Over the past few weeks I have been tossing around ideas for my layout. In this time I have acquired a fair amount of material, and the design keeps changing. I have an 11’ x 11’ room available for this project. Initially I was thinking that a free standing island would be the way to go, but I have since been exploring both U-shelf and Donut with duckunder designs. I am currently sold on the Donut with duckunder. I am aware of the hassle of having to duck under to access the back, but I am willing to live with this in light of the extra potential the donut gives me for design. Above you can see a basic donut design I came up with a couple weeks ago, along with a U-shelf as well. I have heard a lot of different thoughts on my design here and on other forums, and I would like to see some actual plans as to what others would do with the space and budget that I have.
Here is the basic design criteria :
11’ x 11’ room with entry in lower right, closet to the left of this door.
Location is coastal Mexico, circa 1880’s. S scale using 16.5 mm HO track, that is Sn42 or Sn3.5
Industries to perhaps include but not necessarily limited to:
Gold / Copper Mine
Building stone quarry
Harbor with ore loading , log loading, and fishing wharves
Cannery (Tuna and/or Sardines)
Sawmill provided with logs floated in rafts from California
~$500 total budget, about $200 of which is already spent. This does not include the base cabinets that will form the structure of the layout, they were part of the “Hobby Room” of our remodel anyways.
Each of us has a particular preference of what he/she wants to do with the layout. For some, it’s operations, while others prefer just railfanning. Personally, I’m a “Builder,” and I get most of the fun creating scenery. Your layout should reflect the sort of thing you want to do.
The layout you’ve sketched has minimal operating potential. Even if you’re just going to let trains run round and round, you should consider some sort of yard, and a few sidings for those industries you’ve described. Plan for these things from the start, because it may be too late to add them later.
I started with a free-standing (free-rolling, actually, since I put casters on the legs) 5x12 foot layout in HO. When I got access to more space, I rolled that section over close to one wall, and built a shelf layout to attach it to in an offset-T configuration. It’s still a roundy-round loop, really, but it’s longer and there’s more space for industries. As retirement approaches and out time in this house likely grows shorter, I think more about shelf and less about island all the time.
I’ll leave you with a final suggestion. Consider a lift-off bridge, a hinged drop-down or a swinging gate to cross that doorway. Building your layout will take years. If you have a liftoff, for example, you’ll spend days or weeks where you never put it in place to run trains over it, but if you have a duckunder you will seldom walk in the room without silently cursing it. And, your curses will become quite audible every time you bump your head on it or rip the wiring out from beneath it.
I am not concerned about the duckunder, and you can rest assured that building my layout will not take years. I have single handedly built entire 1:1 scale houses in a year. This has already been hashed out in my previous posts both here and elsewhere. This layout will exist for a couple of years maximum, I am not trying to make the ultimate or most detailed one ever, just having some fun. I understand the desire to make “prototypical” switching layouts with no option for turning around, and I can tell you for certain I am NOT doing that . Watching a train go back and forth over the same 8 ft of rails has about as much attraction as watching ice melt to me. I have already heard all of these blanket negativity comments and they are as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Thanks for your input such as it is Mr B. , but I am asking for some actual useful suggestions in this thread.
If you could utilize more space, eliminate the closet, move the workbench and change the door to outswing, an around the wall layout will work much better within the space. Normally, most are concerned w/ tearing up and relocating walls, etc, but this should be a simple task as a builder. BTW, what’s up w/ the in-swinging 36" door to such a small space? If the entry door is placed in an alcove can it be moved to the “closet back wall” also? All these mods can be returned to existing if nec.
That’s the problem with guys like Mister Beasley who tends to offer polite, courteous and helpful advice. Better to cut it off early rather than implement any useful suggestions that could get in the way of your planning.
My suggestion, which I would like to consider useful, is to go to an around-the-room with a removable bridge (rather than a duckunder) that will allow free access to the closet/workbench area when not operating, combined with a swing-down curve on the back of the entrance door. The, “Other end of the bridge,” curve, if built at a normal around-the-room height, should allow plenty of clearance above the workbench. Suggested bridge structure? A 96-inch steel stud, installed open side up like a rain gutter.
Beyond that, my choice of prototype, scale and operational, “Givens and druthers,” wouldn’t be of much use to you, and I’d rather suggest a potential career path than try to design a layout for a stranger based solely on the available space and available pre-manufactured track components.
And, believe it or not, there is a use for a screen door aboard a submarine. I leave revealing what it is as an exercise for the dolphin-wearers among us.
Chuck (Ex-USMMA Cadet-Midshipman, Retired USAF MSgt modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Do yourself a big favor and design your own layout. You have everything set out to work with, and the only plan out there that will work is the one you create to your own satisfaction. No one else can do that.
One suggestion I have… design your layout without considering what turnouts or whatever else you have. A layout (usually) is a long term thing, and having to go buy a couple more new turnouts should not be a deciding factor.
Remember, those leftover turnouts often can be used for sidings and such.
IMHO, you are asking for a little bit too much. Designing a layout of the size you are asking for is not done within a few minutes - it´ll take hours if not days to do it. You won´t find many people in here who are willing to dedicate that much of their precious spare time for just a “How nice, but …”
If you are not sure how to design a layout, get one of the excellent Kalmbach books on how to design a layout, make your first draft and post it here. There will be a lot of folks helping you to work with you - on the basis you have provided.
I’ve been playing with trains & building layouts for almost 60 years. The design, benchwork, track laying, wiring, etc., etc., are as much of the hobby to me as running trains on a finished layout. I just don’t fathom why folks would want others to design/build a layout for them. That learning process, and skill development is all part of the hobby experience.
Of course we can help our fellow MR, and trade skills or advise or critique. And, I understand that there are some folks that literally can’t do certain things due to handicaps or “whatever”, and of course they need and should get help. But I don’t think this thread relates to that situation…
Sure he’s posted his challenge, but has anyone taken him up on it? I pm’d him on Sunday offering to help him design one, but under extremely different terms than he set out. Obviously, I haven’t hesrd anything… I guess because we are a bunch of idiots over here, and we get a little annoyed with rank newbies who slam folks who are trying to be helpful. I was somewhat critical of him, but if he’s going to go badmouthing people on other forums, then I’ll go ahesd and criticize in public. I told him that I had three issues with his challenge: 1) he must be open to criticism and suggestions, 2) anybody can design a layout with the restrictions he proposed: a loop of track around the donut and 2-3 sidings, and 3) he needs to forget about the budget and be realistic about what he’s going to need, how much it will cost and how long it will take (he probably got offended because I told him that we like to take our time and do it right rather than just slap it together).
