I have a dream for the future. One day I want to build a big D&RGW (1950-60) layout. This is many years into the future, I don’t even know if it’s gonna happen. But dreaming is also a part of this hobby. I want a really long mainline so I can model some of the places between Denver and Salt lake city. Or maybe it will be between Pueblo and Salt lake city. I don’t know at the moment. This picture shows the space I have. I’m thinking multideck or maybe even tripledeck. And I must have a helix or a similar solution somewhere. I must be able to take it apart into modules if I must move to another place. What’s the best I can do to get a really long mainline within this space? Feel free to move this around in any way. 0,6 m wide benchwork around the walls like this is just a starting point, nothing is decided. The dark gray area can not be used, only the bright gray and yellow area. I know that you guys have many great ideas.
I have almost the exact same dream. Ours will be roughly 15x22, possible two levels. I want the Grande to come alive in a BIG way. I’m thinking the Denver to SLC would offer a huge variety of operation and scenery. What a cool dream!
One of the ideas for the helix is to build it as a tunnel. A helix is a place where the train dissapear for a long time. And I wanted to do something nice around that fact. I ended up with the following idea. What can be better then the 6 miles long Moffat tunnel [:D]
Enter the helix will be the same as enter the Moffat tunnel, and when the train reaches the end of the Moffat tunnel it’s on a different deck. What about that? I need help to take the idea futher.
But the idea of having long trains can sometimes present problems which I have run into on my home layout. Now with a big room (25feet x 75 feet) you would not think that I would have these problems but I do! The main problem is having the engines in one town and the Caboose 2 towns away and the rest of the train in another town trying to switch out the industries. Somehow this never seemed right.
So to have the long mainline a lot of towns are going to have to be left out and there goes the local switching.
If running long trains is the focal point of the layout then this will work. But it seems so many of the layouts featured in the model magazines are built this way but soon get rebuilt and many are on their 3rd or 4th layout. They are not happy with just watching the trains run.
I know our club members are tired of watching the trains just run around in a circle after a show and this only for a few days, not a lifetime layout. I moved away from that layout design after my second layout. But then again I am Ops type of person.
Thanks for you great input. The idea is to have long trains, or may I say, longer trains than I can have on the current layout I’m building where maybe 4-5 cars is the most I can use.
I think the ultimate way is to have trains so long that it feels like a real train, but not so long so the caboose is in another town, that’s just too long for my taste. A balance between long trains and great swithing possibillities is ideal for me. The other idea I have is to incorporate the Zephyr, running between Denver and Salt lake city with all the cars it use to have.
(Edit) To have a long mainline was maybe the wrong way of saying it. What I mean is I want a long way for the trains to travel so I have room for a
This is where some pre-planning now comes in handy down the road when and if you are able to build that dream layout.
You need to measure the length of the cars and engine. This will give you the basic train length. It is nice to have a minimum of 1 train length between towns. Two towns would be better. So if each the passenger cars are 8 inches long and you had 10 car including the engine now you are looking at a train length of almost 7 feet. The same goes with a freight using the standard 6 inches for an HO car and having 15 cars plus 2 diesel engines and a caboose we are talking 8 to 9 feet long. This takes up a lot of wall space just for one train.
Just something to think about!
I can not personally understand how many of these layouts featured in Model Railroad can run 25 plus cars in a train in a 25 foot long room!
I have 4 ft aisles on my layout but then again I planned on having 10 to 15 operators working my layout, so wide aisles were a necessity.
I probably would have opted for nothing less than 3 even if I had not planned for lots of operators. Trying to pass someone in a narrow aisle always seems to be a problem. I operate on a layout with 30” aisles and we always have to back into a corner to let anyone pass and this layout is a true walk-around point to point system. It isn’t easy!
