i was just curious … what is the natural progression most people use when building a layout. do you complete every stage before moving on to another or complete 1 section to the full scenery stage. such as track laying then on to wiring and control then on to scenery … so on. share your thoughts
Dan
First I decide what I’d like to have in the layout as must haves. Then nice-to-haves. Then I map out my space and figure out how to maximize it.
Next step is to draw a plan incorporating the essential elements, and as many of the secondary items as I can reasonably fit.
Then I build the entire framework.
Next comes the roadbed, followed by the rail system. All of both.
Subsequently, I test all the rails by powering them and running typical trains.
Following the acid test, I begin the scenery. Again, I don’t deviate until it’s all done, although I sometimes work on a kit for a break, or I build trees. There is always some housework or yard work needing doing.
Last thing is to ballast and weather the tracks. As before, I do it all before I go on to anything else that occurs to me. I don’t find this approach tedious. It keeps the to-do list small, the time between stroke-outs of each item can be long, but I know I’m taking big steps when I am able to stroke out an item.
I know that some guys enjoy doing meticulous work, and they find it best applied to a single module at a time.
-Crandell
Build the benchwork.
Lay roadbed
Lay the track, wire the track, test the track. Do this for a small amount of track with at most one turnout. Repeat until all the trackwork is operational.
Scenery.
For a large layout, I might do the it section by section. But I haven’t done a large layout yet.
Enjoy
Paul
There are probably as many ways to build a layout as there are model railroaders. I for myself like to have a pretty precise plan of what I want to have. I break this plan down into a track plan, a benchwork plan, a wiring plan, an operations plan and a scenery plan. This may appear to be a bit of a tedious work, but as my layouts are usually fairly small, it is not that much of an effort. It also gives me the opportunity to check, whether the layout will work and look the way I want to have it.
After all these plans are finalized, I start with the benchwork, which I usually complete before launching the next steps, laying track and wiring. For laying the track, I make a 1:1 print of my track plan, which I lay out on my roadbed. When that is completed, I thoroughly test the layout to get all those bugs out of the track and wiring, which will inevitably occur. I then weather the track, ballast it and test the layout again, before I start on the scenery, which I usually do in several steps. It is always nice to have a already fully scenicked part of the layout.
Even with a highly detailed plan, things may need to be changed along the building process, after all, a plan is just a plan, or as Nikolaus Hayek once stated “A plan is just a trade off between chance and error”.
For a ‘last in this lifetime’ layout that will eventually fill a double garage, being built to a master plan that has been set in stone for 45-plus years:
Build enough benchwork to be free-standing in its planned final location - about 15% of total projected benchwork. (Steel stud C-acts-like-L girder construction.)
Slap on a layer of box cardboard to support a few meters of yard sale special sectional track and put a train on the rails (0-6-0T and three gons, for screws, track nails and rail joiners.)
Start erecting permanent subgrade (cookie-cut plywood on steel stud risers) and roadbed (foam.)
Start laying permanent track - at the site which will be hardest to access as construction proceeds. (Flex and hand-laid specialwork caulked to full-size track templates, which are fastened to the roadbed with the same caulk.
Start installing permanent rail drops, connected temporarily to a simple DC power supply.
Extend subgrade and track to the limit of existing benchwork.
Build more benchwork.
Assemble and install permanent control panel(s) as track completion and operation requires.
Repeat steps in approximately the same order, about a tatami (18 square feet) at a time.
At present my benchwork is about 60%, my track about 20% (all meant to be hidden) and I have one zone panel (of a projected six) in operation. I can run trains from one staging yard to the present ends of track. Once I’ve built enough railroad to surface into a place that needs scenery, I’ll start roughing in scenery. I will be totally unsurprised if the five-tiered pagoda on its hilltop is finis
Hi,
I think the short answer is “one size does not fit all”, meaning that we all have prioritized the different sequences of building a layout to fit our own needs. That doesn’t necessarily mean we do it the “best” way, or in the “right order” - for those are very subjective terms.
In example, I’m currently building an HO 11x15 two level, room filling layout. My first goal was to get as much layout as I could into the room, so designed the trackage to more or less fit the benchwork. I was fortunate as this is a replacement of a previous layout (1993-2008) so I had a lot to go on.
With the lower level trackage complete, I put in the outside (hard to get to) trackage of the main level, wired everything and thorougly tested. With that done, my heart wanted to build out the inner trackage - meaning the yard, loco terminal, industrial sidings, and the like. But my brain said “no”, its best to put in the transition (outer edge from main level to the backdrop) scenery first as it would be hard to get to later on, with all the inner trackage in the way. So I’m working on the scenery for the outside parameter of the whole layout, when I would much more prefer to finish out the trackage and wiring and run trains on a “plywood central”.
Anyway, my point is there are a lot of ways to attack building a layout, from doing each process completely before going on to the next, to building complete layout sections one at a time. That said, I suspect most of us work somewhere between those two extremes.
Mobilman44
I built mine in 8 foot segments.
I’ll be the heretic here…
If you build modules, you don’t even need a complete trackplan. [:P] (Just interface standards.)
After more-or-less finishing Phase 1 of my layout, I’ve now moved on, not surprisingly, to Phase 2. I’ve learned a couple of things.
First in both cases was planning. I drew reasonably-detailed track plans, in Atlas RTS the first time, and XtrakCad the second. My lessons from Phase 1 were: Don’t get hung up playing with either the plan or the computer program. This is called “analysis paralysis,” and it will just delay your layout. Buy your benchwork material and get out the tools. Also, don’t worry about the details of the track plans. You don’t have to get every piece on paper, just enough to make sure your curves will meet and not be too tight. You’re going to make changes anyway.
I’d like to say that another lesson was building my benchwork too low, but that was actually a design decision I have to live with. It is too low, but I’ve got one of those 45-degree rooflines, and raising the layout reduces the available space. Still, if you have a chance, play with some chairs and boards and figure out how high you want your layout. Remember, you will spend significant time beneath the layout, so make sure that’s comfortable. In my case, a couple of inches higher would have improved things a lot.
For Phase 2, I’ve planned my wiring beforehand. After the benchwork, I installed the DCC control bus, including throttle jacks, the track bus, including an auto-reverse unit for my reverse loop, and even a pair of lighting buses for structure and street lighting. I also figured out where I would “break” the track plan for zoned circuit breakers. This primary wiring is a lot easier to do from above, before you have foam, plywood or other sub-roadbed in place.
After that, I started laying out the foam base and laying track. I quickly found that I had one spot on the layout where it would be dif
I’ve got to concur with that heretic, nucat. After tearing down two basement-sized layouts because of a move and losing a lease, I’m only building modules from now on. I’m currently planning another basement-filler, but this time I’m building on hollow-core doors.
I’ve designed the whole layout. This first door is one of three that will make up the major city on the final layout (I’m working in N scale). It currently has an oval, but all I have to do is pull two pieces of flex to extend the mainline onto the next door.
Phase II, which will actually be the construction of two more doors, will happen over the next 12 months. For now, I have an oval, a passing track, two yard tracks, and a four-track packing plant. All the track except the 180-degree curves at the end of the tables are in their final positions.
No matter what size layout you’re building, my experience dictates that you’re best off staging construction so that you can begin running trains as soon as possible. It’s nice to break up the process so you’re not going months (or years) without cracking a throttle.
FWIW, once you get some trains running, try and leave a some of each task left to complete. For example, don’t convince yourself that you can not start your scenery until all of the track is laid. Try and mix the various task involved in building the layout so that you do not get burned out on one task. I have found that if I get burned out on one task I loose interest in the layout.
Just an observation,
Sean
i agree… i tend to move back and forth between certain aspect of construction even over to detailing diesels to break up the tasks. the reason behind this post is i have now got my mainline laid and operable but i am struggling to move from there. i have never had this issue before … i just ripped up the track and subroadbed in one town as i was not happy with the arrangement. and now suffering a planning block figuring out how to get what i want to see.
I appreciate your question. I would do it as my comfort level stayed high with any particular approach. My ‘style’ is usually to do every discrete ‘step’ wholely and then to move on to the next. But I would absolutely understand and support someone who felt more comfortable developing an in-depth approach to a confined space, develop it fully, and then move on to another.
There are no hard and fast rules in the hobby, although some orders of work make the next less hard if done first. For example, the backdrop is one of those things that needs to be done first, and it has no real purpose unless it completes a larger plan and ‘picture’. So, do the overall vision and plan, figure out where you should paint what, or which photo enlargement to apply where in relation to where elements of the scenery will be, and then build the bench in front of that. Reaching across everything nicely done to paint a matching backdrop just seems to me to be working backwards…and your back will not thank you if you are like me. [:D]
Maybe try it both ways and see how you like it. Just start whatever way you end up doing it with a clear idea of what the finished whole should be.
-Crandell