I have a wonderful layout filling a 14X14 spare bedroom in the basement. I then got the bright idea to expand it, and also filled a 20x15 adjacent room with a drop-down bridge joining the two. Due to a recent change in family circumstances, i have spent the past couple of weeks dismantling the expansion (keeping the 14x14).
Wow! What a relief. I now realize that it was never satisfying running trains in two rooms (when I could only keep an eye on one room), maintaining all that track and electrical, and dealing with double the repairs.
I’m so much happier with focusing on the quality of my smaller section, and being able to SEE everything that’s running.
You’re a wise man, Jack. Going back to “what you can chew” and maintain is the best move - even if it’s thrust upon you by “circumstances”. For me, quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. [^][tup]
There’s a 190,000sq ft warehouse available in Womelsdorf. Lets build a Z-scale model of the entire Norfolk Southern!
Family comes first. Anyone who let’s their train obsession interfere with a proper homelife has a problem. It is sad to learn of a layout shrinking, yet under the circumstances, it is more than understandable.
In many ways our concept of big layouts is flawed. It is my contention that the average person builds a big layout with a small layout mentality still craming stuff in and just making a big small layout. The advantage of a bigger space to me is the ability to make the turnouts and radii larger as well as the buildings and make a layout as close to prototypical as possible in appearance. My 20’ x 40 layout under construction could be done in 8’ x 16’ and won’t be much more maintenance than if it was smaller. We all learn sooner or later.
A number of year ago, and fairly recently to in a MR Planning guide, there was an thoughtful examination of size - read as dimensions. While DCC has made great strides in reducing the sometimes nightmare of wiring (as compared to DC cab control) - the real issue seems to revolve around the number of turnounts on the railroad and motive power units. For the typical modeller more is not always better - it has been suggested that much above 20 turnouts the average home layout suffers from the time required to build and maintain it all - regardless of physical dimensions and scale.
There is always a temptation to build a layout that is larger than we can comfortably handle due to limitations of time and energy, let alone money. I have seen too many modelers give up ever finishing a layout because they bit off too much at once. They reached a point where they didn’t feel like they were making progress even after building considerable benchwork. Some have never run a train and everything just sits there collecting dust.
That was one reason why I chose to use “dominoes” for my last two layouts. If I ever decide to expand, I can make the addition as large or small as I want, space permitting, and still have a mostly complete railroad that I can continue to operate.
I’m currently building a layout that is 12*25 feet. I think that is just about right for a home layout that I plan to use alone. Since the room is built for this and this alone and no one will ever be there, no pets, no kids no nothing I think maintenance will be easier since their is less dust and exposure to all kind of bad things. It’s also in a separate building so no grease from cocking and a stable temperature will be maintained.
I think it’s important to find a size that is OK for the time and money at hand. What that size is probably impossible to generalize about. The number of turnouts are probably the most important thing as well as the level of scenery one wants.
If you have to clone yourself and stand in two different places to operate your layout, it’s too big!
If you need roller skates to stay with your Super Chief as it reels off the desert miles (or your Pocahontas as it rips across Virginia at 90mph) your layout is too big.
If you need security cameras and multiple screens to keep track of your trains on anything other than hidden track, your layout is too big!
OTOH, if you can comfortably follow your mixed train from its terminal/main line connection, switching the odd car and working passengers and mail, your layout is just right - even if your main branch line follows a sinuous course through a room the size of a high school gym.
IMHO, the problem is seldom size, per se. It’s complexity. As a rough rule of thumb, complexity increases as the square of the number of switch machines (or manual switch throwing devices.) By that standard, a 25 foot square shelf railroad (all four walls) may be fine, while an ‘action-packed’ HO 4x8 might easily prove too big.
Just my [2c]. Other opinions are sure to differ.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on a layout that may someday prove to be too big)
The age old question. How big is too big? Linn Westcott touched on this point toward the end of his 101 Trackplans book. I think the chapter is titled “If I had a Million”. Even given unlimited budget and space, there are limits to what a model railroader can build and maintain. I think for most of us, what we would like to build exceeds what we are able to build. I had the fortunate circumstance of being able to design my retirement home with my dream layout in mind. Even so, I have on occassions second guessed myself as to whether my layout is too big for what is essentially a one man operation. I don’t think I will really know the answer to that for at least a couple years when I finally get the entire mainline scenicked and can begin full fledged operations. I have been working on this layout during the cold weather months for about 5 years and thought I would be much farther along than I am now. I’ve wondered if it might not have been better to have built something about half the size and got it reasonably complete. I haven’t yet reached the point where I’ve concluded I overreached. If I can get this layout up and running as I had envisioned long before I moved into this house, it will be worth all the effort that has gone into it. On the other hand, if it meets the fate of my previous layout that I got to a point of reasonable completion only to discover the concept and track plan were flawed, than I will have no choice but to conclude I tried to bite off more than I could chew. Having said all this, I am still optimistic that I made the right choice.
My last model railroad was fifteen years ago and the one under construction was limited only by past experience. We built a new house and we have a RR room 16x40 of unobstructed space for a pike. I am building a railroad u-shaped 12x16. I kept remembering all the maintainance that had to be done on the club layout and did I really want to go that big just to spend all my time keeping it running? I retained the option to add on later if there is a need but for now this is alot to chew for a start.
I agree that “big” is defined by complexity not square footage. My layout is sectional. if I ever move it into a bigger room, i hope i’ll have the discipline to just add some length between the sections and not add any more turnouts or other complications, just spread it all out a bit.
On the other hand, i don’t think a 20 turnout layout is that much more effort than a 10 turnout layout if built at once. The effort I am putting in to my little 10’ x 11’, 15 turnout layout is about the same as one twice the size. You still have to make the same design decisions. you still have to draw a plan. you still have to make the control system, and set up a PC. You still need to build a fascia, whether 20’ or 50’. The staging is about the same size. So is the workbench and the storage. you still need to do the research, develop the operating scheme… Once you factor in learning the techniques, buying materials and cleanup afterwards, then is scenicking 100 sq ft so much more work than scenicking 50 sq ft?
My latest layout is finally one that will challenge my modeling efforts (started in 2001). I have helped build 20 layouts over the past 25 years at our club (due to moves and a fire) and friend’s homes, so building my own layout was no big deal. I am in the process of helping 3 of my operators design their latest layouts now.
My layout is located in a 25 x 75 basement and has close to 3000 feet of track so far (am planning on adding another room soon and also expanding into my basement office)!
Is it too big? Maybe for some but I wish I had more room so I could build it closet to true scale distances.
Now this layout doesn’t have a lot of scenery YET! But all of the track that is down works and I hold every other week OPs sessions.
This is why I built the layout is to run it with friends. I even had all day sessions (12 hours) and can get as many as 40 operators.
As for maintenance I have ZERO. I never have to clean the track and the only derailments are operators running the turnouts!
I have given several clinics on how I finally achieved a ZERO maintenance layout.
Now this maintenance thing did not happen over night. I have developed the method from the 25 years of belonging to a club that has many open house events throughout the years and has 4 operating layouts. When the public is paying to see trains run they had better be running. So the club has developed ways of making the layouts bullet-proof!
I figured that if the club layouts would work this way then my large home layout could too! And it does!
Now, am I going to finish my layout (what ever that means)