Good day model railroaders. I am not new to this forum but have lurked more than spoken. I need the help of you fine folk to get me started on my final lyout. My wife kicked me out of a13 by 17 foot room and my current layout. She wants her master bedroom back. She has kindly given me a 9 foot by 24 foot room for my final project. I want to do something i have not attempted before so I am thinking about a two level one man layout with lots of scenic possibilitys on top and staging and industry on the bottom level. Does anyone know of articles to get that can give me direction on multilevel construction. I was roughly thinking of using woodland scenic risers and incline sets to get from the top level to the bottom level anywhere from 12 to 16 inches below. I do not like the idea for a helix. I would probably use easy helix but do not like wasting the space of putting one in. I plan a walk in scenario like the ma and pa division shown in the december 2005 issue of model railroader and adding a lower level to it. I also can put in a duck under or lift out section to make it into a donut. I have all sorts of possibiltiys in which to work but could use some constructive criticism and input from you folks. I am into ho guage with digitrax dcc power. I plan on using #6 switches thru out and curves ranging from 24 to 30 inch radius. I have a nice passenger set but mainly like train make up(lots of yard and staging space). Freight operations are my biggest druther. I weant a layout that can be run by one man but have possibilities of a few friends to help from time to time. My current vlayout is upto the stage where I can tear it down; reuse most of my wood, track and switches. I’m sure your responses will bring up a lot of questions so please help me get started. I have been talking with mobilman and hope to get more response from him. Lets do this project up right . thanks in advance bwchaney &
Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads by Tony Koester (Kalmbach)
I’d also second Koester’s book on Multi-level layouts. I’m not using his exact techniques as described but it did help me realize potential problems in my original plan and gave me other possible solutions to issues I was facing.