New house new layout plan

[Buddog]

Hi everyone, I have been reading threads for the last couple months as I have been planning for my new layout. Myself and the wife are now somewhat in and I am planing to start to run the electrical boxs this week. The room I have been given is 14 feet long by 10 feet wide, I have alot of big steam locomotives and a 134ft turntable with some building from previous layouts. I found my last layout at my out house was poorly designed ops: and I found myself losing intrest so I want this one to work out. Here is my plan so far does anyone see anything wrong or problems I may encounter that I just do not see. . I hope I got the image attached right?

Thank you
Tom

 

[13Mtrainer]

it looks good what scale?

 

[Buddog]

It is HO

Tom

 

[13Mtrainer]

above your TT is that a yard? if it is than you might want to rethink it and make it a little bigger if possible. what is the layout for frieght or passenger?

 

[13Mtrainer]

it looks to be a mix

 

[Buddog]

It is sort of a mix I am going to have alot more frieght then passager, I see what you mean about the yard at the turntable needing to be a larger.

Tom

 

[Triplex]

What curve radius and turnouts are you using? I can't quite tell. Since you have a 134' turntable, I assume the big steam in question includes articulateds, which will probably run on curves a lot tighter than they'll look right on.

 

[Buddog]

All main line radius's are 18" and yard and non main line are 15" all switchs on the main are #6 and in yard and non main are #4's. I do have two articulateds but most are 4-8-4 and 4-6-4 steam. I know they will run on a 15" (a bit rough) as I have tryied, but they run alot smoother on the 18".

Tom

 

[Buddog]

Here is the new trackplan, alittle change to the yard's size.

 

[MasonJar]

Tom,

Welcome to The Gauge...! Glad you signed in after all your reading - at least we did not scare you away.

What are the goals for your layout? You have mentioned freight and some passenger operation, that you want a turntable (and are running biggish steam). What is the point of the yard? What industries are to be present on the layout? What is the location and era of your empire? etc, etc.

My comments so far are:

10x14 is a good sized room - you should be able to avoid having to use 15" radius curves. You should be able to get your minimum up to 18" if not 20"+.

There are a lot of tracks at the turntable - is stem servicing one of your interests? Do you plan on a big roundhouse?

There is a lot of track on that plan - what do you want to do with scenery and "real estate hungry" industries (or other scenes)?

Do you have a plan for staging and/or interchange?

There may be reach/access issues in the lower left corner of your plan (behind the turntable).

One of my favourite plans that is approximately this size is Mike Hamer's Boston & Maine. Mike uses "surround staging" to create traffic for the rest of the layout. I have operated there several times, and it is a fun layout to work on. He has a number of industries that are challenging to service. While the layout looks small in the plan, it feels quite large when you are operating it due to the divisions between the scenes. You can run a 20 car train through there without it feeling like it is chasing its tail.

Any way - more info please!

Andrew

 

[Buddog]

What are the goals? That is a good question Andrew, I have plans for two possibley three industries (yet to be decided on what kind) a harbour for shipping and two stations for passenger service. My main goal is to have fun and enjoy not only running the layout but building it. (as I hope all modelers feel)

The yard will be just for storage for any rolling stock not being used..

It will take place in a Southern, Ontario, Canada type of enviroment. The era will be sort of wide, mid to late steam as 90% of my locomotives are steam.

I will have to play around with 20" curves and see about getting ried of the 15"'s

I will have a big roundhouse to go with the turntable and yes there is going to be engine servicing in there as welll (all the buildings I currently have are for that including the turntable).. I like seeing that sort of thing on layouts even though they really eat up space...

Scenery, well I feel I can always build the scenry around the track plan, so I have not had a whole lot of thought about that...Also I really am in the early planning stages as I have only been in this new house for 3 weeks..(did get the eletrcial boxes in this morning though)

I really have not thought to much about saging orinterchange (should I?)

The reach issue is not there as there is no wall back there that's going to be the side of my work bench...

Thats allot of info, still a few blanks but hope it answers your questions
looking forward to future suggestions
Tom

 

[MasonJar]

What are the goals? That is a good question Andrew, I have plans for two possibley three industries (yet to be decided on what kind) a harbour for shipping and two stations for passenger service. My main goal is to have fun and enjoy not only running the layout but building it. (as I hope all modelers feel)

Fun is definitely one of my goals... But (not to sound too strict) good planning avoids future frustration. I got halfway through a 4x8 before I realised I did not really want to watch trains running in circles - I would rather have something that operates more like the real thing.

The yard will be just for storage for any rolling stock not being used..

That is staging...! I would recommend some sort of out of sight area for this sort of thing, and that the yard be (more or less) actively used - even if stuff sits there for a while. Dedicating so much of the usable space to "visible storage" will limit the other things you can do on the layout.

It will take place in a Southern, Ontario, Canada type of enviroment. The era will be sort of wide, mid to late steam as 90% of my locomotives are steam.

Me too! My modules (with the exception of a few notable ones) are all planned for the 1920s and 1930s in a fictional southern Ontario town I've called Marlpost. It is based on my time spent in and around Orangeville/Guelph/Caledon/Milton and surrounding area.

I will have to play around with 20" curves and see about getting ried of the 15"'s

You have lots of room for this. Can you provide a drawing of the entire space (i.e. the whole room with doors, stairs, etc) as well as an indication of what you are "allowed" to use?

I will have a big roundhouse to go with the turntable and yes there is going to be engine servicing in there as welll (all the buildings I currently have are for that including the turntable).. I like seeing that sort of thing on layouts even though they really eat up space...

Steam servicing is one of my interests too. I have yet to plan anything concrete, but certainly a well developed steam service area can be as busy as any industrial area.

Scenery, well I feel I can always build the scenry around the track plan, so I have not had a whole lot of thought about that...

Be sure though that if you are planning any "key" scenes, that you leave room for them. Large hills, deep river valleys, escarpments (all possibilities in southern Ontario) do take room and cannot be fit in after the fact...

Also I really am in the early planning stages as I have only been in this new house for 3 weeks..(did get the eletrcial boxes in this morning though)

Lucky! Starting more or less from scratch is a big advantage.

I really have not thought to much about saging orinterchange (should I?)

It does depend somewhat on your objectives - if you like operating (alone or with friends) then you should think at least about staging to allow trains to come from and go to somewhere. Interchange is really just another "catch-all" industry where cars can be spotted for pick up by another (perhaps non-operational on your layout) railway.

The reach issue is not there as there is no wall back there that's going to be the side of my work bench...

See my note about a drawing of the room...

Thats allot of info, still a few blanks but hope it answers your questions
looking forward to future suggestions
Tom

A good discussion is always helpful. The more info shared, the better the result usually is...

Andrew

 

[Buddog]

Here is the room I have been given it is completely unfinished only studs and some insulation (plus now the eletrical boxs I put in).

Where the door and closet are well that wall has not even been build yet.

The closet backs onto the bathroom so it's got to be there for access panel for plumbing.

The work bench is drawn in where I feel I would use it best due to closet being so close can use it for storage. The whole room is open for my use there is currently only one light but that will change in the near future.

Don't think it matters but there is one large basement window in the center of the 10ft wall.

Thank's again, for all your suggestion and help
Tom

 

[Triplex]

You should always think about staging and interchange. Yards are not for storage of rolling stock; they are for making up and breaking down trains.

Operationally, what do you want to do with this layout?

 

[Buddog]

I agree about saging and about the yards sort of because really you could use the yards however you please right? Operationally for the most part it's just me running them and I really don't do or know a whole lot about true operations of a railroads.
I really just want to move stock around from one industry to another as I wish, while allowing another locomotive(s) to run around the layout.
Oh ya I am running it all on DCC as all my locomotives are chiped or I have the chip's and just not got around to chipping them yet.
Tom

 

[Triplex]

I really just want to move stock around from one industry to another as I wish, while allowing another locomotive(s) to run around the layout.

If you want switching at small industries and mainline running, but don't care for making up and breaking down large trains, I suggest minimizing visible yard trackage and adding (presumably lower-level) staging to store trains. Most layouts aren't big enough to do everything, so you have to prioritize what you want. Moving the storage function to a "hidden" (but still easily accessible) location will help your layout look less cluttered.

 

[Buddog]

Using a lower level for staging / storage is a great idea, I never thought of that will have to play aorund with my plan and see what I can come up with.

Any suggestions on how to hide yet keep it accesible?

Tom

 

[webmaster]

Hi Bulldog.

Have a look at my Railroad pages http://www.budgetwebsiteservices.co.uk/home/railroad/ I am having 'off scene' staging below the main layout. I haven't started building it just yet as I want to get a wooden floor down in the room first, but it might give you some ideas.

 

[MasonJar]

Personally, I prefer the "surround staging" idea. Yes it means you need to have a flawless crossing (or some other arrangement of turnouts), but it avoids the space-eating helix, or the construction of a long and/or steep grade.

Andrew

 

[MasonJar]

If you build benchwork somthing like this, you will be able to operate the part that extends across the room from both sides. This might be useful if you wanted to run the yard and also have the steam servicing here, for example.\

Alternately, you could put some sort of scenic divider down the middle (tall buildings, hills, etc) and have two independent scenes - one on each side.

One drawback to this is a sizable duckunder, and that might be enough to kill this idea for you.

Andrew