Does anybody else miss the old "round and round" layout?

[conrail92]

my layout plan is a double track mainline that runs around in a loop with a penisula for industrial switching a lumber mill and another industries. and a small mid size yard. and with my old layout i too enjoyed watchi trains running .

[daniel1967]

With all due respect to "operations"... I would never construct a layout that does not include a "round and round she goes" scenario... Currently I am in the track laying process of the bottom level of a 2 level layout which includes 2 major yards, 3 interchanges, several industrial and mining sidings, carferry dock, and coal loading dock... basically, lots of intensive "operations"... A railroad needs a purpose! But, I can also have 2 "unmanned" trains" running in any direction simutaniously... Fun when I'm just sitting at the workbench and really fun for my lone wolf operating sessions... We're playing with toys!!! It's gotta go round and round[;)]

Dan, on the MOHEES CENTRAL

ps: with no staging!

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mondotrains
building a new house with the train room being almost 3 times what I have now. ...
You know that expression that "you've got to be careful what you wish for"? Now I know exactly what that really means. I'm actually "scared" of having all that space.

I'm with you there. I've never had space for my own layout larger than 4x16 or so. Now that the retirement plans are in place it looks like I'll get a space 60x90 (an old gymnasium) for my layout. I've helped many others with their layouts but for my own - I'm lost in space.

QUOTE: a double-ended yard ... backdrops so they are split into 2 scenes ... staging tracks .... run through a scene only once ... benchwork round 54" high so that trains could be watched from a little below eye level. That view was touted as much better. I've got it all, right?

What you have is all the "trendy things" from the 1990s. Model Railroading is just like any other thing, there are some really good ideas that become "the thing" that a layout "has to have". If one looks at a sequence of old magazines about model railroading certain trends can be seen that come and go. many will remember the "real water" trend in the late 1950 and early 1960s. One was certainly a MR slacker if they didn't have "real water". Well where is that today? Often laughed at or at least looked upon with scorn. It was a trend.

Staging is a feature that many insist a layout has to have. I contend that is only needed if the layout calls for it. Our club layout has 8 staging tracks that someone "had to have". With our current operational scheme the trains just blast past them and we wish we would have put the space to better use. Why?, because our layout has real places for the trains to come from and go to. We don't need to "pretend" they are going anywhere. Had we used the staging area for a "real" place it would have been that much better (and no it is now impossible to change without completely redoing the rest of the layout).

I also dislike the really tall bench work. It is a great novelty but gets really old after a while especially when trying to work on the layout without breaking all the detailed scenery. If I want to see the trains a eye level I can bend down (or sit in a wheeled chair) a lot easier than I can lower the bench work to do maintenance.

QUOTE: I miss those times when I could just sit and watch trains run around the whole layout. ... I've got to ask myself, do I want an operational layout that has penninsulas split into 2 separate scenes which enables trains to "run through a scene only once" or do I create that old "department store layout" like my last one? Is there a compromise?

Nothing says that you have to follow every trendy thing that is going on in the hobby. Since you have experience you now know what it is that makes Model Railroading enjoyable for you. This is a great advantage over people coming in taking all this trendy advice not knowing if they would like something different or not.

I have an additional problem that my layout has to be "interesting" to the casual observer. That is going to mean many more running trains than is operationally expedient. I’m thinking about putting in two loops with zero turnouts just for this purpose. That doesn’t fit in anyone’s definition of a “good” layout.

[SpaceMouse]

I like to watch trains run. I find it relaxing to set them off and watch them go. Often, I un them while I'm working on the layout. But I love operations too.

So my next layout will be a point to pont with through running through staging to complete a circle.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Boy! We love our ficticious roadnames, don't we. One of mine is the Midland Gulf Railway.

[GAPPLEG]

Even though my layout is 12x16, the outer track, (the SP mainline) is just a round the room loop, I can start one on the main and just let it go. I enjoy it too. The inner track work is my ficticious shortline with all the switching, don't have to do it if I don't want to.[:D]

[SOU Fan]

My layout is a loop, with a couple industrial spurs...nothing fancy.....yet

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My layout is essentilly two loops, roundy-rounders with sidings, spurs and a small yard.

[mondotrains]

Hi Guys,
I posted yesterday that my wife and I might be building a new house with the train room being almost 3 times what I have now. Oh boy, just what I've wanted for over 12 years! I'll probably have an L-shaped space about 26' along one wall and about 32' on the other.

You know that expression that "you've got to be careful what you wish for"? Now I know exactly what that really means. I'm actually "scared" of having all that space. Maybe because I'm 58 years old now and due to my weight, my knees and feet botther me when I stand for a long time.

My last layout built in 1994 was an Atlas plan; basically a large figure 8....but then I added a stub-ended yard to create some action there and then I added a penninsula that acted as essentially a "branch" from the figure 8 loop. The layout was about 38" high and I could sit in my easy chair and watch trains run around, over and over, just as I did as a kid, some million years ago.

Well, I dismantled that really neat layout in 2000 to create my current layout; the "dream" layout. Now, I have a double-ended yard, a double-track mainline, a turntable and engine house and much better operational capabilities. I even added backdrops to the 3 penninsulas, so that they are split into 2 scenes. Thus, when trains come out of the 6 staging tracks behind the layout, they can come in and appear to run through a scene only once and then into my yard. I built the benchwork around 54" high so that trains could be watched from a little below eye level. That view was touted as much better. I've got it all, right?

The only problem is, I miss those times when I could just sit and watch trains run around the whole layout.....just like I saw in those department store windows back in the 1950's and on my really first layout back in 1954.

Per my topic, does anybody else miss the "round and round". Now that we're moving, I've got to ask myself, do I want an operational layout that has penninsulas split into 2 separate scenes which enables trains to "run through a scene only once" or do I create that old "department store layout" like my last one? Is there a compromise? If I build the benchwork lower, that will accommodate my sitting in a chair to watch the trains.

Would an around the room layout maybe be the answer; not all the way around because I don't want to have to deal with a duck-under or removeable section? Thus, there wouldn't be any long penninsulas requiring backdrops. I probably will have enough room for a point-to-point layout, with a yard at each end. If I added a loop just past the yard at each end, then I would have "continuous running" and I could watch all the action from a chair located in the "middle" of the layout room.

Have I stumbled on an answer or are there some other ideas you can provide.

Mondo