Mine would have to be a reasonable representation of Pennsy’s Elmira Branch, with visible right of way from Kendall Tower to Sodus Point, with Williamsport, PA and points south as hidden (lower level?) staging. The plans are all in my head, with multi-level, semi-mushroom design, benchwork deep enough to capture the scenery (especially in the Montour Falls/Watkins Glen area), full-scale model of the Sodus Point Coal Dock, DCC with sound, lots of transition-era power by Bowser and Broadway Ltd. All in HO scale.
Think 5000 square feet would do it? With 18-foot ceilings? After all, it’s just space, money, and enough rolling stock and operators to make it all work, right?
My wife wants a 1500 sq. ft. house and I want a 10,000 sq. ft. basement. I figure something on the order of a pyramid should work. Seriously I am thinking about a corridor PRR layout with operational towers for the train watchers and enough switching for the doers. original plan called for 30th st. to Morris yard on two levels and I have just decided that the area from N. Phl to Fairhill yard just west of Shore Tower has it all for me. GG1’s and other motors, 3 branches, 84 industries, PRSL traffic, clockers, N-S freights. Run diagonally across a 30’x50’ basement should give about one scale mile of railroad that can be modeled in full scale and operated with a 1:1 clock. That 45 degree bend between N. Phl. and Fairhill doesn’t hurt either. A lot of track what with four mains and a local track on each side but a lot easier on maintenace and decisions. I call it the Philly Mile.
The one I’m building right now. 60’ X 30’ multi deck layout set in the mid 70’s SE coal hauler, take off on the Clinchfield. Goal is to have it operational for the Spring 2004 Op Till You Drop weekend we have every year.
The dream layout is one that turns out as you imagined, only better, never needs cleaned or maintained, never has derailments or uncouples, never breaks or burns out, you freinds and family admire it, your spouse loves it, and people pay money to see it so you can quit your day job and devote yourself to it. If it can cook that’s a bonus.
My current layout is my dream coming true.
Oh, sure , I could like it to be bigger and have
more track but if I were to expand as large as I
really wanted , I would NEVER find time to see
it to the scenery phase, just a wooden skeleton.
That would not be as much fun as I have today.
[8D] … would be located inside a retired / refurbished caboose.
Hey Rick, rather than a yacht, the infamous BC Fast Ferries might also be a good option. think about it… theatre seating, visitor parking, cafeteria, washrooms, a command centre, and paying public[:D][:D][:D]
While it’s easy to wish for a Wal-Mart sized layout with all the trimmings and a time machine to crank out the hours you’d need to keep it up and running, I suppose I can ask for a modest dream.
A nice-sized basement/attic/garage to build in–maybe 20x20 feet.
Modeling the Sacramento Northern, primarily the central region around Sacramento but including branch lines north and south, down to Clarksburg, over to Woodland and north perhaps to Marysville/Yuba City.
Featuring some of that lovely Suydam brass, in the shape of Niles interurban cars, and some of my own scratchbuilt versions of the Hall-Scott and other South End cars, as well as a couple MKT brass GE steeplecabs, and a few lovingly-detailed homebrewed SN box motors.
Interchanges with a little bit of active running with SP and WP lines in the Sacramento section, including the R Street industrial corridor, 19th Street, Front Street and maybe just a touch of the Sacramento yard and shops–even in 20x20 I couldn’t begin to do them justice, but a few lead tracks with the rest on a backdrop would be enough for me.
And within Sacramento, enough room for several of the PG&E lines, including lines going to the California State Fairgrounds, Joyland Park and the Solons baseball field.
Well My dream layout is in the process of being built. I have about 3 years into it so far. It is loacted in a 25 x 75 basement that is drywalled and has a drop ceiling. It, the basement, was designed for the layout with no furnace, stairs water heater etc. in it. An exyta row of blocks made the room over 8 ft high to get the drop ceiling in plus lights above the ceiling.
The layout is a later (80"s) Conrail line in western PA and I have over 2700 ft of track down. We operate with Digitrax Radio DCC and there are 500 plus cars on the layout.
Now this might seem to be a maintenance problem but the one thing that I did was learn from others what their problems and did not make the same mistake on this one.
The room is very dry, considering it is a basement, well llghted and drywalled. The benchwork is all 2x3 lumber and OSB/Homasote subroadbed. The track is code 100 and everything is soldered with drop wires at EVERY solder joint. The scenery is plaster with very little use of foam. All rolling stock is weighted, kadees and the plastic wheels are being replaced with metal. The track stays clean as we use the metal polish once. We DO NOT have to spend time cleaning track. We do not have electrical problems as the wiring is #12 stranded with sections with # 8 wire. This is how we keep maintenance to a minimum. As I stated before I have learned from others in the past and was not about to have the their problems.
the whole spare room i’m going to put my 4x8 foot layout in. i’d like to have the whole room but that will never happen until i move off to college and maybe get my own place then get married or something and have a room to myself. right now i just want to get my first layout done.
I am fortunate that I have about 11 x 33 feet available for the hobby. To leave working space for a workbench and to allow access to a sump pump I have “cropped” the layout area to about 25 x 11. Not bad in HO, but not gigantic either, so I am concentrating on industrial switching. If I could confiscate the other half of the basement I would opt for around the walls of the entire 25 x 33 foot room and combine switching with some main line running. I really enjoy the wireless walkaround DCC control and it would become even more important if such a layout were possible. It’s a great hobby even with a 4 x 8 however.
so unlimited funds huh? Well id quit my job first…but not after i make several trips to and from General Steel Corp. with my newly purchased 100’ by 400’ prefab steel building (done in the company truck of course).
Then lets see…well if course with that amount of space id be able to actually build a perfectly to scale model of the Bessemer Bridge over the Allegheny River (if it were done to actual HO Scale and not selectivly compressed it would be 22 feet long). I would go on a brass shopping spree, and im sure finally get a model of the M640 that i have been trying to find for 6 years. Then id buy a used (REAL ONE) HR616, M636, M630, and M420. Id invest money into General Motors (and a lot of it) so i can have “Pull” in the company and get them to redisign that gawd awful looking SD70ACE.
Oh yeah…as for the railroad…well id do most of the work myself but it would fill that whole building…and then i ould run 170 car lumber trains and they would look decent. LOL
So now who said they were gonna give me the money, Flee???
I’d like to get a hold of an abandoned tunnel (like NY subway or Ratton Pass Tunnel #2 with about 1 or 2 miles to lay down a point-to-point, 1:1 model in O scale. A narrow-gauge (real) RR would shuttle you back and forth in the tunnel. If Rattan (SP?), would like my house right outside the tunnel (or I could live in the tunnel with the layout and some really cute babes who dig trains and are hotties.
My layout will feature much of the Reid brothers N scale ideas in my 12x17 room off my garage (during the winter) and something like www.trainmountain.org to keep me busy outdoor during the spring, summer and fall (about 2500 acres).
I agree! I’d love to have something bigger than my soon to be 5x8. 20x20 would suit me just fine as well[:D]. But alas, if I want to have a huge layout, I’ll need to get my own house. (I just turned 13)[:)]
Well, I just bought a house with a 21 x 21 ft room and I can’t get all I want into it. Go figure . . .
My dream layout would be a G-Scale outdoors one with a half dozen (each) 4-4-0s, 2-6-0s, 2-8-0s a dozen 2-8-2s, 4-6-2s and 4-8-4s, with a couple 2-6-2s, 4-6-0s, 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s. There would be all kinds of bridges, stations etc. with an operational telegraph line for the station agents to provide OSs to the dispatcher. It would probably occupy about a square mile and have paths for the public to walk along the alignment and watch the action. DCC, wireless operation, sound, working grade crossings and signals would be all included and there would be a staff of goundskeepers to keep the R/W in good repair. Never happen, but it would be great if it could. - Ed
I dont often allow a dream or two…But mine is for to be debt free, a decent home for the trains in a seperate room. For the manufacterors to be consistent on releases and for the quality to be good.
I proabably will have a complete system in place in a size of about 14 x 36 with about 24 industries all dependant on each other and configured to be run by 1 person for seveal hours at a time… Maybe as a small operating group in the future.
Mainly I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and a good Christmas.
If my pocket book ever catches up to my ambition, My layout will make Northlands look like spare bedroom layout.
First I would build a grand palatial structure complete with train shed (To house my collection of full scale equipment [8D]) There would be at least five stories above ground and two below.
On the first level would be the main concourse which leads to the full scale trains and the appropriate ticket booths for booking train rides. Also there will be a restaurant and a hobby store so that visitors may buy their needed supplies. The main floor will be used for rotating displays as seasons and events come and go. I plan on there being enough room to host a NMRA convention if they are so inclined.
The first basement level would be “My” level where me and my girlfriend show off our personal modeling. (See my profile for more info) Right now my modeling covers Northern Colorado, All of Wyoming, and on into southern Montana. My girlfriend seems poised to catch the entire Northeast. With our combined modeling efforts we may very well end up modeling all the United States.
The second basement level will be primarily used for storage of surplus equipment and rotating displays. As well as house the main workshop for doing model work.
On the second story, I plan this level to be the “Atlas Level” so dubbed because I plan on showcasing the many published track plans that have appeared over the years, giving the plans in the Atlas books center stage. The Kalmbach plans would be prominently displayed as well
The third story would be “Famous Layouts.” This level would feature the layouts of well known model railroaders that have decided to have their work saved and thus donated it to the museum. One project I want to do is recreate the former Chicago Museum of Science and Industry layout, featuring the Santa Fe in O scale. I feel enough documentation exists that I can easily achieve this.
I would buy a great big old warehouse from the turn of the century, in a big city in the Eastern US or Ontario, the kind with vast open spaces and 30-50 foot celings. Then I would build all of the Toronto-Montreal corridor into it, starting with Hamilton to the west, the Blue Mountains (floor to celing of course) and the Huron Coast to the north, Lake Ontario to the south and Downtown Montreal to the east. I would of course form it to my designs, freelancing where I saw fit, and even adding another totally fictional major megaopolis into the line. I would even build to scale models of the CN tower and all of the other skyscrapers. closes eyes Haha I can see the slick GO Transit, AMT and Via liners flying across the line now!
I would hire some programers to write me some great software so that I could just come in after a long day and run the entire line myself, from dispacther to many many cabs, all fed into my G4 laptop and iPod. All trains not directly in my control would be controled by the computer according to operating sessions I worked up. I could also however, disengage the computer system and go to wireless cab control on iPods for a few of my closest friends, or the entire local NMRA chapter. Wow I’d probably need an entirely new generation of DCC for that to work.
