latest layout!!!" border="0" />
what do you all think? the dark box on the left would be a tall mountain range that would act as a viewblock. the lower right open area will be a harbor
okay this is my idea the time period is the 1910s-1920s and the industries are mining, logging, and passenger service. the upper left oval will be a small mountain town in mabye the rockies. the other oval will be a large seaport possibly L.A. or San Francisco. there would be a coal mine on the lowest spur on the left side. so a train would pick up coal and take it to the harbor to be shipped. there will be a logging camp on the lowest spur in the mountains. the train would take the logs to the saw mill in another part of the town and the planks taken to the harbor to be shipped. there would be passenger stations on each of the passing sidings for tourist and to vacation in the mountain town.
see any problems or flaws? have any questions? thanks for input
Can you sketch in the buildings, or add them using the buildings library in the Atlas software? That will help us visualize where you're going to put things.
As far as the locos and rolling stock, what was the Santa Fe (even if you end up calling your pike something different) running in the post-depression era?
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
CTValleyRR wrote: Personally, for a first layout, I don't think you could go far wrong eliminating the large 8x8 loop and just expanding the outer loop of the middle section to make a more or less 4x8 layout. However, assuming you're planning an aisle around your center peninsula, I think you've solved your access problem.Assuming the dark, heavy line across the center of the peninsula is your divider / backdrop, you might want to consider extending it accross all tracks in that area, that way your trains will leave one venue and arrive on another. OTOH, having it where it is kind of leaves some of your stubs / sidings going nowhere. Might work.... it would depend on how you did it (maybe have them vanish into a tunnel / forest on one side and a building on the other?).A couple of other notes / questions:1) Can you sketch where you think the structures are going to go on your layout? Some of your industries (steel mill, especially) are enormous and would have to be carefully modelled to look anything like realistic.2) Still looks like your trains run perilously close to the layout edge. While you could be optimistic and say your trains won't derail, Mr. Murphy and I will bet against you any day. You'd need a raised edge to keep your trains from plunging to an early death. (Yeah, it's a cool special effect at the end of Back to the Future III, but I'd just as soon not do it on my own layout -- BTDT).3) What's your minimum curve radius? 18"? (That would be standard for Atlas Snap Track). If so, you will have to steer clear of full length 85' passenger cars and even a few larger engines (a 4-6-2 Pacific would probably be ok, anything larger is probably asking for trouble; some 6 axle diesels would work, provided the wheelbase was short and the trucks close to the ends of the loco). Model Power makes some "antique passenger cars" which are only 35 scale feet long, and work nicely on 18" curves (although they're underweight from the factory and need some added weight to run well; and they have hook & horn couplers which you might want to convert to a knuckle coupler).As far as what models to run, you should decide on what prototype (i.e. real railroad) you want to simulate (did you say BNSF -- more properly one of its predecessor lines -- in an earlier post?) and do some research as to what they were actually running in the '30s and '40s. Your local library should have a couple of books; a good overview / history of your chosen line is also an excellent investment at the bookstore. I personally own 5 on the New York, New Haven and Hartford. I can tell you exactly (to the loco type and number and car type and number for the passenger cars) what the NH was running in that time period, but I'm useless for just about any other road.You're making good progress, though, and you're starting to think things through and see the possibilities. Do you have a picture of the finished layout, or parts of it, in your imagination yet? If not, you soon will. Keep it up!
Personally, for a first layout, I don't think you could go far wrong eliminating the large 8x8 loop and just expanding the outer loop of the middle section to make a more or less 4x8 layout. However, assuming you're planning an aisle around your center peninsula, I think you've solved your access problem.
Assuming the dark, heavy line across the center of the peninsula is your divider / backdrop, you might want to consider extending it accross all tracks in that area, that way your trains will leave one venue and arrive on another. OTOH, having it where it is kind of leaves some of your stubs / sidings going nowhere. Might work.... it would depend on how you did it (maybe have them vanish into a tunnel / forest on one side and a building on the other?).
A couple of other notes / questions:
1) Can you sketch where you think the structures are going to go on your layout? Some of your industries (steel mill, especially) are enormous and would have to be carefully modelled to look anything like realistic.
2) Still looks like your trains run perilously close to the layout edge. While you could be optimistic and say your trains won't derail, Mr. Murphy and I will bet against you any day. You'd need a raised edge to keep your trains from plunging to an early death. (Yeah, it's a cool special effect at the end of Back to the Future III, but I'd just as soon not do it on my own layout -- BTDT).
3) What's your minimum curve radius? 18"? (That would be standard for Atlas Snap Track). If so, you will have to steer clear of full length 85' passenger cars and even a few larger engines (a 4-6-2 Pacific would probably be ok, anything larger is probably asking for trouble; some 6 axle diesels would work, provided the wheelbase was short and the trucks close to the ends of the loco). Model Power makes some "antique passenger cars" which are only 35 scale feet long, and work nicely on 18" curves (although they're underweight from the factory and need some added weight to run well; and they have hook & horn couplers which you might want to convert to a knuckle coupler).
As far as what models to run, you should decide on what prototype (i.e. real railroad) you want to simulate (did you say BNSF -- more properly one of its predecessor lines -- in an earlier post?) and do some research as to what they were actually running in the '30s and '40s. Your local library should have a couple of books; a good overview / history of your chosen line is also an excellent investment at the bookstore. I personally own 5 on the New York, New Haven and Hartford. I can tell you exactly (to the loco type and number and car type and number for the passenger cars) what the NH was running in that time period, but I'm useless for just about any other road.
You're making good progress, though, and you're starting to think things through and see the possibilities. Do you have a picture of the finished layout, or parts of it, in your imagination yet? If not, you soon will. Keep it up!
i was thinking the steel mill would be in the large open space on the lower right of the switching area (the divider would be closer to horizontal) i was thinking santa fe for the roadname and motive power would be an 0-4-0 switcher a 4-4-0 for passenger (possibly) and maybe a 2-6-0 mogul for freight i was thinking the 35' long pas. cars before too for freight some stock cars, ore cars, and something to carry the finished steel
i was thinking the benchwork would be a slightly shrunken 4x8' for the small oval two 6" wide arms would come off at the top and carry the 8x8' loop
good idea about the divider the sidings in the west town will go to mine, ranch, and tailings dam the rightmost 3 sidings in the city will be the steel mill the other one will go to the butcher
new trackplan again!!!!!!!!! i believe i have at least partially solved the problems. " border="0" />
wat do you all think? for industries i was thinking an iron mine, cattle ranch, and following industry chains: mine>refinery>steel mill. cattle ranch>slaughter house.
for scenery and place i was thinking the industry part would be divided with some sort of view block (backdrop, row of hills, etc.) into 2 places the upper part would be in a small town in the west (think of the movie "Wild Wild West" with Will Smith) and would have the mine and ranch. the other side would be a big city (i think of detroit or St. Luis) with all the other industries the main line is connecting the 2 places
for time i was thinking 30's-40's during and just after the depression so the companies and railroads couldn't afford huge 100 or so car trains and there would be steam trains
oh BTW i will also be running passenger service
okay here is the timeline a small switcher loco would be in the small town and would start collecting cars from the industries wen its done the main loco would pick up the cars and travel around the loop a few times to create the illusion of distance next it would drop the cars off at the city and the switcher loco would put the cars at the appropriate industries then after a while the process would be done in reverse the passenger train will start at one station, travel around the loop a few times and stop at the other station then repeat the process
how does that all look and sound? BTW i know the spurs are short but i am only planning to do one or to cars at a time.
oh BTW wat kinds of locos could i use? im looking for ones that are not too long
and did any rr lines have american 4-4-0s in service in my time period? i would like to use one for my passenger train and wat kinds of rr cars both passenger and freight did they use back then?
thanks for reading, please respond
I think there has been adegree of skullduggery here but fair play to those who took it seriously and spared the time to share their expertise.
It bodes well for genuine young people looking for ideas and help
train lover12 wrote: Phoebe Vet wrote:I think you will need VERY long arms.lol there woll be aisles between the inner and outer parts and an access hatch in the small oval
Phoebe Vet wrote:I think you will need VERY long arms.
lol there woll be aisles between the inner and outer parts and an access hatch in the small oval
The large squares appear to be 1' in real life (based on your statement that the layout is 8x8), you still haven't given yourself a lot of room for an aisle or gopher hole. 20" is what interior decorators use for "adequate room" for aisles between pieces of furniture. A standard door is 30" wide.
If you have aisles and gopher holes, you don't have a lot of room for scenery / structures. I would allow yourself at least 2" between any track and the edge of your layout as well. That way your trains should stay on the layout in the event of a detrailment.
If you can live with the scenery / access compromises, it looks like you have a fun layout there. I also hope the inclines don't mess you up (I'm having issues with one of mine at the moment). Good luck.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
i have a new trackplan and i like it
it is a twice-around the tracks in the upper right corner are actually two overlapping tracks
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what do you all think? any glaring problems?
would love feedback
BTW the plan is 8'x8'
Hey Train Lover12
Haven't seen you over here in a couple of days now. Did your layout plans run out of steam, or are you too busy building to let us know how things are progressing?
adt320 wrote: Are you kidding me? have you checked this kid out. First he asks about Layout ideas - thread one, then Benchwork -thread two, then he asks Modular Ideas - thread three!!!!!! He is wasting everyones time!!!! I agree that I am not in a position to tell anyone how to spend their free time, so respond away, however, I cannot believe for the life of me that I am the only one who realizes what a joke this guy is He never listens to your answers he just starts another thread. I feel sorry for all of you who have spent your valuable time and energy responding to his threads.
Are you kidding me? have you checked this kid out. First he asks about Layout ideas - thread one, then Benchwork -thread two, then he asks Modular Ideas - thread three!!!!!! He is wasting everyones time!!!!
I agree that I am not in a position to tell anyone how to spend their free time, so respond away, however, I cannot believe for the life of me that I am the only one who realizes what a joke this guy is
He never listens to your answers he just starts another thread. I feel sorry for all of you who have spent your valuable time and energy responding to his threads.
We've all ready been down this road, did you bother to read the entire thread????
Instead of complaining, and if you're so smart, then help "this kid" out.
I don't mind the barrarge of questions, isn't this what this forum is all about anyway.
And thanks CTV, my sentiments exactly.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
i cant post my new layout plan but i have it on the floor in my room. it is an unfolded dogbone with 2 passing sidings on the ends and a 3 track yard inside one of the loops and 2 simple industry tracks (stub sidings).
wat do you guys think? do i have good operating capabilities? does anyone see any dangerous flaws?
CTV - God bless you. As a parent and a scout leader, I'm proud of your effort and encouragement (and patience). Great job!
I'd say you and the other supporters of the hobby are on the "right track" here and the lone voice of disention has had his roadbed washed out!
Keep your steam up!
Trainlover12 - good luck and I hope you follow all the advice given here. It is very sound advice indeed. I've read through it and find there is not much more to add. Start with a small plan you can expand on and you'll be happy to have a layout you can use (and afford) soon, yet still grow into a larger operation.
For everyone's info, trainlover has posted on the benchwork thread that he has scaled back his plans to a 5x10 dogbone.
Sounds like he's growing into the hobby. Let's continue to encourage and guide him.
adt320 wrote: Train Lover12 is back with more questions????????? See the thread "Benchwork" and see what this guy (Child) is all about. He/She starts a thread then starts an entire new one after that thread has been exhausted and some of you treat him/her as a "serious newbie" not!!I sincerely hope you all have better things to do than to respond to this individual with his/her generic childish questions. If i were a moderator I would probabaly have him/her banned. Better to have been spammed than have this kid in this group.
Train Lover12 is back with more questions????????? See the thread "Benchwork" and see what this guy (Child) is all about. He/She starts a thread then starts an entire new one after that thread has been exhausted and some of you treat him/her as a "serious newbie" not!!
I sincerely hope you all have better things to do than to respond to this individual with his/her generic childish questions. If i were a moderator I would probabaly have him/her banned. Better to have been spammed than have this kid in this group.
And I hope YOU have better things to do than to post snotty replies on forums. If you don't like it, don't read it, and don't post to it. At least trainlover is exhibiting age appropriate behavior. Can you say the same thing?
My time is mine to spend however I wish to use it, and not for you to tell me how. If I want to spend 5 minutes here and there replying to elementary questions, that's really my affair, isn't it?
you dont you pick on someone your own size
if you dont like my threads dont read them.
train lover12 wrote:im working on the floor and i know how everything will fit but the switchback and passing and i did the whole layout in RTS and it works but i will make sure before i do anything big
If you've done the file in RTS, can you stick some buildings in to see how things fit? If forget, does it let you draw boxes of any size, or are you stuck with the stock models they provide?
Trains running around in circles will get boring very quickly if there's nothing for them to do.
Replying to both posts at once, I respectfully submit that, if you haven't successfully connected ALL the track pieces, there may still be a gremlin hiding in there somewhere. Typically my first tries come up about an inch off somewhere, and then I spend three hours fiddling to get it right. Are you working on the floor, or on plywood right now?
I just threw in the furniture industry because you mentioned logging, and it was the first thing I thought of that needed wood. Your jewelry industry example is fine too, although aprototypical (that's a fancy word which means, "not like real life"). Real jewelry-making is on too small a scale to need a railroad. No one could afford to buy a boxcar full of diamonds or gold. BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. It's YOUR railroad; make up a reason that sounds possible. I mean, you could do farm / manure / fertilizer factory / farm if you wanted to, or city / garbage dump / landfill (don't snort, they DO have garbage trains running out of Seattle) if you want to add a little sick humor.
Let me give you an example: I model the Connecticut [River] Valley Railroad (as if you couldn't guess). In real life, it was founded in 1881, acquired by the New Haven Railroad in 1889, and never saw more than 2-3 trains a week because Hartford never developed into a major metropolis, and the big train action stuck to the big cities on the shoreline. On MY layout, however, the Hurricane of 1952 (a real event) left the shoreline tracks and wetlands so damaged that the New Haven never restored them, instead routing traffic up the Valley RR to Middletown and Hartford and then back to New Haven. So I tweaked reality so that I could model familiar scenes close to my house, because it's what I wanted to do.
All I'm saying is don't put unrelated industries: a coal mine, a logging camp, and a farm, for instance, on your layout, because then your trains have nothing realistic to do. It's more fun when they can pick stuff up and drop it off. I'm not saying you have to go all realistic with your operations -- I sure don't (I only have one passenger station; trains transporting passengers take a few laps and return to the same station on the other side of the platform -- and watch a bunch of people flame me for that notion!). It's not necessarily about realism, it's about entertainment. If you find realism entertaining, go for it. If not, don't let anyone tell you how to do it.
CTValleyRR wrote: Whatever you end up with, try to preserve the industry daisy chain -- here you have a logging camp, a lumber mill, a furniture factory, a warehouse, and towns. Potentially 5 stops in a furniture industry. You could do something similar with aggregate / concrete / construction, grain / mill / bakery / restaurant, or even fish / cannery / supermarket. The potential is endless. Notice how I located some of the industries along the loop rather than in sidings, so as to give your trains something to do while they run around in circles.
Whatever you end up with, try to preserve the industry daisy chain -- here you have a logging camp, a lumber mill, a furniture factory, a warehouse, and towns. Potentially 5 stops in a furniture industry. You could do something similar with aggregate / concrete / construction, grain / mill / bakery / restaurant, or even fish / cannery / supermarket. The potential is endless. Notice how I located some of the industries along the loop rather than in sidings, so as to give your trains something to do while they run around in circles.
for an industry chain how about mine/refinery/factory/jewlery store
do you think that would work? if so do i have all the names & order right?
CTValleyRR wrote: train lover12 wrote: CTValleyRR wrote: Yep! Just like my son. I already told you in a previous post what size turnouts they were -- #5. One of them (the one in the lower right leading to the servicing yard) is an Atlas-type snap track turnout, where the turnout combined with a 1/3 curve piece makes a "standard" 1/12 curve radius piece. NOT sure if such a piece (the turnout; I know they have 1/3 turns) is available in the Bachmann EZ Track -- like I said, that may be your first challenge. Far from insurmountable, though. could i use a standard remote switch instead? they are basically 9" straights with a 30 degree 18" radius branching off to one sideAs I've repeatedly said, it's only a rough plan. Change it to suit your taste or available pieces.The geometry will change a little, but they'll work fine. Throw 'em in; you might like it better. You can use a 1/3 curve facing the opposite direction from the turnout to create parallel tracks.The point I think you're missing is that my plan has NOT passed the operational test yet. That's on you to make sure it works.
train lover12 wrote: CTValleyRR wrote: Yep! Just like my son. I already told you in a previous post what size turnouts they were -- #5. One of them (the one in the lower right leading to the servicing yard) is an Atlas-type snap track turnout, where the turnout combined with a 1/3 curve piece makes a "standard" 1/12 curve radius piece. NOT sure if such a piece (the turnout; I know they have 1/3 turns) is available in the Bachmann EZ Track -- like I said, that may be your first challenge. Far from insurmountable, though. could i use a standard remote switch instead? they are basically 9" straights with a 30 degree 18" radius branching off to one side
CTValleyRR wrote: Yep! Just like my son. I already told you in a previous post what size turnouts they were -- #5. One of them (the one in the lower right leading to the servicing yard) is an Atlas-type snap track turnout, where the turnout combined with a 1/3 curve piece makes a "standard" 1/12 curve radius piece. NOT sure if such a piece (the turnout; I know they have 1/3 turns) is available in the Bachmann EZ Track -- like I said, that may be your first challenge. Far from insurmountable, though.
Yep! Just like my son. I already told you in a previous post what size turnouts they were -- #5. One of them (the one in the lower right leading to the servicing yard) is an Atlas-type snap track turnout, where the turnout combined with a 1/3 curve piece makes a "standard" 1/12 curve radius piece. NOT sure if such a piece (the turnout; I know they have 1/3 turns) is available in the Bachmann EZ Track -- like I said, that may be your first challenge. Far from insurmountable, though.
could i use a standard remote switch instead? they are basically 9" straights with a 30 degree 18" radius branching off to one side
As I've repeatedly said, it's only a rough plan. Change it to suit your taste or available pieces.
The geometry will change a little, but they'll work fine. Throw 'em in; you might like it better. You can use a 1/3 curve facing the opposite direction from the turnout to create parallel tracks.
The point I think you're missing is that my plan has NOT passed the operational test yet. That's on you to make sure it works.
i laid out the track i have and it works as far as i can see i will need some more track first though i think ill probably be able to get it the day after tomorow (tuesday) so after i get all the track and finalize the plan wat do i do next? is it time to start planning my benchwork?
http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm