Hello The Gauge, 
I apologize for barging in and making posts without properly introducing myself and my layout. I am a 20-year old south-central Wisconsin resident. When I was about 3 years old, I received a Bachmann HO scale train set called "The Diesel Hustler". It included a circle of track, power pack, AT&SF EMD F9 locomotive, 2 freight cars and an AT&SF caboose. For about two years that was the extent of our model railroad. Then my dad (with the 4/5-year-old me's sporadic and often overenthusiastic help) built a slightly expanded layout on a 3' x 3' or 4' x 4' (forget which exactly) wooden table. The track plan now consisted of a "square with cropped corners"-each quarter-circle curve section was seperated by a short (18") straight section, and there were two turnouts forming a passing siding from one end to the other.
Our locomotive fleet now included an Athearn Milwaukee Road EMD GP9 and a Bachmann Great Northern Consolidation. Ultra-prototypical we were not at this stage, I often built structures for our layout such as bridges, tunnels, coaling towers and water tanks out of Lego blocks.
The reason for our restricted railroading was straightforward-we lived in a small house with no room for a proper model railroad. The train table was placed on the floor of the small sun porch at the front of the house round about the beginning of December, the Christmas tree placed in the middle, and the trains ran until about the middle of January before the table and all rolling stock was packed away for the rest of the year.
After about two more years, we decided to try and squeeze the absolute maximum amount of trackage out of this situation, and built a new layout on a 4' x 6' platform. The track plan was taken from an Atlas snap-track catalog. It has a single-track mainline that crosses over itself so the train makes two loops-a "twice around" pattern. Both the inner and outer loops have a passing siding and there are three dead-end spur sidings. We were still restricted to holiday-season only operation with the requirement that the tree be in the middle, so that track plan was a logical choice because it left a large open space in the center, and the layout was built with no terrain scenery whatsoever. The platform was constructed in two pieces that latched together so the layout could be more easily transported and stored. The only drawback to this track plan is that train length is restricted to slightly less than that of the inner loop-else the train crashes into its own rear end at the 30 degree crossing!
Six and a half years ago, my family moved to a larger house with much more room in the basement. The plans for a large and permanent layout complete with landscaping scenery, mountains, tunnels, rivers etc have somewhat been put on the back burner, but at least we can now leave our old one up and running year-round.
Our layout is titled "The Grovemont Branch" after the name boards on our Bachmann lighted station. Original, huh? I have determined that were it a real life railroad it would be a "crossover" branchline type that mainly ferries traffic between two Class I railroads while serving some small towns along the way with industrial freight and perhaps commuter trains to the big cities on the Class I lines. I decided it is this type of railroad since it does not have the latest and greatest in motive power and rolling stock (whether I am running it in the diesel or steam era) and its equipment bears a mish-mash of road names since it is nearly all secondhand. I get the feeling that they do a lot of business with Chicago & Northwestern though, so that must be one of the connecting railroads.
If we ever do get around to doing a full on layout it would be designed to more accurately reflect this type of railroad.
Here are some overview shots, the perspectives (front, back, right, left) are described from the point of view of the operator standing at the control panel. And yes, I collect wasp and hornet nests in addition to model trains.
This first view is from the front-left of the layout. On the left is the "maintenance yard", for storing cars and engines in need of TLC ranging from getting a detail piece glued back on to having stock horn-hook couplers swapped for (usually) Kadees to a major mechanical overhaul. Near the front-center of the layout (right edge of the picture) is the control panel, with a map of the track plan showing how the electrical blocks are broken down. There are two "cab controllers" (power packs) and each block has a toggle switch to enable it to be powered by either one. There are also two Atlas switch controls for throwing the two switches at the back of the layout, up against the wall and unreachable by hand.
View from the back-left corner of the layout.
That's enough for this post. Next post will contain close-ups of each scene around the layout. Thanks for having me here at The Gauge.
Andy
I apologize for barging in and making posts without properly introducing myself and my layout. I am a 20-year old south-central Wisconsin resident. When I was about 3 years old, I received a Bachmann HO scale train set called "The Diesel Hustler". It included a circle of track, power pack, AT&SF EMD F9 locomotive, 2 freight cars and an AT&SF caboose. For about two years that was the extent of our model railroad. Then my dad (with the 4/5-year-old me's sporadic and often overenthusiastic help) built a slightly expanded layout on a 3' x 3' or 4' x 4' (forget which exactly) wooden table. The track plan now consisted of a "square with cropped corners"-each quarter-circle curve section was seperated by a short (18") straight section, and there were two turnouts forming a passing siding from one end to the other.
Our locomotive fleet now included an Athearn Milwaukee Road EMD GP9 and a Bachmann Great Northern Consolidation. Ultra-prototypical we were not at this stage, I often built structures for our layout such as bridges, tunnels, coaling towers and water tanks out of Lego blocks.
The reason for our restricted railroading was straightforward-we lived in a small house with no room for a proper model railroad. The train table was placed on the floor of the small sun porch at the front of the house round about the beginning of December, the Christmas tree placed in the middle, and the trains ran until about the middle of January before the table and all rolling stock was packed away for the rest of the year.
After about two more years, we decided to try and squeeze the absolute maximum amount of trackage out of this situation, and built a new layout on a 4' x 6' platform. The track plan was taken from an Atlas snap-track catalog. It has a single-track mainline that crosses over itself so the train makes two loops-a "twice around" pattern. Both the inner and outer loops have a passing siding and there are three dead-end spur sidings. We were still restricted to holiday-season only operation with the requirement that the tree be in the middle, so that track plan was a logical choice because it left a large open space in the center, and the layout was built with no terrain scenery whatsoever. The platform was constructed in two pieces that latched together so the layout could be more easily transported and stored. The only drawback to this track plan is that train length is restricted to slightly less than that of the inner loop-else the train crashes into its own rear end at the 30 degree crossing!
Six and a half years ago, my family moved to a larger house with much more room in the basement. The plans for a large and permanent layout complete with landscaping scenery, mountains, tunnels, rivers etc have somewhat been put on the back burner, but at least we can now leave our old one up and running year-round.
Our layout is titled "The Grovemont Branch" after the name boards on our Bachmann lighted station. Original, huh? I have determined that were it a real life railroad it would be a "crossover" branchline type that mainly ferries traffic between two Class I railroads while serving some small towns along the way with industrial freight and perhaps commuter trains to the big cities on the Class I lines. I decided it is this type of railroad since it does not have the latest and greatest in motive power and rolling stock (whether I am running it in the diesel or steam era) and its equipment bears a mish-mash of road names since it is nearly all secondhand. I get the feeling that they do a lot of business with Chicago & Northwestern though, so that must be one of the connecting railroads.
If we ever do get around to doing a full on layout it would be designed to more accurately reflect this type of railroad.
Here are some overview shots, the perspectives (front, back, right, left) are described from the point of view of the operator standing at the control panel. And yes, I collect wasp and hornet nests in addition to model trains.
This first view is from the front-left of the layout. On the left is the "maintenance yard", for storing cars and engines in need of TLC ranging from getting a detail piece glued back on to having stock horn-hook couplers swapped for (usually) Kadees to a major mechanical overhaul. Near the front-center of the layout (right edge of the picture) is the control panel, with a map of the track plan showing how the electrical blocks are broken down. There are two "cab controllers" (power packs) and each block has a toggle switch to enable it to be powered by either one. There are also two Atlas switch controls for throwing the two switches at the back of the layout, up against the wall and unreachable by hand.
View from the back-left corner of the layout.
That's enough for this post. Next post will contain close-ups of each scene around the layout. Thanks for having me here at The Gauge.
Andy
