Here's a scene I'm definitely going to replicate on my railroad!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
DavidH66 Honestly Size wouldn't be an issue as I don't think I'd want anything more than 500-600 sq ft. What I'd like is a Model Railroad located in a fictional country, it would connect a remote Oil and Forestry town with a port city. Inspiration would be taken from railroads such as the ABB in Switzerland, the Geodrich-Exeter and Tshietin Transportation lines in Canada and Easter Eurpean logging lines. Most of the locomotive power would be second hand american units with occasional foreign made units traversing the rails.
Honestly Size wouldn't be an issue as I don't think I'd want anything more than 500-600 sq ft. What I'd like is a Model Railroad located in a fictional country, it would connect a remote Oil and Forestry town with a port city. Inspiration would be taken from railroads such as the ABB in Switzerland, the Geodrich-Exeter and Tshietin Transportation lines in Canada and Easter Eurpean logging lines. Most of the locomotive power would be second hand american units with occasional foreign made units traversing the rails.
http://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=472639&key=3766063
http://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=544163&key=3766063
http://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=329149&key=4137828
http://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=633659&key=2110657
http://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=268226&key=2110657
I don't need much for space. 40 by 40 would be perfect. I want to play alone, and I never want to "operate" a model railroad, so all I really need is a longer run for traines to enter and leave my scene. I would love to see the train disappear around a hill rather than just go into a tunnel.
.
I really don't need any more money. I have pretty much everything I could ever want.
TIME... that is what I need, and it is in very short supply, and I cannot buy any more of it.
Steven... this is the asset you have the most of. Use it wisely, you can never get it back.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I'd probably build a larger version of the layout I have with longer runs between towns.
I'd have bigger staging yards and they would be easier to get at.
Broader curves would be nice too.
With unlimited funds, I could hire somebody to help with maintenance which a monster layout would need lots of.
I might even consider an S or O scale version of my HO layout. I'd have to see what was available.
We have some pretty decent versions of "the ultimate model railroad" going on right in this forum, with Michaelrose55 and his Georgetown & Allen Mountain RR., and a guy named Onewolf, who built a new building, and started filling it up.
Scroll back in this layout forum, you'll find him.
That 50'x75' is huge! Looks like they have assembled an army of people to build it.
Mike.
My You Tube
I found this online and it turns out it is about 15 minutes from my house. I haven't been there yet, but it seems exactly what you are talking about.
A guy with seemingly unlimited amount of funds buys a 50 x 75 warehouse and starts building.
http://wyomingdivision.org/photographs.htm
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I hope that I will have the resources to someday build a layout that models "most" of a system with a centralized terminus and several routes leaving that point... perhaps I will need to start a club to do so... of course this is when I retire...
I actually hope that by the time I build my big layout that tech has gotten cheap enough to do the time scape thing.
Or my railroad will be set in a perpetual sunset dusk or sunrise dawn lighting scheme.
I think the coolest thing with unlimited budget would be the environment: dedicated temp/ humidity control, positive pressure to keep the dust out. Add a dedicatd space for modellig (where we can still watch the trains run while we work) another space for painting (and another ducted space for spraying adhesives). Next let’s add programmable LED environment lighting so we can set the time of day as needed. Or let dawn to dusk to midnight run automatically, synced to a fast clock. Let’s take that one step further and make the backdrop a seamless series of OLED displays that change our skyline/ clouds/ etc in sync with those overhead LEDs. Imagine 4 F-units pulling 20 or so passenger cars not only through a landscape but through a visual timescape
Ken,
Got a chance to visit your layout during the Steel Mill Convention, Don't under estimate the amount of layout there! Great layout!
Right now, I WOULD buy the aircraft hanger. No, no. The BIG one, over there.
I'd use it as a venue for Free-mo setups.
There would be employees to "handle things".
I'd build (with help from my guys, as necessary) the various modules that pop into my head. For example, there'd be a number of super modules with passing sidings QUITE long--maybe 60 feet. And etc.
Ed
I'd build somewhat bigger, but more spreadout.
My train room is 21' x 18', which is big enough in HO for me to include pretty much everything on my wish list, except that the space between towns bears most of the "selective compression". So if I had unlimited space and funds to match, I might add a town or two, but most of the expansion would be for mainline running.
Afterall, I'm the one who has to build and maintain it!
Jim
I would build This: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=world%27s+largest+model+railroad+layout+germany&&view=detail&mid=8F6B1BCDF6C0AF1DD3008F6B1BCDF6C0AF1DD300&FORM=VRDGAR
and invite everyone on this forum to come and operate it. Of course I would have severl operations instructors, experts to pare rookies with and cameras to record your operating session.
Gary
I'd buy the UPs steam shops, FEF3, Challenger, Big Boy and cars and hire the crew. If the turntable is gone, I'd add one. Then I'd run excursions all over and give rail fans and kids priority for free rides. Then I'd start adding and restoring lots of other steamers, only requirement being U.S. examples. And maybe have some selective diesels, and some gas turbines. Perhaps I'd just buy the whole UP, and change motive power to steam. And buy the old Baldwin, Alco and other shops and start building new steam engines. And...
If funds were large but not unlimited, I'd tear down our existing house, dig a basement the full length and rebuild the house. (That way I will not need to repaint). I'd build an HO layout with dual mainline and long runs, which would allow more realistic block signalling. I would plan for operations & switching, but also be able to just run circuits when the grandkids visit.
Meanwhile, I'm having fun with my 5x10 layout. My dream layout would seem overwhelming but I would not want to hire help, preferring to see the fruits of my own effort.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
For most of us that ultimate RR na na land. Sure, air craft hanger and runs that could represent San Francisco to Chicago - selectively compressed of course - is something I used to dream about. Eventually reality forces it's way back!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Not sure if mine is the biggest private home layout . MR said that not I !! I know of at least one other out there that is close to 4500 sq ft. Mine is 3120. But the difference is while the 4500 sq ft is two levels I do have 4 levels in a few spots. Anyway even after almost 26 years in existence it's still a fun railroad to operate on and has withstood the test of time well. I did have some help building it and still have help in resetting it between op sessions but all maintenance and any new construction is all me anymore. The RR has seen different eras over the years. The current era and probably the last is the late PRR and all of PC a 1964-1975 time period. Before that it was 1956-57 with both steam and diesel. The video done by Keller years ago was the 1976-1982 Conrail era period. Changing the eras for me keeps interest higher and more even rather than major tear downs . There are a number of recent video's on You Tube by Bill Fagan that were taken earler this year. --- Ken
Any discussion about ultimate model layouts would have to include Dave Trussel's Greeley Freight Station Museum in Greeley, Colorado.
He started with a 5,000 SF layout inside a 9,000 SF building, and says he wishes he had double the space.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
The East Broadtop is lanquishing. Since money is not object I'll go 1:1 scale narrow gauge and make the owner an offer he cannot refuse. It would be chump change for the owners of Facebook, Amazon or Google.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
As far back as May 1951 MR, Linn Westcott tried to visualize and plan the "perfect" layout where cost is no object. The article is called "If I Had a Million" and it is worth reading even today, for his wish list if not for the actual track plan itself.
Interestingly, in our own time a very fine modeler named Monroe Stewart has basically built Westcott's "If I Had a Million" trackplan in N scale (and designed and built the house to accomodate it). Even in N it is huge. Featured in January 1997 Great Model Railroads.
Dave Nelson
MisterBeasley My layout, now in storage and awaiting a new home, is 13 years old. It fits in a 24x24 foot space above the garage, and is in HO. I have found over the years that building 1 square foot of layout takes one month, if I can spend enough time on it.
My layout, now in storage and awaiting a new home, is 13 years old. It fits in a 24x24 foot space above the garage, and is in HO. I have found over the years that building 1 square foot of layout takes one month, if I can spend enough time on it.
It would include a little bit of everything. It would be super long and take a really long time to walk your train through the entire layout. It would include at least two cities and a mountain pass in between them plus several farms and lots wilderness along the way.
Fabricating a 1:1 replica of a NYC 4-6-4 Hudson from blueprints and run it on a 100-mile section of track as a tourist train. I would also make it so that the streamlining could be easily added and removed to achieve a Dreyfuss Hudson. Yep, that would be my ultimate layout.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
My railroad dream would be to realize making my G.N.O. Railway. To be set in the 1980s with the rest of other railroads like Conrail.
I will like to finish my other railroads, BN, NYC, ATSF, SP, UP, BNSF. To share one layout and/or multiple eras 1960-2007.
It will contain few industries, freight yard, intermodal yard, 2 Amtrak station, 1-3 mainline trackage, open scenery, cities.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Just Google Ken McCorry, you'll see all you want. I did, and yea, it's great. It's claimed to be the biggest home layout, in the country. Howard Zanes has to be a close second!
Mike
Do you have a link to some of those pics of that layout?
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
I think I just aaw the ultimate model railroad - Ken McCorry had an open house today and I was just speechless. I've seen plenty of pictures, but you really can;t get an idea of just how big it is until you see it in person.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Walt Disney had a 1/8 scale live-steam train in his back yard and visitors would always be given a ride around the place. One day someone said, "Hey Walt, you should charge people a nickel for a ride." The rest, as they say, is history.
(No idea if this story is even remotely true, but Disney did have a fairly large-scale live-steam train in his back yard.)
If I had unlimited funds I would probably buy like 100 acres in the black hills and build a 1/2 scale railroad.