A little while ago I posted my HO TCW Layout Plan for my office area. That layout will be my primary layout until my son decides he wants to build a layout with dad or dad revokes his lease to the train room in or around 2030 (currently he is only 3 so......lol). The HO TCW Layout is mainly a switching layout. The basement train space in the mean time will be a shared space between my son and I. Currently he has a 4x8 with an oval of HO, 2 Roco Atlas locos and dad's ancient Athearan FP45 and some trusty Tyco cars (with Intermountain wheels lol, and his slot car set in the middle. Yes, dad may be um....encouraging him into the hobby. I will be setting up an O scale shelf layout to run around the room at a height of 65". The O Scale layout is mainly for railfanning mainline action from the steam era for Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Of course I will cheat and have a couple of diesel locos as well. My son's 4x8 will be replaced with a crawl under layout at 29" in height (he is only 3) with 4 2x8 sections of plywood joined to form a large square with an operating pit in the middle with enough room for dad and son (after I belly crawl under the layout) to sit in the middle and a step stool to allow him to view the O scale trains in this area (there will be a couple in the train room). The O Scale layout will be Lionel Legacy Controlled with Atlas O Scale NS track. Minimum mainline curve is O-72 with O-63 in the 3rd track passing siding. My Son's HO Scale Layout will have the ability to be run via Analog or DCC using a toggle switch. The main loops are isolated from one another. Track is Kato Untrack. I believe this layout should keep him entertained for quite some time (better than my HO layout from my childhood.). At some point in the future, this space will host my larger HO scale layout, either if he looses interest in the hobby, we decide to build something together, or Dad makes an executive decision and reclaims the real estate (which I won't do until maybe 2030 unless he is actually using the space). Besides, I will have my Office Switching Layout as well. The Three Pics are 1. Basement Train Room Overview 2. Son's HO Layout 3. Basement O Scale Layout Son's 4x8 layout is currently operational. O Scale and Son's new HO layout should be operational in late 2022 or early 2023. There is some electrical work and remolding of the space required first (planned to start late summer 2021). These plans may delay the Office layout a little bit but that's ok
Oh and here is my Rough Sketch of my future HO layout for the basement train room space (with O Scale running above at 65"). This layout will be more focused on mainline running and set in 2020 freelanced Georgia - North Carolina - Tennessee inspired with Norfolk Southern as the home road. I am thinking about some switching opportunities with a few industries and maybe a yard....like I said, this is just a sketch at this point and I have about 10 years (give or take) to come up with something. I focused on 2020 as this is the year we moved to Georgia and purchased our home.
