lionroar88 wrote:Jer,I'm hoping to 'block' the seams with scenery, place city buildings infront of the access panel so you can't see the seam.Brent
Oh, yeah a city theme would help a lot, because you could blend the theme with a sidewalk or a road edge. As for me, I'm planning on a rual landscape, maybe I can use some shrubs or trees or something; otherwise I'll just have to accept the fault lines.
lionroar88 wrote: The access panels are going to be tricky because you don't want them to be obvious, so careful placement of the scenery is key.Brent
Yeah, that's not going to be easy. How will you conceal the seams? This is the problem that I'm trying to think through as well; since I'm planning to build a portable permanent display I will be trying to integrate removeable terrain features (tunnels, hills, etc). Someone mentioned cutting down into the table top to have a place where the piece sets into, but that will leave a seam as well. It may just be something that I have to deal with, but I'd like to find the best solution possible.
USNRol wrote:really enjoy reading this thread the layout in question looks great; may steal some ideas from it for myself if that's OK!
ATSJer wrote: Hey Lionroar;I love your layout, that thing looks beautiful. One question, how do you plan to integrate the access panels? Are you going to have scenery on them or what?
Hey Lionroar;
I love your layout, that thing looks beautiful. One question, how do you plan to integrate the access panels? Are you going to have scenery on them or what?
USNRol wrote: Google Earth pics of Conway yards... Enjoy the pics,Roland
Google Earth pics of Conway yards...
Enjoy the pics,
Roland
Wow!! Thanks for those pics, that thing is huge!
really enjoy reading this thread the layout in question looks great; may steal some ideas from it for myself if that's OK!
OK,So I've been staring at this layout for over a week now and couldn't figure out what was missing...Fife's recommendations about scrapping the turntable and roundhouse just weren't sitting well with me, but I really liked the idea of having a larger railyard for storage... so I got to playing around with the design... and this is the result:Color Key:Black: Track at base 0Grey: Ascending Track from base 0 to 7 inchesBlue: Track at level 2 (7 inches)Red: Descending Track from Level 2 to base 0I added a few access doors so if there is a problem they can be attended to...Thoughts?Brent
lionroar88 wrote:Jeremy,Those long sidings are going to be under a custom built roundhouse.Let me explain a bit of what the railyard is modeled after.I had lived in the Pittsburgh, PA area for most of my life and I lived very near the Conway Yard. The Conway Yard was the largest railyard in the world for most of its life. It was the first place I had ever seen a working turntable with roundhouse, and it is still in operation today. If you are travelling along the Ohio River you can see the railyard and the town of Baden, PA behind it (the Railyard stretches from Conway, PA at its Eastern end, and Freedom, PA at its Western end), if memory serves me correctly it is nearly 5 - 10 miles long, and is some 20 tracks deep! This yard has seen everything from old steam engines to modern diesels, and its construction still reflects its history. Gone are the huge water towers and coaling stations for the steamers, but they have been replaced with one of the largest sanding tower complexes in the US.I'll post pics when I get back and have a chance to post them!Brent
Woah!! That's huge! I can't wait to see pics, and I understand now why shortening that end of the layout is not a possibility. Still love your plan though, very nice indeed.
I'l look around for that video.
Those buildings represent the station that go on the 2x5 foot upper section. i just moved them so you could see below.
W
Wes,You could decide on a 'preferred route' and wire those switches to be automatic (throw approprite to train direction), see the video that ATSJer posted, at least it appears that the switches automatically throw to avoid derailments, you can then concentrate on throwing the other switches when you want to...Brent
I'll try to group the switches together so i can hit them both at one time and throw the whole path, or Even wire up multiple turnouts to one switch. i haven't thought that far ahead yet.
BTW, I'm lovin' this! I love the turntable too. If you're hunting for more room, maybe shorted the run-off lines that are on the other side of the turn-table, it won't solve all of you problems, but it might help. I like this layout a lot, because there is a lot of motion throughout the whole thing, but the focal point will be the turn table; as it should be.
I like it, there's a lot of action in a small space, just keep those switch controls handy.
Well, I have made some progress. I found an MTH graduated trussle kit at the LHS, and started messing around with that for a while. It cleared some things up for me, and I worked on this for a couple of days. I have come to the conclusion that I like doubling back dogbone layouts when space is limited. I found a couple of places to but sidings and other pathways around the loop, so I can park two trains and drive the third. The only tricky piece is the double curve switch (031 and 042) which I haven't seen in the stores, but it's in the MTH set catalog. I plan on making the top section all flat on top of "rock", and the trains will go into tunnels underneth. I will have to make plenty of access to the tunnels, since I have a couple of switches under there. The total price of track was $770. I don't like to think about that, but it's actually cheaper than other plans I have come up with, and this design leaves a lot of area for scenery and buildings.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/weswhitmore/photo/294928804265787514/0
Hope you like it!
Wes
Hi Brent,
Is that layout only 13x18? That's a lot of action. Looks great.
Jerry
Wow, I wish I had that much room available. You can get lost in all of that square footage. I think you should keep the turntable. That might take a while to build. it makes my track plan look pretty basic.
Wes,Here is the latest version of my big layout... the dimensions are now correct (after measuring the room myself and finding that who ever measured before added 2 inches to both length and width).
There is also going to be a raised trolley line, and a subway line below the deck. These are not on the layout yet, have to figure out how to incorporate them after I get the basics down.I also have determined that a ceiling layout is a definite go... as long as the walls to the right are not poured concrete (which I do not think they are after the home inspection on Wednesday).
Brent
The doors are still where they are (one at just over 5 foot from the left of the main bench), and one at the edge or the right of the bench). I think they show up in the pictures above. They are staying there, as I just finished building them!
I shortened the two sidings just for illistration purposes. It was making the layout too small to see. So to add it up, there will be a 5' siding just to the left of the main (like in the pictures), and then it will go through that wall (just to the and continue another 8 feet and then turn around and come back.
It should be very fun to control the trains on such a long layout.
The more I think about it, it is a little like Buckeye's layout now. He has an upper section of track that loops back to itself, and then goes down a long hill, makes a turn around, and heads back towards the bottom section of his layout. Of course his layout is so big that you get lost with what the track is actually doing. It's a great layout, that's for sure.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/weswhitmore/photo/294928804257924152/0
Here is a little change to the plan. I changed the yard/station area, and extened the lower section pointing towards the left out before it joins back in with the loop. I also shortened the most left sidings so the picture would be bigger, but still plan on running it 10 feet into the next room.
Thanks for doing those Brent. That addition allows for some really long trains, that's for sure.
I don't know which one I like better. Each has it's own stong points. I guess the first one allows to you set two trains for unsupervised action without much change of collision, but the second one allows for a long single track path. I guess it's a good place to be.
I initially had my station siding on the 2x5 area as well, but found it hard to get much of a station in there. I'm sure it could be done. Of course, with a train much longer than the siding allows for, the train will have to leave the station before the next train comes along.
Great ideas, and thanks for the help. I'll try to get back into the program and make some improvements like you suggested.
Wes,Here they are... first one is two sets of track (reversing loops on each level with the ability to send the train down the long reversing loop sidings). The second is a long reversing loop where the two levels are connected thus resulting in a continuous loop and not a reversing loop... I like the second one a bit a more (you can run three or four trains on this one).
Brent, It's hard to see, but there are two reversing loops, and two sets of tracks going to the left. It's just a very small picture, and I don't know how to make it bigger. Still, please post your ideas and plans. I love to see new ideas!
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