DESIGNING a Layout Using Modules

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Here’s the deal:

I had built a more permanent layout in another house back years ago which took up one bedroom. I lived there for 18 years.

But I don’t know how long I’m going to be in this house. If I was to stay here for a long time, I would just start building permanent benchwork in a spare room or the garage according to an overall design I have in mind.

Instead, I am forced into thinking of small sections at a time, if I have to move.

Unfortunately, this throws a big wrench into the designing of each module and the overall layout, radii of the track,“FLOW” of the track plan, scenes, yards, mainline etc…

With a permanent layout, you can do the benchwork, lay a mainline and some passing tracks, add a few spurs and continue building over the years, adding features as desired. With a temporary layout it becomes a bundle of contradictions, unless you are an experienced layout designer.

Has anyone here been in this situation? If so, what would you suggest as a starting module?

I am using 6 foot sections, at least I figured that much out. I want to get some action going, not just a diorama.

I was thinking of starting with 1/2 of a yard or less, and then adding the other part of the yard later.

Or maybe part of a mainline and a few indiustries, I don’t know.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Frustrated in limbo

BBF

2

A friend had 2’ x 4’ modules that he stored on the wall of his garage on a rack much the same way you see windshields stored in a Auto Glass shop. He would set as many or as few of the modules up in the garage, house, driveway or backyard as he wanted or could. In the summer with a long stretch of good weather ahead the whole layout went up in the backyard on the patio.

In the winter he would have a module on a couple of TV tables in front of the couch and work on them while watching Hockey. Sometimes the wife let him have his way with her and he got to run the layout all through their smallish house for a few days at a time. Often a 12’ x 8’ area in the garage would have a few modules thrown together for the weekend.

I think if you built your mods 2’ x 4’ 6’ or 8’ you could do the same. Have the track at the same spot at the end of each module so any two could be connected depending on how much space you have at any given time. An exception might be where a multi track section like a yard might go together in several sections. There again you could have a yard ladder as long as you want by the number of sections you put up.

I would make my mods on 1" x 4" open grid with either foam or plywood and use 10/32 machine screws and “T-nuts” to join them. With a drill they go together and come apart in seconds.

Their house was quite small and one time he had it going from the living room, through the dinning area to the kitchen, into the hall and back down to the living room. The wife was in Vegas with the girls for 5 days, so up it went.

3

BBF and BATMAN

IMHO there is a distinction between modulat and sectional: traditional modular is designed like ntrak to go together in any order, sectional goes together the same way every time.

This means that sectional can have broader curves by going into the curve from farther back from the front edge.

The problem is if the layout moves to a smaller space it will have to be butchered more in putting it back together.

The other point is that for around the wall layout, very few rooms are an exact even number of feet in size. For example mine is 17’4" along the longest wall. Would have to be disned around.

No advice, just a couple of thoughts.

Dave

4

LOL That guy is a genius.

His experience is sort of like mine, except that he actually built the modules and ran the trains, but still he probably is settled permanently in that small house, I am assuming.

I had laid out some flex track and some of my turnouts, j

5

I just finished building a 30’x15’ dogbone using all modules 2’x4’ as they are easier to deal with ( I had to make a 6’ specilized one to go arround a pole). They work great and I have most of them spaced at 3" center from each side so they could go in lots of different configurations if moving is needed.

6

Do you have any photos of your layout and how you did it?

7

Planning, designing and making railway layouts in small spaces is written for Brits who don’t have large basements.

The book describes a layout the fits into a chest of draws. One draw sits on top of the chest. the other draws attach to one another and have fold-down legs. The 2nd and 3rd draw attach to the end of the draw on top, but additional draws can form L-shaped layouts.

the image below doesn’t really illustrate it, but hopefully illustrates how each module can fit in a drawer

8

Since I don’t have the space for a permanent layout, and share my home with my wife, I too have considered building a layout 1 2x4 module at a time. My thought was to start with mainline track so I could just run trains. Then I could add yards and industries over time and still have a basic functioning railroad all of the time. This way I could expand or contract the layout at will.

You didn’t say what scale you were modeling, but for N scale, there are the N-Trak standards, and for HO you might check out module standards from Northwest Trainmasters. I’m sure there are others as well. Hope this helps.

9

Here is a link to a modular club in the Vancouver area. If you go to “club standards PDF” you may find some useful info to help get you on your way.

http://mainlandmodular.webs.com

10

Got the whole story under Rebels layout so far at http://kitforums.com/portal.php .

11

I constructed my current layout using Sievers Benchwork. Living in a townhouse, I needed to keep it portable. With neighbors on both sides of me, I didn’t want to disturb them with the sounds of power tools to saw and drill raw lumber. With Sievers, everything was precut and predrilled. No wasted lumber or miscalculations. Best of all, I was able to design the layout as a sectional layout, which would keep it portable for when I next move.

Kevin

12

I believe that you could build a series of main modules that would be the basis for a layout. These modules would be the major switching and industrial areas of your layout. Modules that would be like the following: 1- a yard; 2- engine facilities; 3- city industrial district; 4- town 1; 5- town 2; etc. These modules could be self contained and built as switching modules, each with their own control panels and power. The modules would be placed around the room on some type of simple benchwork. Then you would run a mainline track from one module to the next. Scenery could be built between the modules. If you have to move, you would save all the modules & buildings and just loose the scenery and track between them. The placement of the modules could be close together or far apart, whatever the room will accommodate. In fact, you can start looking a plans for switching modules and start building one as soon as you like.

13

It sounds like you want to design and build the modules one or a few at a time. I would recommend designing the whole layout to fit your space. I think you’ll end up with an integrated layout rather than one that “just grew”. After designing this layout, I’d recommend then looking at the individual pieces and seeing how many would likely be useful in a new unspecified house. You’ll likely have to lose/store some of the modules and build some new ones. By considering things now, you can put, for example, more time and money into the modules that are highly likely to be reusable, and less into the ones that might end up being tossed. You may even decide not to scenic some–making those pieces “backstage”.

Also, as much as possible, I would make the modules compatible with an existing modular standard. That way, you could pull out one or more modules and go “play with the other kids”. I work in Free-mo, and it’s great fun to put up a big layout with the rest of the guys. But you are going to be unlikely to make your entire layout Free-mo compatable as the minimum radius is 42". I prefer 48". But as long as you’re going to be modular, why not have some modules compatable?

Here’s the Free-mo standards:

http://www.free-mo.org/standard

I’ll note that a module can have sections. For example, 4 pieces (sections) can make up one module. That way, only the ends of the en

14

I thought I would throw my 2 cents in here, hopefully it helps.
I live in an apartment, so I need a layout that I can move when I move as well as something I can take apart to do scenery outside, since with adding ballast and gluing if I were to do that in the apartment I could ruin something and not get my security deposit back.

I am currenlty building an around-the-room layout in the second bedroom of the apartment. I have two sets of legs that the layout sides rest on and spanning the back of the room I have two 2x4s that are attached to the legs which my modules sit on top of. On the other side I have another set of legs that attaches to the first set along with a lift out section.

Each section of the layout is on a small piece of plywood, with the biggest being I think 36x36 in. This allows me to take the layout apart if necessary.

I have layed all of my track on the layout and my plan is to wire each section independently and then cut the tracks where each section overlaps. So far this strategy has worked out well for the first couple of pieces I have wired up.

I liked this approach because I could build the whole layout, get my track how I want it, and then worry about making it sectional. My previous layout was also sectional, but I built it in sections and never had all the track connect until the last section was complete.

15

Elmer’s take on this is very similar to my approach. My layout is essentially a permanent one, mainly L-girder, with 3/4" plywood sub-roadbed, Sculptamold over styrofoam scenery. I did not formally make modules, though. Rather, major investments in track and wiring are grouped into an area supported by enough of a structure it’s self supporting. Everything is assembled with screws, often with glue.

The idea is that these locations can be easily salvaged, after being cut free. A new location is unlikely to be the same , so I saw little value in making complicated arrangements for unbolting a nice clean separating connection. Instead, out comes the swazall and wire cutters. Once relocated, these can be hooked back up as best possible, then connectedto adjoining parts of the new layout.

Crucial to this work is to ensure that these areas of the layout cut loose can then make it out of the house and into the moving van. I built my office/workshop next to the train room and before you get to the basement’s walkout door. However, the main wall of the office was built so that it can be unfastened and removed to facilitate getting the bigger pieces out of the basement…if that ever comes to pass.

16

I am using 30-in x 80-in Flush Lauan Hollow Core Non-Bored Interior Slab Doors & going to wall mount. Doors run about $25 each. I will use drawer slides to pull out to reach backside. Use removable 3" track sections between doors.

17

Here are a few shots of my 1st door

18

Here’s another consideration: Do you really need a 24" width to accomplish what you want? If not, consider building some or all of it narrower.

A friend and I built a staging yard for FreeMo and found that we can transport 18"-wide sections far more easily than 24". Fortunately the local FreeMo guys aren’t overly concerned about having a flush fascia (standard FreeMo spec is 24"), especially for something that usually sticks into the center of the layout. We built it on surplus 18" folding closet door sections.

In designing a sectional industrial switching layout for my basement, I’m finding that going down to 18-20" width gives me more aisle room in my rather cramped space. The trade-off, of course, is that the scenes aren’t as deep.

19

Here is the advantage with moduale if you follow the N-Trak guidlines you have 4 lines. thre front main and one mountian now you can also have a tunnel line which now getts you to think in 3d. as the main lines can go thru a tunnel and the mountain level can be brought all the way out to the front of modual and you can place yards and spur track to business on that level. You have a great deal of room to lay all the track you would like. Also i saw some one actually but a tunnel line on the mountian line behind the back board which gives you a great deal of flexibility in make train dis apeear for a period at one end of the module and reappear at the othe end as the come down to the lower grade. I have two end turns one yard module 2 in side corners and 4 4 fot modual in my basement going around the out side wall. over 1 miles of scale distance track in that space 21feet by 19 feet. My trays disapear around a been and return out of site thru the buildings on the back drop of the module and come out a tunnel at the other end.

I hope this gives you some idea’s as to wat you can do. I have even seen a seperate track running in a oval from the front of the module to behind the back drop so the other trains are traveling down a ravine and rive on the whole module

20

I’m in the military and have moved several times since I’ve gotten in the hobby, so I knew my layout had to be sectional/portable from the get go. It’s evolved over the years, but at this point I have three core 18" x 48" sections that form the nucleus of the layout. Two of the three were designed to go next to each other, and I just had to create a 2’ wide “filler” section to connect the third one. I started out with both 24" and 18" wide secitons and found 18" was optimal for me. Each section is an open grid frame of dimensional lumber with 1/2" plywood on top. Benchwork is similar to what MR does for a lot of their project layouts, and gets re-engineered every time I move to fit the available space. The layout sections sit on top of L-girder rails attached to the top of the benchwork.

The layout design philosophy/situation you’re facing is being discussed a lot on Model Railroad Hobbyist right now. (Hope it’s OK with the moderators to metion this!) If you want to read up some more about it, go to their website and look for what they call TOMA (“The One Module Approach”).