Help With Layout Please

[steinjr]

Okay - so now we know that it is watching locomotives that fascinates you the most, and you would like to include watching trains pass through Keyser, West Virginia.

Now you can continue in at least two directions:

1) More prototype inspiration: start going over the line on satelite/airplane pictures (e.g. from google maps - an example from Keyser: http://g.co/maps/nuugn), and look for interesting scenes.

2) Think some more about what it really that you want to model - it is mainly watching trains passing through Keyser?

If so - how long trains? Getting an idea about the size of lineals (sidings, yard track etc) helps establish the size of towns etc.

Quick rule of the thumb: N scale is 1:160 - so to find the length of some real life train car - say a car that is 60 feet long, and convert it to inches: 60 feet x 12"/foot = 720" in real life. In 1:160 scale, that is 720/160 = 4.5". So three such cars would be 13.5", ten would be 45" (3' 9"). So if you want to run 20-car trains, just the cars would take 7 1/2 foot, and then you add another foot for a couple of engines and call it 8 1/2 foot.

This means that passing sidings and yard track and staging tracks needs to be 8-9 feet long if you want to be able to run trains this length.

Smile,
Stein

 

[raydm2]

hi browngd...Raydm2 here. Before you cut any wood, you might want to look at a unique type of model railroad table, called TilTable. With this modular approach you can connect your tables, but separate them in order to work on scenery and wiring. The beauty of this approach is that you can sit in a comfortable chair to do your work...no more on your back with chips in your eyes, or reaching over your scenery to fix things.
Check out The TilTable Book at my new website, www.ray-mathews.com and see if this will work for you. I have built railroads similar to what you have shown, and TilTable has made my life easier.

 

[browngd]

Raydm2: Thanks for the info, however, I am already planning on doing something similar. I am going to make my layout in several "modules" due to the fact that there may be a possible move in my future. I want to be able to tear down the layout with minimal "destruction" and set it up again. I am planning on making my benchwork modular and bolting the modules together. I am not really interested in making it tilt as I do not see the need for that since my tables won't be that wide.

Stein: You are partially correct. I do want some switching though to make things more interesting for me. I haven't had much time over the last few days to work on my layout, however, I am seeing it come together in my head. I need to sit down when I get a chance and put all of those ideas down on paper.

Also, I have been trying to find prototype locomotives for the SBVRR. This is proving to be difficult to find locomotives that are DCC and N-Scale. Any suggestions. For instance, I have not had any luck in finding the GP9 with torpedo tubes that is DCC N-Scale. I have found it on some sites but they are sold out. Do you anticipate that I am going to have a lot of difficulty locating the locomotives needed for my layout? I haven't yet looked for the others.

 

[steinjr]

Also, I have been trying to find prototype locomotives for the SBVRR. This is proving to be difficult to find locomotives that are DCC and N-Scale. Any suggestions. For instance, I have not had any luck in finding the GP9 with torpedo tubes that is DCC N-Scale. I have found it on some sites but they are sold out. Do you anticipate that I am going to have a lot of difficulty locating the locomotives needed for my layout? I haven't yet looked for the others.

Depends on whether you think you need to find a ready-to-run locomotive (with DCC already installed) that have alldetails looking just right for the railroad you are modeling, or if you are willing to add details (like the torpedo tubes on the roof) or DCC yourself. Or accept some discrepancy in the look of the engines.

There is e.q. a couple of N scale Atlas GP9s with torpedo tubes on eBay right now. There is about 3 pages of N scale GP9s - which probably would need torpedo tubes and DCC added.

If I look at the search engine at http://www.walthers.com, it seems like Atlas is about to launch a new series of N scale GP9s - there is scads of N sclae GP9s in various colors announced at price TBA (To Be Announced) and Expected TBA.

It often boils down to how badly you want something

Smile,
Stein

 

[browngd]

If I look at the search engine at http://www.walthers.com, it seems like Atlas is about to launch a new series of N scale GP9s - there is scads of N sclae GP9s in various colors announced at price TBA (To Be Announced) and Expected TBA.

Stein: I saw this also but for some reason got the impression that they may not be coming out for a while. About how long do they usually take to release new models after they've been announced? Like I said, for what ever reason I got the impression that it would not be anytime soon.

 

[UPRRfan]

The core issue is to first define "interesting" in a sensible way.

For me, what works is to try to define what I want to be able to do with my trains on the layout, rather than trying to get a long train.

A long train often means a short run - say your H0 scale passenger train train is 10 feet log (engine and 9 passenger cars).

If your mainline run is 40 feet long, then that train can run 3 train lengths before it is back where it started.

If, on the same layout, you model a mixed passenger train consisting of one H0 scale engine, one passenger car, one boxcar and a caboose, your train is three feet long, and your mainline from where you start to the other end is 13 train lengths long. Long enough for maybe three stations w/passing sidings, and still having a couple of train lengths of single track run between each station.

Now it becomes practical to run two short trains, one heading in each direction. Now it becomes necessary for one of the train to "take a siding" - i.e. get off the line and wait for the other train.

Now it gets possible that your short train will have to stop and drop off that freight car on the way across the layout, and stop to pick up another car at another station.

Now it takes 15 minutes or more to make a round of the layout with that one train, since you every time you stop to couple or uncouple cars take a short break, while visualizing the conductor walking back along the train to handle the coupler and brake line, and doing a brake test - increasing pressure in the line, walking along the train to see that all brakes are off, decreasing pressure - seeing that the brakes go on and then increasing pressure again in preparation for departing.

And so on and so forth. The key to "interesting" is not sheer depth of benchwork or length of run. It is thinking about what you want to model.

Or maybe you want to stand in one place and look at a busy scene where several trains will be arriving and departing in short order from a passenger station.

Say you want to have four eastbound and four westbound 5-foot passenger trains pass through the station before things repeat.

Okay - say we set aside 10 feet of length for the passenger station, with two 6 foot platforms - one by the wall and one between the tracks - giving you room for three trains at the station at the same time.


Now use the rest of the room for "staging" - sidings that just are there to hold trains that are about to go on stage, or come off the stage. Now the fun is not running trains through the layout - it is trying to replicate the traffic pattern through the station.

Maybe one of the trains come in with a sleeper car that needs to leave on another train. Maybe one train has an express mail car that needs to be left at the post office spur.

Lots of ways of doing things.

But it all starts with a description of what you would like to be able to do with your trains.

"I want it to be interesting" isn't quite specific enough

Just throw out ideas - people will tell you what is achievable and what won't be possible in your space. 10x10 foot is not a bad space for a model railroad in H0 scale - but it depends on what you want to model.

The track plan below, for instance, fits in 10 x 11 feet - and one of the points there is that it does _not_ have continuous run. Trains start out from the yard at lower left, and go to different areas on the layout, do something there - pick up and set out cars, and come back to the yard with the cars they have picked up:

This is nowhere near what you seem to be envisioning - but the general type of footprint (narrowish shelves aroind the room with a peninsula) would work in your room to - albeit with narrower aisles:

So before you worry too much about how to draw the track plan - sit down and think more about what you want to be able to do on your layout.

Continuous running is fairly easy to achieve in your room - don't worry too much about that.

But what you need to think about is what would be interesting to you.

Good luck!

Smile,
Stein

What track drawing software is that?

 

[steinjr]

Stein: I saw this also but for some reason got the impression that they may not be coming out for a while. About how long do they usually take to release new models after they've been announced? Like I said, for what ever reason I got the impression that it would not be anytime soon.

No idea how soon the new series will come.

If you want something today, then you can buy some of the old ones directly from Atlas - their web store lists a couple of GP7's - which is a good basis for a GP9.

Or get them off eBay. Or check more hobby store websites and look for them - e.g. Caboose Hobbies list an N scale GP9: http://www.caboosehobbies.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=161301

Smile,
Stein

 

[steinjr]

What track drawing software is that?

XtrkCad.

Doesn't really much matter which of the programs you use to make a drawing.

The hard part of track plan design is not making nice drawings - it is coming up with a conceptual design (which precedes drawing track), and being hard headed about what to not include.

Smile,
Stein

 

[UPRRfan]

XtrkCad.

Doesn't really much matter which of the programs you use to make a drawing.

The hard part of track plan design is not making nice drawings - it is coming up with a conceptual design (which precedes drawing track), and being hard headed about what to not include.

Smile,
Stein

Thanks, is the software easy to use?

 

[steinjr]

Thanks, is the software easy to use?

For someone who have invested the necessary time and effort in learning to use it well, it is easy to use for fast track planning.

I would not recommend it for people who just wants to dive in and start building their layout - it takes quite a bit of time and effort to learn to use it well.

Stein