Objective:
I want to build a double-deck, around-the-wall, peninsula style layout in a 12x16 shed I have prepared for the job.
I have picked out two plans that I found among many that I had saved over the years from magazines, particularly Model Railroader *. A combination and modification of these two layout plans should produce what I am looking for. I realize there are any number of computer aided programs that have come into existence to help with layout planning, but at my older age, I’m not real excited about taking a great deal of time to learn how to use these computer programs. I’m hoping some folks with that sort of knowledge will come forward and help me plan the layout, and visualize it with 3d images before I begin final construction.
*I contacted Model Railroader magazine about posting some images of older RR plans they had published in the past, but were not currently available on the internet. They informed me in writing that it would be permissible if it was in pursuit of my own individual effort to design my personal layout, and if I gave them credit where appropriate. So please don’t anyone bring up ‘copyright’ issues.
Over the years I have seen many really nice train layouts that had to be cut-up (and destroyed) in order to remove them from their home place, due to either the owner’s having passed away, or his moving to another residence. Very often they are rather a custom fit in their home built environment, and thus aren’t likely candidates for a new special location. I’m even currently in possession of a very nicely detailed waterfront scene that had to be cut out of an estate sale layout, and I am hoping to incorporate it into my new layout, but I see problems on the horizon.
With these experiences in mind I decided that I would purchase a stand alone Handi-House shed, and build my new layout in there. Then if I should change residence again, I can simply load that shed onto a trailer and move the whole layout to a new location. Or if I should pass away my wife could sell the layout and shed as an entity, and the buyer could move it to his new location.
I retired to a trailer home here in St Augustine, and it had an almost full length carport attached to it. I thought why not pull that new shed into the back portion of the carport and take advantage of the extra shade provided by the carport cover over the shed. It was a tight fit, and in fact to get a 12 foot wide shed into my carport I had to move all 5 of its support columns out a distance of 1 foot (had to pour concrete footer for those new column locations). I also had to remove 3 big beams attached to the underside of the shed in order to get enough clearance to fit under the carport’s roof (I had initially given considerations to chopping the peak off of the shed), but became convinced I’d rather trim the height by modifying the bottom. I needed only a few inches, but it became a major undertaking. And I did this all by myself at the age of 74 using skid pads I made and a come-along attached to a tree in the back yard.
There’s a sticky on the main forum on how to post pictures. What goes in the box is the URL to the image. It needs to end in something like JPG or PNG or GIF, if not, you aren’t using the right link. It looks like you are trying to link from another forum - the other forum for one is not going to allow that to work. You need the actual images on some sort of web site.
Ah ha, at first I could not find the main forum page, but I found that now.
Can one enter an image that is on their computer?
The images I did manage to post were done by copying the image from another forum posting I had made, then pasting it on this one,…rt click of mouse, the left click. To my knowledge I did NOT copy the image’s web location address.
Please excuse 74 year old’s lack of computer knowledge…ha…ha
This forum does not have a provision for directly posting images. You need to “upload” the image from your computer to a “3rd party website” that hosts images on its server.
I use www.imgbb.com to upload my images. Then I copy and paste them onto my posts on this forum.
Well I can see how this complicates the whole image posting situation now that Photobucket (and likely more to come) have modified their ‘rules’. I never did trust all those free image hosting sites,…just a gut feeling that something like this would happen in the future and one would be beholden to those websites where they stored all of their photos.
I participate on quite a number of boat design forum sites, and thank goodness they have utilized different protocoles and software for their sites.
The thing that bothers me about that ‘method’ is what if that website you posted all of those very informative images to decides to update the software they are utilizing (perhaps to make it more compatible with new ‘devices’). Then the URL’s of each and all of your material might change (maybe ever so slighty) and thus become invisible.
I had it happen on another model railroad forum, and all the images I had posted over several years ALL dissappeared.
That’s why you do what I do and get your own web hosting from a ‘stock’ provider (not someone like Wix ot 1and1 which front the web server with their software to make it ‘easier’ to create your site - you want raw access to the server). Plans start at $1.50/mo with my provider and that gives plenty of bandwidth to post images on forums like this. And you do NOT put your only copy of each photo on photo hosting sites, ever. As long as I remember to pay my bill, my links will remain valid.
Anyway this was all hashed in the Photobucket thread so no need to go over it all gain here. To post here, if you can paste it in your browser without being logged in to some other forum and the image shows up, it will show up if you paste it here in the Insert Photo dialog. If you paste it in a new browser window and you are required to log in or something, it will never work here or on any othe forum.
I’ve seen this done before somewhere, or at elast soemthign similar. Access doors on the outside would work. But given that it isoutside, it has to be COMPLETELY sealed - otherwise there are many critters who will find it to be a nice snug home - until the next train comes along.
It will also need support, a pair of legs on the outside corners. Just canilevering it off the back of the shed will likely sag and cause problems.
Since you are building an addition to your train shed just to hold the helix, why settle for only a 30" radius? 36" or even 42" would work much better.
I figure all I need to do is stand up (or sit up) inside the helix circle from the circular access underneath
I will need something like a drop down trap door, or fine mesh screen covering that underneath access hole.
I have those supports already,…two nice alum poles with flat ‘feet’ on them to sit on the ground or a pad block of cement if necessary.
I just wanted to get that space hungry ‘helix blob’ outside the shed’s interior.
Someone ask why not bigger diameter. Maybe so if I have to climb very far between levels? At this moment I think I will only have to climb 12-14 inches between my 20" of deck seperation I figure 30" is a good minimum radius. I also have a special construction I am considering for the helix itself and it’s housing.
A larger radius menas you can have greater spacign between th helix levels for the same grade, makign access easier, and you just do fewer turns to get the total distance you need, or you can keep teh same spacing and have a shallower grade. 30" radius is reasonable, depending on what sort of equipment you run. What about a second track? At 30" radius you need much more than the typical 2" center to center spacing toclear full length passenger cars adn modern rolling stock. The time spent in even a 30" radius helix is considerable - therefore it is usually best to make them doublt tracked so the helix doesn;t bottleneck the entire rest of the railroad. Unless of course you wil always just be running this yourself and waiting for the train to exit the helix at the top or bottom is no big deal.
So as to not make a duplication of this subject,… here is a forum discussion I posted on building my helix with pvc pipe. Hopefully all that wish to, can view that discussion and the photos.
It should be an interesting experiment. I am hoping to avoid using the traditional plywood subroadbed and framing structure in an ‘outdoor’ humid enviroment like Florida. (‘outdoors’ of my insulated AC shed)
Thought about making the helix two-tracked, but then reconsidered and said like real trains sometimes one would have to wait on the other, so why not on the helix since I don’t expect a heavy traffic between the 2 deck levels.
So lets start out thinking of the track plan for just the lower level. As I said I have 2 plans in mind that I tend to like very much, but the need to be melted together. The first of these was published way back in 1991, and was called the Anon & Muss.
It had a ‘blob’ at either side of the entrance way to the layout, and another one at the head of the peninsula. At the root of the peninsula it had crossing track configurations that would allow for greater radius turns from the tracks running down each side of space into the peninsula area, ….particularly if I intend to ‘squeeze’ this plan down into a more overall narrower shape than the original plan. There were a number of these ‘crossing tracks’ woven in to ‘over and under’ configurations that might be best handled in a ‘mountainous area’…the Appalachians I spoke of before…
Another thing interesting about this layout design was expressed in the description of its design, … “the notion that’s reflected in the premise behind the A&M track plan. You can have easy (hassle free) operation even with seve