Prepairing to begin again

[LoudMusic]

Two tables assembled. Ten more to go.

Give me your thoughts on initial arrangements.

Anything jump out at you with any of these, or variations on these?

 

[fuzzyloggin]

wow lots of room !!
i cant wait to see how this all progresses, id love to comment for you bud but it would just be an uneducated answer, so instead ill just watch and learn
keep up the good work.

 

[MasonJar]

I like the middle one, top row. There's a nice long walk into the room, and the large central penninsula can be effectively divided by a view block (landform, backdrop, buildings, etc) to create two separate scenes. However, it looks like that arrangement will give a loop-to-point, unless there is an allowance for continuous running, like a bridge/liftout as previously discussed.

Andrew

 

[LoudMusic]

Lets refer to them as

A B C
D E F

• ABDE would require a lift-out section to have a large loop around the room
• ABDE have a full 4x8 'scene' section
• CF could run a loop on half the room without a lift-out
• CF have a 4x4 and 4x6 scene area
• B is the only one that does not create multiple spurs, but rather one very long one (36+ feet)
• AD spurs are the most unequal
• E spurs are the closest to the same length
• C turns around in the middle of a spur
• F turns around at the end of a spur
• AB have single long coridors for viewers
• DE have two coridors
• CF have three coridors / stations each

Is one 4x8 better or worse than a 4x4 and a 4x6? I think I prefer two areas.

If it's rare that there will be more than two people in the room does the corridor matter? I think that it doesn't matter, but perhaps the configurations with more accessible corridors create more interesting layouts. Maybe?

Is a lift-out acceptible or not? I think it's more than acceptible - I think it's kind of cool and almost want to work one in for the experience of building one and because of the interesting element it adds to the layout. A lift-out could be used on ANY of these configurations, regardless of the necessity.

I don't really like A and B because they both effectively have limited spur options. I'd like two. D or E would be my choice if I wanted a single large scene, and I don't know that I care about the length of the spurs past the shortest of the ones represented in D and E.

I think I like C better than F to avoid having a turnaround at the end of the line - C still provides that 'dead end' spur feel. Though I think I'm going to make the 4x4 on the left and the 4x6 on the right for my next layout designs.

I'm going to look into C. I think it offer interesting sections of scenes.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Is the quarter circle drawn at the bottom of all of them athe swing of the doorway? How big is the door, and how wide are your aisles? If more than one operator will be trying to operate, you need to have enough room for operators to pass by each other. If the benchwork is shortened enough to allow the door to swing all the way open, you won't lose more than a foot or less of benchwork. This thread started so long ago, that I don't remember if you are more interested in switching operations or if you want continuous running. If you main interest is switching, but you want to be able to run continuously once in a while, a lift out section that can be dropped in place when you feel like continuous runnning is fine. If you want to run continuously more often, a gate of some sort, either lift up, drop down, or swing would work better. Finally, it looks like you are doing a "dominoes" type of benchwork. You've drawn all of the benches the same size. Keep in mind that they don't have to all be built in a common size. Railroads are linear, and the benchwork ideas you have come up with lend themselves well to linear design. There are times when an 18 inch wide shelf works as well as a 24 inch wide shelf, but the 18 inch shelf will give you an extra 6 inches of aisle width. I guess the bottom line is that just because you buy a 4x8 sheet of plywoood, doesn't mean you have to use every bit of it. Let the size of your bench work be determined by what you want to do with it, not by the size of the lumber you bought to build it with. One more thing, al of the benches in a-f seem to be the same size. What are the nominal sizes of each table? If the purpose of the penninsulas is to get a longer mainline run by going into the penninsula, going around a loop, and coming back out, there is no reason not to give tham a more circular shape, kind of hour glass or onion shaped. That gives you plenty of room for turn back curves, but extra aisle width at the entrances of the penninsulas. If you leave it as is, and those tables are as big as I think they are, you have areas where the penninsulas leave the main tables where you can't reach the center of the table anyway.

 

[LoudMusic]

Is the quarter circle drawn at the bottom of all of them athe swing of the doorway? How big is the door, and how wide are your aisles? If more than one operator will be trying to operate, you need to have enough room for operators to pass by each other. If the benchwork is shortened enough to allow the door to swing all the way open, you won't lose more than a foot or less of benchwork.

Yes that's the door to the room. I've already determined it's ok to just remove the door, place it in the closet. A sacrifice thus far ...

The aisles are 2' wide, which is enough for me and another person to slip by eachother I figure. And all the little aisle in C and F give operators / viewers room to quickly step out of the way while someone passes.

This thread started so long ago, that I don't remember if you are more interested in switching operations or if you want continuous running. If you main interest is switching, but you want to be able to run continuously once in a while, a lift out section that can be dropped in place when you feel like continuous runnning is fine. If you want to run continuously more often, a gate of some sort, either lift up, drop down, or swing would work better.

I think you're right. I'll probably need some kind of lift-up hinged bridge. Perhaps this makes more sense anyway because one side (theoretically) will remain aligned

Finally, it looks like you are doing a "dominoes" type of benchwork. You've drawn all of the benches the same size. Keep in mind that they don't have to all be built in a common size. Railroads are linear, and the benchwork ideas you have come up with lend themselves well to linear design. There are times when an 18 inch wide shelf works as well as a 24 inch wide shelf, but the 18 inch shelf will give you an extra 6 inches of aisle width. I guess the bottom line is that just because you buy a 4x8 sheet of plywoood, doesn't mean you have to use every bit of it. Let the size of your bench work be determined by what you want to do with it, not by the size of the lumber you bought to build it with.

Hmmm. I think subconsiously I was doing exactly what you're saying - letting the lumber determine the benchwork. But consiously I was claiming it was to have modular benchwork - which is still valid. They are all 2' x 4' in size and are already built, stacked in the garage waiting to have joining holes drilled and legs attached upstairs.

Because I still haven't figured out what really excites me about trains I'd like to have a fair amount of freedom to just play with my stuff for a few months. I suppose I can always go back and cut these in half down the length to make for larger aisleways.

One more thing, al of the benches in a-f seem to be the same size. What are the nominal sizes of each table? If the purpose of the penninsulas is to get a longer mainline run by going into the penninsula, going around a loop, and coming back out, there is no reason not to give tham a more circular shape, kind of hour glass or onion shaped. That gives you plenty of room for turn back curves, but extra aisle width at the entrances of the penninsulas. If you leave it as is, and those tables are as big as I think they are, you have areas where the penninsulas leave the main tables where you can't reach the center of the table anyway.

This whole project is pretty educational for me. More elaborate benchwork with proper aisles and curved edges will come later, a few years down the road. Right now I need to get trains running and enjoy what I have for a while.

But you're right - if the peninsula was rounded it could be 5' across instead of 4', the adjacent wall shelves could be 6" narrower, and the whole thing could like significantly better.

 

[LoudMusic]

It's been a month since I (or anyone else) has posted here.

My wife had a job opportunity in Aberdeen, Washington. Before I went any further on the layout I wanted to know how soon I'd be taking it right back apart. Well, we flew up there for the weekend and as much as we both want to be in the Pacific Northwest, Aberdeen just isn't the place for us.

So this weekend it's back to the 'train room'. I'll need to order some bulk flex track and round up some insulfoam.

 

[LoudMusic]

w00t! Finally got the tables up. I still need to throw more legs under these things, but as it stands now there is a surface approximately 4' 1/4" from the floor and it holds HO track with O scale trains quite lovely. On30, FUN!

Deep thought for the day: It is rather difficult to take a picture of a room when you're standing in the room. Some of the room will always be out of the picture.

Here is an elevated shot from the doorway to the room.

This is basically eye level from the doorway.

From the doorway looking into the closet doorway.

From the opposite corner looking back toward the doorway to the room and the doorway to the closet. You can also see the doorway to the attic just outside the doorway to the room. I thought about putting the trains in there, but someday I'll post a picture of it and you'll see why I chose not to.

Looking down the hall - you can see a bit of the door to the other train room option. That room is now frilly with lace, bows, flowers, and ... a guest bed. Door stays closed so the cats don't pee on anything in there.

Woo woo!

Uhmm ... woo woo! ... ?

Athena rubbing her face on a table leg. Soon the underside of these tables will be a spider web of electrical wire. Actually probably not - I'm going to operate turnouts manually, and probably not set up many DC blocks since I want to switch to DCC fairly quickly.

What's going on in that little cat brain? DEMON EYES!

So I think this is what I'm shooting for. Of course all things are subject to change, but it offers me quite a large variety of operating options. Two loops, or double crossoverable (did I just make up a word?) into one really long round and round and round loop. Remove the duck under bridge and it can be operated as a sort of point to point. And there should be plenty of areas for little spurs and sidings to drop log cars for loading.

The outermost loop crosses the duck-under at 10" above table height, comes down to about 5.5" at the double crossover to interchange with the innermost loop which then continues down to 0" above table height.

It's currently missing any good sort of passing / run-around siding, and I'll need to figure out where the standard logging related facilities go, but I believe there are plenty of options for all those things.

The isles may seem a bit narrow, and that's because they are. I'm the primary occupant of the space and it fits me quite nicely. Others may feel a bit snug, or think the tables are a bit high, but they're just visitors

It's actually happening. I'm so happy!

 

[LoudMusic]

More fun with Sketchup. Haven't done anything in the real room.

It's nice to see how all the work is going to look when (if?) it gets completed. This just took me a few hours, though I'm pretty proficient with Sketchup already.

 

[LoudMusic]

I added stuff.

 

[CCT70]

Athena rubbing her face on a table leg. Soon the underside of these tables will be a spider web of electrical wire. Actually probably not - I'm going to operate turnouts manually, and probably not set up many DC blocks since I want to switch to DCC fairly quickly.

Are you sure she isn't getting ready to drop a deuce under your benchwork? That's kind the look mine has when I walk into the bathroom and he's sitting in his litterbox reading the paper.

 

[LoudMusic]

Are you sure she isn't getting ready to drop a deuce under your benchwork? That's kind the look mine has when I walk into the bathroom and he's sitting in his litterbox reading the paper.

I thought that too But after all, it was me behind the camera. I watched her like a hawk until she left the room.

 

[TruckLover]

Are you sure she isn't getting ready to drop a deuce under your benchwork? That's kind the look mine has when I walk into the bathroom and he's sitting in his litterbox reading the paper.

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, that is what I was thinking tosign1

This is looking REALLY GOOD so far and I LOVE that track plan, it looks like so much fun to operate. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: