Is your layout more than 20 years old? Did you build it not knowing much about quality track work? Was it initially DC?
Many of us have layouts we build before DCC and with little or no real knowledge about laying track, switches and wiring. we kind of learned as we built. Now the layout is 20+ years old and you know so much more and just don’t accept derailment, stalls or just running around a loop.
What percent of the original layout still exists?
My layout was nowhere near 20 yrs old the first time I tore a section out and redesigned it.
My current layout is 28 years old (my fourth and last). I was an experienced track layer, or I thought I was. Actually it wasn’t laying the track that caused me to rip up a small section, my design was the culprit.
I ended up ripping up an 8% section in the corner to fix a transition at a turnout at the end of a 32” radius with a 2% grade, very bad design. I changed the radius to 26” moving the transition 8”, enough to stop my Cab Forwards and Proto 2000 E7s from derailing.
The Cab Forwards were more forgiving than the Proto E7s. None of my other locomotives had a problem at the transition, the E7s were the worst. Using a single piece of ¼” plywood for the sub roadbed as the base and the radius reduction was the fix.
Having started my design in the late 80s my layout was DC, I cut over to dual mode operation about 2005.
About 300%. My kids always joked about how my epitaph will be “Always Thinking.” Which is the source of my problem: “Oh,” say I to myself, “if I had done it THIS way it would have been better, wait, where’s that knife?”
My layout is 16 years old. It is nearing a completed state, by that I mean all track will soon be laid and all sections scenicked. To me that is complete as opposed to finished which most of us agree is something that is never done.
So far I have not ripped out any major sections and rebuilt them. When I complete the last section I am working on, there are a couple crossovers which need to be redone which are prone to derailments. One of them is at the entrance to my main yard.
If there is a major redo, it will be with my staging yards which are stacked loops. I didn’t design enough clearance between the two which makes access to the lower loop problematic. I am considering several options from creating greater seperation to relocating one of the loops. For the latter there are several options and I’m not sure which I will use if I ever get around to it. It will be a major undertaking with lots of new trackwork.
So far I’ve ripped up about 15% mostly due to bad track work that caused derails or tracks too close together or too close to scenery. There are still some areas where there is a dip or hump that I would like to fix. For now, everything is running without derailing so I need to finish the DCC and turnout wiring first.
Can’t believe this dip doesn’t cause a derail https://imgur.com/gallery/6JvJt
100% of my original 1970s layout is gone. That layout included slot cars also. It had really steep grades that were more like a roller coaster than a railroad. It was a lot of fun to play with. Most of the equipment was of the toy variety so I never had problems with 18 inch curves or derailments.
In the 1980s I built a new layout with point to point operation and hidden staging. It had issues. You either had to assemble a train in an extremely narrow aisle, which was never meant to be, or you had to back the train into it so you could drive it out later. I didn’t like point to point, so I blasted a hole through a mountain and created a loop for continuous running.
In the 1990s I rebuilt the entire layout. This layout was larger and I had worked out some of the design flaws. The main fix was the old hidden staging. On the redesign I made the staging two tracks instead of one and connected it to the end of the line so it was self staging.
I am currently rebuilding it all with wider radius turns. I still use DC since I have some nice walk around throttles and never have other operators so I see no reason to switch.
My last ISL lasted around five years…Its history…A new one is being built.
I know of a HO club layout that hasn’t been rebuilt since it was finish sixty years ago and it still has its original brass track and Marn-O-Stat throttles…
My problem is, Ive found out after a while I want to incorporate something new,or I get tired of the old layout, so I tear it down and start over. It does get expensive so I have to watch it but it keeps me busy & I never lose interest.[;)]
Call me Scrooge [:O] but,that’s the reason I use a layout for years before I decide to rebuild. One N Scale layout I built lasted around 10 years and then only because I returned to HO.
Brakie I agree,when I said I rebuild, I meant every few years.[:S]
Layout was built about 4 years ago and is compleat. Added a part of a layout that was never finished to this one and changes to that were made but mainly because the entrance is now on the left instead of right side.
I started my layout ~1990. I bit off more than I could chew and made one mistake after another. There is no section of my layout that hasn’t been redone at least once. Now that I am 69, I am determined to leave the track alone and get the scenery done, after I finish this last section of track laying. [:D]
I sure wish the internet was availble when I started along with great forums like this one.
I couldn’t have said it better.
I started my layout in January, 2004, then kept adding to it, and didn’t have the skills or experience to fix what I had already built. Like South Penn, I have redone most sections of my layout. It took me years to eliminate derailments, unintended uncouplings, humps and valleys.
The under side of my layout looks like an explosion in a spaghetti (wiring) factory. I have ballasted and re-ballasted more times than I care to count. I have kept Woodland Scenics in business with the number of plastic bottles of ground cover that I have purchased.
I, too, am determined to leave the track alone…just as soon as I complete adding a second lead track into and out of my downtown passenger station. Oh, and just as soon as I re-do my 9-track freight yard…and re-wire my control panels.
Rich
Also, I have rewired the entire layout at least three times.
Pretty much all of it, although I have added to it (a planned partial second level).
After reading some of the replies, I can’t decide if my original work was fairly well-planned and executed or if I’m not very fussy, and couldn’t be bothered to fix whatever it is that’s wrong with it.
I did redo a siding, though, but mainly to accommodate an additional industry…
Oh, yeah, and it was originally DC…I didn’t notice anything wrong with that, either, so it’s still DC. [swg]
Wayne
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I have never had a DCC layout, and my next (and last) layout will be DC.
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DC is perfect for me, and less stuff to go wrong, troubleshoot, and replace.
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BTW… I have ripped out 100% of layouts multiple times, and currently have no layout.
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-Kevin
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A few years ago I decided to replace a Korber 5 stall roundhouse with a Heljan 7 stall. I had to rip out all the stall tracks and replace them. I’m still not completely satisfied with it. I believe that temperture fluctuations (my 8’ x 16’ layout is in the 3rd bay of a three-car garage) has a way of tweaking the stall tracks. I built the turntable (15 years ago) from a CMR kit. Not totally satisfied with it either. I work full time 5 days a week. I’m thinking when I finally retire, I may rip the turntable out and go with another brand.
Going back to the first layout I started in my present space almost 14 years ago, 100% of that layout from the joists up. About 70% of that layout’s basic benchwork survived. The reason, my wife ceded me the other stall of our 2-car garage, prompting a major redesign.
That one section of benchwork was turned end-for-end, and now accounts for about 20% of the total buildable area. What’s on it now bears absolutely no resemblance to what was planned for the original layout.
As for the present layout, now approaching its twelfth birthday, I had to lift and re-lay about three lengths of Atlas code 100 flex track to correct for inadequate expansion gaps. Thee were also a couple of places where I had to install screws and washers to tame some wandering rail ends. Really, just correction of minor teething problems, hardly major rebuilds.
As for the electricals, I installed them once, to plan. They’re working fine. Analog DC, MZL system. DCC??? Don’t need it, don’t want it, can’t use it in my business.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with 1960s technology)
For thos of you who don’t have/want DCC that’s your choice and who to say which is correct? I certinally have had more problems with DCC than I ever had with DC. Mostly with decoders. I had a DC layout for more than 25 years, then I kept reading about this DCC thing and whistles, horns, loco sounds that come from the loco proto lighting, bells, really smothe running at very slow speeed, etc. I couldn’t resist![:P]