Ok well so far I’ve proved myself worthless in layout planning. I’ve been on here asking for layouts before, but now it’s different. Once again things for the train hobby have changed, but for once it’s towards the better. I’m getting my train room back!!! Posted is a picture of the room with accurate measurements.
Givens:
30-36" isle width
DCC operation, possibly with sound
enough operations to occupy one or two operators
some areas set aside for scenery only
N scale
as prototypical as possible
primary focus on freight ops
on layout staging, I would like to keep all my cars on the layout and out of drawers
maximum depth of 18 inches
52-54" height
designed for scenery below track level
water scenery like a river, creek, stream. I grew up on a lake so see note below.
lots of trees. I’ve always grown up around woods and forests and it just doesn’t seem right not to have a couple ton’s of model trees on board.
time era appropriate for first and early second gen diesels, and steam
Druthers:
no complicated track work
NO SPAGETTI BOWLS
no dumb stuff like slip switches
Things like back drops should be designed to be included with the layout, I don’t think the landlord would be happy if I painted the walls, and from what my wife was told I would have to ge
Why bother with the walls in the first place? Have a sheet or two of masonite ripped in half and screw it to the back of the modules. At 52-54" height to begin with that is going to take a person 76" to 78" to see over it (unless you are planning for an NBA team to run your layout). I would look at Eric Vrooman’s original Utah Belt that appeared in MR in the 80’s. Based on the UP in the mountains it had the kind of scenery you are interested in and may be doable in that space. definitely in N scale and possibly in HO with some minor tweaks.
I’m assuming a duckunder would be acceptable. I would have a simple around the room loop to maximize train running, with switching along the line. I would curve the benchwork along the radius of the door to eliminate the need for a drop in section and simplify the benchwork. That curved section would be best if it were used for staging with a backdrop separating a narrow, scenicked mainline section. You can access staging from the door radius space you’ve drawn. The ends of the yard s/b made straight enough for uncoupling if you needed. You may need to have a bigger storage yard under the layout to store unused rolling stock, depending on how much you have. If you want to keep benchwork simple, I would simply have storage tracks built under the layout, not staging, and just fiddle the trains to the mainline staging yard before each op session. You would want vary the rolling stock anyway, so you can’t avoid handling the stock from time to time. Maybe use cassette staging yards, if your carpentry skills are up to it.
Remove the door to the closet and store it under the layout and have the mainline dip into the closet space.
Where would you build your models? At 52 inches, you have plenty of room to fit a bench under the layout. Where the layout dips into the closet would be the best since the bench could maybe do so also, which would take up as little floor space in the middle of the room as possible. This might provide enough space for a small peninsula for a major industry or such somewhere else.
The HOG (Heart of Georgia) layout has been suggested here many times. In N scale, you have plenty of room for a dandy expanded version.
Sorry I can’t draw anything. I don’t have planning software. If you do, give that basic shaped plan a try and we can comment on it.
Yeah there were a few givens I missed on the first posting:
14" minumim radius on mainline, 12" everywhere else
continous running option
Number 14 I had to change because of an article in an N magazine that tested the Kato UP heratige SD70ACe’s. I’m pretty sure Kato says 9.75 minumin, but the tester said his models didn’t even do so well on 11". They went around, but not with out making their presence known. A 14R curve min was suggested. Plus, I found out the LHS sells the new Bachmann N scale DDA40X…well, when they aren’t sold out, and I KNOW that thing probably won’t do anything as tight as 11R. As for the continous running, well I just forgot about that. Prefferably it would be done with a removable or swing-away piece, but a nod/duck under is ok. I just wanted that option available in case one day I didn’t feel like doing any switching but wanted to watch a train run, and so I could run some longer trains for show off. I was a little suprised when I started telling people I was getting into the hobby and they said I had to let them know when it’s done or when I get trains running so they could come see it. And like I said, this would also give me the opportunety to run long trains which is an idea I’ve always liked. It would really make that A40X shine, and some of the others I plan to have in an “active collection” like the 70ACe. They won’t even be on the layout when I’m running an ops session but this way they get to be used.
Well I think I found a good plan to build, Richard Lawrence’s WM Thomas subdivision from July '08 MR. Very few changes would need to be made to fit my area. I plan to run my future “collection” on it though so the curves would need to be opened to 14R minimum. I just don’t think a Bachmann DDA40X would go around 11R. An article I’ve read reccently said even Kato’s SD70ACe didn’t like 11R.
