Admittedly I haven't read through the whole of this thread. So, I might be missing something here. Your first layout is always a teaching layout. Don't expect it to go perfectly the first time. I can assure you it won't. Do lay some track, see how it works out and run some trains to see what problems might surface. If you haven't already get some how to books read, read and read some more. Then give it a go and see what you can do. See signature below for other ideas. It's your railroad, you make the rules and set the standard. "Number one is to have fun!" quoting Jim157.
Thanks Rick! You didn't miss much, this is actually my second attempt at a layout so I came here to get feedback and really nail it down before I built anything. You couldn't be more right about the first layout being a learning experience; I learned so much of what to do and what not to do. It'll sting a bit to dismantle the old one but I know this one is going to be so much better because I learned from my mistakes. I will make a note of the links in your signature though for help! @Boxcab, thank you! I think I'm going to go forward with that design as I'm not sure how else I can make it better. I think I'll leave it up to scenery and what not to really bring it to life. Now its on to research building proper bench work, I was thinking of just doing it in the same manner one would build a standard 4 by 8 table, just cut everything with the extra foot in width.
If It doesn't quite work as planned, just do what we all seem to at one time or another. Tear down and rebuild. It's a constant learning process, which is part of the fun.
Due to space limitations your track going into the turntable does not need to go straight into the round house. you can rotate the round house around the turntable to save space. another thought if you have a scenic divider down the center of the layout you can model only the front/ door side of the roundhouse up against the backdrop. The tracks can go thru the divider and be hidden by a hill on the other side. This would save a lot of space and still have the illusion of a large roundhouse. HTH Steve
That switchback going to the turntable would never be done except on a model RR. LOL There should be an inbound & outbound tracks for the turntable. Find another way to do it the normal way. Moving the turntable much closer to the curve on right should give enough room to put 2 switches on the siding.
Hmm, that alternate design is interesting! One thing I was told by the guys at my local club is for my big engines to be happy I need at least 2 and 1/2 inches between tracks rather than the two I currently have, so now I'm thinking of how I might tweak my design to do this. I might lose a yard track and spread everything out a bit and see what that allows for. I do like the divider idea though, might play with your design Steve if that's ok.
