any tips for expanding i need help on turning a 4x8 into a 10x12 i have 2 rails going out of the table can anyone help me on where to go for help with this situation
Just initial food for thought…
Your maximum comfortable reach into a model railroad layout is 30"-36". That being said, a lot also depends upon your room dimensions, what you want to accomplish in layout design, etc.
This is rather like a high school junior in Peoria asking his Facebook page, “Which girl should I ask to the Prom?” without any further data on the, ‘candi-dates.’
- What is your present track plan?
- What is your present theme?
- What would you like your new, improved layout to represent?
- Et cetera, et al, ad nauseum…
Professional layout designers start by giving their clients a questionnaire, frequently several pages long, in order to get an idea of where to start. It wouldn’t do to design a bucolic, “Four men and a diesel,” short line when the customer actually wants the frenetic action of a major mainline junction in the heart of commuter country.
For that matter, the most basic question of all:
What scale are you currently modeling in?
The late John Armstrong once took the basic sheet of plywood and designed layouts for everything from O scale to N scale. The O scale version was a cramped big-city steam loco terminal. The N scale version was an empire.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in HOj, 1:80 scale)
If your 10x12 is to be rectangular (the size of many rooms), you should create a large operating pit (something like 4 by 8) in the layout’s center to provide adequate access. If it was me, I’d start the new layout from “scratch” so as not to be hobbled by the original, cramped 4x8 plan. For example, instead of your tight, probably 18 and 20-inch radius curves, you could go with 24 to 30 inches easily.
Mark
I too agree that starting from scratch would be the best option. If you were to only be adding a side yard or staging, this would be different. Trying to enlarge an existing 4x8 to 10x12 is asking for problems as described. Eventually you will regret any attempt to do this. This would be especially true if you really got into proper length passenger equipment and detailed structures Spending some substantial $$$ as time goes on… Your origional basic trackwork would come back and haunt you. Since you can enlarge to this point, just what size room do you have to work with? An around the walls design or something w/ peninsulas (C or G shaped) would work far better.
Give us some more info and we can help you better.
My advice to start with is, if you have room to expand but cannot do it now, due to time, money or not knowing where you are heading with your layout, leave yourself an “out” on your layout to expand. I started with a layout I saw in a book for small layouts (4x8) that did have a spur that could be connected to track down the road when the layout is expanded… and that is what I did, I went from one 4x8 layout to two 4 x8 done in an L shape and when I expanded I made sure I was not too committed to something complex at the new end of layout so i could expand yet again, which I did a couple months later with yet another 4x8 addition. My layout is now in a big U shape and when I expanded it was simple removal of a few curved pieces to add the additional track on the new table. On my new layout I did leave a nice long straight section so I could expand and right now I am working making an incline so I can run a level under my layout for staging. As I expand I am not sure where I am going with my layout in the big picture but by doing it in sections and seeing what works and what does not, leaving an “out” on my as made my expanding a lot less of a head ache
well i am making a timeline from early deisel to current desel i ahve the wood to expand its just that i dont know how to use it please help this kid out