I know it’s been some time since I’ve been on here, but I’m finally traveling to Buffalo NY to build my autistic nephew’s layout. The tablework is done, this will be from the foam up. It will have the Walthers DCC turntable, mountains, a little town, trestle bridges. Help me design the track layout! I would like two independent tracks that cross over and under each other, any way y’all can figure it out for me to do so. So what are y’alls ideas? Oh and here’s the catch. I have one week to get this up and running! I will be working on it 8 to 12 hours a day for a week, and take pics as I go for your critiques. I will begin construction May21, so any input from y’all would be greatly appreciated. Anyone in the Buffalo area who would like to assist with their expertise, please contact me. It will be an L shaped layout, 9 feet by 8 feet along the walls, 3 feet deep, with two four foot square sections on each end. I will post an image of the dimensions if someone can tell me how :). Thank you!!
The generally-accepted “maximum reach distance” for an adult is 30 inches, or 2 1/2 feet. Anything further back from the edge than that is going to be very difficult to work on. You can put scenery back there, as long as you finish it before doing any foreground stuff, but reaching more than 30 inches to do trackwork, or to re-rail a train once it’s up and running, is going to be a problem.
You’ll have a similar problem in the corner, and the 4-foot square ends are going to be even further from the edge. You can alleviate this with removeable sections (pop-ups or drop-downs) but those add complexity to the benchwork, and it’s hard to have trains running over them.
Thank you for the advice! I will be putting scenery in the back, and keep the track no more than 30 inches from the front of the layout. Both ends will be walk around, so i will have cutouts for rerailing. My biggest issue i’m having is actually designing an interesting track layout, fuguring out how many switches I need, turnouts etc. That’s what I’m hoping to glean from my eager friends here 
The layout is not based on anything in particular, but there will be buldings from the Milwaukee brewery line fro the April 09 issue, Ryan loves that layout, and an assortment of woodland scenics pre built structures laid out in a small town scene. The turn table and it’s spurs will be very challenging for me, hopefully I can get some insight on that as well. Cheers!
Here are the dimensions!!! Very much looking forward to track layout ideas from y’all. Remember the turntable and the village!! Cheers! This will be in HO scale.
Between now and May 21 you can construct the turntable, structures,trees, etc. Buy the background photo- image, and have all the benchwork pieces cut and drilled. Buy the locos and rolling stock, and purchase all the turnouts and track needed. Personally, I prefer Flex track,but predesigned layouts Show exactly what track sections you require. As to Posting a diagram, you must first assign your digital photos to a Host ie. Photobucket. You have already Posted your own Thread on this Forum. When you place photos in a dedicated Album on Photobucket, there will be four options below each photo. You click on the IMG one to place it on a the computer clip board. On my computer, I then click on Edit in the upper left and then scroll down to Copy, and click on it. Now go to the Text of your Thread and click on More, and then Edit which appears. Then click on Paste or “ctrlV” and the lengthy code for the photo will appear after the Text. Scroll down to “Post”, and click on it. The computer will then assure you that your Text and photo have been Posted on the Tread. Click on the < key on the upper left, until you see your Text and Photo. Sounds complicated, but is really quite simple. You can always correct errors by clicking on “More” and then Edit. Don’t forget to scroll down and click on Post, after completing your corrections or additions. I see that you have posted the rectangular sided L of the layout. I round off corners of the layout top. Get the book on 101 Layouts, and hunt and pick. I assume that you are getting a DCC set-up, such as, Digitrax Zephyr. Bob Hahn
Yep! Benchwork is done, my nephew has plenty of rolling stock, been buying trees and the like, my family are artisits so they will be painting the backdrop. Now I need a decent track layout so i will know what turnouts to buy, how much more track I’ll need, and where everything will go! Cheers!
I know you want to have two independent tracks for trains, but if you are going to have a city or city buildings, you could put in a street car line instead of a second train running around.
That will allow you more room for main line tracks and industries off of it. The street car line can have much sharper curves and will fit closer inside. And it can have something running on it all the time.
Just an idea.
Could you explain what the sentence above means?
And maybe also explain some more about the main purpose of the layout - is the goal to have Ryan just starting and stopping canned animated sequences - e.g. trains going round and round a closed loop, or is there a goal about spotting cars at industries, sorting cars and stuff like that, or running several different trains in sequence on the same track or something else?
Smile,
Stein
I like the street car line idea, too. Street cars can also climb steep grades, so you can get them “up and over” with much shorter track runs than would be acceptable for freight trains.
If this is going to be a steam-era layout, and there is much to be said for steam engines in terms of eye appeal, then you probably need one of the longer turntables. However, a turntable and roundhouse facility is quite large. If your plans call for short diesels, you can get away with the much simpler Atlas turntable. It’s smaller than the Walthers models, and it’s a deck turntable instead of a pit, but the turntable/roundhouse combination is much smaller, and the simple-but-robust design is better suited for young users, particularly if you won’t be there to do repairs on the turntable.
If your nephew loves the Beer Line, why not start with that and adapt it to your existing benchwork?
Dante
hi Gorilla
this is the opposite of the beer line. I have to warn you, buying and building before you know what is possible might result in nasty surprises. Going back to the beer line; i assume all cars will be 50 feet long or less, so are the small engines, steamers or diesels that you will use. The minimum radius should be 21" accepting a 1:3 ratio between car length and radius. (18" with a 1: 2.5 ratio)
Two independent lines, i added a short common part to keep the operator awake. Crossing over each other, a village, a turntable, but beware of the catches.
The only way to get the mainline in is a 15" minimum radius. The atlas turntable is small. The dimensions of your layout are way to small for big time curves and turntables with roundhouses.
I kept the industries except one, close to the edge, but keeping everything within 30" is not possible at all, unless you accept N-scale, with a 12,5 " radius.
More experienced model railroaders could tell you this before, with the footprint chosen you will always have reach-in problems. Dream, plan, think twice at least, buy and build…in that order.
Keep smiling
Paul
BTW, changing bench work can be done fast, if…what are you up too?
Which one the 90’ or 130’? Is there going to be a round house with it. If so how many stalls are required?
s
Thank You thank you thank you PAUL!!! That looks awesome and is a great inspiration!!! I will definitely be using your design to inspire my layout. Does the program you used to design this tell me how many and what size turnouts, etc. I will need to build this layout? Thank you so very much again!!
Cheers,
John
It is the Walthers DCC 90’ and I will be using the three stall barn.
hi,
all switches are Atlas customline #4’s; 11 left hand and 5 right hand.
The plan was drawn with Atlas RTS.
Keep smiling
Paul
Thanks again Paul. Now the +1 +2 and +3 on the layout i’m assuming is % grade increase?
No, those numbers are elevations above the baseline elevation, which is represented by the number zero. Therefore +1 means that the track at that point is 1 inch above the baseline. To determine the percent grade, you would have to figure out the amount of track length between the “0” point and the +1 and then do the math. (which someone will jump in and tell you how). Note that the +3 at the top of the plan is, I believe, the elevation of the bridge, not the track.
I’m having problems with the multiple train requirement without simply double tracking it. I came up with one but it requires the operator to pay attention and cross the trains over one another.
I was going to simply double track it, as I was underestimating my autistic nephew’s capabilities. He has been running DCC at his train club, where his teacher will stand behind him and throw switches, which Ryan instantly picks up on and adjusts for! So that is why I was told to build it with switches etc.
Thanks Maxman. That makes sense!! Cheers!