Ok, I am still planning my layout. I have come up with my umpteenth design and there is still something that I don’t quite like about it. I will try to give you all some info and if any of you have some advice or ideas you would like to give me I would really appreciate it. My wife doesn’t even look at the designs any more she just says “that nice dear”. She used to at least look for a couple of seconds before she would say that.
Ok, here goes. I have an area in my basement that is about 12’ x14’. I have two cats that inhabit the basement, and I would like to keep them off of the layout. I was thinking of building walls around it, but if I could accompli***he same thing without building full walls that would be great. I only have 2 of the walls that I need to worry about as the area is in the corner. I am thinking some where between 44" and 48" tall for the layouts lowest elevation. For the entrance I am thinking a lift out bridge should work. All of the aisles I am hoping are around 30 inches.
I will try to link a picture of it, but it is my first time trying this since I have just recently got an account with RailImages. If it doesn’t work, let me know.
There’s your picture.
I think that it’s yard tracks might be a bit too short. Maybe it’s a lack of single track mainline run. Maybe a lack of engine facilities, some interesting switching. Maybe if you think about it long enough it’ll come to you.
If you simply put up a backdrop on the 2 sides not against the wall, 2 foot high masonite or plywood, that would keep the cats off (probably). Of course you’d have to put something solid on the bottom of the layout too.
I’d bring the portion depicted at the bottom of the picture a little closer to the edge, not by much. Extend the lead to the staging area, and forget putting the reverse loop on a different level, you’ll end up with a pretty steep grade. Have the reverse loop connect back close the the lead, there would be 3 tracks going into the staging area. Get away from straight tracks in the staging area, curve them into the center area of the reverse loop. You could even extend the overall lead to the curve in the lower left, giving you even longer lead with some additional crossovers.
The track on the left side, maybe curve it towards the inside edge a bit to break up the tangent, a long gentle curve.
Also, what about a passing siding? Not sure what era or what size trains you plan to run, but if you want to run 2 at that same time, they’ll need to “meet” somewhere. Don’t think the siding to the left or bottom is long enough to accomplish a meet.
Overall, you have the track pretty crowded against the wall, I think you’re trying to get the most mainline trackage for the space. It will limit how you place industries though. I think if you “skooch” everything in a little, you’ll find you haven’t lost too much mainline and it will open up the scenery possibilities a lot more.
Overall though it looks good, lots of switching and running.
And I feel your pain with the wife’s inputs, mine just wnats to know when is the scenery and people going on!
Thanks Rick for the ideas, several of them I really like. This is the first draft of this layout idea.
A little more info about the layout. It is in a generic modern era (very flexable), but I am going to run with Cabooses as if they were never retired because I just love them too much. The section on the island is the interchange in Des Moines IA between UP and BNSF. The layout is basically the branchline from Des Moines to Albia IA, where it meets BNSF’s Mainline, which is the hiden staging.
My wife wants a mountain and tunnels and all that, but that is for sure not central Iowa. I might just have to very loosly base it off of central Iowa inorder to accomidate her. I want to keep her desires in it or else she will never show any interest in it ever.
I do need a decent passing siding, when I first started I had one at the top and it extended all the way over the lift out bridge. That area became way too busy. I would like to have as many online industries as I can have without being too busy. The prototype doesn’t have many that I know about at the present, however there were more in the past, and I was going to operate it much like then. Basically the layout with be from the past but set in the modern times. If that makes any sense at all.
Just do what you want. Imagine I came and made mountains in Iowa. Because I can…[:-,]
It doesnt have t be TOTALLY prototypical. It might get boring that way!
mountains in Iowa?..I used to live in Ottumwa…they got plenty big hills there…no mountains necessary…
One thing I’d do…and I’m not saying you need it…instead of running the staging yard out in only one direction…I’d try to add a right-hand curve, so you can run out both ways…
and yes, the yard tracks on that inside section look way short…true, they can’t get much longer there…but they look short…
My wife would like for me to explain why she would like mountains on the layout. It is because she is from Queensland Australia (Tablelands area). There are a lot of mountains in that area, and it makes her feel like home. I was having a difficult time coming up with an idea to hide the entrance to the hiden area (see Tree Tunnel post on the layout page) I could put a mountain there with a tunnel and that would work good, it could go from the entrance all the way to the corner, that would work.
I really want to keep her ideas in mind because she will be helping a lot in the scenicing phase. She really likes MRR, she just gets very board with the planning and technical side of it all, so that is my job alone to take care of with her desires in mind as well. I am still trying to convince her that a layout hieght of between 44 and 48 inches isn’t too high, but so far she is not convinced.
Lots of good advice, keep them coming. I need to go make the revisions to the plan but with christmas I have barely had the time to come to the board a few times a day.
I am interested is passenger service especially since I will probably going to operate it as it was 50 or even 60 years ago (as if nothing has changed in the time since), however I am hesitant since I don’t know much about passenger service, and I am not sure where to start.
Any advice you have for me on the subject Trainfreek or anybody else I would like to hear. How are you modeling a 60 year span on your layout by the way?
Farvefan, the Burlington ran it’s Zephyrs near the area, the UP would have its joint UP/CN&W City trains too.
I recall seeing a layout where the guy basically split it in two. Half was midwest and the other was mountains. You could do it by putting a view block on both sides, dividing it in half. The two halves would act as a stage for that area. Just be careful with the grades, cause if your going to have mountains, you gotta have grades!
You don’t have a yard lead. You want to be able to switch in your yard without fouling th e main.
You can extend your yard a couple of feet without messing too much with your access space.
I’m not sure you need the loop in the staging area. At best it turns a train around that runs in one direction, but it adds nothing to continuous running. You can run trains of both directions from you staging area without it and it will save you a lot of grief.
I would turn the peninsula staging yard so you enter the mainline going in the opposite direction. That way your staging yard and your visible yard will be pointing in opposite directions which is what you want. If you did that, I train could leave your peninsula yard, make as many loops around the layout as you want, then enter the staging yard head end first. It would work the same way for a train originating in the staging yard and traveling to the visible yard. The way you have it, a train would either have to back out of the originating yard or back into the destination yard. Rather than having a reversin loop and a stub end staging yard, why not combine them by using a multi tracked loop. That would give you an out-and-back schematic. I have a loop-to-loop plan with a 3 track loop at both ends. For most of my trains, I can park two trains per loop and for my short commuter trains, I can get at least 3 per loop. It requires me to schedule them first-in-first-out but that is no big deal. I also agree with the suggestions to add a switching lead to keep your mainline clear and lengthen the peninsula yard. Ideally, both yards could handle the same length of train.
I want to thank all of you for the suggestions and I will take all of them into consideration for the next plan that I am going to be starting very soon.
My wife decided she wanted to rearrange things and no as a result I am getting her old craft room for the layout. The nice thing is that I don’t have to worry about doing anything to keep the cats away from the layout as it is in a seperate room, and also I think it will be a bit bigger area 10x18 compared to 12x14. The problem is I haven’t done any planning for this space at all, so I am going to more or less start from scratch, although I will be trying to incorperate many if not all of your ideas, as well as some of the elements from the last plan.
Thanks again everyone, and as soon as I get something made up that resemble a plan I will post it on here and begin the whole process again.
