I finally have all the track put down and the trains can run. The outer section is Dad’s area. The inner loop is my sons. All is Code 100, with the outer being 18" curved, while my sons has 18" leading into 15". It was the only way to get it all to fit. I am running a Power Cab DCC system, while he is still on dc. I’m hoping that by winter I can have him also on dcc. These pictures look from left to right along the layout.
This is the location of the Roundhouse and turntable, well the future location. It fits and I can work around it for right now.
Future yard area that will lead into the turntable and allow full switching.
Funky corner. I did my best to at least try to disguise it. I was going to try to go thru the corner, as it’s drywall, but the sewer pipes are entirely in the way… Found that out the hard way.
This is the future location of my scratchbuilt ice company. All I need is the time to get started. The boxes allowed me to get the track in the right alignment. The icing platform will be around 24" or so long on the left of the building. Should be enough for 5 or 6 reefers.
This is a full 4’ x 8’ section. This will house my small New England town. I plan to use some elevation here and not have it all flat. I already have 3 houses, a church, a MOW building, warehouse, train depot, water tower, and a windmill waiting to be built. A small pond and covered bridge is planned too.
Looks like a good start. Make sure you run enough to really prov the track before you do too much scenicing. If it were me, I’d try to sneak at least another siding in to have a bit more switching though I know it’s tough with limited space. Have fun. J.R.
Thanks for the input. I’ve been running the trains for a month or so, so I’m pretty sure the track is okay. I had to do a little tweaking here and there, but for the most part it was good from the start. Either I got lucky, or I have mad skills!!!
I do have one turnout installed at the Ice Company. Another is planned to gain access to the yard and service area. Probably should add one at the Town for passenger service as well.
Thankfully at 6’6" and long arms the 4’ board is not a big deal!!!
The tape line is actually paint that has not been removed. A left over from the room being a kids play room. It does help me calculate the speed of the trains though. Each section is around 2’ long…
Sparky, your trackwork looks fine. After a month of driving, if you are confident, it must be okay.
I agree that now is the time to consider something for a background. You can paste photo panels or just paint a reasonably light coloured blue with some distant hill relief. But now…
Additionally, you should have a fairly firm grasp of what else is going to be sharing the space that is left over. For your sake, if not your child’s, you should give serious thought to this, as well as adding some industrial/purposeful trackage. It needn’t be elaborate or involved, and not lots more track. But, one or two short stub sidings or team track…something to provide relief from just watching trains on the odd chance you want an hour to make up a purposeful consist and then run it to the applicable siding to switch out cars from a business. You can always fall back on the roundy-round at any time. However, when you want something else to do for a change, but have made no provision for it…
I do. There will be 2 areas that will have crossovers. Right now since I’m on dcc and my son is on dc, I need to wait a bit. The main reason for this is that we inherited quite a bit of dc locos. And they are his favorites ( at 6 years old I’m not going to argue with him ). I’m not gifted with a soldering iron, volt meter, etc. to install my own decoders. And it works.
I have a similar layout with two seperate loops and for the same reason one is DC and the other DCC. It is my intention to merge the two in the future as well.
