I know that I have not been around as much lately, but it seems that very few people are planning a new model railroad this season. I’m basing this reasoning on the fact that over the last couple weeks there have been little or no posts looking for critiques. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a figment of my imagination?
Long time - no see Chip…welcome back!..to answer your question, I’m still trying to finish the one i’ve already planned… :)…chuck
I think you’ll start seeing more now that cooler weather is rapidly approaching.
I am still separated from my permanent residence (and my wife) so I won’t be building a permanent layout. Looking to join a FreMo group and maybe doing some dioramas to gain some scenery experience.
Rick
I am planning a new one this year. Also planning on moving my home office into the same room, under the layout.
If I can figure out how to post a sketch (I guess I could just scan it) then I will be looking for ideas on how to deal with a couple of trouble issues.
Um… I just finished one this August… does that count?[:)]
I’ve been planning mine for a couple of years now but I’m waiting to move into my own home come this next summer (living with the inlaws since I moved back home to California). I then will convert the 3rd stall of a three car garage into my trainroom for my HO double decker MRL and BNSF of the Livingston side of the Bozeman Pass in Montana. The area where I spent most of my time while I was up at school at Montana State.
Welcome back!
I am working on that little question. I have two options one is a small room and the other is a open space. I am working thru the givens and druthers. Looks like at this moment it will be a small portable yard with a connecting to the main which will be one or two laps.
Wrestling with the various questions of the workbench and closet. Solved a few other problem areas already.
I would think a true model railroader is always planning for SOMETHING.
Cheers.
I am planning a new layout (my first), and have posted the plan here for critiques and comments, and have applied much of what I have learned here in subsequent revisions of the layout.
The plan is to start on the bench-work this weekend, but it’s not too late to make suggestions or comments!
You can view the plans and photos, and read about the layout’s design (location, industries, time period, etc.) here: http://www.whiteweasel.net/leonard/rail/index.html, or just look at the latest plan here 
.
Hi, Chip. I have been planning one and working on it, as you may recall. Truth is, my mind is always thinking of the next one. I can’t help it. Sometimes is it seeing something that isn’t quite right, in front of me, whereas other times I am doing decidedly modest "thought experiments " (sorry, Albert E.)
I hope that I will be able to submit a plan sometime for peer review, but I am still at the “proposal” stage.
Good to have you darken our door once again. [:D]
Not exactly planning a new one, but replanning my old plan for a new location. I am still unpacking from my recent move, and admittedly the layout is kind of at the bottom of the unpacking priority list–I think I’m going to take some aerial photos while it is still on the floor. Essentially, I will be expanding my old 8x18 foot plan into an 11x24 foot plan. For the most part I won’t be adding too much, since I am still modeling the same place, instead I will simply uncramp the current plan. Wider curves, longer sidings, and a bit more room for buildings and scenery. Hopefully once the weather outside is kinda dreadful I will have more things to show.
I noticed that I have been falling asleep in front of the tv. Now that that thing has broken down I am thinking about not replacing it but build a small n-scale railroad in it’s place. There is room for a layout about 6 by 4.5 ft in my living room for it. It would be much nicer to fall asleep watching trains (in trains is another matter) then tv!
Currently I am still in the fase of wanting to do too much in the space avaliable. Sofar I got this: on the lowest level river scenery, then a switching / belt line, then a double track mainline with a passenger station (suburban type), then a bluff and on top a small city. I want some storage space for trains underground and I am trying to figure out how to connect that to the top visible level.
I have some scenes in mind from Europe (Paris, France and Wuppertal Germany to be precise) that I want to Americanize and use on the double track main line. The switching / belt line will pay tribute to Bill Baumann’s Third street industrial district (it is in the book 48 top notch track plans and dates from the late 80’s MR).
greetings,
Marc Immeker
i’m planning one but being my first one it is kind of overwelming
Hey Chip!!! Good to see you friend! I have missed your posts very much and wondered what turn your life had taken in the last few months. Hope all is well. OK, now back to the topic. The Seneca Lake, Ontario & Western Railroad is now about 95% finished with the track and about 10% finished with the scenery. If expanding the old layout into a new room counts, then I am in progress!
If all goes as planned, I will be starting the benchwork for my 6x7 N scale layout this weekend! [:D][:D]
I am working on my first layout!! I started it in january and hope to be running trains by december!
Curt
[:D]HI Chip where you been?I’am starting my “N” scale,got main line down and running,but that is as far as I’ve gotten to date,Been thinking about “HOn3”
JIM
Welcome back! There have been a few the last few days. Does researching, planning, and working on modules count? I am doing scenery on 1 module bit by bit, and am planning/building a module set of the GN-WP interchange at Beiber, CA circa '47-'50 with some track already laid! There’s far to go pilgrim! jc5729
the girl and i started ours last weekend… im finishing the track as i type ( i love wireless internet btw )… and pictures will come soon… and some updates on the railroad blog 
Why Chip! I’m disappointed in you! You helped me design mine, and I moved into the new house just last week. As soon as some of the boxes are unpacked I’ll be breaking ground (sawing wood).
Hi, Chip. Long time, no see!
The “squares on the back of an envelope” phase of designing the new, improved Chrysanthemum Empire has yielded a large C shape with rolled in ends, 24 inch and larger aisleways, maximum “reach across” thirty inches (less the thickness of a two-sided backdrop.) The main aisleway is shaped rather like a squat T with droopy ends.
Since this isn’t my first layout (by a matter of longer than I care to admit,) or my first designed for this operating plan (by forty years,) I will be using LDE’s that are pretty well set in stone. Doubling my available space will NOT double layout complexity, it will simply allow me to spread things out - longer runs between the same stations (and a slower fast clock to compensate.)
As of right now, I need to get a couple more bundles of steel studs to complete the basic (all steel) benchwork. Tracklaying should begin (other than a recycled return loop) in about two weeks. The only down side is that my 26 year old end-of-track module is having a hard time fitting into the new scheme and may have to be heavily modified. (Since it’s all hand laid, 4 spikes per tie, total abandonment is NOT an option!)
Incidentally (harking WAY back to one of your posts earlier this year,) the new design has given me a logical place for my 5-tiered pagoda.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in 1964 - with tongue firmly in cheek)