just as I started building the first section for that, I found a bigger place that had a spare bedroom available and came up with the plan posted previously in this thread. Also after a few tries - I had wanted to use that alcove area for track as well, I ended up putting my workbench back there. And now here I am back in a house again with a decent but not huge basement, working on yet another design.

                            --Randy

 

[Water Level Route]

cascadenorthernrr

Slow down there pal. I would have a layout already but my parents haven't been too accomodating to my hobby.

 

I don't know about that.  Letting you have a 4x20, 8x20, 16x16 or whatever space is actual that you mentioned is rather accomodating.  Those aren't trivial spaces.

[tstage]

doctorwayne

C'mon, Tom, you didn't really think that would alter the conversation, didja? 

Not particularly, Wayne...but it may help keep the simultaneously running threads under 10 for a short time.