Starting a layout in nscale and not quite sure what to do with the space. Plan on going with 1930-1960 era great northern in n-scale.
This is a picture of my benchwork space with dimensions. The benchwork is built. and currently has 2in foam as a top.
any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I like the concept, it’s rather unique, though, I’d make the one foot section, two feet, just for more room, but seeing as it is N you can probably get away with it. Good job so far.
–Austin
the 1ft section is actually 1ft 7inches so it’s almost 2feet but the odd shape is due to two constraints… one is the furnace (where the short 5ft section is at the bottom of the drawing) and the other is my life…which I would lose if I took one more inch of space (or so I was told by the wife).
the problem is I have no track plan and have not been able to find anything that would fit this odd shape.
Well, I’d use thos square sections as turn around loops, and that 5 foot section as a staging yard. The rest could be mainline, with a secondary line hidden in the mountains or something.
–Austin
From my point of view you have the cart before the horse. By building the benchwork you have limited the plan, although you can change anything. Before you can come up with a really good plan you need a vision. I wrote an article a while back on how to come up with that vision. You can get to it by clicking on the picture below. It’s called a “Space Mouse’s Beginner’s Guide to Layout Design.”
Hi Henry,
I got your Email, and a few of my questions have been answered by what’s in this thread. If you could get me the rest, maybe we can get something going on.
Austin has hit the nail on the head for a yard area. That leaf would lend itself quite well for that. He also pointed out that the two 4ft blobs could be loops to provide continuous running, if that’s what you desire. A large town or small city might do well on the left side, whereas the top could be more rugged mountains.
GN in the transition era, huh? How big of steam are you wanting to run? How about full length passenger cars? Those will have a lot to do with determining the minimum radius.
Yes I do realize your correct but due to a female dwarf with a large frying pan I had to do things this way. I had no choice about the benchwork design from the start…the height, and it’s layout as shown in the picture were predetermined from the start.
You still need a theme and a purpose. Once you develop those you can create scenes that can then be linked together. These scenes can be a series of industries, towns, scenery, etc. But they should all fit your theme. You have your road name and a 30 year era, now you need a location. The location will determine first your scenery then the scenery will determine your industries and the support track (yards, etc.) to operate your layout.
And just to add to the above, dont jump in thinking ‘that will do’, it’l end in total failure and frustration, i speak from experiance[:)]
Hey Chip, have you been reading my Emails to Henry? I sent him one a short time ago saying the exact same thing! [:)]
Can you narrow that down a little more either on both time period and location?
The Great Northern has geography and vegitations choices from Pacific Rain Forest, Sierra Mountains (including the electrified division), high plains (desert), Rocky Mountains, great plains, midwest farming, and iron range / great lakes stuff. Almost way too much to work with without some more direction.
The GN also dieselized relatively quickly so there isn’t much “transistion”. In1956 it began the modernization with the stylized goat and cartoon goat and all the colorful green & vermillion cars (they color coordinated so well with the orange empire builder scheme [V] ).
N-scale
Try this link to the layout party. http://layoutparty.disisus.com/index.php
Keep in mind it’s a small forum, with low activity, and it may take a few days for a response. Browse under the under medium and large layouts you may find something you like or can modify to fit your needs. Check it out, it won’t hurt.
Switchman
Yes I can see where you and space mouse are coming from. I prefer the older diesels so the fact that the GN quickly dieselized is to my advantage since I do not anticipate having more than 1 or perhaps even no steam engines.
The scenery aspect you mentioned is obviously important since I cannot model that great of a range I do realize.
I like the idea of mountains and while I love the great lakes region I cannot bring myself to put that much water on the layout due to it’s percieved complexity for a new person to model. I wasn’t thinking beyond one river. The desert scenery aspect can easily be eliminated because I have no interest in modeling that. To try to narrow things down era wise I would have to say the 1940s. This allows the possiblity for having a steam engine but will enforce the idea of mostly older diesel engines. I would like an industrial area where the consists can run through as well as taconite and perhaps a small logging operation where I could have a shay run. I don’t know if I can work in the interchange of the NP into this…I realize they were competitors but have seen pictures of the NP engines at GN facilities in M
Okay, now chunk your space out into scenes and link the scenes together. In your head see the mountains, etc. and imagine the industries that would be present in the mountains in the 40’s. If you don’t know, it’s time to hit the books or the net.
the 11ft area*: I see a mountain cliff with two tracks going up to the left and in front of that an industrial area with a through yard in front of the industrial area.*
the middle of the 13ft section has a 2.8ft drop down area (13in below benchwork top) which I had planned to put a river with 3 bridges over it.
to the left of the 11ft area I see a loop and on the 5 ft area another loop with a turntable in the middle that connects back to the through yard.
This is actually going to be a pretty large layout (~100 sq. ft.) in N scale so I would take the time to really plan it out. After all, it will take you probably 3 years to build it and so spending a month developing a track plan is a modest investment in the greater scheme of things. Planning a layout of this size may seem somewhat daunting at first and difficult to identify a starting point. I would do 2 things to try and get organized.
The first would be to trace a mainline over your existing benchwork. The key things to focus on first are the turnback curves and the main yard. The former will require big squares while the latter needs a long narrow area. Along the way you’ll have to make a decision about your radius of curvature. The turnback curve is probably the most limiting feature so this will determine your curve radius. You can then choose a turnout # to match the curve radius (i.e., in HO a #5 turnout matches up with 24" curves). Once you figure out the placement of the curves and yard, you can connect the mainline together. Sidings, branchlines, passing tracks, etc. can be added later. The key is to get the big things set so you can provide some structure to later iterations of the plan. You also need to figure out where staging tracks should go. For N-scale, given the low clearance I would give serious thought to a lower level staging yard.
Secondly, I would make a list of the things you want on the layout (lumber mill, passenger train station, steel mill, etc.). I would then go on the Walthers web site or use their catalog to determine the rough sizes of the structures required. For example, if you want a city passenger train station, you will need in HO scale about 2 x 0.5 foot area for the building plus a 6-12ft by 1ft area for the passenger platforms (with the length determined by how long you want your trains to be). With your mainline figured out, you can then see how to fit
Great. Now just get out the software and start laying (digital) track. When you get it close, post it for comments.
I was quite fustrated with spacemouse’s comment since if I could do what he suggested then I would have done that in the first place and never asked for any help. Not everyone is able to use these designing softwares or even is able to design plans.
Thankfully a nice person came to my rescue and this is the plan he designed.
feel free to comment and suggest things as he and I are still working on it.
I’m sure Chip didn’t mean anything by that. I know that I work with some software programs so much that they become second nature. Others, I’m like you, can’t figure them out to save my life.
I was thinking of losing the laped siding. That way it would open up some space to let the bottom track come out into the sunshine a bit more along the 11ft side.
The grades are good I think, and they do start and stop before the bridges over the canyon so that the bridges are level.
I also think having the one line be hidden under the waterfall is good as it would look overcrowded to have four bridges there IMHO.
Is this going to be a solid tabletop or open grid benchwork? The reason I ask is that open grid wouls allow you access to hidden tracks from undernieth for maintinance and such.
EDIT: OK, I changed a few things around. There’s fewer turnouts, no hidden staging, and more sunlight on the rails. The funny looking things with the dots on the ends are tunnel openings. What do you think? Granted, it could use a few more sidings.
Hey this is my first post so be easy on me guys. After looking over your track plan I have but one suggestion.
That area where you have the turntable could be used as a interchange with that other railroad which he hinted at doing…? You could model a double track main line coming in from a hidden 2 track staging yard into a nice interchange yard. I have always liked the look of railroad crossings and this would give you the abilty to run different roadnames.
Just my 2 cents.