finally figured it out...

[swampsavage]

...for almost 30 years now I've been collecting HO stuff. It all started when my wife bought me a dremel tool for my birthday back in '82. There was a hobby shop in walking distance that had some of the old rolling stock kits (Ambroid, Central Valley, etc.) and I started building some. Work pressures, and other interests, caused me to put it all aside.

Now that I'm retired, and we have our final residence, I have a large (20 X 12) bonus room over the garage. Since we're paying to heat and cool it I figure, since it's not needed for habitation, to make it my Milwaukee Road layout room.

Looked at lots of plans and kept coming back to the fact that the main thing I want is to see long passenger consists running. I'm not really into the nuances of freight switching since my early life exposure to railroads was in northern Wisconsin where there was no industry other than tourism.

I need to start somewhere so, to be able to run my Hiawatha's, and Heavyweight consists, I think I'll just run a double mainline around the whole room to get started. I'll have turnouts in a few key locations for later expansion. In other words, will design as I go. Since the benchwork will be sectional (L-girder), I'll be able to build in from the "doughnut". I already know how to lay track, including hand laid, and hand laid switches so no problems in that regard.

I already decided to make the benchwork 48" high, at a minimum, so duckunders won't be a problem.

Only problem might be where to put my 9 stall roundhouse and 110' turntable. That can wait 'till later.

Will post pics of my progress once it gets underway.

 

[NH Mike]

A 20 x 12 should allow nice long stretches of mainline for your passenger trains. 48 inch benchwork will be great for viewing. My benchwork at the top of the L girders is 42" and then we rise up off that. You may be a bit taller than me but proportionally the idea of looking at trains and not down on them is what I wanted.

For an engine yard and turntable perhaps an angled ( not 90 degrees ) island off one of the long sides into the center with enough room at the end of the island to walk past it?

Be interested to see it take shape so keep us updated.

 

[swampsavage]

Thanks Mike.

I plan to run 34" radius for the outer track and work in from there. Once I get the outer in place I can put one of the Hiawatha's on auto pilot to keep me company as I work inward. I'm all DC now and no plans for DCC in the future so need to keep it simple.

 

[flh80]

Sounds pretty good John. Mine is at about 50" H (I'm 5'9") and the duck under isn't too bad, I made mine to hinge down. I have a round house and the section its on is about 48" square, but the round house more than half circle, just to give you some thought. That stuff eats up realesate fast.

I always enjoyed trying to plan it out to scale on paper just to play with ideas, as I get going things change anyway.

 

[Beachbum]

Sounds good - lay down a DT main with a couple crossovers and let 'em run for awhile while you decide on details. Just don't lay any track "permanently" yet. ;-)

 

[zoegraf]

...for almost 30 years now I've been collecting HO stuff. It all started when my wife bought me a dremel tool for my birthday back in '82. There was a hobby shop in walking distance that had some of the old rolling stock kits (Ambroid, Central Valley, etc.) and I started building some. Work pressures, and other interests, caused me to put it all aside.

Now that I'm retired, and we have our final residence, I have a large (20 X 12) bonus room over the garage. Since we're paying to heat and cool it I figure, since it's not needed for habitation, to make it my Milwaukee Road layout room.

Looked at lots of plans and kept coming back to the fact that the main thing I want is to see long passenger consists running. I'm not really into the nuances of freight switching since my early life exposure to railroads was in northern Wisconsin where there was no industry other than tourism.

I need to start somewhere so, to be able to run my Hiawatha's, and Heavyweight consists, I think I'll just run a double mainline around the whole room to get started. I'll have turnouts in a few key locations for later expansion. In other words, will design as I go. Since the benchwork will be sectional (L-girder), I'll be able to build in from the "doughnut". I already know how to lay track, including hand laid, and hand laid switches so no problems in that regard.

I already decided to make the benchwork 48" high, at a minimum, so duckunders won't be a problem.

Only problem might be where to put my 9 stall roundhouse and 110' turntable. That can wait 'till later.

Will post pics of my progress once it gets underway.

Look forward to seeing your project! I wish I had that space.
Cheers.

 

[LoudMusic]

I would look into DCC. A room that size could hold a lot of track and a lot of trains. It would be nice to have easy access to all of it without having to flip a bunch of block switches.