Overwhelmed...please help

[OnofrioD]

What does one do when they are overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin? I would like to build a seasonal layout that goes with my wife's Dept 56 - Dicken's Village Series. She has well over 50-pieces. I thought it would be a good idea to get our whole family involved and enjoying the village and railroading during the holidays; but I've never built a layout before and frankly don't know where to begin. It will be a narrow-gauged O-track...that's about how far I got. Finding inspiration on a layout design and what do to next is so overwhelming.

[vsmith]

Then follow the KISS principle, Keep It Stupidly Simple , just do a simple oval or even a simple circle of track to start, then lay out all your buildings around that, use snap-track or EZ Track or something similar that just clicks together readily, as long as you lay it on a good flat surface you should be fine operationally, You didnt say how big an area you had to work with?

Determine how big do you want to make the layout, keep it small to start, then you can expand it in the following years as you learn more, sound like your planning a Bachmann On30 layout, thats pretty common with Dept 56 stuff. If you bought a set just use the Bachmann EZ track that comes with it, you can always buy more, its easy to find. This was online from Hobby People, which are nationwide.

EZ track.

Maybe this will also help:

http://www.thortrains.net/trackplan/HOEZ1.html

EZ track expander set:

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/604574.asp

PS the HO track shown here is IDENTICAL to the track provided in the On30 sets, same gauge, just a different scale of train.

[OnofrioD]

Thanks, I'm all about the KISS-method! And you are correct it's the On30 with the EZ-Track system; that's what was recommended to me for the display we have. All I have now is the standard oval and know that I will probably expand it over time as we add more pieces to the collection and as my kids get more into the hobby. I suppose my real questions are how do I plan a standard-layout that I can "easily" put up and take down each season and build in a way that is scaleable? What are key areas that I need to think about as I plan to build-up this little village? I have a fairly large space (16x16ft) and certainly don't anticipate starting big; but wanted to get some tips as to best practices with seasonal layouts etc...

[Texas Zepher]

Yup, I agree.  Bachmann EZ-Track & On30 equipment. However, I do recommend the EZ-track with the grey plastic base rather than the black.  The black is steel track and the grey is nickle-silver.  NS track will be easier to keep clean, and won't rust if for some reason it gets moist.

[Texas Zepher]

OnofrioD

I suppose my real questions are how do I plan a standard-layout that I can "easily" put up and take down each season and build in a way that is scaleable?

I suppose if you want to keep the same configuration years after year one could plan it, but in my opinion that is one of the bid advantages of a seasonal layout.  Each year it can be totally different.  Just let the scaleablity happen.  If you want a "standard" design to use every year I would try to come up with something that is NOT a circle of track running through the town.  I would make some sort of visual block so the track somes through the town like a real railroad would.  Hide the other half of the loop behind a barrier/mountain or ???   Another way to do it would be to make a loop at each end so the train runs from one loop back to the other with only the one track going through the town.

What are key areas that I need to think about as I plan to build-up this little village?

Are the buildings going to be lighted?  If so I would develop a modular (easy to plug/unplug) system to for the lighting. 

[OnofrioD]

Hmmm...I like that idea of taking advantage of the seasonality of the layout in which you could technically change the layout each holiday time. It adds to the fun.

My wife reminded me that some of the pieces are set in London (i.e. Big Ben, Tower of London); so for a moment I thought maybe I would model London along the Thames.

[loathar]

Overwelmed?? Here's some fuel for that fire!
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/OscaleNGResourcePage.html

http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=239&forum_id=3

http://www.levelz.co.uk/acatalog/index.html?http%3A//www.levelz.co.uk/acatalog/Locomotive_power.html&CatalogBody

http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/~rgsrr/rgs/rgs_links.html

http://www.freewebs.com/talltimber/index.htm

This is just a small sample of what you can do with On30. It's a great scale your getting into only limited by your imagination and wallet! But as mentioned, keep it simple for your first holliday layout.

[HarryHotspur]

 Onofrio - Just a few thoughts, as my wife has some Dickens Village pieces, and a few years ago I set up a train to go with it.

1. Make sure the village, or at least the part where the trains will go, is on a very level surface. I don't mean that it can't go up and down small hills, I mean level from side to side and consistently so throughout. If you do this one thing, your trains should run relatively trouble free.

2. On30 trains are a great size for Dickens Village, and Bachmann makes most of them. I think they are a very good value.

3. I would not buy one of  Bachmann train sets because they all come with a 2-6-0 type engine which, to my eyes, just looks too large for the village pieces. Instead, I bought a Bachmann Porter 0-4-0 (my wife loved it because it was so "cute") and individual cars.

4. Don't use any "S" shaped curves unless you put a piece of straight track in the middle. An "S" curve tends to cause derailments.

5. Finally, all the Dickens Village pieces are intended to represent London in the Victorian era. At first I tried to find trains to match, but that proved to be impossible except for buying kits made in England. So I used the Bachmann US models. Nonetheless, not a single person amongst the multitude of family and friends who saw it had the slightest notion of the difference.