The layout models the 1980s on the SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon, and it’s always 20 years behind at the moment. This makes it 1985 on the layout. Once 2010 gets here, we’ll roll the clock back 30 years on the layout, making it always in the 1980s on the HO Siskiyou Line.
Getting the layout ready for the new year with some new stuff, and some hopefully improved P2K units. The P2k stuff gives me the most fits when it comes to loco maintenance … they need more work than the Atlas or Kato stuff that I run.
I have begun posting op session reports with photos on my Siskiyou Line forum and the group really likes them. They have asked me to do them more.
I try to describe how the session went, including the good, bad, and ugly … to give you a sense of what it’s really like to attempt to do prototypically based operations on a larger home layout.
For the most part, the layout shelves are narrow … under 24" wide. Everything’s generally in easy reach for me at 6’-3" tall.
In the few cases where the layout shelf is wider (at the yards, Roseburg on the upper deck, and Coos Bay on the lower deck) there’s not much detail near the rear of the deck and less track back there, so there’s less of a need to even get back there.
When I do need to get back there, I use a stool. If I can’t reach it with a stool (rare) then I’ll put some foam padding on the deck and lay on it. But these times are rare ( less than 6 times in 14 years of the layout’s existance).
Although I’ve built the layout to suit me by putting it in the 50" - 65" range for track height from the floor, you should factor accordingly for your own height on a home layout.
If you are 5 feet tall, for example, then you should subtract 15" from all these numbers. That would mean 35 - 50" for track height from the floor would be equivalent to what works for me.
I’m not sure what the median American male height is, but I suspect it’s somewhere around 5’-10" or so. That means for a club layout, you should subtract perhaps 5" from my numbers then … or 45- 60" for track height from the floor.
But as they say for a home layout – Rule 1: It’s my layout and I do things how I want them done. [:D]