Latest update to my layout is this scratch built chain link fence. I used brass wire, music wire and tulle. For hinges I cut off the part of a spade lug that crimps around the wire. When just slightly crimped it fit around two brass wires making a working hinge.
My Layout Pics
Hominamad and Starman,
Welcome to the Virginian Build thread. I look forward to seeing your progress. It's interesting to see how people put their own little tweaks to the layout. Mike provided some good info for you. Don't be afraid of using those curved turnouts, they really do allow for you to have longer passing sidings. I should have used one in the Green Hill area of the layout. Also don't be afraid of hijacking the thread. We welcome any questions on how any of us did something or how you might do something different in the building of this layout.
Again welcome and I hope you post often.
Roger
Thanks for the pointers Mike. I have two small children too, so part of this layout will be used to let them run trains around the main line. But one of the things I liked about this plan is that it allows for some decent operations to be run as well - even at the same time. I would like to adapt it further to have a dedicated passenger line - I'm still thinking about ways to do this. I could run an extra loop around the outside, but its a little crazy to have the train stop at a station, and then go around the table halfway before it comes to the next station. I was toying with the idea of having a second branch that disappears under the table, and then comes around to appear in a surprise location but I'm afraid that if I overcomplicate it I will hit some roadblocks and get frustrated.
One area I need to work on a bit more is my yard - I'm not really happy with how it looks right now. I also was thinking that if I used a 4 track yard instead of 10, and angle it a bit differently, I could have room for a decent sized town down there next to the yard.
A last thing I wanted to mention - my benchwork is going to be L-girder style instead of the cookie cutter style that the article mentions. I'm not sure if this will be easier and harder, but it seems more foregiving when it comes to adjusting heights, levels, etc and also allows for some more interesting scenic possibilities later on.
Thanks!
H
Dear Hominamad,
Welcome and I look forward to seeing your progress. I also adapted the Virginian for a 9X5 space. Quite a few people recommended to me the course you have taken which is to use the space to have bigger curves such as 22" on the branch and 24" on the main. I, however wanted to be able to run two trains on a continuous loop (so the kids could run their trains) as well as intergrate passenger operations into the mix. The other big difference I did was to go for Code 100 track as I had quite a bit left over from a previous layout. I used AnyRail to get things in general alignment (the red lines that appear highlight a curve lower than your minimum radius which is a user setting). Below is my AnyRail Track Plan.
This gave me the shopping list but I still had to do some modifications once I laid the track out including cutting down the Code 100 Atlas Snap Switches to achieve as compact a yard as possible. This modification was different to the one David Popp did as the Code 100 Snap Switches are different to the Code 83 ones but I followed the same principle.
As this is my 4th layout I would offer the following advice:
1. What is your ultimate aim? Is it operations/continuous running/switching/passenger/coal/freight/all of the above? Determine what it is then baseline all your decisions against the aim. This will ensure your have something that you are happy with at the end and won't be tempted to strip it all back and start again like I did with Layout #3.(Although some people like doing this
2. There is no substitute for good trackwork. Try not and be tempted to rush it to get trains running, this will just lead to regular/random derailments and a lot of tweeking that may never resolve the issue. Related to this, go with one type of road bed. Cork or Foam, try not to mix them and minimise height variations as mixing and variations will only lead to headaches.
3. Don't be afraid to modify turnouts or use curved turnouts. It may take more than one try to achieve point 2 and they may be hard to get but the visual impact and performance of your trains is worth it.
4. Try and keep the yard to 6 tracks. It makes it much more user friendly for operations if that is your aim.
5. Finally, it is your layout! Everything said here is just advice. Take it for what it is but ultimately it is your layout for your enjoyment not anybody elses and don't let anybody convince you otherwise.
Hope this helps to give you some ideas. Best of luck and I look forward to seeing your progress.
Regards, Mick
PS. Jack, the percentages on Hominamad's track plan are the grades. The numbers on the track joins on my plan are the elevations. These are all selectable in AnyRail. M
Hi Everyone -
I watched this thread for a while way back when it was first started and then hadn't read it in about a year. Wow! Can't believe how beautiful the original layouts are now and also how many other people have jumped on board.
I've pretty much decided that I want to tackle this layout as well - this is my first attempt after being paralyzed by design decisions for the last 2 years.
I adapted the plan a bit using Anyrail to fit in a 5x9 space and I was hoping if some of you who have already have experience with this plan could comment. I was hoping that by using 5x9 I could keep the radii to 22" for the most part and also I wanted to avoid some of those hard to find curved turnouts in the original plan. I would like to use all standard Peco track and turnouts, code 83 and I used that track library exlcusively in Anyrail.
Does this plan look workable? The plan is the same for the most part - I just cut the yard down to two tracks and also changed some of the proportions and radii of the track.
Any feedback would be much appreciated. Just want to make sure my plan is doable and hopefully a good use of the extra foot in each direction. Also if anyone has any other good ideas of what to do with the extra space please let me know.
Since I was visited by Santa the jolly man thought I was good enough this year to earn some gift cards. This gift cards led to me purchasing the following items...this will allow me to continue construction on my layout. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have so more updates photo's of the layout.
John
Mike the yard is looking good keep up the great work.
Hi All,
I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Time for another update. I have been dabbling in doing some backdrops over the Christmas break.
I have ballasted the Roger's Yard side of the layout.
And I have finally got around to building the surge bin for Champion Mine.
Regards Mick
I have been on the move so have some catching up to do. But first....
Nice looking wall Roger! And congrats to Airborne for your pending article. I look forward to reading it!
Now back to this move. The Army has seen fit to move us again so we packed up the house and boxed the layout, all 9x5 feet of it, and had it shipped by rail 2,500kms (1,550 miles). We are largely unpacked in the new place and the N&W is back up and running with a new diesel fuel facility to boot.
Congratulations Steve, looking forward to seeing the article.
Just a short note to announce that the folks here at Model Railroader have honored me by accepting an article/story on my building of the "Virginian"
Congrats Steve
Cheers, The other Steve
Congrats Airborne...what an honor.
Congradulations Airborne101!
Good morning everyone!
Just a short note to announce that the folks here at Model Railroader have honored me by accepting an article/story on my building of the "Virginian". Look for it to appear I believe early in 2015. In the meantime, those interested can continue to check on my layout at: http://hitopbranchmodelrr.com/
I do have a post on the blog page as well for anyone wishing to ask questions on how I built my layout....
Roger:
That's a nice looking wall. Well done.
Joe
Here are the latest pics of my layout. I scratch built a timber crib retaining wall which sits behind Roger's Yard. The wall was constructed from 1/8" balsa sheet that I cut into 1/8" strips. Here is a shot of it being constructed.
Here is the partially built wall in place.
I only built the wall to go part way up the hill so I made some new plaster castings to make the rock wall. The pieces of balsa in front of the wall were then glued to the back of the wall. Once dry this allowed me to fill the gaps with dirt, rocks, and weeds, and then glue it all while the wall layed flat on the table.
Here are some pics with the wall completed.
Thanks , Mike. I looked and sure enough there they were.
Now that I have built the Virginian I am looking to expand my layout to include a long double main, probably a big "U" shape. I dont like reaching acroos 4 ft so it would be 2-3 feet wide. I would be mostly flat with a city scene on one arm of the u and the other side could be industrial with yards OR a straight run allon a body of water. This way I could have switching, both in The Viginian and the new yard, plus a train running a continual loop. I have looked for a plan to alter in MRR data base, but no luck. Have any of you thought about a big expansion?
@ Roger, nice looking work!
@Jack, I also followed the plans in the project issues of MR, you do have to modify the yard switches per the track article to get those Atlas snap switches to fit. There are several exceptions that I did however with the plan. I used a Peco code 100 curved switch up on top where MR started their bridge, and connected it to the ME code 83 track with transition joiners. I did this as I eliminated the bridge, and wanted 1 1/2 to 2 more car lengths on the long siding. I also went with three tracks into the mine rather than two as MR did. Finally, I added a siding off the main in the backside of the layout where MR had the "moonshine bar", and placed a feed and seed company there. Good luck with your building! Link to my website/layout: http://hitopbranchmodelrr.com/
Rodgerthat, The layout is looking great but I'd hate to have to climb those stairs after a long day at the mine. I had to halt construction for a bit on my layout due to I need to knock out some Christmas shopping but keep up the great modeling.
Wow, this new format is going to take some getting used to.
Got some new pictures of my Virginian layout. I have been working on the ballasting and texturing of the area around the coal mine tipple.
Jack,
Glad to help. Just to clarify, I used regular right hand Atlas 18" radius snap switches. I cut them back close to the frog to get the angle I wanted, so they do look somewhat like a Wye, but thats an optical illusion. Because of the angle of the yard a Wye would probably cause issues with aligning the left hand tracks.
Cheers,
Steve
Your reply has been a great help. I looked at the link to the track plan you used from Model Railroader and the picture of your yard during construction. Your picture is a BIG help to me. I can easily see the switches you actually used. Using wye type switches and flex track seems to be what I am looking for.
I have specified Atlas switches when using Anyrail, but right now I don’t know what brand of switch I will be using. I have a lot of research to do as I am fairly new to model railroading. From what I have read so far, it seems that Code 83 track is what I should use. I do like the idea of using flex track.
I’m sure I will have a lot more questions as I get closer to actually building the benchwork.
Thanks for your help.
Jack
I did not use software for the yard. I just modeled it based on the track plan from MR.
Here is a link to the track plan and turnouts.
http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/track-plan-database/2011/11/the-virginian
I used Atlas snapswitches and Micro engineering flex track. As Roger said, the key is to use flex track and curve it. For the yard I used Micro engineering as it hold the curve (doesn't spring back like Atlas). Here is a picture of the yard, mid construction.
Good Luck
I used flextrack everywhere on my layout. Coming out of the turnouts there is a slight curve to line up my yard tracks. Which brand turnouts are you specifying in Any rail? If Atlas, are you using custom-line or snap switch turnouts? I used custom-line no. 4 turnouts to conserve space. See the first post in this thread to see my layout.
Thanks for your reply. I am having trouble designing my yard. I have downloaded Anyrail and am using it to design my yard. I would like to do a yard almost identical to yours, but when using turnouts, I can't seem to get my tracks parallel to each other. Exactly what track pieces did you use to get your tracks parallel to each other?
Jack (Starman)
Starman,
The Virginian layout was designed and featured in the Jan. 2012 Model Railroader magazine. I could have built my layout directly from these plans. Instead I made slight modifications to it. I used a computer program called Anyrail to design it. This was not done to insure the layout would fit on the bench work, but rather to determine which turnouts would work before I made my purchases. Anyrail is a free program, but has it's limitations on how many track pieces you can use in your design. I did my design using flextrack which allowed my design inside those limits.
Hope this answers your question.
I am new to designing layouts. Did you design your layout free hand or did you use a computer program? I want to be sure my layout design is accurately scaled so it will fit my benchwork. Thanks.