My layout was about 100 square feet. It will be a bit smaller this next time around. I would call both the previous and next ones “medium.”
How much time do you have? If I took all the time I spent building it and divided that by the physical size, I would get about one month per square foot. So, my 100 square foot pike took a bit over 8 years. Rebuilding would be quicker, because all the rolling stock is weathered, all the structures are built, painted, detailed and weathered, and all the locomotives have decoders.
I sincerely hope I am wrong, but this strikes me as one of those opening posts by a newbie that gets everyone wound up…and then we never hear from you again.
In the words of someone we all know, “What difference does it make?” Most of us have a fixed amount of space, time and money. One of our members has expanded his basement twice, a huge undertaking in itself, to have a 2800 sq ft layout.
Big by any definition, but how much are you up to building/creating. I would need another lifetime to fill 2800 sq ft.
I’m an HO guy but in N scale, even 4x8 in N scale, doesn’t seem big enough forme. You have to consider how much you want to detail your railroad, what sort of operations you want, vs round and round.
None of our railroads are ever finished, but maybe you would be happy with tracks on bare plywood and Walthers buildings assembled without any extra painting or weathering. Some of our members are into ultra detail, Mel and Doctorwayne are only two of many that super detail every scene. Are you up for that?
I suppose if I was having a custom model railroader build my layout, small, medium or large would have relevance. That would take most of the fun away.
Thanks for the input, everybody. It sounds like big is “whatever I’m willing to dump the time and money into” while small is “enough to keep me motivated.” As of now, I’ve got a half-finished layout that used to fit under a twin bed until I added legs to it. It’s been around longer than I have, and it’s kind of become mine by virtue of I’m the only one doing anything with it.
I’ve got some experience and plenty of energy for all this, but almost literally no time or money, as it all goes to school and work. I’ll be around, though, lurking in the shadows and gleaning bits of wisdom… Who knows, I may even work up the guts to post pictures!
I’m honoured to be mentioned in the same sentence as Mel (or many others here) but I only detail some items, and definitely not much of the layout itself.
Right now, I’d say that my medium-size layout is about 3/7s or 3/8s “done-ish”. Most of the portion under the fairly-recently added upper level is close to presentable, as is part of Dunnville, the largest town on the layout.
Some of the rest has basic landforms, but no scenery such as ground cover, trees, structures, etc., etc. Some, mostly the peninsula leading to the upper level, has only track - no landforms, just an open drop, on both sides of the roadbed, straight to the concrete floor.
The partial upper level has useable track all the way to staging, but not much else. I have the rest of the track, the structures, even most of the scenic materials on-hand, but am too busy with other stuff - some not involved at all with model railroading, and some very involved with model railroading, much of it for others, along with a long list of specific locomotives and cars that I want to build for my own enjoyment.
There are days when I think that it’s time to simply be done with it, and other days when I feel like I can go on forever.
There are no standards or bright-line breaks between sizes of layouts, in a square-footage way of measuring.
The way I think of it generally follows room size, since the size of our layouts generally max-out the available space devoted.
I would say that a 4x8 is a small layout
A large-bedroom size layout or single garage size layout is a medium layout.
And a double garage size layout would be a large layout.
Of course, each of these layouts could be in a different location than described, like in a basement, but the room size defintion, IMO, works well.
With that in mind, its probably rare for a MRR to build a large N scale layout, if all choices are equal. Given the choices of space and scale, and that the size of our layouts tend to be driven by whatever space we have available, most would likely choose HO scale if they had a double garage or a basement to fill. But I’m sure there are many large N scale layouts around also.
I defnitely hear that; as a working professional with a family, time and resources for my (definitely small 4x6 HO) layout are thin. But I find that if one is dedicated, and can manage 15 minutes a day, or even an hour a week, progress can be made. As for money, my miniscule hobby budget comes from recycling and selling off former hobby stuff. The artifacts of my misspent 20s are building my layout.
The hobby’s the thing, size doesn’t matter unless you have gone too large to enjoy the hobby by not being able to get and/or keep things running properly.
As time passes children require less of your attention and having a layout to work on already no matter what the size helps with a seamless transition into a different phase of your life. At some point you are likely to have more than enough time for trains, life is a journey, not a destination.
Originally was going to do a 4’ x 8’ and grew into 9’ x 10’. Based very loosely on the Burlington Northern project in the 1990 issues of MRR with a Cheyenne theme. I think it is small but feels big for the work to be done. About as much I could get in the room. This is 5 months of work. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever get done. Maybe took on too much for my first layout.
My layout will never be finished even though I call it a smaller layout. My worst problem is I always find something new or something that needs changing or modifying.
I haven’t been able to run a train on my layout in over a year because I started a mod to install my Arduinos in my control panel. During the up grade I’ve changed all kinds of goodies, while I’m working on it I continually find more things that need changing.
The Bakersfield heat doesn’t help, my layout is in our garage. The garage is well insolated but not cooled. I guess I should feel good because I can still work on my layout at 82, growing old definitely doesn’t help ones hobby.
It’s suppose to be cooling off and when it does I’m really going it get after it. I hope to have my Small Layout back running before Christmas.
As for the size of ones layout it really doesn’t mmake a difference as long as one is happy with it. I used to feel bad because my layout was so small compared to some of the layouts shown on this Forum but there is no way I could have anything larger t
I too model in N scale, and am currently building a layout that is essentially a large rectangle, 12 feet by 42 inches. I don’t consider this “large” or “small” but for me, it’s “right.” I’ve attempted to build a room-sized layout, only to never get it beyond the plywood central phase, and then have to rip it up to move. Conversely, I’d not be satisfied with a 4x8 sheet of plywood - it’s a matter of preference, vision, finances, time, and how long you hope the layout lasts (I’ve learned I have to have a sectional layout that can move when I do).
The key is: what do you want to accomplish, and what would you be willing to surrender (no one can have everything they want)? John Armstrong’s old key of Givens and Druthers is a decent tool for prioritizing. Also, Lance Mindheim’s blog offers some good advice on how to determine what’s right for you.
