The give and take of model railroading

It is always a give and take you see; this thing they call model railroading. Always something lurking around the corner ready to pounce on your well laid plans. So it was recently in my ever shrinking basement empire.

I knew it was coming, although I was trying to convince myself I could do as I pleased. In my previous post you can see my plans for the new layout, 40+ feet of On30 glory. Needless to say this plan is now a memory. As I anticipated one of the walls I had planned to use for my layout was taken over by my wife's desire to have a wrestling mural accent wall in the train room, which as you may remember is a shared spaced with other things like a wrestling mat.

Now that the wall is gone for use I have to figure out how to make a layout work since all I am left with is the lower 13' wall and the 7'-6" side wall. I think I have it solved though. I am contemplating creating a series of movable layout sections based on hollow core doors that when placed end to end like N-Trak modules grants me a longer mainline run. When not in use the modules can be stored at one end of the room while not impeding on other uses of the space.

Luckily for me the wrestling mat is not used with any frequency so I am not too worried about moving things around often, which sets well with me. Now I just need to come up with a track plan that I like. Compressing one scene of the current plan shouldn't prove too difficult but that remains to be seen.

Hopefully I will have a new plan up in the near future for you to see. Until next time, see ya.

John

A bit more planning done

Well, I got a bit more planning done today. I took the trackplan I posted earlier and made it a layer in Autocad. I then took some time to draw over top of the plan and adjust things as necessary to use Fast Tracks #5 turnouts. It is a slight bit different than the original but maintains the overall look. I am missing a siding on the upper side of the plan since I did not want to lay a turnout over a benchwork joint but I may consider that no problem and add it anyway.

Anyone have any ideas of what to do on the lower side of the plan. About 13' of wall to play with so feel free to make suggestions.

The dashed line represents continous run at a later date.

John

Track plan I am basing the railroad off

Model Railroader has given me permission to post the image of the track plan on my blog so here is the plan for those that have not seen it. I want to thank Model Railroader and Model Railroad Planning 2009 for allowing me to use this image here.


I have played around with my room layout this morning and come up with some benchwork ideas you can see below.
I like this layout a lot. Everything is freestanding and not attached to the wall anywhere (makes moving one day easier). 45' linear feet of wall to work with as I said previously. The plan is to take the right side of the track plan and place it along the top wall of benchwork. I will also mirror it so that the harbor portion is at left and the lighthouse at the right side lobe. I will then take the left side of the track plan and place it along the left wall and extend some additional scenery along the bottom wall. The 2 separate sections will join nicely in this manner.

I will also extend the plan with some removable, unsceniced bits to make a continuous run. Should work out nicely.

Any comments are welcome.

John

Room prep is almost complete

Now that I am almost done with the basement I thought I would post a photo of the future railroad room. The layout will occupy the wall on the right, the far wall and the wall at left of panel box in the photo below. Click the photo to see the whole room.

Total mainline run: 45' Not too shabby. The ping pong table is going to share the space. Should work out alright.

John

Trackplanning has begun

Well, after all these years I have finally settled on what to model, and track planning has begun. I am basing the new railroad of a trackplan by Iain Rice published in MRP 2009.

The layout is based on the Maine 2 footers and, although freelanced, takes a good dose of reality from the area. Iain designed the layout to to fit in a 10'x15' room and it was comprised of 2 separate and distinct Layout Design Elements (LDE) designed to function on their own if built at separate times. The two scenes occupy opposite sides of the room and are along the 15' long walls. These scenes operate point-to-point and are connected via an unsceniced ledge on one end. The railroad is fed via casstte staging which is typical of many of Iain's plans that involve shorter trains.

I apologize for not posting the track plan but since the material is copyrighted I need to ask Model Railroad for permission first. Until then, for those that are familiar with the plan, I am going to use one side of the plan only (Tidewater side). I am going to modify it slightly to use FastTracks #5 turnouts, as well as lengthen the scene from 15' to 19'. This will allow me a little more room at the connection with the MEC.

The remainder of the railroad will be completely freelance and will just be some additonal industries and scenery. I felt I would rather have a single locale modeled instead of 2 ends of the line with little in between. And just as Iain had planned I will be using cassette staging. All in all I will end up with about 45 linear feet of railroad, which in On30 should be more than enough to keep me busy for a couple years.

Benchwork will consist of 24" wide dominoes of between 48" and 72". The dominoes will rest on shelving below the railroad and will be built as a series of shadow boxes, with integral valences and lighting.

The layout will have no grades but will have significant vertical relief via stacked foam insulation scenery. Control will be via an NCE Powercab or Digitrax DCC system.

I am nearly complete with my basement renovation so I am hoping construction will start in the next month. Luckily for me I am using a published plan so I can get a lot of railroad going while I figure out the rest of the plan.

Wish me luck.

John