I built this from the Atlas book in our Offutt AFB basement in 1975 as a bored high school sophomore. Dad agreed to buy the wood, track, wiring, etc., if I built it all. Was a beast, a great project and learned a lot as a kid. It survived the next move and re-setup. Never got to decorating at all, just ran it as a fantastic layout demonstration, lots of polarity and track switches on the 2 control boards. My brothers never got into it so it sat for years in the garage or up against the wall before I gave it away in ~2010. My kids never saw it active. So many decorating ideas that I really never started.
Truly a tremendous build to learn all about woodworking, wiring, and patience. Would be interesting to convert into today's DCC world. As a grandfather now, if I get back into this hobby, will be a much less ambitious project as I have no basement and no free garage space. But maybe......
Randy
Thx for your reply. I have built several layouts over the years and just recently, The Central Midland which is very similiar to Oregon Pass. I just can't figure out, as you said "what side of the line indicates a section that is free to move up and down and which side is the fixed at the previous elevation section?" I think I'm finnaly where I see which parts are inclined.
Someone sent me a video link of Oregon Pass and that helped a lot, too.
Bill
Ed,
Thx for sending that link. I have seen this on you tube and it did help somewhat.
The diagrams in the Atlas books tend too be pretty complete - are you getting confused by what side of the line indicates a section that is free to move up and down and which side is the fixed at the previous elevation section?
That is a WAY too much of a spaghetti bowl plan though. In the same space you can do better, less can definitely be more, especially if yoou cna make the curves wider than used in this plan. ANd as mentiooned, unless you can fully walk around all sides of this, you wull never be able to reach trains stuck near the middle.
If you've never built a layout before - start with a simpler one first to get some experience.
I've been helping a friend/former coworker design a layout. Their space is about the same size as you'd need to actually access that giant island plan, except by runnign around the walls in a G shape I've put in a lot more operating features than they had one what they initially came up with while maintaining a large enough radius for the medium size steam locos they plan to run (my former coworker and his son are building this, in the son's basement).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Someone HAS built it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eeBWOb2a-4
Ed
Thx Henry. I built the Central Midland awhile back which is very similar to this one. I adjusted a few things so I had an access hole to get up into the tracks, so I'll probably do it with this one, too. Bill
to the forum. It is possible to google the track plan and holy moley!
That's one complicated layout. The description says it is 4 levels as a 8'x12'.
Atlas designs their layout to maximize the amount of track and turnouts you need to buy. That is way too busy a plan. If the top of the plan is against the wall, you do not have arms long enough to reach all that track.
I suggest the must have book is John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation. This site also has track plans that aren't nearly as complicated as that Atlas plan
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Has anyone built this? I'm trying to figure out the plywood saw cuts in their diagram from Atlas' King Size Layouts book. The diagram show various plywood saw cuts, to create inclines and as I study those, they don't make any sense. As I follow the cut down the layout, the way I see it, it doesn't correlate to the rest of the layout. Any help would be appreciated.