Well we've got so much snow here it's pointless to try and scoop it. Not as much as NY has but still alot. I have to go to work at 10 and was messing around with this latest layout plan.
Some info:
Scale: HO
Minimum Radius: Mainline 32"
Freight 22"
Does it look like too much track?
Any problem spots? like the turnouts on the right side to the north of the mountain? or the turnouts at the very top in the middle?
Don't mind my poor MS Paint skills!
hi
A couple of suggestions.
1) With the next revision post on the Layout Section. The post will stick around longer before going off the page.
2) Reduce the size of the bitmap you posted to small enough to view on the screen without scrolling. It is very difficult to get the scope of the project if you can only see one quadrant at a time.
3) List your givens and druthers so we know what you are trying to accomplish. This looks like a good-sized project and you should have a very clear idea of what you want, where it is located, the era, the kinds of scenery you imagine, the industries, the way the railroad will operate etc. Let us know what these thing are so we can stay on track when we make suggestions.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I assume this is in a bedroom and walls surround the layout. If so, some of your track is very close to the wall and there is no room for any scenery between the wall and the track. If not, I hope you plan on putting up Plexiglas shields to protect trains from the fall in case of a derail and to protect the trains from a stray arm.
How will you get to the center of your layout? You could do a folded dog bone with the same minimum radius you have now and not need a duck under or lift out to access the layout.
The layout is actually in the basement and the blue line represent the walls. Like my signature says it's a freelanced 40s-50s freelance layout. My goal is to be able to watch trains and do some switching about 50/50. Scenery wise it's going to be flat with maybe some hills including the coal mine area. The town area is only going to represent a small portion of a town. I also plan on putting a stream or river somewhere so I can have a bridge.
The reason for the 32's is for a passenger train I would like to have. Which also makes a reversing loop where the coal mine is not work because only 22" radius will fit there.
A duckunder will be no problem for me. I should be able to make a little bit of room between the wall and track, a few inches or so.
All trains will originate and end in the hidden staging. I will be running the layout by myself 99% of the time. I'll probably only have 2-4 trains in all (yeah right!), well I'll have at most 2 trains going at once. I was thinking of letting the passenger train run the mainline while I operated a freight train through the area???
As said before, get it away from the wall, and in the town get it away from the edges. Trains falling four feet do not survive. I would seriously reconsider the duckunder. That is exactly what I said about mine. "Ah, it'll be no problem to duck under it to get in and out." That came back to bite me. That layout is now gone, with no love lost on it. But if you have to, make it as high as physically possible. While I had only 30" of clearance due to a kneewall in the bonus room upstairs where my layout is, I would say at LEAST 50". I notice that there is no blue at the lower left hand corner, so I am assuming that is where you duck in at? If so, that is a long way to "crawl". Can you loop the staging yard around below/behind the mountain in the right lower corner? That would be the ideal spot.
My
zeis96 wrote: The reason for the 32's is for a passenger train I would like to have. Which also makes a reversing loop where the coal mine is not work because only 22" radius will fit there.
If you make the coal mine area larger, you could have a 32" turnback loop there. If you can go through the wall, you can probably get a turnback loop with its center located approximately where the passenger station is now. This would allow you to eliminate the duck under.
For continous running, use a folder dogbone configuration with the track near the wall hidden behind a short backdrop with a few tracks for staging. This would allow you to have double ended staging too.
My benchwork is around 48". Any track near the inner edge I plan on putting up plexiglass or some type of barrier. Below the coal mine end of the layout where the benchwork ends is just enough space for me to fit between the layout and the washer and dryer, so I can't go any further that way. I would get under the benchwork where the hidden staging yard begins, about a 2' length.
I wouldn't be in this dilemma but I am wanting (read my fiance would like it) a passenger train. So I'm trying to fit it in for her. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I like it too! I had a track plan a while back that seemed to fit pretty darn well. Here is a link to a track plan I had with no passenger server. (try page 2 last post)
Thanks everyone, keep it coming!
zeis96 wrote: I wouldn't be in this dilemma but I am wanting (read my fiance would like it) a passenger train. So I'm trying to fit it in for her. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I like it too! I had a track plan a while back that seemed to fit pretty darn well. Here is a link to a track plan I had with no passenger server.
I wouldn't be in this dilemma but I am wanting (read my fiance would like it) a passenger train. So I'm trying to fit it in for her. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I like it too! I had a track plan a while back that seemed to fit pretty darn well. Here is a link to a track plan I had with no passenger server.
Just say no. My wife wants mountains and palm trees, but I said no. (They just don't fit on a Michigan railroad.) Don't worry though, she wasn't being too serious.
If you can't go through the wall, what about having 32" radius loops in the upper left and lower right corners and an industrial branch o what is currently your penisula.
At the very least, I would move the turnback loop around your staging yard to around your coal mine so your duck under is not so long. At 48 inches, a duckunder that is only 4 inches wide (enough for 2 tracks) becomes simply a nod under.
Thanks for changing the image size. People here are trying to point a a very fundamental principle here. You will not have a very nice layout if you build your self into a corner by squeezing against the wall or running on the edge of a table. All the reasons in the world don't make it a smart practice.
So lets layout the givens and druthers.
Druther: You want passenger service. Large curves to accommodate it.
Staging and operations
Continuous running.
40's-50's Steam Freelanced. You need to pick a location. See below.
Industrial switching/ preferably separate from main.
River and bridge.
What am I leaving out. It all seems doable without crowding your edges.
Where is the door by the way?
*******************
Location determines scenery and industry...
Industry is limited by available models and scratch-building abilities.
Available models determine trackwork requirements.
Trackwork requirements, determine track plan.
Spacemouse..
My location would be Illinois but more specific Rushville, IL. I look at this as more of a what could have been layout. As in what Rushville could have been like if it weren't for the fact they don't like change. At one point they were supposed to run track through Rushville but the funding wasn't there. Instead Rushville ended up with a stub track from the Peoria and Hannibal line (later became CB&Q). Illinois of course was one of the bigger sources of coal and Chicago had the cattle yards hence my reasons for each of those. The landscape is flat with rolling hills, the rolling hills aren't important to me but I could easily be persuaded to use them. As far as other industries, I was thinking of freight depots or warehouse type buildings. I didn't have any specific one in mind yet. The one in the town would most likely be a freight depot. At this point my scrath building abilities are none!
This is a rough sketch of my basement. The biggest problem in using all the space is 1. it's not a finished basement 2. the ceiling is open meaning you just see the floor joist when you look up. this could be fixed except for 3. all the piping and duct work are not hidden. short of building a lower ceiling I'll have pipes and ductwork hanging all over.
Would it be possible to shift the furnace to the left and bring the washer/dryer and the sink to that wall? It might take a little work, but its in the name of Progress, right?
As much as I would like to rearrange those items, it's just not an option.
What it I put the hidden staging in the smaller room to the top left? I would have to walk back and forth between the two rooms to see the trains. I think this would pose a problem as I have the Digitraz Zephyr with no walk around controls.
Another option could be to redesign the trackplan and put the mainline more in the middle.
zeis96 wrote: As much as I would like to rearrange those items, it's just not an option.What it I put the hidden staging in the smaller room to the top left? I would have to walk back and forth between the two rooms to see the trains. I think this would pose a problem as I have the Digitrax Zephyr with no walk around controls.
What it I put the hidden staging in the smaller room to the top left? I would have to walk back and forth between the two rooms to see the trains. I think this would pose a problem as I have the Digitrax Zephyr with no walk around controls.
You have exactly the same problem with staging in the hole.
I have a Zephyr and I put my staging in another room. In fact, I'm putting my Zephyr on my work bench in the same room with the staging and putting my test track and programming track on the work bench.
For $20-30 you can get enough cable, connector and tools to run loconet anywhere on your layout. Throttle jacks are $15 and I would put one at every operating station/area. You and your fiancé should each have your own throttle so you can follow your trains from operating station to operating station. Moving staging would solve a lot of your issues (like crawling into that hole--she will appreciate that), give you a lot more operational capacity, and increase you layout size.
You should do this anyway.
About the ceiling and walls. An easy solution to the ceiling is a suspended drop ceiling like they have in offices. It's easy to do and you only loose 1" under the lowest vent/pipe and you still have access if you need it. If you don't make the area nice, you'll constantly be fighting for the space with spiders and insects. If you want your fiancé to spend any time at all down there with you, this is a big issue. Make it nice for her (and you).
SpaceMouse wrote:About the ceiling and walls. An easy solution to the ceiling is a suspended drop ceiling like they have in offices. It's easy to do and you only loose 1" under the lowest vent/pipe and you still have access if you need it. If you don't make the area nice, you'll constantly be fighting for the space with spiders and insects. If you want your fiancé to spend any time at all down there with you, this is a big issue. Make it nice for her (and you).
I am working on my basement now. Finishing my entire 800 sq ft basement (less carpet) doing all the work myself will cost me around $3,000 plus another $2,000 to $3,000 to have carpet laid. (I used drywall on the ceiling. A drop ceiling would have cost about another $800.)
I'm just walling off the utility room and putting in two doors, one for the utility room and the other for the space under the stairs. Otherwise the basement is a big open room with two egress windows. I'm not putting in the bathroom as the house already has three bathrooms and there will not be any bedrooms in the basement.
Besides having a nice environment to play trains in, a finished basement adds a lot of value to your home. This will probably increase the value of my home by around $30,000. The only negative is it delays the layout.
It wouldn't take you very long or cost too much to finish just the bedroom sized area. I would finish at least the layout area first. You could always finish the rest later.
The layout area is actually already done. I've put walls and a ceiling up. I just have finish blocking the ac/heating duct and paint the room.
The wall between the two rooms is a load bearing wall.
Thanks for help everyone! I'm going to go do some drop ceiling research and try another design. Another thing I did not mention was the AC/heat duct is so low I have to duck under it as it is now. I think it's about 5'4" from the floor. If only I had the means to raise the ceiling or lower the floor!!
ericboone wrote:This was a trick I used at a club I was in that rented its place. We needed track to go through a wall but not destroy the wall. We simply cut out an opening in the drywall and mounted electrical outlet boxes with their backs cut off on each side of the wall. Then if the club moves out, the hole can be nicely covered with blank outlet covers.
Learn something new everyday.
I think it is a nice plan, having trouble with it because I can only see a small area at a time.
I resized the picture is it still too big?
The aisle widths are no problem, as I'll be the only one operating it 99% of the time.
I already have the benchwork up due to the fact I had a trackplan figured up but like I said I got to thinking about it more and more and am now looking at chages.
Here was the last plan I was going to go with. Some of you have already commented on it on the other forum. Guess I'll go decide how bad I want the full size passenger cars!
Well, I already have a set of full length heavyweights and as far as I am concerned there will be room on the curves for them.
Now I like your plan except for one thing. No Yard drill track. I just dont see how you can create one without hurting the plan. I suggest making the top 12 o clock gaurded by a interlocking or junction tower so that any trains inbound to the yard must stop until the switcher finishes it's work and makes the arrival/departure track ready for the inbound.
One benefit I think it will allow any outbounds to come out of there without any trouble.
One other thing, you are getting kind of close to the edge there. Need to either fatten the tables up and steal a few inches from the people walkway or squeeze the curve an inch or two and plan scenery blocks on the tight spots like tall trees or high contour for hills.
See this Adobe PDF of a mainline track concept I drew in CAD before reading further. This plan concept would require an additional three feet at the bottom of your posted plan. From your basement sketch, it appears you have this. This plan would also require you to pass a track through a wall you've built.
There are no duck-unders.
The minimum mainline radius is 32". The distance at the closest points between the two 32" radius turn back loops is 28". Subtract two inches of scenery and you have a very short distance of a very manageable 24" wide aisle.
I would envision the staging tracks to be hidden behind a hill or a short backdrop so they can be accessed by stepping up on a step stool and reaching over the scenery.
It would probably be best to switch the coal mine and town locations as the left loop has less straight track for multiple turnouts, making the coal mine easier to fit. The right loop has more straight track lending to more room for turnouts for industry sidings.