My Dream Layout

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Hey Guys, I was really bored and had nothing to do so I made a dream layout. I hope that one day, when I finally get my own place, I can start work on it. It will be 2 levels with a hidden helix connecting the 2. Here is the top level showing what I have done so far. This is build in a room that is 12 x 12' square with a door in the bottom left corner. The switches and most of the curves are drawn to scale, I drew them up in photoshop and used some curves that I had. The mainline has 22 degree curves and most sidings and other tracks have 22 or 18 degree curves depending on what it is.

The layout is 2 30" shelfs and 2 24" shelfs with the measurements of how long they are next to the reddish lines that are the edge of the benchwork. I am also going to make an island somewere that extends out to the middle, also a 30" shelf.

Starting with the left is the module that I will start construction on after christmas consisting of the Viaduct and the Highway Bridge Under Construction. The Blue is a warehouse that is custom built to fit the area. Has a boxcar siding and of course docks for trucks. Behind the building is a small area for trash dumpsters and trash compactors were trash trucks can pick up the buildings waste.

The small green building is the Walthers backround building Armstrong Electric Motors. It also has a siding.

The orange is a refinery that consists of a Walthers Refinery, 4 storage tanks with berms to simulate a "tank farm", tank truck loading rack with a storage yard for tank trucks, and 5 tank car loading racks, one has 3 kits combined into one and the other has 2 kits combined into one.

On the bottom in the brown is the steel mill. It has 2 rolling mills kitbashed into one building and cut at the corner to fit the benchwork. There are 2 tracks that go into the rolling mill and the other third door opening will be used for tucks since there was no way to get another track in there (now I realised how crazy I was in my earlyer trackplans with using so much track). One track comes from the blast furnace (which will have a track bumper at the end of the track and will not connect to anything) and goes into the rolling mill. There is also another track right next to the blast furnace and also ends in a track bumper and also goes to the rolling mill. This track comes from off the mainline and is the track were the gondolas... get loaded. The other track that comes directly from the blast furnace is used for the hot metal cars, bottle cars, and ingot buggies. The box labbled pit is still part of the blast furnace and is were the coke gets dumped into the conveyor for the balst furnace. The Coke Oven will be down the line and drawn in later. This area is still not finished but no more buildings will be added in, just a couple more tracks. O ya and the bottom track is the mainline which is a single track.
 

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RonP

Member of the WMRC
Looks great, won't be quick build that one.

and let me just add i live just down the street from stelco in hamilton ontario it is real cool driving past the big plant.
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
RonP said:
and let me just add i live just down the street from stelco in hamilton ontario it is real cool driving past the big plant.

That is so cool, I wish that there was a steel mill around here that I could go to! I just love steel mills, they have to be my favorite type of building cause they are just so massive and fun to look at all the shapes that make it up, it's a real eye catcher!! :D :D :D

Here is the finished steel mill section. I added an inbound line (the first track that comes from the mainline in on the far right center) and it leads to a small yard area that would extend if there was more layout. I extended the two tracks (one that comes directly out of the blast furnace and one right next to it). I also added a small siding for ingot buggies when they need to be moved out of the way for bigger hot metal cars and bottle cars. All three curves in the lower right corner are 22 degree radius curves.

The extra small writting around the switches and buildings are just notes for my self and tell me the switch size, radius degree, and building dimentions which I can see by zooming in on in photoshop.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
I was doing the helix when I realized that what I thought to be 22" radius was not and was huge. I re-did the 22's on the bottom right and they are now correct. I also added the helix in. It is also 22" radius. I fadded the colorof the line to show were the track goes down below the layout and into the helix. I have not decided how big to make it yet. There will be a scenic divider that blocks off the helix and track leading up to the helix.

Also made the ingot buggie siding longer along with the other 2. I added 2 #4 switches in coming in off the inbound line to have access to the rolling mill. Next I will add the island extension.

How big do you guys recomend the helix to be between 2 levels?
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Here is the island extension. The staging yard will be under this on the lower level.
 

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TrainNut

Ditat Deus
That point that you have to squeeze through as soon as you walk through the door may need some re thinking. It looks like it can't be more than 16" or so. Also, if this room is using conventional wood framing, usually bedroom doors are offset from the corner 4" and come in widths of 2'4", 2'8" and sometimes 3'.
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Thanks TrainNut. I measured my door in my room just for the heck of it and it was 30" wide (not includeing outside frame) Then I measured the frame with was 2 5/8" wide x 2 for both sides. And you were right, it is ofset 4" on both sides making a total of the door w/offset 39 2/8" wide. Have to go back in fix that, that might take a few minute, LOL. Also have to make that opening as you walk through the door bigger as you pointed out too.

I also made another change to the 2 isles when they looked a little small to me. They still are not that wide but they are now 28.5" wide. I finished laying the mainline on the top level and started to make the quarry using my glacier gravel company building. I put in a #4 WYE so that a train could come in off from either side of the layout. The rest of the empty space on the island I want to be a quarry with some huge mine shovels and off road dump trucks. Also still have the conveyor that comes from the bottom of the quarry and to the building. The big loops at the end of the island are 22 degree radius.

The mainline in the bottom right is just a single track but then becomes a double (using #6's) to join up with the double mainline at the right center. (Member that the fadded track is under the table). There is also a double crossover at the top center of the mainline.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Ok, I fixed the door problem. The green is the door and it includes the 30" door itself and the door frame. I also added the 4" from the wall.

The layout edge is the inside of the reddish line and the door just clears it on the side with the bridges and river.
 

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TrainNut

Ditat Deus
& now that you have widened your doorway a little, it also more or less fixes your clearance problem at your point of entry (though I think I would still round those corners or 45 'em a little).
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
The opening is 20", still not that big but big enough. I can round the corners off too which will give a couple more inches.

I finished drawing the Quarry and added the Truck Dump Conveyor and the Main Conveyor that comes from the quarry. The fadded portion of the main conveyor is under ground and comes out at the bottom of the quarry and will have a loader on it for off road dump trucks to dump into. I want the quarry to be somewere between 10-15" deep with some roads going up the side of the cliffs.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Now I put the Magic Pan Bakeries complex in. The hole thing is surrounded by concrete walls and has a steel gate to enter the yard. The left track is for covered hoppers and the right for boxcars. The track extends further past the building to allow for more boxcars to be unloaded by forklifts. The road that runs right next to the complex is going to be a bridge that starts about half way down the yard and will go over the tracks and into the bottom right corner of the wall.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Here is the coke oven. I decided to have this seperate from the steel mill because the coke ovens are not usally found on site with the blast furnace and mill.

The coal cars come in from the Western Coal Mine (will be on bottom level) and dump there loads into the coal pit. From there it travels up a covered conveyor into the crusher house and then up another conveyor and into the coal bunkers. Then it goes into the oven and finally ends up in the quencher were it has been made into coke. It then travels in coke cars and to the blast furnace were it is cast into steel parts for buildings, bridges.....

Sorry the pics are getting so bad but there is so much stuff in the doc and I have to make the file size to almost 0 :(
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Here is the last building on the top level, it my Hotel Under Construction. When I put it onto the layout, I will get another hotel kit and make it taller and have a better tower crane in. I also plan to have a big crane building a parking structure for the hotel. It will be constructed using steel beams.

Also added a substation and two transmission towers in (one is right next to sub-station and one is on the corner). And last thing was the highway bridge in the bottom right corner, I fadded it to show the path of the bridge.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Just started the bottom level. I decided that I wanted a bigger helix so I changed it from 22 degree to 36 degree radius. Right out of the helix there is a #6 switch. This one curves off to go the other way on the layout and joins up with the second track from the opposite direction. It will re-main a single mainline on the right side of the layout and a double mainline on the left side. The staging area is going to be on the island. The blue lines are scenic dividers so that the helix and track leading to the helix is hidden.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Here is the staging yard. I added a scenic divider in to seperate the yard from the other side so I could put some small buildings in on the island. There are a total of 11 #4 switches and 3 #6 switches with a #6 coming off the mainline into the yard. It is a decent sized staging yard I think.
 

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COMBAT

Member
All I have to say is add all that gear up and we spend a ton of money on train stuff. WOW.... when you look at it like that it is an eye opener. :) Nice design by the way I like it. One question, where is my bridge that needs to be under construction? LOL
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
COMBAT said:
All I have to say is add all that gear up and we spend a ton of money on train stuff. WOW.... when you look at it like that it is an eye opener. :) Nice design by the way I like it. One question, where is my bridge that needs to be under construction? LOL

Thanks COMBAT, it is hard to believe just how much the hobby cost :( but it doesn't seem all that bad when you do it in small sections.

The bridge under construction, is a little small and kinda hard to tell but it is on the top level on the left side right next to the door. Look at the very first post in this thread to see a more clear picture. I just added the hole module in to the spot.
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Wow, you have some cool hobbies smullen, I would like to be a gun collector, I love to see them and best of all shoot them, FUN STUFF, but I think that I will stick to model trains for now :D

I added the New River Mining Company and the Coal Flood Loader. A #4 comes off the mainline in the tunnel and then splits off into another for the coal loader and also 3 tracks for the Coal Mine. A small mountain is up against the backdrop to simulate a large underground mine. Mountain will be mostly cliff faces since it is such a small spot.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Grain Complex

Here is the grain complex. It consist of the ADM Grain Elevator and a Red Wing Flour Mill Kit. The mill gets served by rail in the front and trucks in the back. The Grain Elevator gets served by trucks in one shed and rail cars in the other. You can also see the starting of the HUGE cement plant whic is the next post.
 

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TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Hoffa Cement Complex

Here is the Hoffa Cement Complex, it is HUGE as you can see and consist of the "Valley Cement Complex, ADM Elevator, Blue Star Ready Mix, Bulk Transfer Conveyor, and some conveyors". I have numbered the buildings in the drawling and here is what each of them are:


  1. Rail Car Loading Building/silos. This is part of the Valley Cement Complex and this will be used only as the cement covered hopper loading building, no trucks will be using it.
  2. ADM/Blue Star Ready Mix buildings kitbashed into one building for the cement trucks. Cement trucks back into the loading bay at the front of the building (were the # 14 is)
  3. Is the building that the rotating drum goes into and the finished cement product is produced. It is part of the Valley Cement Complex.
  4. Is the Rotating Drum and is part of the Valley Cement Complex.
  5. Is the Kiln Building and is Valley Cement Complex.
  6. Is a custom covered conveyor that comes from the top of the 24 silos where the covered conveyor is and goes into the Kiln Building.
  7. Is the row of 24 silos with a covered conveyor on top.
  8. Is the Bulk storage Building that is part of the Valley Cement Complex. It is where the gravel and other aggregates and materials used to produce cement are stored. It will have an elevator shaft similar to the one found on the ADM grain Elevator to get materials from the Bulk storage Buildingto the 24 silos.
  9. Is a covered conveyor that comes from the ADM/Blue Star Ready Building and goes to the Rail Car Loading Building/silos.
  10. Is the Bulk Transfer Conveyor.
  11. Is the conveyor that brings gravel from the Storage Bunkers to the Bulk storage Building. The conveyor starts off and goes up and over the 2 tracks and then spills of on another conveyor that is 90 degrees to the other and goes into the Bulk storage Building.
  12. Is the Conveyor Ramp used to for the front loaders to dump onto the conveyor.
  13. Are the Storage Bunkers. There are 3 of them and they hold gravel and other aggregates that get unloaded by the Bulk Transfer Conveyor.
  14. Is were the Cement Trucks Park
  15. Are smaller Water Storage Tanks.
  16. Is the Smokestack and is part of the Valley Cement Complex.
 

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