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Reggie's Trainworld

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Posted by pcarrell on Monday, March 9, 2009 2:31 PM

You know, you could always offset the peninsulas some.  That would give you more people room in the corners without sacrificing any isle space.  The peninsulas would be slightly shorter though, but it might be worth the sacrifice.  It might look something like this:

You could even criss-cross the loops to ease the curves, but a train gets a little tougher to follow.  It could be a possibility though.

Food for thought........

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Posted by HHPATH56 on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 8:07 PM

 Hi Reggie,

Kalmbach was doing some maintenance work this morning, when I tried to Reply.   Pcarrell's latest idea of the double crossover, sounds great. You might make it a Pass-over, and make use of your Kato truss bridges. Are you inj Ann Arbor, or there abouts. I'm just "up the road apiece", just North of Hamburg

. Drop in some time.   Kurt Polak invited you to drop in at the CTT Coffee Pot, in Ann Arbor  Where is it located ? Bob

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Posted by thatboy37 on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:56 PM

HHPATH56

 Hi Reggie,

Kalmbach was doing some maintenance work this morning, when I tried to Reply.   Pcarrell's latest idea of the double crossover, sounds great. You might make it a Pass-over, and make use of your Kato truss bridges. Are you inj Ann Arbor, or there abouts. I'm just "up the road apiece", just North of Hamburg

. Drop in some time.   Kurt Polak invited you to drop in at the CTT Coffee Pot, in Ann Arbor  Where is it located ? Bob

i have figured out where my elevations going to be and i think i have come up with another track plan and i like it even more. its a variation off of the one pcarrell drew up but it only has one peninsula in the center of the room. the peninsula is coming of of the wall down by the door and it will be 3.5 feet wide by 27 feet long. the ctt is another forum on this site. i stopped by and said my hellos as i was once an o scaler myself.

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Posted by HHPATH56 on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:35 AM

Hi Reggie,

If you go for one peninsula, do you plan to have a "backdrop" run don the center?  Of course, this would hide the view of the entire "Empire".   I typed in "CTT Coffee Pot Ann Arbor", on the internet, they said it was a place to chat about model railroading, and when I went for "Map" they showed the location of the six coffee places in Ann Arbor, besides ads for gourmet coffee. Then when I clicked again, I got our Trains.com Forums.  Is the Coffee Post just an Internet site something like Elliot's Diner ?    Anxious to see what you have "imagineered" for your proposed layout. Do you have a "scanner" ? They make better images than photos of drawings.  I spent the day yesterday getting started on the Blast Furnace model. It's footprint is 17.5" x 27" and has a height of 22 in".  Besides this, there will be 2 Hulett unloaders (unloading iron orre from a 18 bin ore carrier in the harbor. (These are back ordered, with a promised July delivery date.) There will also be a Coke and Gass complex and coal and pile storage area, and a Rolling Mill next to the Blast Furnace. These will be on the central peninsula of my layout, besides the 7 track pass-througjh yard, skate and ski resort and mine mountain, and round house. Whew!  Bob

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Posted by thatboy37 on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 8:46 AM

HHPATH56

Hi Reggie,

If you go for one peninsula, do you plan to have a "backdrop" run don the center?  Of course, this would hide the view of the entire "Empire".   I typed in "CTT Coffee Pot Ann Arbor", on the internet, they said it was a place to chat about model railroading, and when I went for "Map" they showed the location of the six coffee places in Ann Arbor, besides ads for gourmet coffee. Then when I clicked again, I got our Trains.com Forums.  Is the Coffee Post just an Internet site something like Elliot's Diner ?    Anxious to see what you have "imagineered" for your proposed layout. Do you have a "scanner" ? They make better images than photos of drawings.  I spent the day yesterday getting started on the Blast Furnace model. It's footprint is 17.5" x 27" and has a height of 22 in".  Besides this, there will be 2 Hulett unloaders (unloading iron orre from a 18 bin ore carrier in the harbor. (These are back ordered, with a promised July delivery date.) There will also be a Coke and Gass complex and coal and pile storage area, and a Rolling Mill next to the Blast Furnace. These will be on the central peninsula of my layout, besides the 7 track pass-througjh yard, skate and ski resort and mine mountain, and round house. Whew!  Bob

yes i do plan to put a backdrop up and i have it drawn on the sketch. oh i never new it was a real coffeeshop i always thought it was just a place to talk about trains and what you do in your everyday life on the internet. if it is it's a new one to me. correct me if im wrong. yeah in gone take it to kinko or the fedex store and try to get them to scan it for me. then i post what i have now. i have the huge yard roundhouse, engine service area, caboose, rip, a/d, and engine staging area drawn. airport, intermodal, and passenger station placement is decided. im going to make mainline 3 going up to a 2" rise for 8 straight feet along the inside of the peninsula. once it gets to the top of the rise it will go straight for another foot then gradually getting wider as it gets to the end of the peninsula for the widest possible radius it can get inside of mainline 2. then doing the same as i come around the back side of the peninsula. if you can visualize what im saying all of the area inside line 3 will be up 2" higher then the rest of the layout and i thinking will be the only level that's really not going to be on the the tabletop. plus i really like the way the cork looks on top of the plywood. on that level the passenger station is on the back side of the peninsula with 3 sidings with walkways plus over head walkway, and passenger station. the intermodal is going to be on that back wall somwhere in the middle of the wall on mainline 2. i have the airport on the far 13' wall across from the end of the peninsula. the runway is actually going to span almost that whole wall. now all i have to do is find a place for a coal plant, grain plant, gas plant, catipillar tractor facilty, car lot, neighborhood, and a autorack plant. i have enough room i think for all this, but dont know where to put it and not make it look so crowded. if you think this is to much let me know and i try and see what i really dont want it on there. you know i really want it on there but something will have to get left off. if it needs to. what you think.

 

 

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Posted by HHPATH56 on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 10:30 AM

 I just got back from the pain specialist's office. He thinks that the pain in my right groin is on the lining of my gut,( not a hernia), so I just keep taking the nerve pain killer called Lyrica, three times per day,(at $78/month). Without the Lyrica, it is excrutiating. (sp?)  So much for my aches and pains.

Anxious to see a drawinjg of your proposed layout. I will have the last possible structure on my layout, when the Ashland Iron and Steel complex is completed. Unlike the prototype structures, one can switch structures once in awhile. It keeps the model railroad interesting!     This Blast Furnace complex, is really a challenge to construct,(mainly because you have to constantly have to "search and search" for the sets of parts of a given number, since they may be on three different molded sheets, among 15 sheets.  The instructions are a little missleading, at times. A lot of the detailed parts are inclosed in buildings without windows.Why bother with the detail ?????    Bob

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Posted by thatboy37 on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:47 PM

i have a ?. how many tracks can go under the walther's mi jack tl-1000 intermodal crane and still have space to leave a trailer beside the track. im hoping 2 tracks and a road as i got 4 of these for the layout.

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Posted by thatboy37 on Friday, May 15, 2009 7:58 AM

Well i have had a little time to design a layout as work has been keeping me busy, but a little has come and i'm gone try and do a little work on designing the benck work. I took some pictures of what I came up with, and would like your opinions on what you think about each possible benchwork plan. I know I showed some pictures of some possible plans but I'm still stuck on what to do. So here are some pictures of what i have thought of. Each of the squares equal 1ft and the room is 34' x 14' .

 

 
I like these 2 here the most of them all and having a hard problem diciding which to choose.
 
 
 
I left this blank one for any of you who would like to help me in possibly throwing out a couple ideas on this one for me that could possibly get me to the track planning phase.
 
 
Also any opinions welcome about what you think, which one you would choose, why you would choose it, and if you wouldnt choose any why and what would you do different.
 
Thanks for any help I get in advance.
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Posted by thatboy37 on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 8:20 PM

well i have decided one wich of the 2 benchwork plans i want and it will be the second picture of the 2 i said i couldn't decide on which i would do in my last post. it gives me more peninsulas and i think i can get all of what i want on the this plan. i have been working on the middle 8ft of the yard the pass couple of days and i'm almost finished with it. i have to cut like maybe 8 more pieces of track, drop the feeders and i will be done. will try to post pictures when done later on tonight. back to work on the layout and happy railroading.

 

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Posted by thatboy37 on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:05 PM

well i have finished laying the cork and track all feeders are dropped and waiting to be wire for power. that will get done probably tomorrow. but for now here is some of the work i done since monday night. hope you like it. all it is is an addition to the 16ft yard i already have and i added another 8 ft section to make the yard 24ft long with 17 tracks for staging, run throughs and an intermodal yard.

this is some of the locomotives and some of the rolling stock i have it's a total of 40 locomotives in the picture with about 160 some odd pieces of rolling stock on the yard before i added the extra 8 ft.

 
 
here is the extension before it get transformed into a yard.

  

 
here it is getting some roadbed added to it  
 
here it is with the first pieces of track down
 
 
this is all for now. hope you enjoy
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Posted by wm3798 on Thursday, May 21, 2009 1:33 PM

 Reggie, that's quite a yard you've built there.  Two suggestions...  are you going to finish the room with dry wall or something?  If so, better get on it.  If that's staging in a back room, I suppose that's not so bad.  But it really makes a difference to have a finished room to work in.  Also, it might be a good idea to paint that bare plywood to help stabilize it against moister and expansion. 

Looks like quite a fleet you've got there.  Are you familiar with the Conrail Historical Society?  You might want to check them out.

 

Lee

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Posted by thatboy37 on Thursday, May 21, 2009 3:51 PM

wm3798

 Reggie, that's quite a yard you've built there.  Two suggestions...  are you going to finish the room with dry wall or something?  If so, better get on it.  If that's staging in a back room, I suppose that's not so bad.  But it really makes a difference to have a finished room to work in.  Also, it might be a good idea to paint that bare plywood to help stabilize it against moister and expansion. 

Looks like quite a fleet you've got there.  Are you familiar with the Conrail Historical Society?  You might want to check them out.

 

Lee

 Thanks for the comment. I'm going over plans for the basement now with my neighbor as he is a home builder. So hopefully he want charge me to much to finish the work. As i will have all the supplies waiting for him that he will need to do the work. Of course i'm going to help him. 

So are you saying to paint/seal it before i ballast, or will the ballast be enough.

Also the fleet is growing as I am waiting on the release of the heritage series and the wartime black gs 4 from kato.

No I am not familiar with the conrail society, and I will check it out. Do you have a web address for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by fifedog on Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:36 AM

Figures...I forgot to call my broker about ATLAS...Smile,Wink, & GrinLaugh

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Posted by thatboy37 on Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:13 AM

fifedog

Figures...I forgot to call my broker about ATLAS...Smile,Wink, & GrinLaugh

 

you lost me with this saying

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Posted by reklein on Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:52 AM

I think hes lookin at your collection of Atlas products and track and thinkin he shoulda bought stock in Atlas. OK gotta go call my broker too.Wink  BILL

PS  railroads lookin good. I'm jealous.

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Posted by fifedog on Thursday, May 28, 2009 10:50 AM

reklein nailed it, Reggie.  Impressive yard and nice room.  Keep postin' dem pics. Thumbs Up

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Posted by thatboy37 on Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:50 PM

fifedog

reklein nailed it, Reggie.  Impressive yard and nice room.  Keep postin' dem pics. Thumbs Up

 thanks for the compliment. i should call my broker to because i look back at it and say man the have alot of my money. but i guess its all in the hobby. will have a few more pics in the next few days as i have started working on the engine house/ service area of my layout. still thinking about a track plan as i'm thinking i will just do it as i get to that point. yes i'm a freelance modeler. so whatever fits to my likings is what goes. if any have ideas of something that they would like to see or do on a layout but cant do on theirs give me the idea and i will see what i can do with that idea.

again thanks

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Posted by fifedog on Friday, May 29, 2009 7:46 AM

Howzabout an N-Scale football stadium, complete with spotlights.  Perhaps you could use M&T or SAFECO as inspiration...

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Posted by thatboy37 on Friday, May 29, 2009 9:14 AM

fifedog

Howzabout an N-Scale football stadium, complete with spotlights.  Perhaps you could use M&T or SAFECO as inspiration...

I actually plan to have that on the layout. just cant find a stadium that's the right scale size to place on the layout. if you know of any places that might sale them let me know the link to them that way i can purchase one.

good day

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Posted by thatboy37 on Friday, May 29, 2009 12:12 PM

here are a few pictures i took last night of the work i did. i put in hours from 10:45pm last night till 3:00am this morning. its only the crossover switches from each main to the other and the cork for the curves. trying to get the switches lined up and straight is what took the longest of the process. plus i wanted to make sure that my trackwork was close to perfect as possible from just the eyes view. want know for sure until the sd90's start rumbling through them to test for any problems. here goes hope you like.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
well this is all i was able to do last night as i got tired and shut it down. i will finish laying the track for the curve later today then i can set up a few structures to see how they will look in their place and think of how to incorporate all the engine service facilities in the soace that is shown in the last picture i posted.
 
hope you enjoy
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Posted by thatboy37 on Monday, June 1, 2009 4:34 PM

well all of my wood for finishing the basement was delivered today and my neighbor and i are going to start working tomorrow. so pictures of the work as we progress will be posted and i hope you can wait for the progress of the railroad. as it will be halted until the basemnent is finished. i'm hoping this will be completed in a month and a half or less. so bare with me as we take this journey of finishing my basement. this is my first time doing something like this since i took carpentry in high school and we went out into the community and built house's/ helped finish them in 96/97 and 97/98. so i figure a little quick refresher and we will head in and tackle this project starting tommorrow.

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Posted by WP&P on Monday, June 1, 2009 10:06 PM

 Hey Reggie!

 I'm one of the members of that club, and was in that Johnny's show (I'm in your second photo of it, and my loaded coal train is idling in your yard).  I wish I had found this thread earlier, as layout design is my favorite part of the hobby and the reason I became an architect.

I echo a number of the comments already made, that 13'x34' is a great size for an N-scale , and that aisle width should be a concern.  Focusing on long runs for long trains seems to be most in keeping with your vision for this layout.  Short peninsulas with a lot of curvature work to counteract this goal, which is why I like PCarrell's sketch, which creates a long peninsula or two down the long dimension of the room.

In 13 feet of width, I think there's really only room for one peninsula, especially given your wide yard along one long wall.  I have tried to honor 30" min. but 36" preferred aisles, with some "bulges" that create additional space in some areas; think of these as passing sidings for people.  My own layout, at http://wpandp.com/HomeLayout.html , does this as well, creating triangular-shaped spaces for multiple operators to meet.

As you are a member of an N-Trak club, I've tried to build in some standard N-trak modules.  The blue ones are these; there's three standard 3x3 corners, though scenically they're being viewed from inside the curve.  There's a handful of 2x4 and 2x6 modules.  By constructing this in such a way that these modules are easily removable, you can invite other club members to bring their own modules over and enjoy running on your home layout.  Plus, you can build new modules to replace old ones, as your tastes change.

The purple shapes are the non-standard modules.  These can have the same track spacings and some of the other N-trak standards, but they won't work in the context of a train show.

The central peninsula features mainlines crossing, which can be either by a bridge, or it could be a major set of diamonds like at Rochelle, Illinois (where UP and BNSF main lines cross).  The crossing closer to the right wall, in my opinion, should be a vertical separation, possibly with one line going through a tunnel.  The curves here have the opportunity to be rather broad, and they can be appreciated from both inside and outside.  The fourth corner doesn't work as a standard N-trak corner because of the location of mains on the string of 4 2x4 modules; but if you did go up-and-over you'd need this corner to begin climbing, anyways.

One thing several railroads did was to have 2-track mains that every so often widened to 3 by adding a passing siding in between the two mains, shared by them.  You could do this on either side of the chain of 4 2x4's to convert the Yellow line into the common passing track.

So here's my crude sketch; I'm at home and don't have access to my much better CAD software at work.

Possible layout plan 

(if the upload didn't work or you just want to see it full size, click here)

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Posted by thatboy37 on Thursday, June 4, 2009 11:59 PM

how's it going mike. thanks for the advice. nothing is really set in stone with the layout design. as i'm not to far along to where i cant change anything. also im finishing my basement so the layout is on hold until its finished. i got a couple of pictures of the basement work me and my neighbor have done so far. 

  

 
 

 

also what do you think of this benchwork plan and i have also drawn in a little of a possible track plan for this one. i want three mains but i will cut out a main maybe the middle main and make it a yard lead for all tracks in the yard coming out of both ends, and make the lead the length of the longest yard track. remember i really want three mains and if i go with two that means when i have a opp session thats less trains that will be running i plan to have at least one session a month once i get the track down and trains running. i would hait to see someone not get to run when they come over and they have driven maybe an hour or two away. i understand that sometimes less is better but i'm thinking more for the purpose of the opp sessions. i have made all walkways 3 feet wide except for the long wall opposite the yard and that is an 8ft section. which is 2 1/2ft wide.

 
tell me what you think and all and any suggestions are welcome.
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Posted by WP&P on Sunday, June 7, 2009 10:46 PM

 Unless you're intending point-to-point operation, your central peninsula is going to need to widen to create a return loop of sufficient radius.  I wouldn't go less than 18" radius for the kinds of long trains and modern long cars that I know you're gonna want to run.  If this is the minimum radius of the interior mainline, and you've got 3 tracks, then the middle one would be 19.5" radius and the outer one 21" radius.  Add a little bit to that for the edge of the benchwork, and you're talking about a peninsula that is 4 feet wide.

This is what I was trying to accomodate in my quick sketch, forcing the track on the bottom wall to run on a narrow shelf, to allow the loop at the end of the peninsula.

 As for doing triple track versus double track with shared sidings, you can go either way.  I just think it adds operational interest if the guy running train #3 as an extra has to deal with getting into the "hole" to let trains on the two mains proceed past.  I, for one, would prefer to operate that way rather than just have a wide open third main all to myself... there's no challenge in it.  But here's another thing to consider - maybe the third line doesn't follow the other two out onto the peninsula!  Perhaps it bypasses, or takes some other route, so for at least the length of the peninsula you've only got double track.  You might even go so far as to get the peninsula down to single-track, and let it represent a sort of industrial belt line with plenty of switching opportunities.

 Of course, it comes down to figuring out what you and your operators are going to enjoy the most.  For me, I like shorter trains that have to fight grades to reach mines and switch out cars; modern comfort cabs hot-footing it with TOFC's in tow don't do much for me.  But you might be the exact inverse!  I like running at 30 mph or less, you might prefer running 70 mph and up.  Are the big yards indicative of your enjoyment of switching cuts of cars into trains, or are they intended more as staging tracks to hodl trains ready for departure?

You've stated that you want to adhere to N-Trak standards for as much of the layout as possible, but this is actually a rather limiting factor.  The plan I cam up with makes use of N-Trak modules for about half the layout, and relies on similar but adapted modules for the rest.  However, I bet you could fit even more decent mainline run if you abandoned those standards once you get out past the yards, and relied on more free-form benchwork.  So there is a trade off.

I think it would be helpful for you to draft some sort of statement about what really gets you most excited about this hobby, what your passion is.  That can become a vision statement towards which the layout design can aim.

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Posted by accatenary on Monday, June 8, 2009 12:39 PM

Reggie 

Nice Yard and man you have lots of room for N scale

Is your layout going to be freelanced Conrail or based on a particular area ?  Are you going to do a rural to suburbs to city type of modern layout ?

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Posted by thatboy37 on Monday, June 8, 2009 8:08 PM

mike aka wp&p:

i'm not trying to be combative here when i respond but i just want to have the best and thats why i'm asking the questions of what to do here. no i want continious running around the room and i am ok with making that back wall narrower to have that center peninsula wider for broader curves. actually the whole back wall can be narrower to allow for the whole peninsula to be wider all the way down the center. now i follow what you are saying with the way you described it te second time around.

i like the idea of two mains and the shared siding's but wouldnt that limit how long the trains can be just because of the siding's length. what about the idea of all three sharing sidings and maybe they come together on the layout in two different places for those high priority trains to pass and get to where they need to be.

for the peninsula the idea of industries sound great being that we are taking space away from the bottom wall to have a wider peninsula or maybe have a couple of industries on that bottom wall and the majority of the industries on the peninsula. i will take away one main as long as there is a double track mainline going around the whole layout and have the center track coming out of the yard as a yard lead the length of the longest train.

what i would enjoy most is is a layout with alot of action and something that when i have a opp session everyone wants to come back and do it again. like i said i want this and that but would rather make the layout enjoyable for all who come to run. which in turn means please help me as i dont just want to clog it up and it looks toy like and not realistic. that would be hard to do being that i am freelancing the whole layout but would model after a particular road if i can visualize it or get a picture of it.

well being that you are close enough to actually make an opp session and are willing to help with ideas and give pointers. i will look at what you say really hard and incorporate it into the layout. FOR EXAMPLE I WILL GO WITH THE TWO TRACK MAIN AND MAKE THE CENTER TRACK OUT OF THE YARD A LEAD TO SWITCH TRAINS FROM MAIN TO MAIN. SO OFFICIALLY IT WILL BE A TWO TRACK MAIN. PER ADVICE FROM YOU THAT IT WILL GIVE YOU AND ME MORE FUN AND ANTICIPATION OF WAITING FOR THE MAINS TO CLEAR BEFORE YOU CAN ADVANCE ONWARD WITH YOUR TRAIN.

i love long trains but my longest as of today is a fifty car gunderson twinstack train by deluxe innovations or fifty car coal train. i'm going to limit the longest train on the layout to fifty car max as the longest yard track just has enough for either of the two i just named. i think the average train length i have is thirty cars. so if you consider a long train thirty cars long then i like long trains then. from time to time a ten car train will do the trick of satisfying the mind that the train is longer than it really is.

as for speed wise it really doesnt matter cause i might just get the erge to high ball it around the layout and some times just cruise. when ever the mood hits pedal to the medal.

i like the big yard just for the simple fact i can get all of my rolling stock on the layout. which is why i bought all the rolling stock. the rolling stock has a better chance of getting some action if it is on the layout rather than in a closet or drawer and twenty years later you come across some rolling stock you totally forgot you had. also i read alot about guys and their layouts wishing they had built a bigger yard or just added staging on their layout. so i went ahead and got the most out of what i was going to designate for a yard. with my yard you should beable to have all that a major yard like cincy's or the union pacific bailey yard have on and in it. a/d tracks , rip, fueling, sanding, roundhouse, yard lead, intermodal yard, etc etc. so all in all it is for everything you can do in a yard in real life if you get the picture.

well i kind of abandoned the n trak standard because when i took it to the trainshow at johnny's as i was taking it out of the car to get it back into the house after the show i dinged the ends of the tracks and had to replace some so that's what made me not want to take it to shows and forget about the n-trak standards. also i had thought about it before you said it. it kind of limits what you can do as far as mainline runs. which is the gain an inch lose a foot factor.

i really have no vision as i like all trains and roads. each brings its own unique thing to the train world for me. i'm not modeling any specific road at this particular time. maybe sometime down the road i will decide but for now it's up in the air. ok take that back i really like the ns and cn roads a lot but kato doesnt make an abundant selection of either road name. yes i'm a kato freak and all my loco's are kato except for five of them and they are atlas. three of them are dcc and the other two are dc. also the reason for purchase is the price i paid for them. i really just buy what i like and if i think in my mind that it is a great deal and im getting it for a steal the it is mine and its coming home with me.

my vision or what i would like to incorporate into my layout are as follow: i like the hillside mountian type railroad with some long runs of straight aways that is if im not conflicting myself. this is what i have to place on the layout. if this is what you are talking about drafting up some type of vision plan here we go as these are some of the items i want on the layout and already have. 1 union station passenger terminal, 4 kato single track truss bridges, 3 kato double track bridges, 2 western coal flood loaders, 3 adm grain elevators, 1 built up cornerstone 130' turntable got it for a steal at a $130 new couldnt pass it up, 4 mi-jack cranes, 2 bachman loco maintenance building, 2 bachman car repair shops, 1 north island refining kit, 4 tomix signal stations, 2 tomix 3 stall loco roundhouses, i would like to incorporate an autorack plant, and last but not least an airport as i have bought the 1/400th scale planes from dragon wings and a few of the terminals to make an airport scene. which i know is to small but with a little forged perception i think will really look great if done right. the airport would be placed on one of the 13ft walls and take up the whole length of the wall. thats my plan but plans can be changed as you can tell.

my passion is to see trains running short or long it doesnt matter as long as its a train and a variety of them at that. like i said its going to be a freelanced layout with no particular theme besides what i said i have and want to be on the layout. you see the name i gave the layout. reggie's minature train world.

 steve aka accatenary:

thanks for the compliments. its going to be freelanced and i'm thinking more modern from a little mountian side to city type layout with plenty of industries for switching out cars to make like you are actually doing something or the trains have a purpose for being in a specific part of the layout. if you understand what i'm saying. if you have ideas throw them at me and if i like what you suggest. i will impliment them on the layout and dedicate that part of the layout in your name. thats a promise.

hope this helps you in trying to help me figure out what i'm trying to do with this layout. all other comments and suggestions are welcome.

LIVE LIFE AS IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE ! UNTIL NEXT TIME PEACE !!! REGGIE thatboy37@hotmail.com
  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: Philadelphia
  • 92 posts
Posted by accatenary on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 7:55 AM

Reggie

 I think the plan that shows an around the room layout with a large peninsula is a great start to what I think you are trying to accomplish.  For the Mountains to the city theme as you described, this form would work well with the city located in the peninsula area. Your Union station could be located there along with plenty of freight industry giving this area a congested feel.  At the intersection of the peninsula and your main line that would be going around the room you could have a interlocking junction to the main line with a wye and switch Tower. Im thinking This interlocking will allow you to either bypass the city or make a run through it. If you really want a action packed Junction and if it will fit, check out the Santa Fe junction in Kansas city. Im a northeastern US PRR fan and im used to seeing flyovers but that junction is a Modern monster.  and alternative could be an at grade Chicago style Junction?

 I say look at Thinking along the lines of how a Real City is laid out in Modern Times, Most freight can be diverted around cities and most large yards are located on the outlying parts of cities. Your location of the Large yard  at the top of the plan will work figuring in the grand plan of things if up is north thats the northern outlying part of the city same deal at the southern end.maybe on the south end you have a Port with container ships  one both ends Industry should become sparce until land turns rural and Mountainous.   

Steve Smith 1:1 Railroad Architect 1:87 Railroad Architect Certified PRR foamer

Visit www.prrnortheastcorridor.com

Movies http://www.youtube.com/user/ac0catenary

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Urban/City Modeler

A Real Juice Jack .. IF its not electric Its not running on my layout.

  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: usa
  • 687 posts
Posted by thatboy37 on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 11:02 PM

i did a redraw of the bench work and to have a 4ft wide peninsula and 3ft wide aisle's i would have to extend the the 13ft bench work lengths to 13.5ft. i have told the wife that the layout will only be 13ft wide but i thinks she want be mad if i stole another 1/2ft to bring the layout to 34ft x 13.5ft. now that means the the 34ft long part of the benchwork will only be 1ft wide all the way down just to allow for the 4ft wide peninsula and 3ft aisle's. 

ok now to the start of the track plan. as i come out of the yard on the westside which is where i left off due to the finishing of my basement. i like the idea of mainline 1 staying close to edge with a nice broad curve and going down the peninsula with a passing siding on the broad curve of the loop. now with mainline 2 making and elevation up coming out of the yard and going to the opposite side of the peninsula staying elevated all the way down the peninsula and starting to make its descent down as it makes it way back down the peninsula just inside mainline 1 and going under itself at that the northwest junction. to then meet up and run side by side with mainline 1 down the 1ft wide part of the bench work.

that is a start and i hope you can visualize what i just wrote. if not i will try and post a picture of what im saying later today.

LIVE LIFE AS IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE ! UNTIL NEXT TIME PEACE !!! REGGIE thatboy37@hotmail.com
  • Member since
    March 2006
  • From: usa
  • 687 posts
Posted by thatboy37 on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 10:24 PM

well times have been good as i have finished studding up my basement an on to the rewiring of lights and receptacles. which i am almost finished doing. have rewired the the lights for the hallway, weightroom, movie room. also have wired new receptacles for the movie room, hallway, and weightroom.

i have run lines for the train room lights and receptacles. they both will have their on breaker. i have 4 receptacles for the trainroom and i have a question. should i go ahead and run all 4 receptacles on one 15 amp breaker or split them into 2 and have 2 run on one 15 amp breaker and the other 2 run off the other 15 amp breaker. the reasoning behind this is i have 4 of the nce 5 amp power supplies and i dont want them to be drawing to much power from anyone of the 2 breakers and trip them all the time

or should i just go ahead and get a 20 amp breaker and hook up all 4 receptacles to it and have the power supplies to just that 1 breaker . kind of stuck and dont know what to do from this point. reason im asking is i want to be safe and not have the house go up in flames. i know i have alot of power but i want to have enough for when i have running sessions for the club im in. i dont want one of the problems to be that i dont have enough power. so now the problem is should i use 1 20 amp breaker or split it all up and use 2 15 amp breakers.

the lights in the trainroom will be hooked up to a dimmer. that way i can simulate the night and day time at anytime of the day.

also is there anything else anybody would recommend me doing before i start drywalling and sheetrocking.

LIVE LIFE AS IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE ! UNTIL NEXT TIME PEACE !!! REGGIE thatboy37@hotmail.com

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