With respect to the “Chester Valley RR”:
I remember thinking this layout was a bit too simple and uninteresting when I saw it in my dad’s copy of AC Kalmbach’s Track and Layout in 1964. Since then, I’ve realized that there are good reasons for keeping it simple, though one reason was O scale in somewhat constrained space.
Not sure where you are located, but don’t let a lack of insulation and climate control be an impediment. My layout is in n scale and now consumes my entire 18x18 detached, uninsulated garage. Granted I am near Sacramento so I don’t see many freezing temperatures, but it does get hot and dry (100+) in the summer and cold and rainy (40’s and 50’s for highs) in the winter. But I still get those 60+ sunny days here and there in winter where I go out, clean the track, and run some trains.
I use Kato Unitrack, use caulk on perhaps every other long track piece (not turnouts) to glue it down, and have very few issues with expansion/contraction. The layout has been up in various degrees of completion for about 4 years now. I do store all of my locomotives and my ESU ECoS indoors when not in use (the rest of the electronics remains in situ), and I do use disposable painter’s plastic dropcloths (the cheap stuff you throw away after one use) to cover it as well. I don’t have any other choices if I want a layout as we have no basement or attic and the rest of the house is spoken for. But I’m happy.
This thread intertwines with my other Thread on “Garage Issues..Model RR…the Elements…”
How often and what do you clean the track with?
Your power packs and DCC stay in the garage all the time?
The status of my garage below:
Mine is HO. I already have plenty of HO gear so I have to go with that. N is nice though and I have thought of having an N scale train running at one of the high levels in the rear to create
an illusion of a train far off in the distance.
Obviously I have to clean out some junk. The back wall (about 18-20 Ft.)will be the initial long mainline at the lowest level loop and will turn 90 degrees (towards the viewer) just under the small loft with orange crates. I might put some insulation and wallboard on that wall perhaps. (Maybe some higher levels at the Left of the window later) The Grid structure hanging is actually a 5 X 10 module I started several years ago. You can see the legs leaning up against the wall at the right on the real wall. I was thinking of mounting it with a winch to raise and lower it somewhere within in the scheme of the layout, but don’t know if I want to get into that scenario.
Maybe easier to just put the legs back on and set it on the floor.
Unlike you, I need my garage for other uses like workbench, tools, and general garage tasks,
so I only want to use that back section for model RRng. with multiple levels, that should give me plenty of mainline.
We just used SCARM to rebuild a section of our club layout and fount it very easy to use. It has templates for major track vendors and handles flex track well. It also allows you to print full size plans (for us 8.5x11 paper and scotch tape) but it worked great.
