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How many layouts have you built and what did you learn from them?
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Counting 2 HO layouts I built as a teenager, I am on my 4th. <br />The last one was in N. This new one I am building now, in the same <br />11' x 14' room, is also in N. <br /> <br />I learned a LOT from the first one. Here's a list. <br /> <br />1) LESS IS MORE. My last layout had double-track mainline where the secondary main curved and pitched up into mountains with sharp curves. PHOOEY. It doesn't leave enough room for decent trackwork and scenery. I was keen to avoid ridiculous pathways and spaghetti-bowl trackwork, but it was still too much. This time, single-track main with some industrial sidings and a large staging yard (which I didn't have room for in the previous layout because of all the extra mainline track). <br /> <br />1a) (Slipped this in after I finished writing this!) NO WIDE BENCHWORK SECTIONS. Yikes! I had 4-foot-wide benchwork on my last layout. What a pain to reach. What a pain to build. What a pain to clean. Now, it's 24" or less, except where there is a turn-around in the trackwork. Given my religious devotion to an 18" minimum radius now (see below), this means you've GOT to have 2x18=36, plus 4 for 2" of clearance on each side = a 40" section. But there will be access panels in the center of this to make sure I can always get close without too much hassle. <br /> <br />1b) No NARROW ISLES. I had some that were 18" or even 16" on the last layout. Once you bow down to the "less is more" theory, you can stick to 28" or even 32" aisles. <br /> <br /> <br />2) No more animated accessories. I did a lot of these, and I thought I was quite clever with all the motorized, lighted, moving, or otherwise ingenious doo-dads I managed to engineer down to N-Scale. But... once they are built, they're just a nuisance, and they aren't that much fun after you've seen them 100 times. They are just another thing to keep maintaining. <br /> <br />3) NO MORE SHARP CURVES. The last layout started in 1985, and I kept to a minimum of a 12" radius. No way. The new layout minimum is 18". So many derailment, clearance, and other problems just go away if the curves are broad, it's really worth it. And getting rid of all that extra trackwork leaves room for the broad curves. <br /> <br />4) No more steep grades. By "steep", I mean anything over 2 percent. My last layout had a few 5% killers. On the new layout, I was going to limit myself to 3%. I quickly found out that isn't good enough. I run steam, and want to pull 10-12 car trains. 3% grades are TOO MUCH. In fact, the worst spot was a 3% helix, and it's now 1.5%. I just made it go around another time to gain the same height, and it sure does pay off. <br /> <br />I cannot emphasize this enough. I (3) and (4) there can be no compromise. No prisoners. I will give up scenic elements and remove a siding if I have to, to stick to my 18", 1.5% rule. <br /> <br />5) No remote-control turnouts. Silly, really, unless you have one where you just can't reach it with your hand. Just a ton of wire, expensive machines, stress on the track... Now it'll be all ground-throws. <br /> <br />6) All Micro-Engineering Track. Now, when I built the last layout, this didn't exist, so I don't beat myself up too bad on this one. No more Atlas huge-tie-spacing, huge-rail-head code 80 track. ME code 55. I tried Atlas code 55, but as everyone knows by now, virtually nothing runs on because of the low rail height. I don't mind switching out all the freight and passenger car wheelsets, but what do they expect people to do with locomotives, machine all the flanges down? How about the arsenal of steam locomotives I've collected and semi-scratch-nuilt over the past 15 years? <br /> <br />7) No walk-around throttles, no cab-control-block wiring, no DCC. "What's left?", you ask. Well, I've decided to simply construct 5 or 6 small control panels, stationed conveniently around the layout. Each one has a control button you depress to "take control" at that panel. Each has direction and speed controls on it, and NOTHING ELSE. So now, you can "walk around" all you want, but you don't have to carry anything. <br /> <br />8) Power-routing with microswitches at every turnout. No more depending on <br />the power-routing built in to the turnout. This works, but the rail joints eventually clutter up, or the point rails don't contact well enough, and you have dead rail sections. I like power-routing through turnouts; I just want to depend on a microswitch, not the turnout itself. It's easy to mount a small microswitch right <br />under the ground throw and control it that way - you don't have to have a maze of agonizing linkages through the table to control the microswitch. <br /> <br />9 HEAVY WIRE for track power. Even in N, even with only about 1/4 amp per locomotive, this matters. The starting current often jumps to about 1/2 amp, and with a longer train, even good Sagami-motored engines pull more than that 1/4 amp. I had plenty of odd places where some long distances caused slight but perceptable voltage drops on the old layout. Now, it's 16-guage or nothing. <br /> <br />------------ <br />What did I do right on the first layout? <br /> <br />a) Stick to those NMRA standards. Check every wheelset, every turnout frog, etc. And fix or shim whatever you have to. This really gets rid of a lot of problems. <br /> <br />b) High table height (well, high for me, anyway). My teenage layouts stood at about 30". My last one was 45". This new one will have a low point of 45", and some higher sections at 54". The realism is keen.
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