Hi,
"Long time lurker, newbie poster."
Cutting a long story short(er), this whole "adventure" actually began with HO scale slot cars - I eventually got a nice track flowing on the 8x4 and was going to "cast it in stone" (OK, hydrocal) and landscape it based loosely on the area around Virginia City, NV - I participate in a hillclimb event there every year. Life was good.
Then I "noticed" the grade crossing over the RR line that's used by the Virginia & Truckee RR shortline and thought "it'd be cool to add a little loop of RR into the slot track!" Then I discovered DCC & JMRI and things went "downhill"....... Suffice to say here I eventually had concentric loops, sidings, DCC controlled turnouts, a wireless throttle and an automatic grade crossing for the slot track.....
Then I decided to start again! Rather than an 8x4 resting on the foosball table at the end of the living room, I'll build it around the walls (and sell the foosball table!) I learnt early on that both the cars and the trains can't be more than about 2' (max 3') from easy reach and while I could get all around the 8x4 other ideas started to bubble around. I went as far as buying and even reading most of Mr Armstrongs book...
Although the space could be configured for a loop, my "givens and druthers" have changed:
- Point to point is the way to go - I no longer think the cars and trains will "interact" very often and would like to have "realistic operations" for at the most 3 operators - The prototype runs a little (3 short cars) passenger train back and forth and the area used to be heavy on mining - Maybe a mine, a wood yard and the like.
- One of the centerpieces of the layout will still be the automatic grade crossing - I have the LEDS flashing and the arms doing their thing automatically on the 8x4. However, there must be a way for a train to do it's thing independently of the slot cars.
- It's a *lot* easier to lay car track (6"radius turns!) after the rails have gone in.
- 3% ruling grade - I was amazed at the sensitivity of loco's on inclines and the car track is even more flexible by comparison.
So, to eventually get to the floor plan - I'll try the png first and post again in a moment.
Cheers,
Ian
"Long time lurker, newbie poster."
Cutting a long story short(er), this whole "adventure" actually began with HO scale slot cars - I eventually got a nice track flowing on the 8x4 and was going to "cast it in stone" (OK, hydrocal) and landscape it based loosely on the area around Virginia City, NV - I participate in a hillclimb event there every year. Life was good.
Then I "noticed" the grade crossing over the RR line that's used by the Virginia & Truckee RR shortline and thought "it'd be cool to add a little loop of RR into the slot track!" Then I discovered DCC & JMRI and things went "downhill"....... Suffice to say here I eventually had concentric loops, sidings, DCC controlled turnouts, a wireless throttle and an automatic grade crossing for the slot track.....
Then I decided to start again! Rather than an 8x4 resting on the foosball table at the end of the living room, I'll build it around the walls (and sell the foosball table!) I learnt early on that both the cars and the trains can't be more than about 2' (max 3') from easy reach and while I could get all around the 8x4 other ideas started to bubble around. I went as far as buying and even reading most of Mr Armstrongs book...
Although the space could be configured for a loop, my "givens and druthers" have changed:
- Point to point is the way to go - I no longer think the cars and trains will "interact" very often and would like to have "realistic operations" for at the most 3 operators - The prototype runs a little (3 short cars) passenger train back and forth and the area used to be heavy on mining - Maybe a mine, a wood yard and the like.
- One of the centerpieces of the layout will still be the automatic grade crossing - I have the LEDS flashing and the arms doing their thing automatically on the 8x4. However, there must be a way for a train to do it's thing independently of the slot cars.
- It's a *lot* easier to lay car track (6"radius turns!) after the rails have gone in.
- 3% ruling grade - I was amazed at the sensitivity of loco's on inclines and the car track is even more flexible by comparison.
So, to eventually get to the floor plan - I'll try the png first and post again in a moment.
Cheers,
Ian