6000 sq ft, what to do?

[Anonymous]

dont do N scale with that much room yuck! go HO!!

[brothaslide]

Take out a home equity loan and go CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll help you do the shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, take time to plan carefully. Get a lot of advice from other experienced modelers and have a ball.

Don't forget to take me to the hobby shop with you[:D]

[Anonymous]

DON"T be dumb! make it n scale so you can have huge mainlines and yards, have mountain areas a large city with commuter trains, have the signals computer controled use dcc... possibilitys endless.

modle a modern class 1: like maybe NS for horse shoe curve!

[Anonymous]

I'd map out about 600 sf. ft. and start an HO layout (which would be huge by my standards and would take forever for me to complete.) The other 90% of the space I'd start building a G scale layout, maybe a narrow scale logging/mining line. Great possibilities for filling the huge space with detailed buildings & rolling stock faster & without becoming a slave to your layout.

Wayne

[EMDSD40]

I suggest the Pennsylvania RR. With a space that large under roof, I get the impression money is no problem. A four track main line depicting the run over the Allegheny mountains into Pittsburgh hitting heavy on the steel and coal industries. I would use HO
scale and build an awesome tribute to the PRR. Good Luck and enjoy!!
PS.....A few "good friends" to help is one thing, but I would think long and hard about
starting a club, people can be "difficult" to say the least these days.

[Anonymous]

I think Dave has a neat idea there - model a short line in its entirety.

6000 sq ft is (for the sake of argument) 60 x 100 - so if you go once around you should have a mainline of about 320 feet. In HO, that's a bit over 5 miles. There are plenty of examples of logging and/or mining "roads" that were less than this. With only a little compression, you could arguably do something up to, say 20 miles long and still not have to compress the main sites (towns, stations, industries) at all.

That really is a huge space though, so the club suggestion is interesting...!

I have a detached garage that is 26x50 +10x12. I don't get all of it [;)] but the thought of even filling 1/2 of it is daunting. Good luck with your empire...!

Andrew

[dknelson]

Good heavens that is a lot of space. Think about the work needed to keep a large layout running, and clean before you start filling it with tracks. The temptation is to model a huge city or cities. But size can mean paralysis when it comes to actually getting started, and even if completed a large layout can die due to the overwhelming needs to maintain it.
With that kind of space think about a really nice big workshop, a comfortable lounge for visitors where you can show slides or DVDs, a library, an area for railroad collectibles, display cases, and other stuff that usually there is not enough space for.
One idea that might effectively use the space yet avoid going insane having 100s of turnouts to power etc etc, is to pick a short line and truly model it, with significant spaces between depots and yards. I have always been interested in a small Illinois shortline, named (unless I am getting the order wrong here) the Yorktown, Hooppole and Tampico (Tampico being the birthplace of President Reagan). It had one locomotive, an ex CB&Q 0-6-0 (the Model Die Castring 0-6-0 is pretty close actually), an ancient combine, and it served a grain elevator and perhaps another customer or two. There is some stuff on the internet about it. It passed small farms and farm communities and with lots of space it could truly be modeled with almost no compression, together with the CBQ interchange. If one or two operators handled the CBQ interchange trains out of staging, one engineer for the YH&T train and one brakeman to handle pick ups and set outs, a nice practical layout could fill the space with lots of opportunities to build neat structures, rolling hill secenery, farm scenes, country roads and creeks, electric lines, and other elements of rural 1930s/1950s railroading.
Dave Nelson

[IRONROOSTER]

Unless you are retired, I'd form a club to help build it. 6000 sq ft is huge and you'll need help. Second consider using O scale or G. I would model the Pennsylvania RR with a section under wire for the GG1's and Horseshoe Curve.
Enjoy
Paul

[GDRMCo]

I have 6000 sq ft of layout space. what should i do/ what RR should i model?