General Discussion (Model Railroader)

tomikawaTT wrote:

If you have to clone yourself and stand in two different places to operate your layout, it's too big! If you need roller skates to stay with your Super Chief as it reels off the desert miles (or your Pocahontas as it rips across Virginia at 90mph) your layout is too big. If you need security cameras and multiple screens to keep track of your trains on anything other than hidden track, your layout is too big!

Teenage Answer: You're almost running fast enough.

I agree that "big" is defined by complexity not square footage.  My layout is sectional.   if I ever move it into a bigger room, i hope i'll have the discipline to just add some length between the sections and not add any more turnouts or other complications, just spread it all out a bit.

On the other hand, i don't think a 20 turnout layout is that much more effort than a 10 turnout layout if built at once.  The effort I am putting in to my little 10' x 11', 15 turnout layout is about the same as one twice the size.  You still have to make the same design decisions.   you still have to draw a plan.  you still have to make the control system, and set up a PC.  You still need to build a fascia, whether 20' or 50'.  The staging is about the same size.  So is the workbench and the storage.  you still need to do the research, develop the operating scheme...  Once you factor in learning the techniques, buying materials and cleanup afterwards, then is scenicking 100 sq ft so much more work than scenicking 50 sq ft?

My latest layout is finally one that will challenge my modeling efforts (started in 2001).  I have helped build 20 layouts over the past 25 years at our club (due to moves and a fire) and friend’s homes, so building my own layout was no big deal.  I am in the process of helping 3 of my operators design their latest layouts now.

My layout is located in a 25 x 75 basement and has close to 3000 feet of track so far (am planning on adding another room soon and also expanding into my basement office)!

Is it too big?  Maybe for some but I wish I had more room so I could build it closet to true scale distances.

Now this layout doesn’t have a lot of scenery YET! But all of the track that is down works and I hold every other week OPs sessions.

This is why I built the layout is to run it with friends.  I even had all day sessions (12 hours) and can get as many as 40 operators.

As for maintenance I have ZERO.  I never have to clean the track and the only derailments are operators running the turnouts!

I have given several clinics on how I finally achieved a ZERO maintenance layout.

Now this maintenance thing did not happen over night.  I have developed the method from the 25 years of belonging to a club that has many open house events throughout the years and has 4 operating layouts.  When the public is paying to see trains run they had better be running.  So the club has developed ways of making the layouts bullet-proof!

I figured that if the club layouts would work this way then my large home layout could too!  And it does!

Now, am I going to finish my layout (what ever that means), I really don’t expect to.  I am nearing retirement age and will then be able to devote much more time to doing detail work and scenery.  So I might be able to get this layout so called FINISHED!  If I don’t it really won’t be my problem as the family will have to deal with the removal!

What matters to me is that my friends get to run my layout and I can see my vision of a railroad empire come to life.  It isn’t about me and my layout it is about having fun with friends!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

cmrproducts wrote:

As for maintenance I have ZERO.  I never have to clean the track and the only derailments are operators running the turnouts! I have given several clinics on how I finally achieved a ZERO maintenance layout. Now this maintenance thing did not happen over night.  I have developed the method from the 25 years of belonging to a club that has many open house events throughout the years and has 4 operating layouts.  When the public is paying to see trains run they had better be running.  So the club has developed ways of making the layouts bullet-proof!

Could you share some of your methods with us on reducing maintenance on your layout?

I've got my sights set on at least a high school gym sized layout. See link below.

My reason is to have minimum of 60" (average of 75") radius curves on the main line and actually have running room between citys.  Even on some of the larger layouts I currently operate on, there is an issue of having switching operations in two adjacent towns interfere with one another.   And it isn't even switching, last Saturday night I had a reefer express blocking one end of one town while I was waiting to get into the next.  I really wan't at least a scale mile preferably two between towns.

Sort of like a 4x8 track plan blown up to the size of a gym. 

Large picture warning on following link:
http://cs.trains.com/forums/971676/ShowPost.aspx  

Hi.  Original poster here.

You always get more than you expected on this forum.  You guys are right!  I hadn't "expanded" my smaller layout, I just built another small layout in another room.  No wonder it was exhausting.  Too much complexity!  Never occurred to me.

Wider radii, more distance, but no more complexity.  Now that makes sense! 

HEdward wrote:

There's a 190,000sq ft warehouse available in Womelsdorf.  Lets build a Z-scale model of the entire Norfolk Southern! Family comes first.  Anyone who let's their train obsession interfere with a proper homelife has a problem.  It is sad to learn of a layout shrinking, yet under the circumstances, it is more than understandable.

I would actually pay to see that

hubbards98 wrote:

HEdward wrote: There's a 190,000sq ft warehouse available in Womelsdorf.  Lets build a Z-scale model of the entire Norfolk Southern! Family comes first.  Anyone who let's their train obsession interfere with a proper homelife has a problem.  It is sad to learn of a layout shrinking, yet under the circumstances, it is more than understandable. I would actually pay to see that

Hmm...at least a year to build at a cost of probably two or three million.  Rent and utilities, incidentals, ok.  Your one visit, and that being the only visitor actually committed to being a paying customer, will cost you about 5 million US dollars just so we break even. 

HEdward wrote:

hubbards98 wrote:  HEdward wrote: There's a 190,000sq ft warehouse available in Womelsdorf.  Lets build a Z-scale model of the entire Norfolk Southern! Family comes first.  Anyone who let's their train obsession interfere with a proper homelife has a problem.  It is sad to learn of a layout shrinking, yet under the circumstances, it is more than understandable. I would actually pay to see that Hmm...at least a year to build at a cost of probably two or three million.  Rent and utilities, incidentals, ok.  Your one visit, and that being the only visitor actually committed to being a paying customer, will cost you about 5 million US dollars just so we break even.

AAHH...It's only money

Well, speaking of space for layouts and gyms.  Here was my latest hope for a home for my model railroad museum & ultimate layout.  Burlington Iowa would have been a perfect place for it too.  This one had two gyms.  One was going to be just for the train layout.  I was just a bit short on cash.  Not to buy it but to stablize and secure it....

http://cgi.ebay.com/1908-High-School-Bldg-Burlington-IA-108-000-Sq-ft_W0QQitemZ160237453097QQihZ006QQcategoryZ15825QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem