Sup guys been awhile since the last treck on planning my layout. Got a new room for the layout but no ideas.
10 by 17 rooom and no ideas. HELP. HO scale round the walls with penunsula. thats what i got so far. modern era
J.W.
What do you like? Mountains? Bridges? Towns? Industry? Long Runs? Switching? Trees? Deserts? Those questions will help you decide wat to put on the penusula and around the walls. One guy put a different season on each wall.
What about grades, radius, etc. All frieght? 85 foot cars? If you plan on six axle diesel, try to keep the track above 26" rad. on curves. Even with that some will derail if you got any bad track work.
Code 83, hand laid turnouts, factory made, or a combination of them?
What about roads… prototype line or freelance? Operations or just let them run. That is always fun!
Dan
check an older MR for any layout by John Armstrong. he had a list he sent to potential customers called givens and druthers. Givens are thing you have to have ie. an engine terminal, yard, major station, certain scenery, mainline, etc. Druthers are thing you would like to have ie. large radius curves, branchline, division point, certain industry. Now all of those mentioned could be givens or druthers depedendent on how you value them. From that you can start to narrow down some ideas of what you want to do and then what you can do.
thanks guys this has helped the bug…
went to the library and got a pile of books. one of the books is walk around model railroad trackplans by don mitchell. it was model railroas handbook 29. in the book there is a plan called bekin united rr. built using two 8’x2’6"x1’ sections. its got a double main, a given switching , given and a yard, given , its a shelf point to point that could be connected to another module, but i im gonna use that as one corner of the layout and go fronm there. gonna use xtrcad and work a plan and post that. thanks for getting the juices flowing.
jw
Even though you got a start, it still might help to read my beginner’s guide clickable from my signature. Takes about 5 minutes.
This is a diagram of my 24’x24’ garage loft, around the room layout. I realize that it is larger than 10’x17’, but it may give you some ideas. There are 96 electrically controlled turnouts, 6 reverse loops, and 3 wyes, to maximize the number of possible routes, with 4 Power Districts, on the DCC HO layout
That one will be a very good starting point.
You need to think at least 28 inches radius. If you are in the modern era, there are large high cube 89 foot boxes and very big autoracks. If you have the room (Looks like you do) to swing such large equiptment then you should not ever worry about anything availible in the hobby except Brass engines built protoypically and require huge radius to work.
As Ive been playing with rts, that xtrcad is too damn complicated, I got room for 30r curves. Thats a given. trying to get as much railroading in as possible in my space. Ive learned that a spagetti bowl does not constitute the railroading that I want to do. Givens for my layout are double track main, diesel service facility, small yard, some switching possibilities ,and rail fanning…you know running trains.
On to a question. On one wall of the roon there is a window. In this window is the A/C unit for that room. Since this room is second floor I gotta have the A/C. Want to run the shelf past the window to get a long run. What can I do about the A/c unit? The window starts 3ft 1/2inch off the floor and is 3’ 7" tall by 2’7" wide. Want to do my benchwork at chest level.
Any input will rock!
J.W.
Oh yea thanks for the incouraging words
What I did was got rid of one AC unit and freed the window. The digital Thermostat upgrade made it possible to more tightly control the house and rendered the booster AC surplus.
I have a feeling you will run track anywhere you think you can get away with. I would consider some form of airflow shield so your hot locomotive doesnt condense when it hits the A/C.
Is this the only window in the room for the AC? I don’t know how feasable it would be or if you’re able to move the AC unit and do a thru wall. Shure as a carpenter it’s easy for me to say. I don’t know if the second floor window faces the street, side ? Positioning the unit in the upper sash is an option, but will require some creativity infabricating a solid support.
The only way to cross the window/ AC unit at that height will be to keep the benchwork out away from the window. A short backdrop can hide the unit and hopefully not affect the circulation too much.
Your yard would obviously need to be along the long wall. 10 ft won’t give you much of a yard figuring the turn and yard ladder. You don’t what to design a curved yard, especially with that much run. You also do have plenty of distance to drop below for additional staging or at least design the layout/ benchwork to accomadate it for a future project.
In my spare bedroom/train room (in the basement), one wall has a window that also has to serve as an emergency escape. Rather than lose most of the whole window wall to an aisle for access to the window, I’m thinking of putting a removable section that would fit in place against the window casement as needed for operations. The window is 50" wide, so the removable section will have to be built light to lift and store on a bookshelf normally. This makes the removable section about 52" by maybe 6-8" wide, and will be my staging tracks that complete the continuous run (no scenery anticipated).
Just some thoughts
Fred W
Well here is the first run. #6 turnouts on main 4 on branches. 24r minimium main around 30. The 2 crossings are really double slips, top space is window right is the closet and the entrance to the room is on the bottom of the diagram, let loose the dogs of critisism!
thanks for the input
J.W.
I guess I will take the first shot here.
Where is room for your buildings and industry? Where is room for your scenery.
At first glance, it is a spagetti Bowl. Now dont let me be raining on your parade, you are doing well. But tell me why the track is the way it is… how do you plan to run it?
FVRR- I think youre right Spagetti bowl. Looking at again it is. Think im trying too hard to get a bunch of railroad in my space. Gonna go back and try this again.
J.W.
I think when people produce a lot of track in a design, they are dealing with two misconceptions:
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That is you want to create a lot to do, more track equals more to do. This is false to a certain extent. IF you want to create a lot to do, you create an organized operational plan and feed the layout with staging. IF you don’t understand what I just said, see my article, What is Staging and Why do I need it?
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That to make a layout plan, you take your space and fit the track to it. While this is kinda-sorta true, the first step is focusing in on your vision. Your vision has buildings and waterfalls and bridges and mountains and Shay’s chugging lumber or Dash-9s on coal drags. When you see your vision, I’ll bet you have to look really hard to see the track because in the grand scheme, it’s not important to your vision.
Your vision determines your era and location
which determines your industries and scenery
your industries are determined by available models (or your scratch-building talents)
the available models address the track with in a certain way and have shipment requirements
this determines how your track will be laid
You just have to figure out how to put that into your space.