New to the forum and to the hobby. I have been interested in trains ever since I was a kid. At one point growing up we did live by the main CP Rail tracks going thru Athalmer, BC. We would always go walking along the tracks, finding spikes and stuff. I really wished I would of kept them. The trains that would go thru the area are generally coal trains. Watched the trains change thruout the years. I grew up in the 90’s and watched as they changed locomotive type, how they distributed the power thru the train, how the coal cars changed, the disappearance of the caboose.
I personally love the CP Rail Multimark paint scheme.
I am going to be starting my own model layout in HO scale. I have moved a whole bunch of stuff to make room for it. I have attached an image to scale of basically the type of layout I will be creating. I still need to figure out the best way to do the entrance into the room, any suggestions would be awesome.
I want to eventually get at least one of each type of rail car (not passenger). I will probably be going the NCE DCC route as I was watching a couple video’s and I think I prefer it over the Digitrax.
On one part of the layout I want to have an area where they can load LPG cars, one area that grain cars are loaded, and one area that is more industrail (think box cars and gondola’s).
I have been watching a few video’s on YouTube about how to make scenery.
I work at a lumber yard, so have easy access to lumber. The frames I am making out of 2x4’s (cheaper than 1x4) and then I will have 1x4 for the cross members and then 1x3/1x2 T legs and then I will top it with 1.5 inch rigid foam. I am going to make the benches probably 44" tall as I am 6 feet tall. I will eventually be cutting a tunnel thru into the closet with a 32" wide by 5 foot long stagging yard.
Welcome to the forums. Your posts will be moderated for a brief period of time, so you may experience a delay in seeing them.
First, I would consider changing the length of 1 & 2 so that you could put a gate in the opening. There are lift outs (if you have a place to store them), swing gates (which it appears could swing in to the right, but it would be crowded), drop gates that hinge down (but if you plan much scenery it it is in danger of getting knocked off) and my preference a tip up gate. The hinges do have to be on top of the layout for them to work peoperly, but they can ge disguised in several ways. You could also make your gate not as wide as the rest of the benchwork, which would make it lighter and easier to handle.
I have an NCE set up and like it. Others that have other brands will swear by their brand. The advice I was given was to find out what others in your area have, especially if there is a club, then get that brand so that you cnn participate in group activities and run on other layouts with your controller and they can come to yours. Also, if you have questions you have a group of people close by that are familiar with the setup.
I would suggest a selector plate for your staging yard, so as not to eat up too much space with switches.
Personally I’d make it higher. The chart is 2 different threads on layout height. I made some arbitrary judgements. If someone said their layout was 50 - 52" I entered that a s 51". If they said there were levels at 42 and 55, I entered both.
Mine is at 48.
You are younger and more nimble than most of us, but a crawling on your hands knees gets old in a hurry. I would have a swing down or lift out section. There are a couple videos in the MRVP subscription service which show how to do that so that power is cut off before and engine falls in the abyss (if the gate is lowered) and the rail to rail connection lines up correctly.
Thank you for the suggestion. I had a look at that plan and it is similar in size to my current room. I could actually make that plan a foot wider, but then the only problem I have is the walk in closet at the bottom right. It does give me some good ideas though, thank you.
Right now I have 6 feet of space in the middle of the layout, but I could probably easily get away with reducing that to 4 feet I’m guessing?
I was thinking of making the gate a bit narrower than the rest of the layout and have it be more of a corner type piece with just 1-2 tracks running over it, not exactly sure yet. I think the door is in an awkward place (I’m removing the actual door) and wish it was to the left about 12 inches.
I watched a couple video’s on YouTube about NCE and Digitrax, which I think is what most clubs around here are using, and I personally like the NCE one better from what I saw in the video’s. I also probably won’t be going to any of the local clubs as I’m really new to this. I think the hardest part for me will be the scenery. My dad is making a layout in his garage as wel
Ya, I wasn’t exactly sure how tall to make it. I was thinking 44" because I have my nieces that will come over and want to be able to see it and they are 3-9 years old right now (4 of them!), but being as I am 6 feet tall, I think 48" would probably be a lot easier on my back. I just turned 34 and having to crawl underneath, really isn’t too much of a hassle and later on I could always take and change it out to something where I could walk thru, but am still taking suggestions and ideas on the best way for at least the main entrance into the room. Basically I am removing the door and there is only a couple of inches from the door edge to the wall, but I probably only need a 1.5-2 foot path thru…
Don’t make the mistake of building bench work first and then trying to fit track onto it. That usually doesn’t go well. Instead design a track plan and the make the bench work to fit it.
Welcome to the hobby and to the forums! [#welcome]
I would agree with what Richard said about changing some of the benchwork parts. I would change parts 1, 2 & 3 so that you have a natural gap at the entrance to the room. To be specific, shorten #1 so that it lines up with the door opening, eliminate #2 entirely, and extend #3 to fill in the gap left by #2. That will give you two solid benchwork edges on either side of the doorway to mount your removable span to.
As far as how to bridge the gap across the door opening, there are many viable possibilities. My old club used a lift out anchored in place by using 3" door hinges with removable hinge pins. It worked reasonably well but getting the hinge pins into place was fussy, and as the seasons changed it wasn’t possible to get the second pin into place at all. It still worked but the rail gap at the end where the pin wouldn’t go in became considerable.
You might want to consider using a system that doesn’t require quite as much fiddling to get it into place. I’m sure others will offer advice on how to cover the gap at the door.
A “not to scale track plan sketch” gives you a start, but, it can lead to disappointment come time to lay track.
Take the time to do a track plan to scale. There are templates you can use for turnouts, etc., to get the size and spacing right.
I also like the fact that you include a staging/storage space. Just make sure it fits it’s purpose, as far as train lengths, and has access from both directions of your layout.
What free software would you recommend? I downloaded SCARM, but am having trouble figuring it out.
My model layout is based loosely on rev 5.11 Heart of Georgia, that I have expanded and changed a bit to suit my layout size, and then adding the staging yard in the other area.
I’m the wrong guy to ask for track planning software, as I did mine “old school”, paper, pencil, and scale rulers.
I’m sure others will jump in and advise to what programs are good. I do understand that most programs have the sizes of things like turnouts all figured out, as far as manufacturers, but I’m not sure.
While I have used WinRail as well as SCARM, which I very much like, I cannot recommend any track planning software. Each has quite a learning curve to, just like any CAD program. While track planning software helps you draw your track plan, it does not design it. For that process, you need to know how railroads operate, what type of operation you want to emulate, and last but not least, some basic knowledge of how to wire a layout, because that may influence your choice of layout design.
My best recommendation to you is to get the Armstrong´s book on how to plan a layout for realistic operation, available through our host.
+1. There are a number of areas of the Original Poster’s sketch which won’t work the way they are drawn. This is especially true in the staging area, where the frog angles and curve radii are much too sharp to actually be built. Both the number and the length of the staging tracks in the clear will be much less than drawn.
You could also go old school and get a pad of 11x17" graph paper and use a compass to draw your curves. If you draw a scale on the plan, you can set the compass to certain radii and draw in curves and be sure everything fits as intended.
This is the plan that I am roughly basing my layout on, but expanding it. It has all the turnouts and radius’ on it and I am really just making it longer and wider and adding/changing a couple of things.
I designed my own layout after reading lots from various sources, including Armstrong’s book. I also used pen and paper - I’m too busy to start learning about new software for designing just one layout. The key thing about paper is that you need to calculate the squares for switches and curves. Aim for a minimum radius (depending on what you want to run). Many here would say that 30’’ radius curves is a minimum for a mainline operation. I think that 24’’ works fine if you don’t operate extra long equipment or brass engines. Anyway, if you aim for say 28’’ radius, that means that a quarter of circle will eat up 28’’ by 28’’ on your layout, plus a few inches for ballast and side-play. For the switches, as mentioned by others, you need to measure at the very least the proper length for the switch itself, and then calculate the space for the outgoing track. Mine was a bit off when I actually got down to laying track, but give yourself some wiggle room and it should be fine.
About the plan itself, if you really like to run trains, I would consider having a double mainline. A single mainline will look ‘longer’ and have more visual appeal. It also leaves more space for scenery and buildings. But if you want to run trains, especially with others, a double line is a lot more fun.
One last point. Duck unders are a pain, especially if you need to carry things to the other side, like cars to a staging area. I installed a hinged liftout and never regretted it. Do a search on google and you will find a few good threads on this forum on how to build one.
John Armstrongs “squares” discussion is the only part of his book that I didn’t work with my brain, so I tossed it out but everything else was very helpful.
I’d only go 24" if you are running 60’ rolling stock or shorter, but that’s me. Everyone has different tolerances for curves.
