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how big is your layout ?

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  • Member since
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Posted by WilmJunc on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:59 AM
Two, 4' x 8' sheets of plywood in a "L" shape.

Modeling the B&M Railroad during the transition era in Lowell, MA

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 24, 2005 10:36 PM
My current and absolutely final layout (at least I hope it is) is 12' x 24', is around the wall with an island, 30" minimun radius mainline curves, no. 6 turnouts on the mainline, no. 4 Tru-Scale hi speed turnouts in the staging. Visible mainline track is code 70, staging is all code 100. The road is set in the Western mountains where I live. My layout is too big when it is time to dust it in the spring, too big as I continue to build conifer trees to place on the mountains, too small when I wi***o run a mainline train in a continuous loop while I just sit and watch. Just the right size for the operating scheme we use every two weeks when full operations are conducted over the line. In absolute truth, this layout is perfect for me. I can perform the maintenance required without wiping myself out, and after many tries, I finally got the layout I was always shooting for. I like the mix of through freights, switching, way freights, locals and mine runs that are part of the current operating scheme. It is great fun.

Tom
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Posted by WSOR4492 on Monday, January 24, 2005 10:18 PM
Had to voter other for mine. It's 30"x28' and 3 levels tall. Living in an apartment doesn't afford much of a footprint, so I had to go up. Modeling BN 1995, East Dubuque, IL to LaCrosse, WI. Lower level staging; middle level, E. Dubuque IC tunnel and Cassville, WI; upper level, Crawford Jct., Prairie du Chein, WI, and North LaCrosse, WI. Pair of helixes and return loops to keep everything moving. Oh, and two sections of single track in an otherwise double track mainline to keep everyone on their toes.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 24, 2005 9:35 PM
Not built yet, but in the design stage...
8 ft. x 16 ft. (HO)
Should be a fun project for the kids and me!
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 24, 2005 8:06 PM
my is 7x12 on one end and 7x9 on the end with a 3x12 between them.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 24, 2005 1:20 AM
18 x 22 around the wall and a penninsula with a loop ala Tehachapi style, in HO of course. That was the smallest when I became interested in trains and I just stuck with it all this time. I can run passenger trains with a not too unbelievable curvature and still have plenty of room for a great layout.
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  • From: Phoenix, Arizona
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Posted by canazar on Sunday, January 23, 2005 8:26 PM
Well, I have a 16x 8 rough oval that has one duck under for center access then add "P" shaped off the top for a large kick out loop. All in all, I have about 200 feet fo track down. Last weekend, I through down the "Last Piece" of track to complete my original plan. About 50% half-assed scenery done, (just painted and some bushes) about 20% done with full ground cover and trees, with scupltamold custom rocks forms... And in mid may, I TEAR it all out as my girl and our moveing into a new home. ATleast she said I get the living room, or next largest room so I can build inside instead of the garage. And I get to start all over again... Woo Hoo

Best Regards, Big John

Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona.  Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the  Kiva Valley Railway

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Posted by SilverSpike on Sunday, January 23, 2005 7:03 PM
My train room is 15.5' X 14.5’ and still working on the ground breaking stage at this point. Just pulled up some 40 year old linoleum and going to put in new ceramic tile.

- Ryan

Ryan Boudreaux
The Piedmont Division
Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger era
Cajun Chef Ryan

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    December 2002
  • From: US
  • 665 posts
Posted by darth9x9 on Friday, January 21, 2005 8:33 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Roadtrp

QUOTE: Originally posted by darth9x9

I am planning a 3000 sq ft layout with the potential to go to 5000 sq ft. with our two additions. The Chessie empire will live again!

BC

So do you live in a Mansion or a Warehouse?

[;)]



Actually, neither. Last year the wife and I built a hose and the basement was specifically engineered for the layout ie no poles/columns, no windows, no sewer lines running along/down the walls, stairs come down in the middle of the room and no mechanicals (the HVAC systems, water heater, pressure tank, and electrical panels are all on the first and second floors of the house). The running joke is: that paid for the basement, my wife paid for the first floor, and we both paid for the roof. Contact me off list and I will send you a link to a website that over 1500 photos the house under construction.

Bill Carl (modeling Chessie and predecessors from 1973-1983)
Member of Four County Society of Model Engineers
NCE DCC Master
Visit the FCSME at www.FCSME.org
Modular railroading at its best!
If it has an X in it, it sucks! And yes, I just had my modeler's license renewed last week!

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Posted by aloco on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 10:38 AM
Three and one half feet wide by six feet long, oval tack plan with eighteen inch radius curves and two sidings. One siding is an entry track outside the oval, and I use this track to assemble trains. The other track is a siding with a grain elevator. I model a small prairie town in the mid-1970s. I use my home layout for running idiot loops, and I just have a power pack connected to the track. If I want to do switching I have a few DCC equipped switchers that I run on the model railroad club layout.
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Posted by pastorbob on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 7:52 AM
28 foot by 35 foot, basement, with three decks connected.

Bob
Bob Miller http://www.atsfmodelrailroads.com/
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 7:48 AM
My layout is a 4x16
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  • From: Orem Ut
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Posted by douginut on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 7:45 AM
My layout is a Size #7 and 5/8ths.
It exists solely in my head.
Imagined for an L shape in N scale 8 feet by 13 feet on two walls, 18 inches deep in N scale.
all urban
trolley with trolley freight set in 1954 and back.
just moved and the annointed room is still full of boxes yet unpacked.
must admit that the layout looks better at it's current size and location than it probably will at the full scall of reality.

Doug, in Utah
Doug, in UtaH
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 6:24 AM
At 64 I'm building my forth and probably last layout. It's upstairs in a spare bedroom that meausres 13' X 16' and the layout is 11' X 13' around the wall. I had to not put it up against two walls as I needed room to service the wall mounted AC and have some room to get into the room.

It's a double oval with two, three track staging areas.

Bob
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  • From: Northern Indiana
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Posted by PennsyHoosier on Monday, January 3, 2005 9:37 PM
My modest little pike is 7'3" by 10'.
Lawrence, The Pennsy Hoosier
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  • From: North Idaho
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Posted by jimrice4449 on Monday, January 3, 2005 7:35 PM
I've been at it for 25 or 30 years, starting with a 25X26 oversized 2 car garage and when that filled up tacked on a 12X24 extension. The basic shape is el shaped with a 4X44section running east to west and a 4X20 section running off of that. I believe it's the largest terminal complex in model railroading. It' on two levels with psgr on the upper and frt on the lower. From east to west there's an upper level yard for long (10 cars or more) psgr trains having 23 tracks that narrows down to a single lead to go through what was originally an exterior wall. After passing through the wall it widens out to a passenger depot having 8 platform tracks and a run-around track. At the west end the depot makes a left turn narrowing down to a double track main, a roundhouse lead and a coach yard lead. There are two more psgr yards running north and south, both having 12 tracks, one for permanently coupled trains of 3 to 10 cars and the other for "loose" cars to be made up into trains. The double track main line turns left along the south wall and broadens into a three track reverse loop/staging yard befor becoming the east main and returning to the depot.
The lower level pretty much duplicates the upper but in frt. At the east end there's a 9 stub track yard (B yard as in blocked) that serves to hold cars as I build them until I've got enough for a train, then there's rhe B yard train yard which is for trains that run as blocks. I've got or am building 4 coal trains of 40 cars each and I've got two 48 car reefer blocks, one Santa Fe and one PFE. the B train yard is 10 traccks wide with a running track along the wall and the B yard lead (for the stub yard) along the aisle. A lead for the D yard (as in departure) runs off of the running track along the wall and widens to 5 tracks each of which holds a 50 car train. The along the wall track as soon as it passes the D lead switch starts up to the hump (or C yard as in classification) which is 12 tracks wide the shortest being 12 ft. At the lower end of C yard theCyard and D yard leads merge into a single track that runs into a penninsula with my frieght "main" consisting of, would you believe a single track loop of 38' with a couple of staging tracks running off of it and back into the yard.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 3, 2005 6:45 PM
25' long x 6' "Dog Bone"
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 3, 2005 6:27 PM
9' x 11' in a bed room.
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 2, 2005 7:36 PM
Well, mine is a 10x10' C-shaped layout.
Reed
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 2, 2005 5:21 PM
How big?

To paraphrase an old joke:

At a convention a Texas model railroader was bragging:
"My layout is so big it takes two hours for a train to go from one end to the other!"

"Ayuh," said a New England modeler. "Once I had an engine like that too."

WAyne
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Posted by Roadtrp on Sunday, January 2, 2005 5:13 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by darth9x9

I am planning a 3000 sq ft layout with the potential to go to 5000 sq ft. with our two additions. The Chessie empire will live again!

BC

So do you live in a Mansion or a Warehouse?

[;)]
-Jerry
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Posted by trolleyboy on Sunday, January 2, 2005 4:24 PM
mine fills a 13x91/2 spare bedroom it's an around the walls shelf layout with a central island. It's mostly one level but certain portions are raised for some intrest,its mostly city/industrial setting as I'm a streetcar nut but I do like the steam transition era some it will have the appropriate industries and facilities for regular railroad equipment as well. trolleyboy
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Posted by darth9x9 on Sunday, January 2, 2005 4:11 PM
I am planning a 3000 sq ft layout with the potential to go to 5000 sq ft. with our two additions. The Chessie empire will live again!

BC

Bill Carl (modeling Chessie and predecessors from 1973-1983)
Member of Four County Society of Model Engineers
NCE DCC Master
Visit the FCSME at www.FCSME.org
Modular railroading at its best!
If it has an X in it, it sucks! And yes, I just had my modeler's license renewed last week!

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 2, 2005 2:58 PM
4 1/2 x 12ish, but it's nothing more than a boring oval that breaks down into 1'x3-4' sections and lives on a shelf most of the year.

Someday I'll be able to do scenery again.
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  • From: north central Illinois
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Posted by jdolan on Sunday, January 2, 2005 2:55 PM
Mine is 13' x17' until teenage daughters leave home then I can addon 16'x22' to it.


Jack
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    November 2004
  • From: Kent, England
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Posted by challenger3802 on Sunday, January 2, 2005 2:22 PM
I've got two layouts: The first is a yard switching layout of 8" x 3' (Small and portable!) The second is my new (not yet powered) 4'6" x 6'6" layout. Being the only thing filling the spare bedroom, if anyone comes to stay they're going to have to find somewhere else to sleep!

Ian
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    February 2004
  • From: Elyria, OH
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Posted by BRVRR on Sunday, January 2, 2005 1:45 PM
My BRVRR is 4' x 10' and mounted on rollers in a spare bedroom, now a train-room.
40 sq. feet.
I am thinking of adding another foot or so to the width for a few more industries. I have photos posted on the web site in my signature.

Remember its your railroad

Allan

  Track to the BRVRR Website:  http://www.brvrr.com/

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, January 2, 2005 1:05 AM
hello, i am in n scale, and i crently have a 3x4 layout, but before this one i had a 2x4, i would like to ask anyone here who has a 2x4 layout what their track plans are like/were like? Also if anyone does have a 3x4 layout i would like to see how their layout is comming along/ or or what it looks like. Thanks



tim
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  • From: Rimrock, Arizona
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Posted by SpaceMouse on Friday, December 31, 2004 11:24 PM
I have a two phase project. The first phase is a oval track with tressels and turnouts for my son to play with while I build "our" tracl. The first phase will be an irregular u-shape 36" wide that will be 11.5" one side, back will be 11.5 " and last side 6.5. Phase two will be a pennisula and phase three, enclosing the circle.

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

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