Okay layout design experts wannabees, we have a multi-dimensional challenge. You get a sheet of plywood which you can use as a table top for your layout. You can cut it any way you want and combine it any way you want as long only use the one sheet of plywood. (Less than or equal to 32 sq. ft.)
What you can't do is go by square feet. In other words, you can't cut off a rounded corner and use the area displaced. If you round a corner, you have a moon-shaped piece that you can either use or not use.
You can use any theme or scale you want, but your theme and scale must be clearly noted. (Some of the organizers seem to be scale impaired.)
All grades and curve radii must work for your era and theme.
Failure to follow the guidelines will result in disqualification.
Plans and explanations should be mailed to me via email. To get my email address use the Trains.com email, but be sure to include your email so I can email you back directly. Plans should be a common graphic format and 800 pixels wide. Plans not 800 pixels wide will be altered to 800 pixels and you may lose graphic quality.
Enter as many times as you want. The best of each scale receive prizes as well as the top three overall.
Contest ends Midnight April 4th.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!
jktrains wrote: AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!
Either show us what you got or stop wasting my bandwidth.
jktrains wrote:AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!
Personally, I enjoy them.
Keep 'em going Spacemouse.
Paul
Intriguing concept! Let me see now...maybe in Gn15 this time
Have fun with your trains
SpaceMouse wrote: jktrains wrote: AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!Either show us what you got or stop wasting my bandwidth.
SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize it was the great SpaceMouse's bandwidth to regulate and oversee that I was "wasting". I always thought it was Kalmbach's forums and bandwidth. Sounds like the whole "SpaceMouse for President" campaign has gone to your head and should be "SpaceMouse for Emperor" since its your bandwidth. Wasting bandwidth is a subjective opinion. Maybe there are some that consider a design contest every week or so a waste of bandwidth too.
jktrains wrote: SpaceMouse wrote: jktrains wrote: AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!Either show us what you got or stop wasting my bandwidth.SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize it was the great SpaceMouse's bandwidth to regulate and oversee that I was "wasting". I always thought it was Kalmbach's forums and bandwidth. Sounds like the whole "SpaceMouse for President" campaign has gone to your head and should be "SpaceMouse for Emperor" since its your bandwidth. Wasting bandwidth is a subjective opinion. Maybe there are some that consider a design contest every week or so a waste of bandwidth too.
You know, Jeff (it is Jeff, isn't it ?) - you really do have a talent for acting in such a way that people just register your behavior, not the point you were trying to make.
Yes - another contest so soon will generate quite a few extra posts.
It will not fill up the first page, but it will in effect tend to make the first page one slot smaller for everybody else for a while, since a high volume thread has a tendency to keep bubling to the top of the first page quite often.
Is this a Really Bad Thing (tm) ? Depends.
It is, IMO, less of a bad thing than these off-topic "eBay is evil", "Imminent death of LHS - film at 11", "clueless newbie wonders if there is anyone else here from Hoboken, NJ", "How to teach model railroad photography while acting like an *******" or "Interpersonal Skills and Manners 101" type of threads that also tend to gather a large number of posts.
Layout Design at least is actually about model railroading, eh ?
Grin, Stein
jktrains wrote:SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize it was the great SpaceMouse's bandwidth to regulate and oversee that I was "wasting". I always thought it was Kalmbach's forums and bandwidth. Sounds like the whole "SpaceMouse for President" campaign has gone to your head and should be "SpaceMouse for Emperor" since its your bandwidth. Wasting bandwidth is a subjective opinion. Maybe there are some that consider a design contest every week or so a waste of bandwidth too.
If you are going too make a joke you're going to have to take a joke.
So where's your entry?
Internet communications 100 (not even 101) - "Think first, then press "reply". Reversing the order can cause confusion, objection, rancor, and untold unintended consequences for both parties. This is because the receiver has no choice, in the absence of other cues normally available to him/her in personal interactions, but to judge at face value the meaning or the intent of the words causing the confusion, objection, rancor, and untold unintended consequences. Most often, the judgement will default to literal translation."
-Crandell
You are almost a 100% correct Crandall. Its hit the reply, then type, then read what you just typed, then decide to retype or delete the post. Or you could just pass over the post and ignore it. In other words think about it and how it will apperar to other's. Its a simple task, some choose to do this, some will and some won't.
I like always laugh when someone new comes to forum and ask a question a that has been asked 100 times. So what I say! Ask away. But there are the ones who always respond with, "use the search engine in the forum",
Mouse you seem to be thinking all the time, you add allot to this forum and spark allot of interest, thumbs up to you and your way of thinking.
steinjr wrote: jktrains wrote: SpaceMouse wrote: jktrains wrote: AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!Another dreaded SpaceMouse design contest!Either show us what you got or stop wasting my bandwidth.SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize it was the great SpaceMouse's bandwidth to regulate and oversee that I was "wasting". I always thought it was Kalmbach's forums and bandwidth. Sounds like the whole "SpaceMouse for President" campaign has gone to your head and should be "SpaceMouse for Emperor" since its your bandwidth. Wasting bandwidth is a subjective opinion. Maybe there are some that consider a design contest every week or so a waste of bandwidth too. You know, Jeff (it is Jeff, isn't it ?) - you really do have a talent for acting in such a way that people just register your behavior, not the point you were trying to make. Yes - another contest so soon will generate quite a few extra posts. It will not fill up the first page, but it will in effect tend to make the first page one slot smaller for everybody else for a while, since a high volume thread has a tendency to keep bubling to the top of the first page quite often. Is this a Really Bad Thing (tm) ? Depends. It is, IMO, less of a bad thing than these off-topic "eBay is evil", "Imminent death of LHS - film at 11", "clueless newbie wonders if there is anyone else here from Hoboken, NJ", "How to teach model railroad photography while acting like an *******" or "Interpersonal Skills and Manners 101" type of threads that also tend to gather a large number of posts. Layout Design at least is actually about model railroading, eh ? Grin, Stein
Stein for VP!!!
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
I know one thing,
We sure can waste some bandwith arguing over whether or not this is a waste of bandwith!
A quick question on the REAL guideposts.
Do the splice plates for the cookie-cut roadbed have to come out of the same sheet of ply?
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on cookie-cut roadbed over steel stud benchwork)
tomikawaTT wrote: A quick question on the REAL guideposts.Do the splice plates for the cookie-cut roadbed have to come out of the same sheet of ply?Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on cookie-cut roadbed over steel stud benchwork)
See, that's funny. Chuck, You can have all the cookie cutter pieces you want above the 4 x 8 ply table. But you have to put your 4 x 8 as the base for the layout. (even if you want to remove it later for your risers.)
Answer your question?
SpaceMouse wrote: tomikawaTT wrote: A quick question on the REAL guideposts.Do the splice plates for the cookie-cut roadbed have to come out of the same sheet of ply?Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on cookie-cut roadbed over steel stud benchwork)See, that's funny. Chuck, You can have all the cookie cutter pieces you want above the 4 x 8 ply table. But you have to put your 4 x 8 as the base for the layout. (even if you want to remove it later for your risers.) Answer your question?
That may or may not answer Chuck's question, but I think I need more clearity.
As I understand it, I have one single 4x8 sheet of ply, equal to 32 sq. ft. of surface area, that I can cut in any manor for use as "road bed".
"splice plates", "risers", and other means of structure or support are not included in, or limited by, the available 32 sq. ft./4x8 sheet-stock.
Correct?
Thanks, in advance, for clearing this up for me.
KingConrail76 wrote: That may or may not answer Chuck's question, but I think I need more clearity.As I understand it, I have one single 4x8 sheet of ply, equal to 32 sq. ft. of surface area, that I can cut in any manor for use as "road bed"."splice plates", "risers", and other means of structure or support are not included in, or limited by, the available 32 sq. ft./4x8 sheet-stock.Correct?Thanks, in advance, for clearing this up for me.
Road bed is not the term I would use. Think surface area of the layout. Anything vertically above that 32 sq ft.--risers, splices, cookie cutter roadbed, etc.--is not deducted from your plywood, nor is any benchwork.
i believe he means this:
say on a corner of the plywood you cut off a triangle measuring 12" on the square sides. you just lost one half of a square foot. you cannot add that area back by say adding a 6" x 1' extension on one side but you can add the triangle piece back to the layout.
chip, do i have this right?
Yes that is true.
- Harry
HarryHotspur wrote:I still don't understand it. For example, if I start with a 4'x8' sheet of plywood and cut one square foot out of the middle, can I add that square foot to the side?
Yes. You just can't cut a circle out of the center and add it back as a square with the same area.
You could cut off the rounded edges and add back a smaller square. And you can use the edges of the circle to round a pennisula.
The way I understand the requirement is that I need to supply a cut diagram that shows how I cut and assembled a single 4x8 sheet of plywood into the layout surface. The layout surface includes all the surface except aisles. The only question mark left is pop-up holes - I assume those are OK to be added on as surface somewhere else, provided no track, scenery, or roadbed covers any part of the hole. I don't have any pop-up holes in my designs that I am working on, but others might.
Again, the point is that it's not just a 32 square foot limitation; you must be able to cut the surface from a single sheet of plywood.
At least that's the assumption I'm working under.
Fred W
fwright wrote: The way I understand the requirement is that I need to supply a cut diagram that shows how I cut and assembled a single 4x8 sheet of plywood into the layout surface. The layout surface includes all the surface except aisles. The only question mark left is pop-up holes - I assume those are OK to be added on as surface somewhere else, provided no track, scenery, or roadbed covers any part of the hole. I don't have any pop-up holes in my designs that I am working on, but others might.Again, the point is that it's not just a 32 square foot limitation; you must be able to cut the surface from a single sheet of plywood.At least that's the assumption I'm working under.Fred W
Just as a matter of practicality don't bother with the cutout drawing. I'm not going to check Just use the honor system.
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
I'm still a bit puzzled...
What about supporting the layout? If I design a 4x8 layout, can I use 1x4 for benchwork or do I have to cut pieces from the plywood sheet?
Svein
Svein wrote: I'm still a bit puzzled...What about supporting the layout? If I design a 4x8 layout, can I use 1x4 for benchwork or do I have to cut pieces from the plywood sheet?Svein
You can use as much wood as you want above or below the surface area of the layout.
SpaceMouse wrote: Svein wrote: I'm still a bit puzzled...What about supporting the layout? If I design a 4x8 layout, can I use 1x4 for benchwork or do I have to cut pieces from the plywood sheet?SveinYou can use as much wood as you want above or below the surface area of the layout.
And that's the confusing part. Where does the 4x8 sheet fit in? What is the surface area? Is it the overall footprint regardless of benchwork so long as it doesn't exceed 32 sq ft, or do we have to design and build a complete layout using nothing more than a 4x8 sheet of plywood?
SpaceMouse wrote: HarryHotspur wrote:I still don't understand it. For example, if I start with a 4'x8' sheet of plywood and cut one square foot out of the middle, can I add that square foot to the side?Yes. You just can't cut a circle out of the center and add it back as a square with the same area.You could cut off the rounded edges and add back a smaller square. And you can use the edges of the circle to round a pennisula.
Gotcha. Thanks.