Greetings from Switzerland
Eugen
The mainline on my layout goes over a mountain pass. The elevation change is about one foot. I wouldn’t call it a super big layout but it does fill up my garage. There are several other layouts across the country which have featured mountain passes. Popular passes to model include Donner Pass, Cajon Pass, Tehachapi Pass, also mountain passes in the Rockies and in the Appalachian mountains. The V&O is an Appalachian mountains layout. In San Diego the La Mesa Model Railroad Club’s layout is very large. It is a model of Tehachapi Pass. It is big enough that it actually is two stories tall. Most of the layout is on the main floor but it raises up to the second floor in the newer section. There are several videos of it on youtube.
http://lamesaclub.com/
fwright The club layout in Greeley, Colorado has 2 stories and takes 30 minutes just to walk around. An operating session there is something special. But unless you have a dedicated group to operate, and build/maintain, very large layouts turn into albatrosses. just my thoughts Fred W
The club layout in Greeley, Colorado has 2 stories and takes 30 minutes just to walk around. An operating session there is something special.
But unless you have a dedicated group to operate, and build/maintain, very large layouts turn into albatrosses.
just my thoughts
Fred W
That plus big layouts take big space and for most people their train room is pulling double duty as a family room or as well...a basement. Not many people have barns or haymows they can devote solely to their model trains. Also rounding up a crew of like 20 people is kinda hard to do and not many people's significant others want to have to entertain and provide refreshments for that many guests all the time. Some of your guests will have significant others of their own or kids who aren't into model trains and who they can't get babysitters for. What do they do? Then there's another matter at hand. Where do all those people park their cars? Unless people are car pooling, riding on each other's laps, hoofin' it, or you're chartering a bus, all those guests' cars gotta go somewhere. And when the whole shootin' match is done you gotta clean up after all those people. I know I sure wouldn't want that kind of a headache even if I did have the money and space to pull it off. Plus that's just way too much peopling for me. I'm kind of an introvert and I like my personal space.
Oh I see sorry about that.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
NWP SWP Or a railroad that models Point A and Point B separated by a mountain pass?
Or a railroad that models Point A and Point B separated by a mountain pass?
That's exactly what the one I mentioned is. Pittsburgh and its yards on one side, Cumberland on the other, with Sand Patch Grade and all its accompanying tunnels in the middle.
This book will tell you everything about the Gorre & Daphetid Railroad.
That is the layout pictured above.
Thanks Randy, does anyone have a scan of that plan?
gregc
Excellent!
In his book Creative Layout Design, John Armstrong has a plan designed for a typical split level house based on (I think it was) NP's early switchback over the mountains. Starts at a fairly low level, and the upper end terminates on the floor above (so a half story up).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Awesome layouts guys... As for my questions no one has heard of a railroad that spans more than a single story? Or a railroad that models Point A and Point B separated by a mountain pass? I mean a train goes up to summit and down on the other side not a reversing loop back down to where it came from?
Here is one of my single loop transitions from one layer to the other. The top tracks eventually end up on the top shelf in the back round against the wall. The bottom tracks end up in the town of Neelyton just visible behind the mountain. Just above the right side of the black bridge you can see the double track that is going up to the engine yard and roundhouse.
Inside this loop, the plan is to take the scenery to the floor. My humble homage to John Allen.
The grade is 1.8%. The curves make it more like 2.5%.
The Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum. It's a monster at something like 30x100 in a club owned dedicated building (with an upcoming expansion to double the size of the building). The line is a protolanced replacement of the WM combined with the B&O from downtown Pittsburgh to Cumberland over Sand Patch.
Pacific Southern
No offense taken, I do agree with the introduction thing and hereby incorporated into this thread. Also if you read my opening post you'll see that this thread serves three purposes 1 my first question 2 my second question 3 to showcase larger layouts.
By the by I currently do not have a layout pending the construction of my "cabin" in which space will be specifically provided for a layout. Thank you Madog.
Steven,
no offense meant, but what is your intention with this thread? Threads like this one are pretty useless - unless you invite people to give an introduction to their layouts, including pictures.
You seem to have way too much time at hand which you spend with flooding this forum with threads which may be only of little interest to the rest of the community - it is much better to spend the time working on your layout and present the progress here.
I titled this thread Super Layouts instead of Mega Layouts just because Mega seems to be overused in this day and age.
Anyway to the topic at hand, has anyone built a model railroad that has its east-west or north-south terminuses separated by a mountain pass, not a helix but an actual big hill that goes up summits and goes back down. Anyone ever see this done? Also has one built or seen a layout spanning two or more stories?
Also as a byline to this thread feel free to post some information about some of the club sized or bigger layouts you have seen.