Laying rails in Fort Campbell, KY

Good day fellow railroaders. I am an active duty military service member at Fort Campbell, KY and have decided to rekindle my youth by creating an N scale layout. My past experience, many years ago, includes HO, O and G gauges, the contents of which have long passed away. I have never created an actual permanent layout.

I watched an episode of "Extreme Trains" that featured Amtrak's Empire Builder and the video inspired me to create a layout featuring various portions of the route. Since that point, about 5 weeks ago, my creative urges have exploded into an impossible array of desires, hindered by the limited space I have in my apartment. Here's a short list of what my "dream layout" would be:

- Chicago's Union Station North and Ogilvie Transportation center with 11 metra trains (minumum) in continuous service
- Amtrack Empire Builder with route that leaves Chicago North, through mountains, and along a coastline
- Empire Builder route to feature Cascade Tunnel east and west portals, and a portion of Puget sound
- Amtrak Hiawatha consist that frequents Union Station
- ACL/RF&P bridge over the James River with Belle Island, Richmond, VA. (a childhood memory)
- A small freight service/yard for 2 consists of 25 cars max that will run the Cascades and the bridge
- Fully computer controlled Metra schedules running point-to-point and hidden loopback through Ogilvie and Chicago North giving the illusion of more traffic than actually exists on the layout.

The unfortunate discovery I have made is that try as I might, and oooh I've tried, a decent layout can not be made in a 13'x12' room that incorporates all of these desires in a pleasant manner. I have drawings I will post that are sure to bring humor to the experienced builders here, and serve as a great example of what to look out for as a new builder. As a result, I have decided to go with themed rooms that will connect... somehow. This will be a long-term project of course, and making it somewhat modular in anticipation of my next move only complicates things.

Given the above realizations, I have decided to begin with the Chicago North and Ogilvie Center as my start point for the 13x12 living room perimeter. This section will be the most challenging to build and should easily consume all of my spare time until it is time to move again. It's all conceptual right now, in my head and on the computer, with only the Empire Builder, a single small Metra set, and enough Unitrack to place them on in actual existence. CAD drawings are at version 7 now and I'm sure will see a few more revisions before I commit to benchwork and track ordering.

I am currently struggling with the following issues:
- use all Unitrak and cut as needed, sacrificing Chicago North prototypical track spacing for simplicity of assembly? (to-scale spacing is about 1" O.C. vs. 33mm for uncut Unitrak)
- I suspect the Unitrack will still need a roadbed to muffle the engine noise, thus adding another 5mm or so to height clearance calculations
- use ME flex and custom hand-laid turnouts to achieve to-scale representation of Chicago North eventhough I have ZERO modeling experience?
- go with the 4/4 to 6 track feed into Ogilvie per reality or drop to 3/3 to 5 as currently designed? (the northmost split will be unusable until I settle into a final home, years from now, and even then I have no desire other than model accuracy to do anything with that branch other than hide it and do a point-to-point or loopback for the Metra traffic)

I plan on spending a lot more time in the designing and planning phase before committing the resources to building. Things I have discovered through the design process are:
- A layout is no good to me if I can't "get" to where the action is. I want to railfan my layout.
- A layout may have all elements present on paper, but if you can't actually reach the top of the mountain to place trees, or the back corner of the city to place people, then that area may as well not exist.
- Learn where to make sacrifices. Does it really matter that the blinds are down on 3 widows of the 10th floor of a high-rise? Does that building really have to be that width or can you shave a little off of the side?

I hate making sacrifices, but odds are, nobody will know they were even made except the builder. I look forward to interacting with you all!

 

Hi and a Hearty Welcome. First, THANK YOU for your Service. But second, all I can think to say is WOW !

I think your dreams, concepts, and top-level plans are wonderful, and I wish you all the success as you create whatever. Being active duty, you might consider NTRAK modules, though I don't know anything about NTRAK. However, from what I've seen at shows and read here on TB, modules would seem the best for your pending moves. You might have a Chicago module, a Rockies module, and others that you later could interconnect after you retire to a permanent home. I'm sure other TB members will offer more realistic advice. Good Luck.

 

Air Assault !!!! Was with Bastogne from March07-Aug11 before PCSing out

 

Thank you for all of your service. You have quite the plan, I can't wait to see it come into fruition. I also decided to rekindle my youth and start model railroading again. It's going to be a fun journey!

 

Thank you all for the welcomes. As for making things modular, I've decided to split up the different themes to different rooms. The Chicago area will run in the 13x12 room along the perimeter. I had to do some heartbreaking redesigning to allow me to access all points of the layout. It won't be modular in the traditional sense, but I'll build it so it can be dismantled and put into a moving van with a little effort (or a train show perhaps.) The design just won't lend itself to being hooked up to another layout due to the track spacing that I won't change. I'll be finishing up the Chicago layout basics in CAD today and plan on hitting the hardware store tomorrow for the lumber to begin construction. Photos will be coming when I actually have something to photograph.