Hi everyone, I’ve been around the mrr website for a while but I’m new to the forum. After reading the thread from Bartolo92 about his new winter layout, I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring and see what possible tips and suggestions I could get from the experts! Like Bartolo, I’ve been into trains nearly my entire life, and now at 29 I finally have my own house with a great big basement that is just perfect for my workshop and layout building! I have an old 4x8 HO layout that I’m still working on getting out of the 'rents house, but for now I’m venturing into the world of winter layout building.
I originally set out to build something small that can be transported upstairs to go under our Christmas tree each year (see profile pic), but vaccuming endless tree needles and seeing the interest of our cat in the layout, I’ve decided otherwise and set up a permanent display in the basement- then figure out something more temporary for the tree next Christmas.
So anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts so far on my layout design (see profile pic)- the inner circle is a combination of 15" and 18" radius curves, and maybe some thoughts concerning benchwork.
First, a definition of your available space would be helpful. Sixe of the area, showing doors, windows, water heaters, furnace and other such.
What type of railroad do you want, railfanning, switching? Era and location are not a necessay, but can be helpful. Around the room shelves seem to be very popular and allow for running as well as locations for switching.
I would suggest staying from 15" r track, except in the tightest of industrial areas for short cars and locos. 18" is still concidered pretty sharp for most layouts, unless necessary due to available space.
If you haven’t read up on the various aspects of the hobby, it would be a good idea before you get too far. There are decisions in benchwork, wiring, track and scenic base that will need to be made before you get too far into the hobby.
Agreed. Since you have the opportunity to move the layout to the basement, consider the space you have available to used rather than have the current setup dictate the layout.
I have tons of available space, as far as the basement goes- it is unfinished so mainly used for storage now- everything will be kept away from doors, windows, appliances, etc… Overall I’d say I have a 12’x24’ space to work with, but not wanting a layout nearly that big!
For now, I’m looking for more of a railfanning layout to just run trains. I don’t have any set era, and since I live in Upstate NY and winter lasts a good 5 months, that’s the location/theme I’m going for. I have considered around the room shelves- that is an option.
In my initial thought for the layout, some 15" r track was needed to fit the inner loop, though if I went with the shelf idea I could avoid that.
My initial thought about a scenic base is using 1" thick foam insulation- I have some already and it seems easy to work with. Thanks for your thoughts!
English is not my native language, so I might be misunderstanding you. But it seems that by referring to your design in the “profile picture”, you are seemingly talking about a folded figure 8 loop placed on a small table in a big basement, instead of around the base of a Christmas tree.
In a 12x24 space you DO NOT NEED 15R" curves I would avoid them at all costs. I have a mini 3.5foot x 5.1 foot HO scale layout with 15R" inside oval That I hope to expand to have either at minimum an 18R" inside oval OR hopefully a 22R" inside oval with the new 22R" Switches {turnouts} they have at Atlas now to interconnect them like the 15R" and my outside 18R" oval now are.My new layout will be 52" x 72". I only WISH I had 12’x 24’ space for a layout!!!
I used 1" extruded blue foam as a base over 12" on center grade A quality 1x2’s and 1x4"s with 1x2 cross braces. I have not found it problem, but am considering 2 Inch foam base for my new larger layout. The 1" works fine, don’t get me wrong, especially the way I supported it 12" on center. I would aslo consider a 1/4 inch luan plywood base under the 1 inch foam in case you later decide you want to, say, add undermount switch machine controllers. You w
I recently redid my layout in a finished basement decided to try the RR-Track software product. I was unsure at first because it is like $100. I can tell you it was so worth the money. I must have spend a few months just designing the layout in the product. My layout is L-Girder design. I am still building it…
Besides that, my advice it to make sure you are happy with the room before you get too much built (carpet walls lighting etc). For the Christmas thing, I have my layout in my basement and have a few separate boxes of Lionel Fast-Track that I set up at Christmas time around the tree.
Allow me to clarify some earlier statements… I do have 12’x24’ total space to work with, but the plywood sheet I have to build on (the one in my profile pic) is approx 4x6, which I thought was the biggest I could get away with for a portable layout that has served as the base for our Christmas tree the past 2 years. So, the size we’re talking about building on is much more like your 3.5foot x 5.1 foot layout with 15R" inside oval. Do you have any pictures or designs of this layout? I’m not crazy about the 15" radius either, but for what it’s worth, I’m only running shorter freight cars and no larger than 4 axle diesel engines.
Since I’ve decided to make it a permanent display in the basement, I have some more room to work with, but the building platform itself is still 4x6. My vision for the winter scene is to have a frozen over pond with ice skaters, a residential area of small houses, a sledding hill, and possibly a central area with a (scale) Christmas tree in the midst of some kind of Christmas festival…
I like the temporary solution of setting up something like Atlas’ true-track around the (real) tree so I can bring the trains up at Christmas.