I have got back in this hobby and built this lay out but is is getting boring very fast and suggestions on the lay that might make it more fun for me and my grand kids
Her is a direct link since this is so small.
Thanks[:(]
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll197/RoadieSL/IMG00026-20110311-1301.jpg
Here is the non-thumbnail version of his image:
Since I am not so good at reading minds, perhaps you could tell us what you find so boring about this layout, and what you tend to find less boring?
Smile,
Stein
Operations is the key to making a layout interesting.
I see that you do have some industries. That is a plus. You need to develop a car flow for those industries. You may also need to designate one of your tracks as an interchange track. That would also help operations if, say, you had a mine, but no place on your layout that used the coal or ore that the mine produced. Those loaded cars would go to the interchange to be picked up by another railroad, and they would leave empties that would be taken to the mine. If what you are doing now is the same thing I was doing, shifting cars back and forth with no real purpose, then you need to set up a formal operations plan or system. Setting up operations in a more formal way will give purpose to your layout. It will also provide your grandchildren with a challenge.
Operations can be set up using car cards or a computer program. I favor and use a computer program called Rail-Op. Once set up, car movements are random but keep to a system so you get hoppers at the mine and reefers at the meat packing plant, etc. There are other programs out there as well as a free one from JMRI, which is still in debug/development that you can download.
It appears that you have an oval representing a double track mainline with an inner switching line. If you are wired so that multiple trains can be controlled you should have good operating potential with the exception of staging. At this juncture eliminating one of the corners for the two track main line and extending the layout in an out and back fashion to include a staging yard would allow you to operate more and different trains and to have active interchange with the existing layout. In addition more trains could come onto the existing layout and represent through traffic that just passes buy the modeled portion of your layout.
Are there any buildings on the layout or is it just track? I would suggest you take a pic of the layout and post it. Your problem might be obvious if we can see it.
I will try to get some pictures tonight
Let me tell you a little bit about this layout
It is on level 12x16 room shelf type
I have a coal building and yard , Paper Mill, Grain Mill & Silo’s, Pickle Factory
Oil Refinery. Trying to put town in there some where
The problem is once I get trains running on the two outside tracks then what just watch the go around and around
The system is DCC I have Seven engines that I usually MU together in three and have 25+/_ cars Looks great but very dull
Thanks
So don’t do that, then.
Instead try to model operations, as someone suggested. Pick a track somewhere where another railroad will have left some cars for your railroad (interchange of cars). Start an engine from the yard, go pick up the inbound cars. Sort inbound cars and cars already in the yard to be delivered to industries.
Run one industry job to switch one area of industries. Pull cars, spots cars, take cars pulled back to the yard.
Organize a cut of cars that go on a train that does three loops before switching the other industry area.
Declare part of one of the double track mains out of commission, so trains will have to meet at a siding nearby - have one train wait in the siding until the other train has passed that point and gone into the yard.
There are lots of easily tried variants instead of just cranking up the throttle and running train around and around and around the loops.
A couple of places to learn more about operations:
http://www.gatewaynmra.org/designops.htm
http://www.layoutvision.com/id33.html
http://www.amazon.com/Realistic-Model-Railroad-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890244189
Smile,
Stein
Sounds like a good start, but don’t give up now. Different people like to do different things with their RR. Some like a scenic RR while others like a compact switching RR, others like both. Most people use a car card system. IE each car on the RR (system) has a card that moves with it. On said car there are a list of stops for that car, pickup and drop-offs. A car can move once or twice a session. The car card system can be shuffled like a deck of playing cards so that each session is different. Once developed you can make up all kind of problems that have to be solved during a session. A interchange track with another RR (real or not) gives you the opportunity to move cars on and off your RR, pretending they went to that state over yonder to another town. And the train returned with other cars from over yonder going to your town. Most start a session with the in coming cars on the interchange track, run the session and end with the out going cars on the interchange track. Between sessions the five finger crane (your hand) moves the out going cars and their car cards off the RR and puts the in coming cars and their car cards on the RR.
Looks like you’ve got a lot of sidings with no room for structures. Maybe eliminate a couple of them (the ones in the center of the left side, for instance).
You can go to full realistic operations, but maybe if you’re trying to work kids in, you can do something like what I do (I have DCC – you could probably implement this with DC, but it would be tricky). First, we set a passenger train in a slow cruise around the layout’s loop. Next, we use custom cards that I created (using a word processing program and Avery inkjet business cards). Each person selects a card to determine which loco he will use, one for which industry he will serve or movement he will make, and one for which cars he needs to move. The trick is to complete your move or switching and clear the main line before the passenger train comes around.
Be warned, however. My youngest (a feisty almost 8 year old) likes to call up the passenger train’s address and speed it up to screw up your timing. He thinks that’s great fun (although he understands that the trains must never, ever collide).
Actually, I think your plan looks quite interesting - maybe because it’s similar to mine. I have an HO railway under construction, with 12’ x 10’ area. Track plan is similar. You have more sidings, thus more potential for sheduling and yard activity.
Here are a couple of thoughts re visual trickery (stage-craft), which won’t involve changing your layout:
12"x12" (convenient, workable size) mirror panels can be set along the wall at any adjoining edges of layout (where table meets wall). This is pure visual trickery, but it adds the illusion of enormous depth to the layout. Keep tops of tiles level and in line. By placing 2 rows of mirror tiles at right angles to each other in any right-angled wall corner, you actually create an “endless horizon”, and you’ll see 4 trains instead of 1. Well, 4 of everything in fact. The 12" height eliminates looking at yourselves (a good height limitation) and also saves a hell of a lot of backdrop painting, which I was never too keen on to start with. And the mirror tiles are generally cheap. You use double sided tape to fasten them, so they can be moved or changed fairly easily.
Suspend a few light-weight 3’x4’ panels jutting out from walls and/or across the middle of the room, (from ceiling- not full height - don’t block light) made of 1/4" styrofoam/card and paint backdrops on both sides instead of on the perimeter walls. This does 2 things. It creates visual blocks so that you don’t see the entire layout at once. And it allows for different scenic types of landscaping, ie desert to farmland to urban or whatever. These “blocks” can incorporate buildings, tunnels, bridges, or other interesting features. And, try the mirror tiles at strategic locations to “double” the visual size of various aspects of layout.
Boredom can definitrely be a problem if you “see” the whole train going around and around and around … thus, by blocking
I wonder if the gentleman has another problem other than merely being bored with what he finds himself doing with his trains. He has lots of operating potential, if not terribly complex. But maybe he really wants another stab at building a layout because that is where he finds the most fun. He might really have a hankering to try an entirely different configuration, or a type of railroad not possible to build in the arrangement his benchwork affords.
Crandell
I fiddle with my trains putting them together in my small yard and service the engines at the two spur engine facility to consist them on the inside then run them out to the outter loops and can watch them go around and around for quite awhile. I like to watch them go around and around for awhile.
But that doesn’t sound like you. When you have run them around a few times, then take them back to your industries and spot cars, or the the yard and reorganize them if you want more operations fun.
If you are up for building a new layout, then look for plans or design one that has more operations options that will keep you from getting bored.
Just my thoughts and ideas.
Good luck
As has been said you need a reason to run the trains and for it to be interesting.
To create more interest in running trains my layout has two mains with two crossovers to switch the trains from one main to the other and two reversing loops that change the trains directions. That keeps me busy but you need to know how the turnouts are thrown. In the beginning I couldn’t run ten minutes without a derailment. Now all of the turnouts that are out of sight have switch motors with toggle switches so that problem has been solved.
Presently I’m building a yard and engine servicing area out side of the mains which will give another important destination point in addition to the industries already in place.
As Crandell has said you may enjoy the construction part more than running. I’m doing both now so the proof for me will be when I finish most of my construction (scenicing).
Happy Railroading
Bob