Hi I have a couple of questions about how I should go about building my layout. 1. My layout is a wall hugger (see attached photos) do I need to make it bigger length-wise or will it be ok to build the layout on the layout board as is? 2. I want to put in a large mountain on the south facing side of the layout board,(Which is in the picture that has no window or curtain in it) how high should it go for realism while allowing trains to traverse through and along the sides of the it? And what should be used to make the mountain? If anyone has an answer please let me know. Thank you for your input ahead of time. Andrew
From one end of the board to the corner is about 6 feet long and is the same along the other wall to the corner the board is about 3 feet off of the ground and is aproximatly 24 in. wide. and yes I do have a track plan but it is not perfect. But it is as good as I can get it.
My track plan is... My track plan is to have a switching yard at the north end of the layout, and have two lanes of track going throughout the mountain and have the mountain on the west end of the layout.
It is hard for me to visually see what you have as everything is all covered. Depending on what you want, anything can be made to work depending on the radius and type of track you plan to use. If it is me, I'd want to start with a clean surface and go from there. If you buy unitrack, you could just snap and play until you get a layout that works for your needs.
Hi Andrew. To answer your questions: 1. If I understand correctly you are building a 6' x 6' L shaped layout. Each leg is 24 inches wide. That is big enough to build a nice layout. You are limited to 11" radius curves for continuous running, but that is OK and almost every N scale engine and car will run on it. If you make either or both legs longer you can do more and have a longer run. So the answer to question 1 is that what you have is big enough for a layout. Generally, bigger is better, though not always, so if you can make either leg longer go for it. 2. Real mountains are very large and difficult to reproduce on a layout. Generally, our mountains are undersized, but look good anyway. There is no standard size for a mountain, so fit in what you can. A thousand foot tall mountain would be about 5 feet tall in N scale, and that's a small mountain. Hope this helps.
