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Ideas for my new layout
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by tangerine-jack</i> <br /><br />I agree with Vic, well said! My own railroad is going through a similar type of rethink and redesign (see the thread http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=59536 for more detail) <br /> <br />It is important to have a theme and a purpose for your line. Giving it a name also gives it life. The rest is up to you for as far as you want to take it, I’ll leave the creativity license to you and you alone. View your railroad as an incorporated entity with the landscaping when you plan and design it. Whether you have more railroad and less garden or vice versa is of no concern, just make sure you don’t forget that one depends on the other for overall “effect”. <br /> <br />Good luck and keep us posted! <br /> <br />[/quote] <br /> <br /> <br />Good tips guys---may I add some? <br /> <br />First, write down (make a list) of what interests you about trains....why you love them so much. You mention you love your Aristo diesels....why is this? Did you see the real thing when you were a kid? Do you love the "heft" of rumbling diesels on the main? <br /> <br />But when we have great memories of the "real thing"--its usually the setting that also interests us---the trackside setting, the railway crossings, the railway industries. So its not just the trains passing that we "take in". <br /> <br />So its good to write down all the things that really interest you about trains. Then, from this list, hopefully you have written down some type of industry ---logging, mining, etc. <br />Or at least you wrote down "coal cars" or "gravel cars" --some type of consists that you like to see on the train. If you love "coal drags"...then by rights you should develop a complete coal industry on your garden railway. This means a coal mine, and a place to process the coal (the destination somewhere else on the pike). Now you have a reason for your trains to run from one spot to another! Not only that---once they get to the destination--they must dump the consist and empties need to be returned...there is work to be done! This can be "imaginary"--simply run the full consist behind the industry and then pickup a train of empties to take back to the mine. The mine has a hidden track with a full coal train as well. <br /> <br />If you didn't write down coal or gravel trains, but love to see long passenger coaches....then by rights you need a switching yard behind your "stations" to bring up the daily traffic behind the engines. The shunting yard does not need to be as huge as the one in real-life Chicago! But you should have ample tracks to take at least one passenger train and park it, take the engines and run them around to the other side or park them and have new engines hook up. Then off to the other station (on the other end of your layout) and do the same. <br /> <br />When you have "reasons" and industrys for the railway, the track plan will suggest itself....don't fret too much about the actual right-of-way. Concentrate on the reasons for the railroad! <br /> <br />Regards, <br /> <br />Thomas M. <br /> <br /> <br />
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