After a long series of negotiations, my wife has finally allowed me to start building a layout in the breakfast nook of our house. She eventually gave in when I told her it would be something good for our son and myself to work on, since our second child is due in Sept. and Owen won’t be the focus of attention anymore.
Unfortunately N scale isn’t the best for a four year old, but it will give us the most opportunity to run trains. He is however very well behaved and listens pretty good most of the time, so I don’t think it will be too much of a problem in terms of him grabbing and going.
My size is going to end up being limited to a 36x80" door so I am either going to go with Byron Henderson’s Dallas on a door track plan (which fits my era and local) or some kind of Carolina Central adaptation. I’ve scrolled through the CC thread on the Atlas forums and they have done some nice work with that track plan. The only other question I have to answer is do I want to get trains running quickly and go with KATO Unitrack, or take my time and use Atlas C55 flex track. Too many decisions.
Congratulations!! The other boot just found my tail end. Son moving home, he and two kids need space. Guess where some of the space is coming from! Yup, the 13x22 promised trainroom. Darn!! Or words to that effect.
I might suggest a box under the train table with a Thomas Train in it for him to play with when he wants to play trains and Dad isn’t available. He can learn about making layout plans to get the train to run in a circle or do what he wants it to.
I’d suggest going for the Unitrack, which surprises me because I use Atlas code 55. But ti sounds like this layout won’t be permanent, or y’all might want to restart with more space. however, if you were to down the road expand I’d say go with the atlas code 55. Also, check out Dave Vollmer’s layout (he psoted a video of his new USRA 2-8-8-2 on this forum). He’s since expanded it to include a model of one of the Pennsy/Conrail yards (forget the name) but he has plenty of operations.
Here’s his latest thread I mentioned. he has a link to his website in his signature:
Approval? You mean you didnt just show up at home with a bunch of lumber like I did? The only detail I let out was that I was building a new layout and that it would be “bigger than the old one.”
Heh now where did all that free space in the garage go?
My loving wife has granted me land use rights in the former dance studio in the basement The room is 12 feet X 18 feet Now, being new to this wonderful hobby I need to formulate a list of questions I need answers to.
Scary. Someone I assume is qualified SS and a missile tech and needs permission of a Non-qual Woman to build a small train layout??? And I thought Mc Crystal was bad. Submariners used to have gonads. [:D]
You ever try telling a 7 month pregnant woman your going to do something that involves relocating the kitchen table? I’ll turn in my Fish before I attempt that. Besides there was no procedure for it, and MT’s aren’t allowed to just wing it. [;)]