NWP SWP What if you had unlimited funds and space what features would you include in the ultimate layout?
What if you had unlimited funds and space what features would you include in the ultimate layout?
I would buy an actual railroad...
I would want some kind of standard/narrow gauge interchange - right now I just "pretend" by having a few adjacent tracks.
- Kevin
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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.
I have pretty much everything I want on the layout - an operating subway, a turntable and roundhouse, a carfloat and terminal, yards, staging and plenty of industries. If I had more space, I'd like, well, more space. My industries are all pretty close to each other, and it would be pretty nice to have more than a train length between towns.
Other "druthers" are things I've learned from the experience of this layout, and maybe I'll get to fix them when I reconfigure it for its new home. I'd definitely build another carfloat terminal, and probably use a wheeled table to move the float from one terminal to another. I would make the subway point-to-point and larger, instead of the simple, small oval as I built it. I'd like more staging and I'd want it to be double-ended, and a separate loop for trolleys. I'd like to expand my passenger service, too, including an electrified line for the GG-1.
Too much dreaming? Probably, but dreams are what model railroading is all about.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
gregc have you seen the articles on Rod Stewart's layout? Warren Buffet also has a layout.
have you seen the articles on Rod Stewart's layout? Warren Buffet also has a layout.
Well, yeah, but Warren Buffett's railroad is the BNSF.
When I got back into this hobby a few years ago, if given the space at that time I would have preferred to do an around the room shelf layout.
I'm the type of person that likes to scratch build and make almost everything for my railroad.
Looking back now I'm more satisfied with the 4 by 8 layout choice then in the beginning. I now think an around the Shelf layout may have been a little overwhelming considering the time it takes to build things.
Take care
Track fiddler
[quote user="NWP SWP"]
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
If that was the case I'd still be doing the same thing I'm doing now. I don't think funds and space are the main issue. For me I need to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
In my age, wishes (and dreams) tend to get smaller and maybe much more realistic. I would never start a project I would not be able to finish to a degree I could enjoy the fruits of my effort. That puts a dramatic end to what one could do if one had unlimited space and unlimited funds.
Having said that, what would I do? I´d model a small town terminus of a branchline, including engine facilities (steam era). I´d also have one or two small intermediate stations on a sinle-track line, with sufficient track length to support, say, 30 minutes to complete the round. You could do that in a average sized room, but as my scale of choice is 1 gauge or 1/32 scale, I´d need a gymnasium for that!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!