I have a 20' by 9' basement room prepared for a layout. There are no windows. Right hand corner of room is door, water heater furnace. My original plan was a G shape along the wall. Now I'm wondering about a dogbone in center of room with a divider down the center. I know this will be less track, but it will allow for broader curves. Any comments?
Since you have not given me your scale I will assume you are in HO (HO'rs are the most guilty of not mentioning scale). You have a good room for a layout. The dog bone has no appeal to me as you are using the room the lest efficient you possibly could. You can build a nice layout using 30 inch curves and it will look and run great. There are a number of things you can do. I personally like letter G layouts. Also a double decker, or an around the room layout with a peninsula down part of the middle of it (kind of like a letter M but more of a tonsile shape than the letter "v" in the middle of the M. I would definitely play with more layout designs before settling down on one. According to John Armstrong's layout design book (P.85- third edition), you have enough room for a layout that is right between a "medium" size layout and a large layout. So try to use all your room, don't sacrifise layout room because of few "gracefull" curves.
N scale. Modeling the Pacific Northwest in the late 1960's. NP, GN, SP & S, also I suppose I could also include SP and UP.
If you're in N scale, you have practically a "club" size layout. And 24" inche curves are considered "really broad" in n scale. 16 inch curves are the equivelent of 30 in HO. And please remember to mention your scale in future. Lets not be as uncouth as those HO guys.....LOL!
Can you get the best of both worlds? 9' wide is just about enough to get a narrow island with a narrow shelf on either side if not on both sides. - I 'm thinking island with continuous run and a branch line onto the shelf - possibly staging on one shelf and a switching district on an other? It will mean sharper curves but will mean more railroad.
I'd build a penisula lengthwise down the middle of the room with narrow shelves along the walls. A scenic divider running down the middle of the penisula would give you about 100' of mainline if the shelves went around the whole room. Your tightest curve would be the end of the penisula. You could disguise this curve under a mountain/tunnel with broad easements leading into the tunnel. This would be a linear trackplan, with the train never traveling through the same scene twice. The main question would be, how much aisle space do you need. This would determine the width of the penisula. Always compromises...Yuck!
In a recent issue of Great Model Railroads (the 2002, I believe), Seth Puffer shows us his HO scale Puffer Bridge Lines, which occupied a space just a wee bit shorter than the one you describe. If you could go for higher track elevation, as well as deal with perhaps a liftout section, you could have a dynamite around-the-room layout. Also, see the Coal Belt Line of Bill Henderson in the same issue- he did an HO layout with the track arranged so he got 2 laps around the room, but did it in a way so it didn't look toylike. True, they're HO scale, but we get our inspirations from anywhere if we're open-minded. Hope this helps......
I was looking for the layout with tonsil's and I found it in (MRP) Model Railroad Planning 2001 on page18 designed by Ian Rice. It is 10 ft by 15 ft so it is easily modifiable for your space. It has lots of operations and staging. I would be inclined to put staging under the layout, and open some of the staging Ian Rice has designated as visible layout. The title of the article is "A case for a good dose of sky - a pair of prairie track plans" starting on pp14 ff. [ 25 April 2002, 22:43: Message edited by: rsn48 ]
Thanks for all the help. Back once again to the drawing board. Capt. Nicholson, I also found a fax you had sent me last year regarding your non-helix helix. I'm glad I saved it because it may now be able to be incorporated. The one thing that I didn't like about the around the room is trains always going east to west. I liked the idea of trains going and returning. But you all gave me some great ideas, thanks. I really do think that this may soon actually start to take shape...
Back to the drawing board - the letter G with two tear drops on the backbone of the G. Made the shelves narrower, but increased the area from 56 sq. ft. (sorry, USA, no metric) to 63.5 sq. ft., and most areas now have better access. Now comtemplating if to add second level shelf. Making it narrow, maybe just one long scenic run, all scenic. But as it is, one level looks quite daunting.
I'm sure your layout will work itself out. I found after I struggled for what felt like a very long time, my design seemed to come together quickly. It is even more pleasurable to see the benchwork up and reflecting your ideas. You will find as you build it, you will be still tweaking it here and there; part of the challenge and fun.
Barry, It is much easier to change a design on paper than to change it half ay through being constructed. However even the best planned layouts can end up not fulfilling your intentions in the first place. I started building my layout 6 years ago and since the time I have started my ideas of a layout have change quite fundamentally. I originaly wanted a long mainline to continuously run long trains around the layout. I still do that but I now also enjoy end to end running and the ability to switch trains and switch sidings etc? If I was starting again I would like a layout that enable both continuous running and end to end staging of trains. Good luck with the planing and once you have a design you are happy with maybe you can posted here for us all to view.
