hello everyone! a quick explanation on me in general is im a heavy construction worker in northeastern pa trying to build a ho layout for my son and i to enjoy together in the future my area is very very rich in train history and would like to model odds and ends after it but ive been collecting odds and ends for about a year now remodled a 12x12 room,got a 12x12x6 bench (L shape)built, layed two mainlines and now for the last month im at a stand still for plans on other mainlines im like everyone else out there i would the most out of my space so if anyone has a good trackplan for a area roughly this size or preforms the service of trackplanning for a resonable price please drop me a line because at this rate my son will be grown and out of the house before i get all the track laid, thanks
sinc. barry
“…at this rate my son will be grown and out of the house before i get all the track laid, thanks”.
Oh dear! You maybe hit the wheel stops a bit hard.
- You say that the layout is 12x12x6…
Do you mean that it is all down two walls and 6’ out from each?
If you do I hope that you built it with good screws / nuts and bolts and can take it aprt reasonably easily.
Sorry! But a start over will be your best bet.
At least you’ve spotted one major issue already before you have got too far in.
If you haven’t found it already another issue that will crop up soon - and never go away - is that a 6’ deep board is way too deep. You could probably lay down and go to sleep on it. The trouble is that once you start to get track, buildings, scenery and all the rest on it… you won’t be able to get over the front stuff to the middle stuff and you won’t be able to get to the back stuff without getting over them. You could learn to levitate or get a crane…
Don’t hate me for telling you this please.
if you can strip the material out your best bet will be to start small and get some practice in.
It would be well worth your reading a lot of threads here. There was another recently by a father looking to design for himself and his children. A vary common answer was for him to decide which he was doing… him ir his children… because the two are completely different things that (mostly) don’t go together.
You don’t say how old your son is… We don’t have any idea how interested he may get to be in RR… sport, fine art, hunting, IT… One thing is pretty sure… there will be a period in his teens when (whatever interests he has) they will at best get put on hold for some time…
There’s another very simple, practical thing that goes with this… as he grows his interests, skills and involvement will constantly change as he grows. You’d achieve a near
Hi!
Welcome to the forum!
I’m going to assume we’re talking HO scale since you didn’t mention it.
There’s really a couple of things that you need to ask yourself before you get to the point of needing to look at track plans. You’ve already defined your space, that’s good. Are there any other things you’d like to see on the layout? Some examples might be say, mountains, tunnels, a yard, a cityscape, things like that. Also, what type of equipment do you want to run? Smaller diesels, large steam locos, traction? The reason you want to know that is that will tell you a bit about the sizes of curves you need. Lastly, do you want a layout that has a lot of switching and operations, or are you looking for something that is more of a railfanning type setup where you just turn a train or two on and watch them go, or something in between?
If you don’t already own it, get a copy of John Armstrong’s “Track Planning For Realistic Operation”. You’ll never regret it. It has way more then just track planning in it and it should be considered required reading for anyone interested in trains.
Let me turn you on to a site that should help you a bunch.
http://ldsig.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Primer
or
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/index.html
Read through some of that site and begin formulating some ideas.
The reason you should do all of this is because you don’t want to soak a bunch of money and time into this thing only to find yourself, and your son, bored to tears in 6 months.
Now, when it comes time to look at a track plan, you can use one thats already printed, or you can design your own. Personally, I’d rather build my own dream rather then somebody elses.
Here are a couple sites that have pre-made plans.&nbs
The previous posts should get you thinking. It would be nice if you could post a sketch of the area.
The Beginner’s Guide Link Dave refereed to is in my signature.
Chip
Do you want to model how it is now, or the history part? Depending on exactly where Northeastern PA it could be many things NYC, B&O, C&O, Erie, WM, Pennsy, Leighigh Valley, Reading, … Are any of those your specific interest?
I am having a hard time imagining this. Is the bench 6 feet wide on two sides of the room leaving a 6’x6’ entry? Are there cut outs in the center of the 6 feet area(s) for access to the places against the walls? Or is this a 6 inch shelf layout?
Your profile does not have any contact information in it, so I was unable to drop you a line. I would be happy to look at what you have and what can be done about it. My profile (click “Texas Zepher” at the top left of this message) will have an e-mail option showing. Modeling the northeast USA is fun and in some ways easy because there are so many options, in both track planning and available equipment.
hey thanks for replying first i live not to far away from spacemousewhich sounds like a good thing!,i was born in sloan hill beside the railroad overpass,moved to applewall at age1-4 500 feet from the engine house, 375 from the train tunnel and roughly 1200 feet from the station then off to mosgrove/ sloan hill area roughly 3/4 mile from the mosgrove train station and popular west mosgrove bridge across the river (lots of stories about the bridge) and mosgrove hotel also mosgrove is in between kittanning and templeton which had stations and their far share of industries and torist in their day now i live in yatesboro pa close to the old season-all factory in fact the old rail lines to it runs through the bottom of my drive way infact alot of the railties decorate my yard[:-^] my father worked at pullman standerd in butler pa till it closed so i have the most intrest in trains over my son but after all he wont be a year old till feb 2. the layoutwhich is HO i want to do now i would like to have area landmarks built into it as i remember it im not to worried about keeping a strict time line as far as engines ect so this will be daddys area,after completion i have another room beside it which is roughly 15x45 for nicky and i to do in fact if wanted i can tie the to rooms together easly by running the trains through the wall i thought about the fact of by table up against the wall but felt i could start at the wall and work outward with the sceanery im only going to do this one once the next layout i want to be able to change if i felt needed as far as the present lay out i want mainly just main line instead of alot of switching so far dad has found it to be relaxing by turning on the trains seting back and watch i will try to attach a picture of room to give everyone a better idea of shape and size so in return maybe someone can help me with an idea on a layout to get me going again i kinda had planned for this layout to have two passenger trains
Barry,
Why don’t you and your dad come to Indiana, either on a Weds. Night or on the weekend and visit out club. We have mainline running, switching and yards. You can play around and see what is the most fun for you. Here is a link to some pictures of our club.
http://www.chipengelmann.com/Trains/Club.html
Build the train for yourself, if your kid is interested, he will grow into the hobby through your example. You can always throw a Tomas Engine onto a PRR track for a few laps.
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]
Chip’s last is the best post here so far [^]
Barry,
Where are you located? NE PA and Butler covers most of Pennsylvania[:-^]