HObbyguy Maybe this will help, a diagram of the part of the basement that my layout is in. Much better and bigger than a spare bedroom, but not as expansive an area as many of you guys have. At least I have a bathroom, a shop, and also a handy outside patio to cut lumber on. This was a band practice room years ago, and I still have my PA system, guitar amps, etc set up just for messing around by myself or with another guitar player. I have a lot of gear and the music area is really tight with the layout as it now is. If I expand further then I would need to find another location to set up the music gear. My wife would come into play if I go that far- I can do anything I want with this space, but once I go outside of it... An interchange yard has been mentioned in other threads. Sounds interesting, but not sure what it means and how it would be set up. Remember I am not a RR buff. One thing for sure, the yard/storage I have planned can't go much further too much further to the right. You can see some of the minor revisions I've made to the yard plan. I'll continue to play with it during coming months.
Maybe this will help, a diagram of the part of the basement that my layout is in. Much better and bigger than a spare bedroom, but not as expansive an area as many of you guys have. At least I have a bathroom, a shop, and also a handy outside patio to cut lumber on.
This was a band practice room years ago, and I still have my PA system, guitar amps, etc set up just for messing around by myself or with another guitar player. I have a lot of gear and the music area is really tight with the layout as it now is. If I expand further then I would need to find another location to set up the music gear. My wife would come into play if I go that far- I can do anything I want with this space, but once I go outside of it...
An interchange yard has been mentioned in other threads. Sounds interesting, but not sure what it means and how it would be set up. Remember I am not a RR buff. One thing for sure, the yard/storage I have planned can't go much further too much further to the right.
You can see some of the minor revisions I've made to the yard plan. I'll continue to play with it during coming months.
Hi Walt,
I am not an "old pro" and I admit I have torn down about six layouts, in the bench work stage, until I finally found one I like for all the reasons many of the good people here mentioned. My very first layout was scenery based tailchaser with my son, after it was "done" we both got very bored with it and it died a slow death.
This time around I want not only the scenery challenge, but kept in mind operations so on long winter nights I can operate my layout if I just want to play without always working on something. My layout now is 18' by 14 with two 5'x5' squares Northwest and Southeast with a lower level staging.
I decided on lowr level staging because, like you, I have a boat load of freight cars and two passenger train, Amtrack and New York Central, both 5 cars long. I do have a layout level fiddle yard at one end and a turntable at the other where my consists ride off into the big railraod world beyong my slice of operations.
I personally like your second layout with the turnable a bit better. The beautiful thing about this hobby is plan as you will, the answer become self evident as you build and any excuse to bring in the construction crew to remodel will add operational intrest as you move your freight around the construction zone. This is a very fluid hobby which is what I think attracts many of us to it.
GOOD LUCK WALT please keep us posted.
Regards
Angelo
Freelancing MCRR/NYC Northern Division - Angelo
The turntable arrived and I mounted it on a test platform built from scrap lumber to make sure that it works and to get a feel for permanent installation.
I've seen quite a few posts on various boards from those trying to figure out how to make the Walthers DCC turntables work right. This one is functional but it does have a bug- after a couple of cycles it sometimes forgets to compensate for the distance from the 0 point to track 1 when indexing to track 2 and the user set positions. The bug is very repeatable though, and by programming a second point for each track location it is always possible to get it there. If anyone has a fix for this let me know. Other than that the turntable works fine.
This is the first turntable I've played with and getting it mounted securely so that the lip height is consistent looks like it will be important. It sits just a bit higher than the ties on the Shinohara track I am using but at least the rail height matches. The screws for mounting it from underneath are about useless though. I think it would be better clamped down from the top somehow.
I am not thrilled with the finish- it has that "plastic" look that I am avoiding everywhere else on the layout. But I am not up to building a big turntable from scratch. Maybe I can dress it up somehow.
Also considering how to construct the yard. Except for some sidings that are directly on foam all of my track is on ply subroadbed and cork roadbed. For the yard I have been thinking of sheet cork on ply. That would give me opportunity to drop the ground level on the side of the tracks in places and provide some sound deadening. And it would still allow simple installation of Tortoises and wire drops. Any downsides?
I still have months to go before starting construction of the yard- I need to complete the terrain, mine and basic scenery on phase 3 first. But always try to plan ahead,
Huntington Junction - Freelance based on the B&O and C&O in coal country before the merger... doing it my way. Now working on phase 3. - Walt
For photos and more: http://www.wkhobbies.com/model-railroad/
Is your yard large enough to store all your rolling stock, plus a little extra for future purchases?
Will it have enough room for all your locomotives?
If you are not interested in 'operations' and you have to reach in and retrieve something, so what. It's a fiddle yard. You can build your next train on the main-it's your layout. Besides, how many trains will you be running at one time?
What ever you decide, you can still make it look nice.
Just leave enough room for your fingers.
I would paint the edges, sides and leave the bottom for now. The plastic has that metallic look so use one of the plastic paints and get it grey/brown, kind of the used look. After that is done then you can play around with "gravel" on the bottom. A light coat of different ballasts would be good. I would start with a dirty looking white then at different add drops of grimy blk. to represent grease and oil at locations where they would be normally from a prototype, in line with the roundhouse tracks and other building tracks especially if you have an engine shop. Have fun.
As designed now the yard tracks will hold all of the freight cars and passenger trains I have without a stretch. Loco storage depends on how many tracks I fit in off the turntable. If I keep on buying rolling stock then some of it will have to come off or it will migrate onto storage on sidings, but that seems pretty typical.
Yes this will be at least in part a fiddle yard. Spacing is 2-1/2" and I figure most of the "fiddling" will be on the outside tracks. And I have access to both sides.
As for dressing up the turntable I have gotten pretty good with an airbrush and can probably do some good things with the pit. The bridge is a bigger challenge but I am not losing any sleep over it.