First Cut Layout

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Ok… Well I am now thinking about putting up a permanent layout versus expanding our holiday layout. For the past 2 years we put up an 8X4 Holiday Layout. While this was ok, it was always work for a week or two from Thanksgiving to Xmas to get it up and running. This year I wanted to expand the layout since our basement is done, and I will be done grad school and the little guy (my 3 year old) will be able to have more fun watching the trains. Thinking more and more, I think I have the start of a first cut layout design… Before looking, here are my constrictions…

  1. Area that is roughly rectangular in nature, 12’ on short end, 16 on one side and 19’ foot on the other long side. The fourth side is open, it opens to the Home Theater and Dry Bar area of the basement.

  2. The area has to be able to keep the poker table in it when needed, and also have a couch along the wall (can be 6inches max from the wall to allow for a track behind)

  3. I am not planning to install DCC. I like block wiring and switching toggles.

  4. N Scale.

  5. on the open side, I want to have a removable bridge. The layout must be able to function without the bridge installed!!! Key Requirement

  6. I don’t have to have “a staging yard”. Main key is ability to run 2 trains at one time using electrical blocking.

  7. Additional Info… I am not a rivet counter so perfect railroad operation is not a major requirement. I want to have fun experience with my kid and nephews / nieces while we run the trains.

http://home.earthlink.net/~regross99/

Based on the above pic, I will put the poker table along the long wall across from the main area, and then the couch at the top against the wall. I welcome peoples suggestions and help to make a better railroad.

Thanks!!

2

Hi,

Here’s a helpful nscale link - these guys and gals can offer alot of good advice.

www.nscale.net

Have fun[:)]

–Ed

3

Thanks for the location… I have made a slight change, I think I am going to add a double track to the 6" around the 2 sides of the room… Any other suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

4

Well that was the suggestion I was going to make. Maybe not double track but at least on siding on the long left side.

For not being interesting in staging there certianly is a lot of long straight parallel tracks. Then you have no places to do any switching. When we set up our Chirstmas layout each child gets their own “town”, which is usually just a siding. Then they spend hours sending cars back and forth to each other. Switching is where the fun is.

5

I’m with TZ all the way on that. Simply running trains around a loop, even if it is a large loop, is going to get real boring, real fast.

I don’t know if it’s possible, but if you can raise it above the couch and widen it from six inches to a foot you’ll open up all kinds of possibilities for sidings, spurs, and industries.

Plus, I don’t know what your corner radius is, but it looks tight even for N-scale. You’ll be able to get more broad and much better-looking curves with wider corners.

And if you raise it, don’t worry about your 3-year-old. They don’t stay that young (or that short) forever. Trust me, I know![;)]

Steve

6

Ryan, given your druthers so far, you have a pretty nice space to work in. My suggestion is if you do not have it, go to the library or your local LHS and look at a book called 48 Top Notch Plans. There are several plans in that pub that should give you ideas on what can be accomplished in your size and also double as a family room.

7

My kind of layout - linear, along the walls.

This has some good features - you can build in stages - dogbone first, then extend along the walls. I agree that you might want to widen things enough to put in a few sidings / industries here and there. Then you’ll have the best of both worlds - you can have trains orbit and if that gets boring you can do some operating / switching.

It looks to me also that you do have staging here - it’s just visible instead of hidden, like David Barrow’s former Cat Mountain.

I would ask if you really want to do N-scale instead of HO. I think HO would keep the kids’ attention longer due to size and would also be easier for younger kids to start working with if that’s an eventual possibility. But you might be limited by shelf width. Just a thought…

8

It’s just me, but I’d think about losing the removable bridge. Too much engineering, risk, and trouble, in my opinion. I’d put in a penninsula with a return loop in its place. You might then separate the in and outbound lines by a couple of inches vertically on the left wall so that you are not just running back through the same scene.

I would also get Track Planning for Realistic Operation, if you don’t have it. I agree that a few more switching opportunities are needed, but those might shake out as you develop the plan.

9

Thanks for the help all… I am going to rework the main section of the layout over the weekend. Fortunatly, I have a lot of time since I won’t start contruction of the bench work until Christmas time. Gives me a lot of time to get kinks worked out for a resonable time frame.

For some clarifications / omissions from my requirements:

My curves are @ 14 and 16 inches radius curves, but I can make them smaller. Most of my rolling stock is 40-50 foot freight execpt for a few passenger cars (Amtrak Superliners). All Locos are 4 axel execpt for 2 6 axel AC4400 and 1 steam 4-6-2 Pacific.

Going with N scale because I can fit more on the space. Currenlty I have 8 locomotives (7 diesel, 1 steam) and about 70 various rolling stock pieces.

For the staging areas, need mainly areas of storage of rolling stock, doesn’t have to be hidden.

Here is where I am constricted by my Wife’s rules so I can keep up the layout year round.

  1. The area has to be able to keep our card playing table in the area and the couch. The Couch is 3 foot by 7 foot and the card table is 3.5 by 7 foot table.

  2. I can only put up a 6" Shelf along the walls where the couch and card table is.

  3. Any Pennisualas and bridges must be removeable. She prefers to not have them at all but allowed me the to have them so long as they can be removed when not in operation.

  4. I can have some play with bench size along the main wall, no bigger then 3 foot out.

  5. No dual layer systems. I got her make an exeception of an area below the main area which would be for hidden storage, possible Helix that goes only down. She has said that one layer is enough and I don’t need any more.

Hope that helps, Please keep the suggestions coming…

regross99

10

I would not tighten the curves. Leave them as wide as will fit in the space you can get and it will look and run better. So, you can’t negotiate a two foot blob at the lower left to turn around in, and then not need the bridge? I think the bridge could look great, but putting it in and out every time someone uses the area would get old. And I’m afraid with all the handing it would at some point get damages. And you have to put it somewhere.
I don’t think it would count a two decks to have one line a couple inches above the other on the same 6 inch shelf, would it?

11

Sometimes making a model of your model ahead of time helps. On my website I show you how.
Have a look, it is all free. :slight_smile:
Enjoy.