I am starting my first RR and have read alot of books and magazines. I think I am going to start with 30'' wide 10' x 8' L shape with 3 tracks intergrating on mutiple grades with mountains and valleys set in the appalachians with a large mine on one end and a logger on the other with a NC town in the middle using Southern Rail way>Does this sound correct???LOL I want to super detail; I am a newbie at 42.
I gues you would call the layout a dogbone
Any thought?
Thanks,
Bear
I assume you are talkinng about N scale because 30" is too tight to put a turnback curve in HO. If you are talking about 3 independent loops of track, that is 6 tracks through 30" of benchwork. That's a challenge. I would suggest sketching out waht you want in the ay of a coa mine, town and logging area and see how much space they take up, then see how much room you have left for mainlines and mountains, etc. You might want to go with just 2 loops instead of 3.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Greetings and welcome,
As you may notice I'm in NC also. May I ask what part you are in?
Your layout sounds ambitious for a newbie but not impossible. Will you be having a mine or a rock quarry? Your size sounds like N scale? Have you sketched out a plan? Is this based on the Salisbury-Asheville line? What years are you going to model? Do you have pictures of some of the things you plan to super detail and some of the places in North Carolina this will be based on? Track down Spacemouse, he has an excellent guide! Click on his avatar.
I know I have asked a lot of questions but I want to help you succeed. Being in NC and basing your layout in NC is great. I live in NC and my small layout is themed in the midwest. You can go look at your reference material from your car. You can visit someplace and ask the local folks, think diner at Saturday lunch, what the area looked like in the years you model. Take pictures and make notes. Get a Walther's catalog to get the dimensions and an idea of how much room your scenic items, mine, loggin, & town willl take up. Once you have idea where everything is going get as much track down as logically possible. That way when you are tired of construction or scenicing you can always run trains. Scenic in small sections at a time. Anyway that works for me.
Wishing you success,
Bob
Modeling in N scale: Rock Island freight and passenger, with a touch of the following; Wabash Cannon Ball, CB&Q passenger, and ATSF freight and passenger. I played in Peoria (Heights).
Dehusman,
I have made some sketches and will upload them soon, I will have 1 main line that will turn in the corner on a 40'' section using 18'' radius, the other end of the L will be the same. the other lines will be branch lines with point to point only with turnouts that will connect to the main
Tom
I am in charlotte, my layout is very ambitious, I am modeling the 50s so I can have late steam and early diesel.I have been researching everywhere. I started with a 4x8 table top but I am cutting it down and trashing the plywood today.
"Late steam" usually means "big steam". Quite often that doesn't mix well with 18"radius curves. Its like driving a bus around a go cart track. Once again I am assuming you are doing HO since 18" radius is a common radius in that scale. If you aren't doing HO then you might want to tell us since the scale makes a HUGE difference in the advice you will be getting.
Im doing HO
If you haven't bought a whole bunch of HO stuff yet, I would suggest you seriously consider N scale. Most of the big steamers won't negotiate 18" radius and those that do look silly doing it. With N scale your ratio of track to scenery is much better and you can have nice broad curves to make the steamers really look good. The same goes for the nice long coal trains. It also sounds like you trying to cram way too much track into the space you have, a common first timers mistake, we all want to have everything on our railroad, including the kitchen sink. If you go N scale you probably would have room for everything.without making the whole thing look like a spagetti bowl, less is more here.
In HO a 30" depth is not going to be enough for an 18" radius loop, you'd need at least 36" for the diameter of the track and another 2 to 6" on either side to keep the trains from hitting the wall or the floor. Have you considered a shelf layout going around the walls?
Edit: Sorry, I just saw your comment about the 40", I still don't see how you're going to get all that in a 10x8 space.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
You can do a water wings in 8ft x 10ft in HO - but nothing else. The layout must be pointed into a corner, you are pretty much limited to 18-22" radius curves, and the aisle between the loops is perhaps 30" wide on a 45 degree diagonal. About the only place for industry is inside the loops. Depending on actual space configuration, access holes in the loops will probably be needed.
I did try drawing such a layout for my 7.5ft x 10ft space. I concluded the 2 "optimal" arrangements for the space are a 4x7.5 "table" with 2x10 shelf linked in a U configuration, or a donut similar to the HOG RR. The donut would use 2ft shelves on 3 sides - the 4th being a window, which would have a removable section. The donut is probably the best use of the space, but has a duck under/liftout/gate (which I detest) in addition to the 60" window bridge. Hence my indecision.
Fred W
Bearcowski,
I'm about 30 miles West at the far edge of Gaston County. There is a train show coming up in Hickory in Sept. The last one in Charlotte wasn't that much for N Scale.
Any train shops in Charlotte?
Good luck with your layout.
I will delete some track and just have one main line around, let me upload some pictures and go from there. thanks
Hi Bear,
If you're talking about a 40" layout width in the corner of your 'L' you'll likely have some serious reachibility issues.
If you want to stay in HO would you be willing to consider back dating your railroad to the 1920s or 1930s? The smaller engines would go around the tight curves much better than big ones.
It sounds like what you're thinking of though might have some stupendous scenic opportunities!
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
I could do that, I will need the corner for the turning I put togather the start of benchwork saturday night, let me load the pics.
Thanks
There is a train show at the Cabarrus Event Center in early October, too.
Charlotte has a club, but I do not belong.
Send me a PM if you would like to do lunch and discuss your plans.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Picture never came through.
dehusman wrote:Picture never came through.Dave H.
Link the man tried to post (URL was slightly messed up):
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k479/bearcowski/
pics:
Stein
Thanks for helping with the pics,
The sketch is very crude but gave me a base to work to. I will be extending the benchwork into and around the corner and back out. overall I have 10-6x 10. when I get the bench frame complete this weekend I plan on getting some 1/2''ac plywood for sub roadbed. I willupdate the plan. Have a main line loop hidden in places, a tunnel on the right corner I am split between logging or coal that is why I thought of both but with the short space I should drop one. Have one theme set up on one end and have my town on the other. Appalaichin mountain type. I want to weather some wood structures, I have started a collection and have some MUIR models plus some DPM buildings for the small commercial district like Bryson city main street.
Thanks! I'll be back
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
chip,
The loop is in a tunnel, I will build it so it can lift off, I am going to have 1 loop, I still want to stay with HO and not switch to N but I have not gone too far, HO has the sound and more options. I think?
MRIF,
I think you are right, I will concentrate on a coal mining scene, how about early EMDs like the G7 hauling coal? and Shays
bearcowski wrote: MRIF,I think you are right, I will concentrate on a coal mining scene, how about early EMDs like the G7 hauling coal? and Shays
BC:
Either of those could work fine, or small to medium-sized rod-type steam locos. I would expect to see the Shays on a very short line, perhaps one that served only one or a few mines, or on a steep and curving branch of a bigger line. Some coal roads liked Baldwin diesels.
I don't know too much about North Carolina, but I get the sense that they had lots of very neat Class 2s and large shortlines, but not much coal. So you might want to look at timber or ag products, or look to a neighboring state if coal floats your barge. Roads to look at would be the Aberdeen & Rockfish, and the original Norfolk & Southern. For small coal roads, the Buffalo Creek & Gauley in West Virginia could provide lots of inspiration. I have to say I find the old-time Class 2s and small Class 1s, which we would think of as regional roads today, very fascinating, although they aren't often modeled, and you'd have to decal a lot.
I have decided to go with N scale, I went to spencer North Carolina today where they have a really nice model RR shop and talked to several rail roaders, I took a new sketch and left with a new outlook, I will be drawing and sawing for the next several days in which time I will send an updated set of photos.
BC
bearcowski wrote: chip,The loop is in a tunnel, I will build it so it can lift off, I am going to have 1 loop, I still want to stay with HO and not switch to N but I have not gone too far, HO has the sound and more options. I think? Tom
Correct me if im wrong but i believe N scale has all the sound and at least most of the HO has.
Chip,
HO has sound capability in all locos ( diesel & steam ) where as N has sound only in N scale.