Well by April 1 I will be moving into my own place finally after living at home. I will be moving into my great grandparents old condo which I am buying from my grandparents so i have the freedom to do what i want with the basement.
Anyway, the basement is very promising the furnace and sump pump are located in a corner and the stairs are against a wall. Attached below is a sketch. I was thinking about having my work area on the east side of the stairs.
Right now I have the problem of being a multi gauger i have equipment in HO and 2-rail O I also belong to an local O scale club. I’m leaning towards doing O scale but if i do HO I’ll have a decent layout.
Oh and It’ll just be me living there dont have to make any concessions.
If I were in your position, I would take a serious look at HO, although my finances would be an important factor. I would sell all but the impossible-I-won’t-sell-this-one O scale/gauge things to finance a large HO dream while my eyes and limbs are still young enough to appreciate it all in that scale. Later, like so many of us, you could begin to acquire O stuff gradually in preparation for an eventual scale jump when it makes sense to do that.
This is not to scale and I just walked off the dimensions, one day after work this week im going over to get accurate ones. Only got two posts to deal with.
Yea I’m thinking because of finances and i also already have a couple hundred feet of flex track code 100 and a bunch of rolling stock and turnouts. the most expensive part is going to be the DCC. Going with NCE since thats what we use at the club and what i’m familer with.
HO is as small as im willing to go. N is just too small for my tastes.
Looks like you are off to the races. Congrats on getting your own joint.
I bought this pad of very large graph paper to help plan out my layout. My room has many obstacles and this pad has 1 inch squares. 1 inch equaled 1 foot on my plan. I bought it at Staples for $7.00, well worth the investment. Easy to draw the room and all its hindrances. [B]
Hmm, thats not a bad idea. Might have to make a trip up to staples
@rich - I was thinking going the power cab route. I already know from past experinces that i will only have one or two Pro Cabs and the rest Cab06s. I find that the best way to go esspecially for op sessions. I might have enough saved up by the time i start constuoction for a 5amp booster. i got at least 6 months.
I will, I am open to suggestions too. One thing I really need to do is get an accurte dimensions. The downside to the sapce is that its L shaped and theres that corner to deal with,
I’m thinking about doing a freelance soo-line based layout, around the Manitowoc area.
True, that sump pump and furnace need to be taken into account, so accurate measurements are a must. You could consider a C-shaped layout running from the area of the sump pump/furnace around the upper portion of the basement and down the left wall then back right toward the stairs. That would give you total access to the layout and to the sump pump and furnace.
We need to get Jim (Soo Line Fan) to join in and comment on your freelance idea. Jim, where are you?
Looks like you have a great space to work with. Just one area of mechanicals to work around. Make sure you give that area plenty of space for service techs (or possibly yourself) to access the equipment. Remember that eventually that water heater will wear out, so make sure it can be removed and a new one installed without having to take apart any of the layout.
I vote for going HO, just how much of this space do you think you might like to use? Are you interested in operations or just watching trains runs?
Since your club has NCE also, you may not need to buy a handheld for each person that comes to operate, as they may have their own that they can bring along. You can also take yours to the club or other layouts.
This was one of the selling points my dealer gave. If there is a club or private layouts that have operating sessions in your area, get the brand that they have, so you can join in and bring your own throttle along.
Looks like you are doing your planning before you start building. A good way to start.
