My Changing Layout

[richhotrain]

I went into my computer folders this morning looking for a specific photo, and I was surprised at how often I have modified my layout over the past 10 to 12 years.

I first built my current layout in 2005 with significant modifications in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017. While the basic footprint remains the same, in some spots the track work is completely different. Yards and passenger stations built and demolished and relocated. Structures built, removed, relocated and replaced. Rolling stock, particularly passenger cars, bought and sold as I replaced shorties and neavyeweights with 85' streamliners.

How about you? Is your current layout the same as when you first built it? Or, like me, were you not satisfied with the initial result and done something about it?

Rich

[rogerhensley]

Is my current layout the same as when I started. No. I started with a 4x7 with a crossover, a farm and a small town. Shortly after I built this, the changes began. One change after another has led me to a 15' x 14' layout. One change after another until it is what I have now over a period of years. I started in 1983 until today.

 

 

[Pruitt]

I envy you guys who have the stability have decades old layouts. Some day...

[SeeYou190]

I only started one major layout overhaul, and then decided just to tear it out and build a new one.

.

I guess my answer is no, no major layout renovations.

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-Kevin

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[angelob6660]

My modifications come in drawing form. I do the same thing as you do in a different way before laying the foundations.

I'm redoing one right now. It's missing the man made lake and triangle wye and try to fit two more industries since the layout was designed for one.

[RR_Mel]

My third layout was my break over into real model railroading, a slightly modified John Allen’s original Gorre & Daphetid to 4’x8’.  Before that it was two shelf layouts.

 

My forth, current and final layout is a bit larger, an L shaped 10’x14’ on casters in our garage.  The planning and design took a year, the frame work and track construction took another year.  I haven’t changed my basic layout plan but I gone through tons of modifications after modifications every couple of years since 1990, sometimes monthly since I retired in 2007.

 

My only regret is I didn’t plan on DCC back in the late 80s so running multiple trains didn’t exist for me then and definitely not now. 

 

I too have built and demolished and relocated structures as well as roads, mountains and streams.  As for my control panel I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve rebuilt, rewired and added stuff.  With my new world of the Arduino my control panel and layout will never be finished.

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

 

[mlehman]

The basic layout design is pretty much the same, with one major extension.. But lots of detail changes. Just like a real RR, traffic comes and goes, so the need for certain tracks ebbs and surges.

Tefft is a good example. Here's the original track. The spur that takes off uphill behind the station represented a logging branch, with just enough hidden track to hide a log train. The longer passing siding wasn't very long, maybe 6 cars.

A general store went in on the siding to provide a customer needing various types of cars, while an oil distributor was tucked in on the siding to the log branch.

Then I added a section house and support facilities where the oil dealer was.

I extended the siding to 9 cars to have a better location for meets.

This was done mostly by moving the east swicth by the station.

For awhile, there were some logger's shacks there down the road from the general store, rather like those Bear is building. -- and painting!

Mable's General Store moved across the tracks and the oil distributor came back.

Then Tefft got a turntable to facilitate helper ops on the now booming Cascade Extension. This necessitated a new switch for its lead, the only actual track addition.

Then, based on admonitions about my wierd reversal in Silverton when going from Durango to the Cascade Extension from one of my regular operators who is a retired IC towerman and dispatcher, I built a signal system...to control the flow through one turnout. It may not be much by standard gauge standards, butit's a whole lot more signal system than most narrowgauges ever had.

The building whose roof is in the forground is Nine Lives Cat Repair, which specializes in fixing anything mechanical in the woods from Caterpillar dozers to Peaveys -- everything except boilers, which go to the Durango Iron Works.

 

[kasskaboose]

The layout is a bit different from when I built it.  The original one couldn't handle a six-axle loco, so I added a broader loop in the front.  I also modified some of the sidings by straigthening some curves.

With us moving to a larger house, the layout sadly will come down and I hope (pray) to keep some of the stuff for the larger one.