I am almost done with the basement renovations that need to be accomplished prior to beginning work on my “permanent” layout. Which means that I am beginning to consider the transition from the “temporary” layout to the new “permanent” layout. And I’m looking for a little “project mgmt” advice for dealing with the transition.
Obviously its not going to happen in a day, or a week, so one of my considerations is how to maximize the “play / pleasure” time aspect of it being a “working” railroad (such as it is) so that we can continue to play with it and run trains, while phasing in the new “permanent” pieces. I recognize that part of that answer is obvious-- just do it. And I also recognize that you can’t get from the beginning to the end of the transition without there being some breaks-- things are going to change and at times will be “broken” (unusable), I understand that too.
So I’m asking about organizational type things-- what can be done to ease the transition? Make it easier? Less invasive / intrusive / disruptive? Is there a particular “order of operations”, with respect to transitioning, that’s better than another?
Wow John you really caught me off guard with this one. I’ve never built a “temporary” layout to transition from. Seems like too much work, Having worked in building design and construction all my life, the idea of anything “temporary” is to be avoided if at all possible. Only in the renovation of NECESSARY industrial operations (waste water pumping stations for example) did we ever do anything temporary.
I hate doing anything twice if it is not necessary - so I’ll try to get my head around this idea and get back to you.
Its temporary in the sense that its been an interim layout whilst I’ve been building the benchwork, knocking out walls, and attending to other things in preparation for the real thing. Its also given me a nice place to play with different ideas for trackwork and such.
The materials will all be recycled and reused in the permanent layout. The benchwork is the benchwork for the permanent layout. The track (Atlas code 100) will be used in the staging areas and such. The pink foam will get recycled as needed during scenicking and whatnot. I still have the upper deck to erect, but it will be a simple matter of bolting it to the lower-deck framework once I completely finalize their positions. The top deck lighting valance will also go in at that time, so I’ll be able to recycle the light bars and all of the lamps.
The permanent layout will be built on risers over the hybrid L-girder / grid benchwork. I’m using masonite spline construction for the mainline and most of the secondary trackage. Regular plywood, with perhaps foam over top, for yards. Large areas, towns and such, will get plywood substructure. Smaller areas will either be plywood or foam, whichever seems appropriate.
Track is going to be either hand-laid from scratch (using soldered PC ties), or else semi-handlaid using CVT tie strips. I haven’t decided which yet, I’ll try some of both and see which one I like better. Mainline will be code 83, secondary trackage code 70, and some really lightweight trackage will be code 55. Also the permanent layout will include such luxury items as paint. And I’ll be pulling out all the stops in wild abandon, throwing caution to the winds and using exotic stuff like flocking, static grass and possibly even a tree or two…
Once I get started, who knows how this thing will end !?!?
Assuming you already have a track plan, start building your benchwork and use “sectional” track. The sectional track can be easily set up and broken down while you build the rest of your layout. You can even use it to test out ideas with.
I can only offer two pieces of advice. Have a track plan because working on the fly from a mental picture doesn’t turn out the way you think it will, and the other is wait atleast a year after laying the last piece of track down to scenic you’d be surprised how many times you will tear up scenery to make adjustments to track work.
Thanks for the reply. I’m past that part. I’m transitioning to the permanent layout and am interested in keeping as much of the temporary layout working as I can while I implement the permanent layout.
As I said in the outset, much of what I’m asking is obvious. I’m just tossing the question out there to see if there’s anything I’ve missed or if anybody has any suggestions that might streamline the process.
I need some information or clarification, John. Are you using the same space, displacing portions of the old as you encroach on it, or can you slide the old part out of the way and build something entirely different? What do you intend to recycle and in what way that will leave you able to use the old as a stand-in while you develop the new?
I guess I am stating, with my questions, that I would not take the approach you are considering. Mine would be to dismantle the old, salvage what items and materials I could reasonably anticipate using again, and retaining built-up sections extant if they work well and are likely to be needed again…for example, my turntable and roundhouse will be taken out and implanted without removing them from their surrounding 5/8" ply platform.
But, I would want a clear space with a clear floor on which to map out the boundaries of my bench and the track pattern using 3/4" masking tape placed directly on the floor. I would build the bench, using a plumb to keep it close to the floor pattern, and then use the plumb to build splines that closely followed the pattern in tape on the floor. That worked quite well for me the last time around. But I had full elbow room, and used a slab of 5/8" ply in an adjoining bedroom as a temporary fun and diversion layout.
When I moved my previous HO basement layout to a 24’x24’ garage loft around the room layout, I had a preplanned idea of what i wanted. 260 yards of track with 110 turnouts, six reverse loops and three wyes. I built the layout in four phases, (over a period of 8 years), with dead switches anticipating the future expansion. This allowed for running the train, on the previous circuit, during each of the expansions. I also made 18 different routes around the layout feasible. I switched to DCC two years ago, with four switch control boards controlling 24 electric switches and several manual turnouts. Each has a DCC tethered plug-in for operators following their trains. As to trees,…I just completed another 200 deciduous trees, to add to the Penn. locale forest mountain canopy. One can create a lot of “forced perspective” by using SceniKing photo sectional sequential 7"x11" prints, which have a fairly unifor top sky blue.I painted the area from the 7" top line of the photos, to the ceiling, with blue paint that was electronically matched to the tops of the paper sections,(that I then applied). To give the idea of a distant dense conifer forest, I layered 1/8ich cutouts of rows of trees on black sponge foam (from purchased rolling stock boxes), that I painted various shades of green. I built my mountains from arcs of reinforced plywood, covered with heavy screen wire, topped with plaster cloth and Sculptmold plaster. I just ripped out 35 feet of slot car track, (that i thought would be ideal for roadways for my Faller cars,trucks, and buses) I did not realize how the two slot car metal electric pickups, would screw up the magnetically directed cars, trucks, and (especially), the buses. Luckily, the plywood base below, is ideal for inserting the two wires needed to direct the two way traffic. Be sure that you have installed sufficient handy electrical outlets, and have the lighting completed, before the bench work starts. You are, obviously, aware of the " 28 inch reach limits". My peninsulas have cur
I cannot easily slide anything out of the way, my original thought was to simply “strip away” the “temporary” layout and then just rebuild on top of the newly-available benchwork, and that’s when it occurred to me this wouldn’t be a quick process and that I probably would like to have a more organized plan for getting from “here” to “there”.
I have built the “temporary” layout with the goal of recycling nearly everything. All of the track (atlas code 100) for example, will get recycled for use in the staging areas and helix, plus I have three or four more 100-count boxes of atlas track unopened.
EDITED / RESUMED…
This “temporary” layout was built with the intention of becoming the “permanent” layout when the time came.
Perhaps a better way of thinking of it is that I have been building the permanent layout benchwork and working on getting the room ready for the layout, plus some other non-model railroading things around the house in general, and while I’ve been building, I put down pink foam, pinned down some track, hooked-up the DCC system and have been having a good time running tra
Well assuming your permanent layout has incorporated a loop that allows for continuous operation of at least one train here would be my plan. Finish the loop first and get it wired. Then start on the industries the railroad will serve while planning how many streets and roads you will need. Be sure you have at least a sketch of what your concept of a finished layout layout includes including a time frame of the era you wish to model. Tackle the industries one at a time then your trains can start dropping off and picking up loads. Once you are sure you have what you wanted then you can go ahead and ballast that portion of the roadbed. Eventually and before you know it, the basic running pike will be running. From then on you can split your time between construction and operatng.
Here is a recent picture of my layout’s progress. This picture does not show the upper deck except for the portion attached to the walls. The rest is ready to assemble but I’ve been holding off until the absolute last minute because its easier to get materials into the space without it up. The entrance to the layout is where I’m standing taking the picture and to the right. I’m standing in a 36-inch aisle (entrance) and it narrows down to about 24-inch to my immediate right and then opens up just past my son back to 36-inches (and wider) as you move on back through the aisle space.
The section beginning where my kid is, on the right as you’re viewing this photo, is the “beginning” of the layout, on the “Harrisburg PA” end. The track direction follows the spiral around and back to about where I’m standing where the helix to the upper deck will be. I am also planning hidden staging under the lower deck right in front of me. The helix will be connect all three decks. The direction of travel works is always in the same direction. East and West are East and West all over the layout.
I guess in thinking about it some more, the part I’m mainly interested in is the part behind my kid and back there around the windows. The rest is just slapped-down and easy enough to pick up and put back down.
You can put me into the, “It’s OK to have more than one layout at a time…” box.
Still undecided on how I want to configure the “big one”, I have started a temporary layout. The temporary layout will likely not be part of the big one, but will be reconfigured as a portable test track later on. But at present the temporary layout resides in the space where the main section of the big one (undecided portion) will go.
During or after I complete the temporary layout to whatever stage I want to take it, I will start on the shelf extensions to the main layout. I do not expect these to connect to the temporary layout, but will function as Larry’s ISLs until the remainder of the main layout is built.
Which is what I would do in your shoes. Leave your temporary layout up and running, and build those sections of the main layout that do not interfere or touch the temporary layout. Then tear down the temporary and complete the main.
That’s reasonable advice and may be what I end up doing. However the area that I have the strongest vision for happens to be right smack in the middle of the temporary layout … figures don’t it?? [:D]
If you pull up the temporary layout, you will have motivation to quit wasting time and get that permanent track laid. Stop philosophizin and get some work done lazy bones. //removes tongue from cheek.
I said that as a joke, but the sentiment has value. as long as the temp railroad is there, you can put off the real one in some sense.
This is exactly where I am at the moment. In the last two weeks, I’ve demolished more than half of the layout I’ve been working with for the last 4 years. It’s been a little unnerving not being able to run trains at will, but at the same time, it’s kind of exciting to see the blank slate of the new version unfolding in front of me.
I started by drawing and re-drawing my plan, almost ad nauseum, but finally settling into a groove that has the railroad doing everything it needs to do.
It’s a very complex process. The first thing I have to rebuild is the staging yard, which is partially buried under a scenic area that I’m not changing… get out the pick axes and carbide lights, boys! We’re going in!
I knew when I built the temporary sections that one day this would happen, but still it was bittersweet to take it apart.
Anyway, I’ve been keeping a blog running describing the process (and a few things ancillary to the process) You can follow along, too by clicking on the blog link on my website.
Well, the temporary layout hasn’t been a hindrance to the permanent layout. Its taken me awhile to get to this point for reasons only tangentially related to model railroading or layout building. Part of the time has been spent “doodling with the RR cad program”, which I ultimately decided wasn’t getting me anywhere so I changed tactics. Part of the time has been spent renegotiating basement space several times with my wife-- each time accompanied a “tear-down & rebuild” cycle. The most recent (and hopefully last) cycle included basement renovation-- moving the HVAC and water heaters and removing some walls to gain space, and then the subsequent repair work to put it back together. Its not completely done, but I’ve only got one more item on the punch list before I can give myself the green light on beginning work on the permanent layout. I’ve also had to do non MR stuff like re-plumb our shower that had frozen pipes (came with the house). Renovate and get our townhouse ready to get back on the market (mostly done with that), “daddy duties”, etc. And the “philosophizin” happens in a different location from my layout so even that doesn’t take time away from modeling. If I’m lucky, I get maybe a day or so a week to work on the layout. And sometimes an hour or two in the evenings after midnight or so. I’ve been working steadily to the point I can shift gears and work on the permanent layout. I’ve had a solid list of items I’ve forced myself to slog through first.
//removes tongue from cheek.