I am building a HO model railroad in my attic. I am nearly 44 years old and haven’t done anything like this since I was a teenager. Wow, the technology and the techniques have really changed! My plan was to return to the hobby when I retired, but, on Christmas 2004, Santa Claus brought my two girls – now finishing 2nd and 4th grades - Athearn locomotives, freight cars, and some Atlas True Track to set up something on the floor. So, in the past 18 months, I have been doing a good measure of reading, planning, and benchwork construction. My girls also have helped with painting the backdrop. (As I proceed with the track work and scenery, I plan to involve them more.)
I would much appreciate any feedback on my layout plans. Before I set forth the draft track diagram, I ought to provide you with some information about the room, layout area, and benchwork construction to date.
Room and Layout Area
Referring to diagram immediately below, the initial layout area, 5 ft. x 16 ft., is at the top outlined in blue. For the portion of this outline area that is dashed, I have flexibility as to its placement. Right below that area, is a space outlined in light blue that I hope to eventually expand into. (My wife tells me that if I do real well with the initial segment, I even could take over the whole attic.) Each large square in the diagram represents a square foot. The fine smaller squares indicate 2 in. x 2 in. squares.
(Click on image for a larger picture.)
One of the challenges of this space is that the ceiling slopes down to a height of just 40 inches around much of the perimeter of the attic.
For working the industries in both directions the only run-around track is from one end of the layout to the other. That is a mighty long way on a layout this small. I think I would try to squeeze a shorter one in somewhere.
All I have to say is excellent plan. You have not tried to cram too much into the space, leaving room for scenery. There are plenty of operational opportunities. The two center tracks into staging could represent an interchange with another railroad and/or a branch line, allowing for a interlocking tower if you wished.
The only negative I see is that the curved turnouts used for your staging yard ladders will be pricy. You may want to look at redesigning for straight turnouts. Standard yard ladders have the normal or straight turnouts in a staight line with the diverging routes going to the yard tracks. You can approximate the curved turnout ladder by reversing that. At each turnout, the next turnout is attached to the diverging route of the previous turnout while the straight or normal track leads to the yard tracks. I believe one of the recent Model Railroad Planning issues discussed this exact arrangement.
I started by building my layout for my kids and within a month of having the layout up and running, they were no longer interested. I had planned the layout entirely for them and when they lost interest, I had to rethnk everytihing so that I could enjoy the layout. I therefore suggest that you plan this layout for yourself. I know that you want something you and the girls can work together on, but deep down, you know this is for you. Plan it that way and it will work out better for all concerned. I’m not saying ignore your girls, but be honest with yourself. You’ll be finishing the expansion phase when they are away for college.
I’m also concerned about all the hidden trackage. Stuff happens on hidden trackage and you don’t seem to have a way to get to it.
I’m new to the hobby , but I’ve seen a lot of track plans similar to your in the older books. Most of the track plans nowadays are narrower so that they don’t have to rely on pop-ups. It just makes things easier all the way around if you can reach everything without crawling under. Forty years ago it might not have been an issue for you , but ten years from now how are your back and knees going to like it? I know you have already started the bench work, but changing now is much easier than later.
For instance, if you had roughly the same plan reversed, with the narrow section against the wall and the wide section open from both sides. You could access all that track, and still have the staging hidden from the operating area in the center.
I know you have a good head of steam up, but if you don’t know what scenery you want, you aren’t ready to build. Put a loop of track up for the girls, and go back to the drawing board.
IF you don’t know the scenery, then you don’t know what road name you are modeling, what era or location. If you don’t know the above, you don’t what industries you are modeling, etc. IF you don’t know what indsustries, you don’t know if you have the space for them. If you d
First off, you have a great space there - clean, good natural light, carpeted, etc.
If you’ve seen any of my other posts, you know I’m a proponent of linear shelf layouts, so my comments are biased toward that.
I think the points SpaceMouse and others have raised are valid - there’s a lot of hidden trackage, curved turnouts and potentially long reaches even with pop-ups.
For a plan like this, you might want to make a mock-up on heavy cardboard - trace the tracks, etc, put a few cars here and there and check distances and such in full size, just to see what it might be like to have a derailment on a hidden staging track etc?
Operationally, have you tried tracing a train’s route around the layout? Are there tracks you could delete or are there others you might need to add?
Texas Zepher, Thanks, I will look into the possibility of squeezing in a shorter run-around track to better facilitate serving industries in both directions.
ericboon and jeffrey-wimberly, Thanks for the compliments and the operational ideas.
I have concerns about that too. (More on that later.)
You are right. But, my dilemma is this: I am not 100% sure that I will have the drive to go beyond the initial 5 ft. x 16 ft. area. At least, I am not sure when I will get to that phase of the project. Given that, I don’t want to place the initial layout area in the middle as my family could have other reasonable uses for the attic.
So, I think that I need to focus on making access to that 5 ft. x 16 ft area as easy as possible. Here is what I have in mind so far:
Avoid having supporting legs for the initial layout area. This will make getting under the benchwork easier. To avoid having supporting legs, I will have to cut back the length of the wall-mounted bracket arms as I propose above.
As for the hidden staging area, make the straight track and adjacent easement curve area open air but not visible from the operating area. I am thinking of accomplishing this with either mountains (preferably) and/or cliffs made of extruded foam placed in front of the hidden area.
Somehow make the two major access hatches as easy as possible to lift out and put back.
Have access to much of the straight hidden track from the window
You might bite the bullet and make the layout bigger–not more track, but put a 2 foot walkway between the operating section of the layout and the hidden staging. Put the backdrop on the back end of the operating section. You then have access to all the layout without pop-ups.
