Massive undertaking..any thoughts

[Anonymous]

I have been planning and planning and planning but I'm having a hard time figuring out a plan...heres the deal. N scale, not affraid to grade, using foam. dimensions..thats what gets tricky. 28ft long on the north end, east side is 20ft, west side 13ft, south (going from west to east) runs 12ft, drops down7ft, then continues east 8ft. there are run of boards toward the middle but its unlikely that I will run mainline on them. Anyways heres the deal, I want to run to mainline tracks around this thing and I'm racking my brain. what would the community here do with this sort of setup. I do have my own ideas but I'm looking for input on what you all might like. [?]

[Medina1128]

Try downloading Right Track from Atlasrr.com. It's a free layout design program. Unfortunately, it's for Atlas track only, but I used it to design a 12'x27' horseshoe shaped layout. It has a grid so you can line it up to your dimensions. I would draw a heavy line marking the perimeter of your space, THEN start designing the layout. Have fun with it. Yes, it will calculate grades for you. I really like it. I've seen other posts where other people didn't but then it's like "do you not or do you like ketchup on yer fries..." Opinions are like armpits: Everyone has at least one.. and most of them stink..." [:)]

[pcarrell]

Because of that 7 foot drop (which is HUGE), scenically I see only two or three options.

1) Mountains. Lots of them. Hide a big honkin' helix in one of them to get you from one level to the next. It's a lot of hidden track, but it would do the trick.

2) Model a large valley that is set somewhere where the land is otherwise fairily flat (maybe some rolling hills). The Ohio valley near Akron would be one example. The trains run through the rolling hills and then hit the valley and begin their decent. they wind back and forth along the valley walls til they reach the bottom.

3) Two RR's and an interchange. One regular RR to serve most of the layout, and a gigantic rock quarry model with switchbacks climbing the sides of the quarry walls for thelow portion. It would keep operators busy for hours! You could really go hog wild detailing this massive quarry.

For the actual planning I've always used the Atlas software mentioned by Medina1128. It works well once you get used to it. All the planning software I've played with takes time to get the hang of it. Once you get the jist of it you're off and running.

Hey, let us know how you come out OK? And if we can help, you know where we are!

[Anonymous]

How is the north side of the all one level but the south side has a seven foot drop?

No offense but, this sounds like the wackey shack, lol.

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jcmark611

How is the north side of the all one level but the south side has a seven foot drop?

No offense but, this sounds like the wackey shack, lol.

Maybe his house is built into the side of a hill. Maybe he's got a giant greatroom and he's going from one story of his house to the next. Who knows.[8D]

[SpaceMouse]

In general, the problem I see is that you are thinking in terms of space and not interms of purpose. I don't have it in front of me but in the December MR there is a checklist of things you need to know before you start your design.

In general, though:

What makes you excited about model railroading? When you close your eyes and imagine your railroad empire what do you see? What era is it? What part of the country is it?

Imagine your space as a series of scenes, what happens in those scenes?

Until you can "see" your railroad, there's no point in designing because everything you come up with will not really be what you want.

The key is to know what you want.

[SpaceMouse]

Here are some basic questions asked by professional designer Byron Henderson.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/id13.html

[dwRavenstar]

Heyas,

A seven foot drop is massive to say the least. If a helix drops 4" in a circuit you're looking at 21 circuits overall to get to lowest from highest level.

dw

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry I mispoke, by "drop" I ment that it makes an L shape it goes farther back by 7 feet, Not an actual drop....thanks for all of your replys though, I will look into these things.

[bikerraypa]

I would second what Chip said, and add a caution....the title of your thread is "Massive Undertaking." Since most model railroaders usually have the problem of not enough space, don't forget that the converse can be a problem as well, having too much space. When you think about your layout as a "massive undertaking," it might be a good time to step back and ask yourself how big a layout you can realistically build and maintain. Just because you HAVE the space doesn't mean you HAVE to fill it to the brim. Maybe a smaller layout along two walls or with a peninsula would be a better plan, and still have room for a workbench area, furniture, train pics on the walls, whatever. It is very easy, comparatively speaking, to put a big layout like that on paper, but it can be very hard to translate into the real thing, eventually becoming a plywood monster that lives in your basement and that you avoid at all costs. So, maybe start smaller.

Just a thought.


Ray

[Anonymous]

Thank you all so much for replying. I know that this is a big layout and believe me its not going to be something that I will get done tomorrow. Heres a little back ground, my father who has a muscle disease, and I wanted a hobby that we can do together. I have loved model railroads for many many years and have built several smaller and midsized layouts. What we would like to do is lay out all of the mainlines then maybe go section by section. I would like to have to mainlines that run the entire loop, and severl yards and switching areas. some elavation, but I live in michigan and its kind of flat so I would like to model that in some respects, more woods, and lakes and streams. Now do I run a double mainline?

[Anonymous]

Wow! You have a tremenous amount of space! Is there anything in the middle of this room? I would suggest not just staying against the wall but making several pennisulas out away from the wall. This could double your mainline length.

If you had a diagram of the room, showing where the windows, stairs and doors are I think we would be glad to get you started and give you different ideas. I do suggest you get a rough idea where your mainline will go, then plan from there.

[Anonymous]

I will try and get you a diagram, but I'm not sure how to put a pic of it on the computer, I'll work on that. There are some things in the middle of the layout...stairs, heater etc. But I will also have at least two pennisulas. as for now I'm trying to figure out the mainline. I'm still undecided on weither or not I want one or two. I think that I want at least one train the can continuosly run. I'll try and get the table plan put on here though.[:D]

[CNJ831]

I word of advice: start out by building a reasonably-sized, self-contained, fully operational, section of the layout first, with plans that allow it to be expanded at either end to eventually form that "dream layout". Once you are up and running that small portion of the layout, then it's time to consider further sections to add to it, piece by piece, to fill that entire basement, attic, whatever.

Over many years I've seen a great number of layouts, based on grandiose plans, started. I'd say 98 out of 100 never get beyond the trackwork stage before they are abandoned, either for something more "practical" in size, or the individual simply gives up entirely because the job ahead of them is so immense. This is particularly true of folks realtively new to the hobby, regardless of scale.

CNJ831

[rolleiman]

Is this your space?? How do you get in and out of it and where are the obsticals that cannot be moved? I'm sure you've taken this into consideration, is Dad in a wheelchair or on crutches? Be sure to leave space for him to move around..
Those are the first things that will determine your plan.. Nothing else is going to matter a hill of beans until you've solved Those problems.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/jjmel/expendable/space.jpg[/image]

7 foot helix.... [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Jeff

[Anonymous]

thats the layout!!!! He's not on crutches but does move a little slow. There is a staircase that runs down into the layout. Most of the layout would be 3 fett wide, allowing for room in the middle, with a couple of pennisulas.

[ereimer]

CNJ831 has a very good point . if i had that kind of space i'd think about building several scenes in various parts of the room and connect them with very plain track on green painted plywood . if you get the scenes 'completed' and decide you need more you can build in the areas between the scenes , the track and plywood should be reusable

should your track be single or double mainline ? well you say you want to model sometihng that looks like where you live ... what do the real railroads around there do ?

really the easiest way to make many decisions on a model railroad is to pick a real railroad and find out how they do it . you can change the name of the railroad , change the paint scheme , use more or less towns or industries , move a river to where there is really a mountain , etc. but if you start with a real prototype it's easier to change things than it is to start with nothing and make it all up , unless you have a really great imagination .

[Anonymous]

I have a plan mapped out on atlas RTS now, I did make the layout smaller, more like 15x13 now. A little easier...if anyone would like the file to check out let me know...or tell me how I can uplaod a pic of it[^]