Folks:
My name is tim, and I’ve been lurking for awhile here and decided to jump aboard with a question. I’m newly retired and, with my own room in our house to practice my hobbies, I’m planning on a permanent setup for my postwar trains. When I was about eight, I inherited the trains of my older cousins. They each had a set containing a 2025, 6466W, a Sunoco 2 dome tanker, and SP caboose, a NYC gondola car, and a flat car. One of the flat cars is an Evans autoloader. There’s also a pair of 1033 transformers and an LW, which my parents bought when I inherited the trains. I’m guessing that these two sets were from 1952?
One of the 2025s died decades ago and I’ve just purchased a 2035 to replace it. I also have a 41 Army switcher and a couple of the 7" ore cars to go with it. i would like, at some time in the future, to add a 224 and some passenger cars to make my line complete.
My question:
My room is 13’2" x 11’. I have several other hobbies I’m pursuing in the room, besides an exerciser in the middle of the floor. So far, my plans have evolved to the layout described here: An outer loop hugging the wall with O straights and O72 curves on all four corners. An inner loop 4" inside, also O. These will be attached to the walls. My concession to modernity are two pairs of Gargraves O-100 switches, two RH and two LH. Each pair is connected to it’s mate on the curved sections, and one pair is deployed on one wall, with the other deployed on the other wall. This allows routing between the loops.
Beside the Gargraves switches, I have several pairs of 1121s. Each side with a pair of Gargraves has a switch that leads across the room to another level, one upper and one lower. Each level has a reversing loop. These are mounted against one wall, one above the main loop, and one below. By going across the room like this, I’m able to get enough room to pass under and above the main loop level.
So, most of the complexity