Growing up browsing the pages of Model Railroader, I dreamed of one day having a big basement to build an empire.
Now that I have a basement to fit those needs, the idea of making a huge railroad to fill it up seems like a task I would probably never complete. In reality, I could go back and forth trying to decide on a scale, era, theme etc forever.
I find myself thinking about building several small railroads and the idea is becoming more and more appealing all the time. I enjoy the modeling of scenes aspect as opposed to operation so this seems like a way to have my cake and eat it to. Whatever scale or theme I desire, I can build and have a reasonable amount of work done in a reasonable amount of time.
Has anybody else here taken this approach? If so, what size of layout do you typically do?
My first train was Lionel 027 in the basement of our family home. My dad gave it to me for my 8th Christmas present. We built a fairly large layout in the basement. Didn’t last very long as my dad was transferred to El Paso TX four years later in 1949, no basements in El Paso so I used a room in our garage for my layout. I swapped gauges in 1951 to HO, smaller room smaller train.
I moved to Alamogordo NM shortly after I married, no basements there either. We moved to Bakersfield in 1985 again no basements.
So my dream large layout has turned out to be 14’ x 10’ in our two car garage. I have always been envious of the big layouts on the Forum but I’m very happy with my current and last layout.
I’m also a scenery guy and I doubt if my small layout will ever make it to even close to finished so I’m happy not having a large layout.
Well, if you can decide on a scale, basic theme and single era, you can approach building a large layout as several smaller ones connected together if you design it right.
And if you never build it all, so what?
Large layouts can be planned to be built in phases.
And, a large layout can be planned to operate in sections.
On my new layout the main yard and industrial area could be considered an ISL (industrial switching layout) all by itself, and I plan to build that first and get it operational before filling the rest of the 1400 sq ft with double track mainline.
Even after the mainline is complete, the yard and industries will be able to be operated without ever taking a train out on the mainline.
After I build the yard, industrial area, engine terminal and passenger terminal, the next leg of the layout will take me to a wye and a 10 track hidden staging yard. That will greatly expand operations long before the mainline is complete.
Eventually the layout will go all the way around the basement, with two large peni
How many man hours does it take to build a layout? Here is one example:
Our club’s new layout was started just over two years ago. We are now at the point where scenery has begun. The layout is 20’ x 25’ and there is a little over 600’ of track including ±100 Tortoise equipped turnouts. DCC by the way.
The layout has typically been worked on during our weekly 2 hour Tuesday night sessions where there might be an average of six people doing the work. In addition to that a few individuals have been coming in for a few hours throughout the week. Not every Tuesday night was a work night. We hold monthly business meetings which may or may not take up most of the evening, and we have other tasks like maintaining the portable layout and getting ready for train shows several times a year.
I’m going to make a wild guess and say that the layout has taken somewhere between 1500 - 2000 hours to get to this point. If you are working by yourself that is the equivalent of full time work for a year. That doesn’t sound particularly doable even if you are retired and have nothing else to do. However, over four years that works out to about 500 hours per year, or less than 10 hours per week. If you have some help obviously things will go faster, but you also need to add some breaks into the equation too or you might burn yourself out.
Keep in mind that this is a pretty loose estimate, and it only gets you to the beginning of doing scenery. Given your preferences that might be too long to wait before you can do any real scenery.
I’m not sure if any of the above is helpful, or just adding to the confusion. I hope the former.
My first layouts were all small - 4x8, 6x6 1/2, 4x8. Then 11x19 and 11x23. Then 11x31 followed by a break to build a 5x12 for a Lionel layout my grandson could run. There were probably some others I have forgotten.
And now what will probably be the last large one at 13 1/2 x 36.
None of these have been finished, but I have enjoyed working on them all.
I also currently have a small 5x12 where I can try out stuff.
This is a hobby - do what appeals to you. You can always do something else later.
The idea of building several small layouts in one large space holds no appeal to me. You now have the large basement that you have always dreamed about, so make the leap and start building a large layout.
You are faced with two obstacles. One, the idea of making a huge railroad to fill it up seems like a task that you would probably never complete. Two, you could go back and forth forever trying to decide on a scale, era and theme.
Let’s tackle each obstacle, beginning first with the issue of scale, era and theme. Why would it take you forever to decide? It seems to me that just thinking about real railroads, what first comes to mind? Steam or diesel? Early 20th Century, mid-Century, or late 20th Century? Urban or countryside? Mountains or desert? As for scale, make it easy on yourself. Rule out N scale as too small and O scale as too large, whether that is, in fact, true or false. That leaves HO scale, arguably the most popular scale. OK, that didn’t take forever. You are ready to build the layout.
Now, it’s time to tackle the second obstacle. The idea of building a large layout to fill up the big basement seems like a task that you would probably never complete. So, build it in stages. A large layout in a large basement will probably include a double mainline, staging, sidings and yards, whatever. Start out with the mainline section and start framing. You can always add the staging later. Same for the yards and sidings. The idea is to get trains running, well before layout construction is complete. I am now 18 months into building a large layout. I am not even close to
with plans to move i was considering a somewhat modular approach. possibly 6’ or more/less scenicked modules of a station or industry connected with unsceniced splines.
would allow me to focus on a module. the arrangement of modules can change as new modules added.
How about one large layout composed of interconnected scenes? Or is it that even though you can’t decide on an era or location, you still don’t want a layout where the trains are going through high desert with an Old West mining town and then roll into a modern urban scene?
Having multiple small layouts may seem appealing, but this also limits the curve radius and other things that will restrict the equipment and train length. If you make it as all one big layout, you will be able to do whatever - run long trains, run short trians, build the curves large enough to handle the biggest modern equipment all the way down to little turn of the century stuff, etc. No one has to pick one locale or era, there aren’t model railroad police to come arrest you for mixing things up. Some might take exception if you say your layout is set in New England, but you have the Rockies modeled. But if one scene is New England, and over on another part the trains run through the Colorado Rockies, it’s far from the end of the world. It’s your railroad, build it how you want. Plenty of layouts have represented a railroad that runs coast to coast, with widely varied scenes.
To follow up on my own comments and on some of what Randy said, there is one important point that we both suggested but did not say directly.
Size and complexity are two different issues. You can build a large layout, but keep it simple.
Example, you can build an 8 track, double ended freight yard, and it has the same “complexity” at 12’ long or 20’ long. If you have the space, why not build it a more realistic 20’ long.
A large but simple layout will be easier to build and your trains will look better.
I think it is a great idea, especially to explore different eras and themes.
I’m building a modern era shelf switching layout around two walls of a single garage. Total space is about 25x13, which leaves about 22 x 10 in the middle.
Some day, when life simplifies and I can use the middle of the space, I will either add a peninsula to the layout to fill the center, or, recently I’ve been thinking about simply building a different layout in the middle.
About an 18x6 island layout depicting logging or lumber in the SE USA about 1960, to go along with my 2010 modern switching layout around the walls.
If you would like to have continuous-running options, staging, etc., one of the challenges with this approach is that you end up with a lot of turnback curves or blobs for a given amount of straight track, since each layout independently will need them. In turn, this will usually limit the minimum radius.
A more efficient approach that I have used on a couple of custom plans is to share staging, turnback curves, etc. among several different featured scenes, perhaps set on different tiers.
It requires more planning ahead of time, but the benefits are significant.
If you have not yet even chosen a scale; that would seem to limit the possibilities of getting started. The choices are up to you, of course, but winnowing down at least some of these elements would pay real dividends in savings of time and money.
Thank you for all the input everyone. There are certainly some great points to consider in my planning. A modular approach is something I have thought about. The appeal is it makes a smaller bite to chew on.
I have also been looking at some railroads that take a shadow box approach. They look like an visually interesting way to provide focus on a scene. It also seems possible to better separate scenes allowing me to add some variation if I felt like it.
My biggest hurdle currently is scale. I am bouncing between HO and On30, size vs detail. I wish for continuous running. On30 equipment seems to be pretty short in length so I imagine required turn radius would be about the same between scales. Is this correct? If so, it comes down to how detailed I can make a scene vs how many scenes can fit in a space. Industry, like a factory with a siding is falling under my definition of a scene. A small town and a port are also on my wishlist. Perhaps I should scale up some cardboard buildings and get an idea of what kind of space I am looking at needing. As far as staging, it isn’t an immediate concern for me as I wouldn’t have much equipment starting out. If taking a modular approach, planning for a staging module seems easy enough to add later.
If you have a lot of space to work with I would suggest that you not worry about “required” (i.e. minimum) radii but instead think about how big you can make the curves. Your trains will look better on larger curves regardless of the scale.
I realize that pushes you towards building one large layout, but with a larger layout you don’t have to have a different scene every few feet. That speeds up the required build time significantly. I think that with On30, taking the “less is more” approach would result in a very nice layout. Being able to watch a train run through 15’ - 20’ of uninterrupted scenery appeals to me. Few people have the space to do it.
Building on Sheldon’s comment, this means that the same structure would be roughly four times the area in O than in HO. So one must plan for this in terms of overall size, obviously, but also reach and access. On30 radii and railcars are compact, but the rest of the layout isn’t, necessarily.
Interesting discussion… I have two layouts, one that is permanent (trackwork is complete, scenery is coming up), and one that is a portable O scale layout that is 90% complete. The first layout is smallish (shelf, around the wall layout in a 11’X7’ room), the other portable one is stored sideways in the garage for shows. When the kids leave the nest, I am hoping that one of their rooms will become my O scale room (will depend on my wife’s own secret plans of course). I like both O and HO, which is why two small layouts make sense for me.
Now if I was into HO and ON30, I would consider doing a single layout with a few removable structures to change scales (you can cheat a bit with the size of the trees). Another option is to play with the optics and do a two level layout, with ON30 on the first level, and HO at the higher level, with the illusion of distance. I think that would be very cool!
I’ve been pondering on this some more, and I’m probably gonna lose some of you along the way (lol) but here is how my line of thinking went. I’m not at the point of building a big empire yet. I have so much to learn and so many ideas undecided I don’t really know where to start. I do know that whatever scale I choose, I will still want to build some stand alone dioramas in the other. It’s my favorite part of all this. There are a handful of HO kits I just hanker to build. I also love modeling in 1/48 scale, the detail, the figures, etc and I have been wanting to attempt scratch building structures in that.
So anyways, onto the railroad. I do have ho scale equipment from when I was younger. I set some of it up under the tree around my grandmother’s old Christmas village every year. It is too small scale wise for the village. Nobody else cares but it drives me nuts. I’m sure that is something you all relate too. Anyways, it isn’t the greatest equipment, toy quality I guess. But, using what you have is better than not using what you don’t have I suppose. So I thought, why not build a six or eight foot shelf and just do something. It can have some switching. I can get some feel for how well structures and scenery work in the background and foreground. I can run some trains, get some experience and model. If I decide to add to it later, I can. If I decide to scrap it and start over, not much lost. I actually like the presentation of a shelf layout other than it lacks continous running, but we can’t always have everything in life.
I will still do some modeling in 1/48 scale, dioramas and such to set on a shelf. I also have been thinking for several years now of getting a On30 engine and some cars to run around the tree at Christmas to better fit the village size wise. Then I thought (and here is where I probably start losing some folks) If i’m going to build some 1/48 scenes anyways, and I have a few On30 cars for the tree, why not just get some track and b
I think that as long as you are doing something, and having fun, then you would be doing it the right way. Post some pictures if you can, we don’t have many contributions here that deal with On30…