Basement Layout Building Strategy

[SpaceMouse]

When I was contemplating building an 11x 8 layout, it was simple to think in terms of buying all the track, buying the buildings, getting a case of tortoises, etc. But with a larger layout, 22x11 with two levels, it's hard to think of designing it all at once, let alone paying for it all at once. In a way, it it more freeing.

Right now the plan is to design the overall layout and theme, assigning names of towns and possible industries to different sections. Of course I want a unified theme and operating purpose. Then my strategy is to build a mainline that runs the course of the layout. Once the mainline is in, then I start working on the towns and take them to completion. Hogwarts first, then the logging operation, then the London passenger terminal, etc. This will limit large purchases other than the cost of the benchwork and remodeling I need to get it done.

How did yo do it? I'm not set in my plans or strategy.

[claycts]

Spacemouse, I have been in the same deal for 3 years. I got the book on the G&D about John Allen’s Railroad and it made sense. You take a spreadsheet and enter your towns in the ROUTE ORDER they come up on the mainline. Decide what is the reason for each town (passenger, freight etc) then work towards that end. I am starting at the main terminal and doing the parts list on paper then buying what I need. I am all the way around to the lower area of Skull Valley and it worked. I either have all the pieces or a great shopping list. Others may have a better idea but this worked for me after years of going in a circle

[leighant]

Sounds like you have a good general concept of building as you go. I would build mainline around the room, putting in the turnouts that come off mainline, especially if there is going to be an especially compact concentrated set of turnouts that just HAS to fit right. Might be hard to cut in later.

FULL SIZE cardboard mockups of those complicated banks of switches may held firm up the design and show problems or tight places BEFORE it is impractical to change.

My current planned layout is a little like "outside staging"-- a model of an ends of the
line terminal on an island reached by a causeway bridge, so once you get to the end, there "ain't no more place to go." This trackage would be toward the aisle in the center of the room. It would include such complicated trackage as yard ladders, runaround, engine terminal etc. After running 7/8ths of the way around the room, the mainline disappears into hidden layover staging. Then there is a "sneak-out" which forms a continuous run connection to the visible trackage.

In building this layout, I would NOT build the visible track where all the complicated switching is done first. I would first build what is to become the hidden staging and a continuous loop around the room, with turnouts placed where I expect them to be needed on that loop line. Less than half of that first-built line is actually going to be a visible mainline on the finished layout, but it gives me a place to run trains and gets the farther-back portions of track running and tuned-up before I build things in front of them. This is especially the case for the hidden staging. I can use it as a visible "yard to park trains" and maybe do a little switching while I await the time and money to complete the layout.

Cardboard mockups, or boxes painted to suggest future structures are a good way to get sense of the layout while detailed stuff is being built. For scatchbuilt and extensively kitbashed projects, also a good thing to see how well concept works.

Here is a cardboard mockup for a complicated structure I am planning...
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acv.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acw.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acx.jpg

[simon1966]

Chip, your approach is exactly what I did. I wanted to quickly get to a point where trains could run in a continuous loop. I used full size templates of the turnouts (From PECO) or you can photocopy actual turnout to get the track right in the bits that are off the main. I made sure to put any turnouts in the main, so as not to have to cut them in later. I even wired my route into 4 isolated blocks run by 4 cheap DC powerpacks, so that later I could convert to DCC and have 4 isolated power districts. The key with this approach is to not have to undo anything, so what ever you do in the initial phase is done with an eye to the end result. My around the walls is now complete and I am on to scenery, and structures, but there are still a pair of tracks with stub ends that will eventually go onto the as yet, unbuilt, peninsula in the middle of the layout room. I found with kids, it was helpful to put some pushpins between the ties of the exit route of the incomplete trackwork! There were a few hi speed crashes when little fingers thru the switch to nowhere!!!

[Anonymous]

I just somehow felt my layout plan. I did not get a plan from a book or anything. I looked at the area I had for the layout and started constusting it. I used a piece of paper and figured out what to do from there. As I built the plan came out. I had a vision and it suprisingly became the real deal. I was lucky I guess

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by claycts

I got the book on the G&D about John Allen’s Railroad and it made sense. You take a spreadsheet and enter your towns in the ROUTE ORDER they come up on the mainline. Decide what is the reason for each town (passenger, freight etc) then work towards that end.

What book?

[Anonymous]

I have planned several sections. While I am building one 2x8, I have a stack of files in my computer that represents several such areas for the final layout to be built at a later date.

I dont have a basement but am constantly fine tuning my plans. So when the big build starts all I need to do is "drop in" all the major sections and connect them with the main line and passing sidings.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

QUOTE: Originally posted by claycts

I got the book on the G&D about John Allen’s Railroad and it made sense. You take a spreadsheet and enter your towns in the ROUTE ORDER they come up on the mainline. Decide what is the reason for each town (passenger, freight etc) then work towards that end.

What book?

There is a railroad in HO named the Gorre and Daphetid built by the late John Allen considered by some to be the (bad choice of words...) one of the greatest influences on the hobby.

Several of his books can still be found on ebay or train shows. While they probably are out of print they are highly sought after.